[London,] 5 December [1861] 
Dear Engels, 
Didn’t send an acknowledgment sooner because afflicted by 
great troupe. My wife is very indisposed. I shall write to you this 
evening, as I have to concoct an article today.” 

Salut. 
Your 
K. M. 
hen F. Engel. d K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stutt- : : 
an is sie . Published in English for the first 

time 

* basically - & Presumably ‘The Principal Actors in the Trent Drama’, which Marx 
dated 4 December 1861. 

195 
MARX TO ENGELS*” 

{[London,] 9 December 1861 
Dear Engels, 

From my perrinacious silence you may discern with what 
reluctance I write to you at all. Considering the great efforts— 
greater, even, than you can manage—that you make on my 
behalf, I need hardly say how much I detest perpetually boring 
you with my lamentations. 

The last money you sent me, plus a borrowed pound, went to 
pay the school bill—so that there shouldn’t be twice the amount 
owing in January. The butcher and épicier* made me give them 
1.0.U.s, one for £10, the other for £12, due on 9 January. 
Although I didn’t know with what I should pay them, I couldn’t 
risk being sued lest I bring the whole house tumbling about my 
ears. I owe the LanpLorp £15, and shall owe him £21 in January. 
Ditto the creen Grocer, the baker, the news agent, the milkman, and 
the rest cf the rabble whom I had placated with payments on 
account after my return from Manchester,’ lastly the ravtyman, 
since the onset of winter meant buying indispensable items of 
winter clothing, which therefore had to be got on tick. 

The amount I can expect at the end of the month is £30 at 
most, since those scoundrels from the Presse are not printing some 
of my articles. I have, of course, first to accustom myself to 
keeping within the ‘bounds of German reason’. (Incidentally, 
though, they are making quite a splash in their paper with my 
contributions.) , 

What I have to pay (including interest at the pawn-shop, etc.) 
amounts to £100. It is remarkable how, despite an occasional 
helping-hand, the loss of all income combined with debts that are 
never quite paid off invariably brings the same old muck to the 
surface again. 

Today I have written to Dronke because he still owes me some 
money. But just gently nudging his memory, not urging; I made so 
bold as to tell him that, if he could make me an advance, you would 
guarantee its repayment.*”* 

Once I’m out of this mess, New York and Vienna will allow me 
at least to jog along again. 

2 grocer