London, 2 June 1859 

Dear Sir, 

I am indeed very sorry if I wrote you an offensive letter.” Please 
allow me, therefore, to say a few words in extenuation. To begin 
with I have in fact been away from Germany for too long and 
have grown too accustomed to conditions in London to form a 
correct estimate of the way business is conducted in Germany. 
Secondly, as I informed Lassalle some two months ago,‘ I am 
engaged in negotiations with a London publisher with regard to 
an English rendering of the first instalment.4 The constantly 
misleading information which I, constantly labouring as I was 

a Pensiero ed Azione-> See this volume, pp. 453-54. -¢ See this volume, pp. 
407-10. - 4 K. Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. 

under a false assumption, have been forced to give this man 
regarding the appearance of the book, has more than sufficed to 
show me up as a REGULAR HUMBUG in the eyes of the aforesaid John 
Bull. The repeated and impatient inquiries of my friends and in 
the end, the rumour that the thing will not be coming out at 
all—a rumour carefully disseminated, out of what motives I 
cannot say, by a Berlin clique here—finally proved too much for 
my patience. 

Lastly, I trust that, in consideration of these reasons, you will 
regard my letter merely as the hasty expression of an irritability 
aroused by all manner of circumstances and absolve me of any 
intention of wishing to give offence. 

Yours very faithfully, 
Dr K. Marx