MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 1 April 1859

Dear Engels,

Herewith letter from Lassalle. Herewith letter from Dana, which you must return. I shall wait to hear from you before answering it.

Have written articles on the Reform Bill, Ministry. My article for next week: Indian Finances. All the rest of the world is therefore at your disposal.

So Palmerston, as was decided at Compiègne (but in effect at Petersburg), is to return to the ministry whatever its denomination. Without him Russia could not allow a war. Now, as in 1852 and 1855, Bright and Russell have pulled the chestnuts out of the fire for him.

By the by, the debate in parliament was very funny. The Whigs and Radicals attacked the Tories largely on the grounds of their being revolutionists. Here, Bright’s and Gibson’s role most abject. (The latter even went so far as to declaim romantically against electoral districts.) On the other hand, the farce of Tories, in the name of the middle class, advocating their own rubbish in opposition to Whigs and middle class, who advocate theirs in the name of the working class. A sign of great progress in England.

Salut.

Your
K. M.