London, 7 August [1862]
Dear Engels,
The landlord  саше to see me on Monday“ and told me that, 
after having foreborne so long, he would hand things over to his 
land  agent , unless I paid him within the shortest possible time. And 
that means putting the broker  in. I likewise—oddly enough on the 
same day—got a final demand for the rates, as well as letters from 
the épiciers,b most of them acquainted with the landlord , threatening to prosecute me and withhold provisions .
Lassalle left on Monday evening. I saw him once more after all 
these events  had taken place. From my dejected  air, he saw that the 
crisis, which he had long known about, had led to a catastrophe o f  
some  kind. Questioned me. Having heard my tale, he said he could 
let me have £15 by 1 January 1863; also that bills could be drawn 
on him for any desired amount , provided payment over and above 
the £15 were promised by you or someone else. More he could [not] 
do, he said, in view of his straitened circumstances. (That I can well 
believe, for, while here, he spent £1 2/- daily on cabs  and cigars 
alone.)
Might you perhaps be able to do something in this way, using 
Borkheim as escompteur,c so as to stave off the crisis? Of the £10, I 
paid 6 to the piano man, a nasty brute who wouldn’t have 
hesitated to bring me before the county  court . 7 With 2 of the 
pounds I redeemed things that were in pawn and put what was 
left at my wife’s disposal.
I assure you that if it wasn’t for family  difficulties , I would far 
rather move into amodel  lodging -house  than be constantly squeezing 
your purse.
There is, in addition, another circumstance, namely Dr Allen’s 
telling me that it’s absolutely essential for little Jenny to spend at 
least a fortnight at the seaside, ditto for our youngestd who had 
jaundice of so,me kind last year and isn’tall  right  once again.
Izzy also told me that he would perhaps found a paper when he 
returned in September. I told him that, if he paid well, I would be 
its English correspondent, without assuming any other kind of
a 4 August - b grocers - c discounter - d Eleanor

400
responsibility  or political 
partnership , since all we had in common 
politically were a few remote objectives.
I don’t quite share your views on the A
mer ic a n  civil  war ,3 I do not 
believe that  all  i s  u p . From the outset, the N
ortherners  have been 
dominated by the representatives of the borderslavestates , 1’ who were 
also responsible for pushing McClellan, that old 
partisan  
o k 
Breckinridge, to the top. The South, on the other hand, acted as 
a single whole right from the very start. The North itself turned 
slavery into a pro- instead of an anti-Southern military force . The 
South leaves productive  labour  to the slaves and could thus take the 
field undisturbed with its fighting force intact. It had a unified 
military leadership; the North did not. That there was no strategical 
plan is evident if only from the manoeuvrings of the Kentucky Army 
after the capture of Tennessee. In my view, all this is going to take  
another  turn . The North will, at last, wage the war in earnest, have 
recourse to revolutionary methods and overthrow the supremacy of
the BORDER SLAVE STA T ESM EN . One Single NIGGER REGIM EN T Would have Ά
remarkable effect on Southern nerves.
The difficulty of raising 300,000 men is, I should say, purely 
political. The North-West and New England449 wish to and will 
compel the government to abandon the diplomatic warfare they 
have waged hitherto, and are now making 
terms  o n  which  the
300,000 
men  shall  come  eorth . If Lincoln doesn’t give way (which he 
will, however), there’ll be a revolution.
As regards the lack of military talent, the choice of generals, 
hitherto dependent purely on diplomatic and party chicanery, has 
hardly been calculated to bring it to the fore. However, I should 
say that General Pope was a man of energy.
As for financial measures, they are clumsy as, indeed, they are 
bound to be in a country’where in  fact  taxation has hitherto been 
non-existent (so far as the country as a whole is concerned), but 
not nearly as silly as the measures taken by Pitt et cie450 I should 
say that the present depreciation of money is attributable not to 
economic, but to purely political grounds, namely distrust . It will 
therefore change, when policy changes.
The long and the short of it is, I think, that wars of this kind 
ought to be conducted along .revolutionary lines, and the 
Ya nkees  ’12 have so far been trying to conduct it along constitutional ones.
Salut.
Your
_______  
K. M.
a See this volume, pp. 386-88. - b ibid., p. 277.

401
Imandt is here. Another very tiresome interruption at the 
moment. I believe my work will run to 30 sheets.310