Letter (draft) from Friedrich Engels to John De Morgan in London, [London, about 18 September 1873]; place and date, not given in the manuscript, are those of the editors of the MEW. Manuscript preserved at the IISG (Karl Marx / Friedrich Engels Papers, inv. K 1315), transcribed from the digital facsimile by the Escuela de marxismo, 2026 (double reading and collation with the image). Diplomatic transcription: spelling, capitals, abbreviations and punctuation as in the manuscript; underlining rendered as italics; deletions as text where legible, otherwise [ilegible]; interlinear and marginal additions inserted where marked, with a note; [?] after an uncertain reading. At the top of the third page, two struck-out lines written upside down belong to another text (in French) and are not transcribed. Traducción al español
Dr Citizen
On Monday I found the letter from you which Miss Carroll had left at my house. That day & Tuesday I was so much employed engaged on1 in the French Refugee & Internat.l business that I could not attend even to the most pressing portion of my own business affairs2, nor find time to reply to the numerous letters found here on my return to town. Otherwise I should at once have stated written3 to you that I could not take the Chair for her next Sunday.
On Tuesday as I was just on the point of going out on extremely urgent business which admitted of no delay & must be settled before 1 o'clock that day, Miss C. called again. It was half past twelve & I had above a mile to walk to the place. If a dozen of my oldest friends had arrived at that moment from the other end of the world, I could not have seen them at that moment where I had not five minutes to spare. I must have treated them as I treated Miss C.
On telling her as politely as I could, my momentary4 situation, she merely asked me[?] categorically5 whether, yes or no, I would take the chair for her; I regretted I could not, as I had an engagement for that evening, & again expressed my sorrow for having to leave her so abruptly; upon which she at once interrupted me, leaving me not even the time to ask her when & where I could have another interview with her, by saying that she was quite used to that sort of thing on the part of the London Int.ls, upon[?] and walked out of the house.
I felt sorry for her, thinking attributing her behaviour6 rudeness to the exaggerated7 touchiness brought out often[?]8 by misfortune. [ilegible] of[?] her[?] Unfortunately9 the would-be insulting10 letter she wrote to me since, leaves me no room to doubt as to what is hidden behind all11 this virtuous indignation.
As to taking the Chair on Sunday I had[?] was for12 [ilegible] [ilegible] reasons[?] compelled to decline the honour.13
1/ because, as stated, I had a previous engagement;
2/ because, contrary to your expectation, I don't recollect having heard Miss C.'s name once before, nor could I get any further information from one or two others I asked and I cannot be expected to take the chair for parties of whom I know nothing or next to nothing14 Suppose even she was what you must have[?] considered[?] [ilegible] when you recommended her to me, a sincere revolutionist, you still must know that there are a good many others[?] different sorts of them & that it would be impossible for any one of us to identify ourselves publicly with every one of them. Not knowing anything of Miss C.'s views, it might very possibly have been my duty to get up at the end of her speech & express my dissent from part of what she had said, & thus do her[?] more harm than good15
3/ I never took the chair at a public meeting of Englishmen & shall do not intend doing so. When I once took the chair for you, that was at the meeting of a private society of Germans of which I was a member. –
At all events this little incident which for [ilegible] [ilegible] importance whatever will not have been without its use, if you will see from it the impro-[?] priety16 [ilegible] of proposing people for chairmen or otherwise using their names without their previously having given[?] obtained17 their consent.
Yours fraternally
«engaged on» written above the line or in the margin. ↩
«affairs» written above the line or in the margin. ↩
«written» written above the line or in the margin. ↩
«momentary» written above the line or in the margin. ↩
«me[?] categorically» written above the line or in the margin. ↩
«behaviour» written above the line or in the margin. ↩
«exaggerated» written above the line or in the margin. ↩
«brought out» is encircled by a line that runs on above and comes down after «often»: probably a transposition («touchiness often brought out by misfortune»). ↩
«Unfortunately» written above the line or in the margin. ↩
«would-be insulting» written above the line or in the margin. ↩
«all» written above the line or in the margin. ↩
«was for» written above the line or in the margin. ↩
Above «had» (not visibly struck) «was for»; after it a short word (a number?) and, at the beginning of the next line, two words ending like «reasons», all under heavy wavy strokes; it cannot be seen whether these strokes delete or retrace. As the ink stands, the sentence reads «I was for … compelled». ↩
«and I cannot be expected to take the chair for parties of whom I know nothing or next to nothing» written above the line or in the margin. ↩
The deleted passage runs from the foot of p. 2 (three lines, also cancelled with large crossing strokes) to the top of p. 3, where it is enclosed in a box and cancelled with a large X. Inside it, «very possibly» and «part of» are interlinear, and «probably would» is struck out separately. Above the box, two struck-out lines written upside down belong to another text (in French) and are not transcribed. ↩
«priety» written above the line or in the margin. ↩
«obtained» written above the line or in the margin. ↩