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Marx-Engels Correspondence 1860
Marx To Ferdinand Lassalle
In Berlin
Source: MECW Volume 41, p. 204;
First published: in F. Lassalle. Nachgelassene Briefe und Schriften, Stuttgart-Berlin, 1922;
[London,] 2 October 1860
Dear Lassalle,
Forwarded your letter to Freiligrath forthwith.
When I wrote saying you should ‘muster’ a quota, I was, of course, deliberately using an ambiguous term. Only do not enlist the help of anyone who is not a personal friend of mine. I should be glad, by the by, to receive the contribution at an early date. Come to that, I don’t believe it will be ā fonds perdu [money down the drain], for we shall at least recoup the cost of production.
Engels wrote an essay on the English rifles for the Darmstadt Militär-Zeitung, which he subsequently translated for the Manchester Volunteer Journal. It has been reproduced and discussed by the entire London Press.
From letters that have come to me straight from Garibaldi’s camp, things would seem to be in rather parlous state. Cavour is actually Bonaparte’s tool and controls Victor Emmanuel. Garibaldi is in a difficult position vis-à-vis Bonaparte and the Piedmontese army, the more so in that all the bourgeois and aristocratic riff-raff in Italy are on the side of Cavour. Somewhat to the detriment of his own army, G. has been compelled to disperse his best troops amongst Neapolitan riff-raff and Piedmontese troupiers.
You will forgive me, if I do not reply to your letter this time, nor, indeed, write more than a few lines. Besides being taken up (agreeably) with proof-correcting and my habitual tasks, I have the added blessing of a most frightful catarrh, affecting the whole of the left side of my head.
Salut.
Your
K. M.The Supreme Tribunal has not yet reached a decision. As soon as the case is disposed of and I am debarred from public proceedings, I shall publish a sheet (pamphlet), Prussian Justice over here.