{London,] 29 October 1862 
Dear Engels, 

It isn’t right that, during your no.ypays, you should never have 
time to spend so much as one day in London. 

Since going to the seaside, little Jenny has been much better, but 
she’s still not her proper self. For a year she’s been losing weight 
instead of putting it on. 

Lassalle, who is exceedingly incensed with me, tells me that, 
since he has not got a banker, the remittance should be sent to 

him personally at his Berlin address, 13 Bellevuestrasse. This 
month, he is being taken to court on account of one of his famous 
speeches.**° 

Schily was here for a week, looking very wretched and ill, 
whereas his friend Imandt, who was also here before I left for 
Holland and Trier,” has grown frightfully obese. It’s almost as 
though a second back had formed on top of his old one. 

As regards America, I believe the Maryland campaign ” to be 
decisive in as much as it has shown that even in this most 
Southern-minded part of the border states* there is little support 
for the Conreverates. But the whole struggle revolves round the 
BORDER STATES. Whoever has those, will dominate the Union. The fact 
that Lincoln promulgated the prospective emancipation decree at a 
time when the Conreperares were advancing into Kentucky also 
shows that no further consideration is now being shown the toyat 
SLAVE HOLDERS in the porper srates.“°° The southward migration of 
slave holders with their sack chattel from Missouri, Kentucky, and 
Tennessee has already assumed vast proportions and if, as is 
certain, the struggle goes on a bit longer, the South will have lost 
all support there. It was the South that began the struggle for the 
territories.**” The war itself has been instrumental in destroying its 
power in the sorper srates, which, in the absence of any market for 
the BREEDING OF SLAVES OF the€ INTERNAL SLAVE ‘TRADE, have been daily 
loosening their ties with the South anyhow. In my opinion, 
therefore, the sole concern of the South will now be defence. But 
its only chance of success lay in an offensive. If there is 
confirmation of the news that Hooker is to be given active 
command of the Potomac Army, McClellan to be ‘withdrawn’ to 
the ‘theoretical’ post of commander in cuter and Halleck to assume 
supreme command in the West, the conduct of the war in Virginia 
might take on a more energetic character. Moreover, the most 
favourable time of year for the Confederates 1s NOW GONE. 

From the point of view of morale, the failure of the Maryland 
campaign was of really tremendous importance. 

As regards finance, the Unrrep States know from the time of the 
War of Independence, as we know from our observation of 
Austria, how far one may go with depreciated paper money.*” 
The fact remains that the Yankees have never exported so much 
grain to England as this year, that the present harvest is again 
far above avecare and that the balance of trade has never been so 
favourable for them as during the past 2 years. As soon as the new 

@ See this volume, p. 277. 

system of taxation (vapid though it is, and truly Pitt-like*°) is 
introduced, there will, at last, be a reflux of paper money, of which 
there has hitherto only been a steady issue. This will render 
unnecessary any increase in the issue of paper on the present 
scale, and further depreciation will thus be checked. What has 
made even the depreciation prevailing up till now less dangerous 
than it would have been in similar circumstances in France, or 
even England, is the fact that the Yankees have never prohibited 
the existence of two prices, a Gop prick and a paver price. The 
inherent disadvantage of the thing takes the form of a national 
debt, for which there has never been the appropriate funding, and 
a PREMIUM FOR JOBBING AND SPECULATION.2” 

When the English boast that their depreciation never exceeded 
11'/, p.c. (according to others it amounted to more than twice that 
figure during some Time), they choose to forget that they not only 
continued to pay the old taxes, but every year they paid new ones 
in addition to the old, so that the rer.ux of bank notes was assured 
in advance, whereas the Yankees have in effect conducted the war 
for 1'/, years without taxation (except for the greatly reduced 
import duties) simply by means of repeated issues of paper. Such 
procedure, which has now reached a turning-point, means that the 
depreciation is, in fact, still relatively modest. 

The fury with which the Southerners are greeting Lincoln’s acts 
is proof of the importance of these measures.*’! Lincoln’s acts all 
have the appearance of inflexible, clause-ridden conditions com- 
municated by a lawyer to his opposite number. This does not, 
however, impair their historical import and does, in actual fact, 
amuse me when, on the other hand, I consider the drapery in 
which your Frencuman enwraps the merest trifle. 

Like others, I am of course aware of the distasteful form 
assumed by the movement chez the Yankees; but, having regard to 
the nature of a ‘bourgeois’ democracy, I find this explicable. 
Nevertheless, events over there are such as to transform the world, 
and nothing in the whole of history is more nauseous than the 
attitude adopted towards them by the English. 

Regards to Lupus. Salut. 

Your 

K. M. 
£10 safely received.