London, 11 April 1883 
122 Regent’s Park Road, N. W. 

Dear Comrade, 

You must understand that, since the death of my old friend, I have 
been so taken up with correspondence, business matters, the perusal 
of his writings, etc., that I have been able to attend only to what was 
absolutely imperative. ? Today I have at last found a minute or two 
in which to thank you for your letter of condolence '' and for your 
excellent obituary in Recht voor Allen.* That obituary was un- 
doubtedly one of the best we have seen, and was unanimously ac- 
claimed as such among our circle of intimates here. 

Many thanks, too, on behalf of his surviving daughters” and of my- 
self, to the Dutch workers’ party !? for their participation, at least in 
spirit, in our friend’s last rites. In this they were at one with our Ger- 
man, French, Spanish, Russian and American comrades. 

Should fate or the urge to travel—-in our case sadly curbed — 
bring me to Holland, I shall consider myself under an obligation to 
look you up, just as I would urge you to look me up should you come 
to England. 

Marx has left a great wad of manuscript for the second part of Capi- 
tal, the whole of which I must first read (and what handwriting!) be- 
fore I can tell to what extent it is printable and to what extent it re- 
quires complementing from subsequent notebooks. * At all events, the 
main substance is there. Since I cannot as yet say anything more definite, 
however, I would ask you not to put anything in the papers about it 
just now, as this might lead to misunderstandings. Besides, Marx’s 
youngest daughter Eleanor is my literary co-executrix, I can do noth- 
ing without her and the ladies, as you know, are sticklers for 
form. 

* F.D. Nieuwenhuis, “Karl Marx’, Recht voor Allen, No. 4, 24 March 1883.- 
> Laura Lafargue and Eleanor Marx 

Excuse me dat tk niet op hollandsch schryf*; in recent years I have 
had no practice in the use of your language. 

Very sincerely yours, 
F. Engels 

I enclose my photograph and beg you to send me yours. As soon 
as we have got new ones of Marx I shall send you one.