Brussels, 14 October 1845 
7, rue de |’Alliance 

Dear Sir, 

From your esteemed letter** I perceive that there is some 
misapprehension on your part as regards the line we would take 
in the work we proposed to you for publication. We have no 
intention of defending protective tariffs any more than free trade, 
but rather of criticising both systems from our own standpoint. 
Ours is the communist standpoint, which we have advocated in the 
Deutsch-Franzésische Jahrbiicher, the Holy Family, the Rheinische 
Jahrbiicher, etc.,7 and from which, too, my book The Condition of the 
Working-Class in England is written. As you will appreciate, this 
altogether precludes the submission of our work to the censor, 
and hence we cannot agree to the same. Should you, however, 
desist from this and be otherwise inclined to accept the work, we 
would beg you to be so good as to let us know before we enter 

into other commitments. 
Yours very truly 

F. Engels