Page:Zelda Kahan - The Life and Work of Friedrich Engels (1920).pdf/29

of Friedrich Engels In 1859, during the Italian war, Engels published the pamphlet The Po and the Rhine. Marx was enthusiastic in its praise when he read the manuscript. In accordance with his advice, it was published anonymously at first, in order that it might be "attributed to some high-placed general," and in May, 1861, on the occasion of a trip to Germany, Marx writes to Engels saying that in high military circles the pamphlet is indeed so regarded.

After the conclusion of the Italian war, Engels wrote another pamphlet, entitled Savoy, Nice and the Rhine, and in 1865, in the pamphlet The Prussian Military Question and the German Labour Party, Engels attacked the incompetency and half-heartedness of the liberals and radicals, pointing out that a solution of the military problems of Prussia, as of every other serious question, could only be arrived at by a proletarian party.

In the middle of the sixties, the Labour movement began to revive in England and the Continent, and in 1864 the International Workingmen's Association was formed. Though Marx was the intellectual leader of the International, Engels, too, did a great deal of work for it.

At the end of March, 1860, Engels lost his father, and in September, 1864, he became a partner in the firm. This, of course, meant added responsibilities and work, and was by no means to his liking, as we have seen above, and as we also see from a letter to Marx in May, 1860, in which he says that he is trying to make the contract as onerous as possible for Gottfried (Ermen), in order that at the decisive moment he may be only “too pleased to let me go," from which we can conclude that he already then had no intention of remaining in the business for ever. In the meantime his income rose, and that was, of course, of the greatest importance to himself and Marx.

During all the time that Engels worked at the Manchester cotton mills he felt anything but happy, and how both he and Marx regarded Engels' activity in the commercial world we shall see from extracts of their letters we give below.

Speaking of what may happen when his contract will be up in 1869, he says that as things are he will probably have to go out of the business. He cannot reconcile himself to starting a new business. If he had to do that he would be done for. "I long for nothing so much as to get free of this dastardly commerce, which, with all the loss of time involved, is completely demoralising me. So long as I am in it, I am useless for anything; particularly since I became a partner it has become much worse, because of the greater responsibilities. Were it not for the larger income, I should really prefer to be a clerk again." The one thing that worries him is what to do about Marx when he has to leave the business in a couple of years. He consequently the more wishes and hopes that Marx will at last meet with literary success (from a financial point of view, too), and then comes the incurable optimist, and adds