Marx-Engels Correspondence 1867
Source: MECW Volume 42, p. 417;
First published: in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Stuttgart, 1913.
Dear Moor,
I have just received payment for a very long-standing bad debt of £5 which will put me in a position to send you that sum tomorrow as soon as I have cashed the cheque. Otherwise, I should have been in something of a fix, what with the repayment of the £45 to Borkheim now due. What about Borkheim, is he back? I am now able and therefore wish to settle up.
The 8 sheets [of the first volume of Capital] received with thanks. The theoretical side is quite splendid, as is the exposition of the history of expropriation. But the piece you have inserted on Ireland was done in the most fearful haste, and the material is not properly knocked into shape at all. On first reading often positively incomprehensible. Further comments as soon as I have considered the stuff more closely. The résumé on the expropriation of the expropriators is most brilliant and will create quite an effect.
It is fortunate that almost all of the book is ‘enacted’ in England, so to speak; otherwise para. 100 of the Prussian Penal Code would be operable: ‘Whosoever ... shall incite the subjects of the State to hatred or contempt of each other’, etc. - and confiscation would ensue. Bismarck seems to be needing to stage a little demonstration against the workers anyway. In Erfurt or thereabouts a Lassallean poet, printer and publisher have been arraigned for high treason, and in Elberfeld they have even confiscated a scrawl by the noble Schweitzer. So, it is possible that the book would be prohibited in Prussia, but, anyway, that would not have any effect in present conditions.
Your
F. E.