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Marx-Engels Correspondence 1859

Marx To Ferdinand Lassalle
In Berlin


Source: MECW Volume 40, p. 429;
First published: F. Lassalle. Nachgelassene Briefe und Schriften, Stuttgart-Berlin, 1922.


London, 5 May 1859
9 Grafton Terrace, Maitland Park, Haverstock Hill

Dear Lassalle,

From the enclosed letter dated April 12, which I should like to have back, you will see that there is a very considerable difference between the terms offered me by your cousin Friedländer and the terms you originally communicated to me. Nevertheless I replied by return accepting them. I merely noted:

1. that I could not make disbursements for telegrams, a point, by the by, that hardly needed mentioning and had been anticipated in your letter;

2. that, if we came to an arrangement, I should like (though I did not make it a conditio sine qua) to be able to draw on them with a banker here for articles, etc., sent, as is done in the case of the Tribune.

So far there has been no answer, which I find strange. If the editors have changed their minds, they might have had the decency to inform me. As you are aware, I did not in any way thrust myself forward in this matter. But, having accepted, I made one or two preliminary approaches to English newspapers, etc., and I am specially anxious not to be compromised in the eyes of these people and other acquaintances whom I have informed of the matter for business reasons. That I, for my part, have not yet sent off any article is only natural, since there is still no firm engagement.

The elections here have not, alas, turned out to be sufficiently Tory. Had this been the case there would, by and by, have been the beginnings of a revolutionary movement here. Palmerston’s return to the foreign Ministry can now, after some shuffling be regarded as certain and hence Russia will again be in direct control of English policy.

Salut.

Your
K. M.