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Letters of Marx and Engels 1848
Engels To Emil Blank [228]
In LondonSource: MECW Volume 38, p. 175;
Written: 24 May 1848;
First published: in Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, 1934.
Cologne, 24 May 1848
14, HöhleDear Emil,
I arrived here in Cologne last Saturday. The [Neue] Rheinische Zeitung will be appearing on 1 June. But if we are not at once to come up against obstacles, some preliminary arrangements must be made in London, and we are taking the liberty of entrusting these to you since there’s nobody else there.
1. Arrange at any newsman’s for a subscription to The Telegraph (daily paper) and The Economist, weekly paper, from the time this letter arrives until I July. The newsman, whose address you can give us to save being bothered again later on, should include both papers in one wrapper or paper band — in the way papers are customarily sent — and dispatch them daily, addressed to Mr W. Clouth, St, Agatha, 12, Cologne, via Ostend. [229]
2. Please forward the enclosed letters.
3. Pay the cost of the subscription to the two papers, the postage of this letter, etc., etc., and charge them at once to the dispatch department of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, St Agatha, 12, Cologne, stating to whom the sum is to be sent, and it will be done at once.
The necessary capital for the newspaper has been raised. Everything is going well, all that remains is the question of the papers, and then we can start. We are already getting The Times and, for the first month, we need no other English papers than the two above-mentioned. Should you ever happen upon something worthy of note in another paper, we should be grateful if you would send it to us. Any expense will, of course, immediately be refunded. Papers containing detailed information on trade, the state of business, etc., etc., are also desirable. Write some time and let me know what papers are now to be had there, so that we know how we stand.
I didn’t, of course, see Marie, as I had to leave before she arrived. But I'll be going over there some time soon, when things here are really under way. Barmen, by the way, is more boring than ever and is filled with a general hatred for what little freedom they have. The jackasses believe that the world exists solely to enable them to make tidy profits and, since these are now at a low ebb, they are screeching gruesomely. If they want freedom they must pay for it, as the French and English have had to do; but these people think they ought to have everything for nothing. Here things are looking up a little, if not very much. The Prussians are still the same as ever, the Poles are being branded with lunar caustic and, at the moment of writing, Mainz is being bombarded by the Prussians because the Civic Guard arrested a few drunken and rampaging soldiers[230] — the sovereign National Assembly in Frankfurt hears the firing and doesn’t seem to take any notice .[231] in Berlin Camphausen is taking it easy, while reaction, the rule of officials and aristocrats grows daily more insolent, irritates the people, the people revolt and Camphausen’s spinelessness and cowardice lead us straight towards fresh revolutions. That is Germany as it now is! Adieu.
Your
F. E.