| 27 Rathbone Place,
W.
25/11

Dear Dr Marx.

The habitual deafness of a Chairman is one of my complaints. An unscrupulous speaker relies upon such deafness and perhaps regards it & the indifference of the Council as signs of sympathy.

The task of taking my own part is always irksome to me. I prefer taking somebody else’s | part.

If I find no one ready to take mine, I naturally get tired of the association & find I can spend my evenings more pleasantly & profitably in my study or in more friendly Society.

That brings me to the point you take:

“It was not the duty of any individual member to put himself in the place of the Chairman.”

It is the right & the duty of any individual member when he hears un Parliamentary & abusive language suffered | to go forth unchecked by the Chairman to rise & call the Chairman’s attention to it & invite him to interfere.

In the British House of Commons it is much more often one of the attacked member’s friends who rises than the attacked member himself.

 exempli gratia – zum Beispiel.
Schließen
E.G.
when last Session Colonel North called Mr Maguire, “a Fenian”, it was one of Maguire’s friends who rose & demanded that the imputation be retracted & retracted it was.

| When the question of whether Carter had paid his subscription was needlessly & as I thought deliberately raised to give him offence, I acted on the principle above laid down & recommended. Finding that the Chairman took no steps to stop an angry & personal altercation, I rose & asked the Chairman ( Hermann Jung.
Schließen
Iung
) to stop it. But he refused. I then opposed his nomination, a fortnight afterwards. Thus no doubt, my andeavours to keep the Chairmen to their duties helped to expose me to insult. Another good reason for quitting the Company!

| At any rate, I called the Chairman’s attention to the matter by resigning.

If the words altered, as you say, “falsified the meaning”, let the statement be so made where they were uttered—in open Council & not in close Committee. An assurance contained in a private letter is no satisfaction.

 P. Fox André an Marx, 23.11.1867.
Schließen
Since I wrote last,
circumstances have released me from my pledge to Carter but I think it would be only a gracious act on the part of the Council to assure him that they do not doubt his word or question his honour | 5 | and therefore ask him to reconsider his determination.

If he refused so to do, I should consider his conduct mulish & quarrelsome.

Yours obliged,
Peter Fox.
___________________________

P. S. I make no pretensions either by birth, education or wealth to the title of “Esqr”. It is a piece of English social tomfoolery as applied to people like me that I dislike & it wants reforming. I shall be contented with no appendage or the simpler & more democratic: “Mr.”

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Zeugenbeschreibung

Der Brief besteht aus einem Bogen im Format 180 × 227 mm und einem angeklebten Blatt im Format 180 × 113,5 mm sowie einem einzelnen Blatt in demselben Format (insgesamt acht Seiten) mittelstarkem, weißem Papier. Fox André hat sechs Seiten vollständig beschrieben, die Rückseiten der Blätter sind leer. Schreibmaterial: schwarze Tinte.

Fox André paginierte das einzelne Blatt als fünfte Seite. Nach dem „W.“ in der Adresse steht ein „?“ von unbekannter Hand.

Archivsignatur des Moskauer Marx-Engels-Instituts (IMĖ): „RJ 228<a–e>“ und bzw. „Rj 566“.

Von Engels’ Hand: auf der vierten Seite oben links mit Tinte der Vermerk: „Internat.“

Anmerkungen zum Brief

Zur Datierung: Die Jahresangabe stützt sich auf den Zusammenhang des Briefes mit dem Brief von Fox an Marx vom 23. November 1867 (P. Fox André an Marx, 23.11.1867) sowie auf die Erwähnung des Konfliktes von Fox mit Hermann Jung auf der Sitzung des Generalrats der IAA am 5. November 1867 (siehe „The habitual deafness of a Chairman ...“ und Erl. zu H. Jung an Marx, 16.11.1867).

Vermutlich beantwortet Fox André einen nicht überlieferten Brief von Marx, geschrieben zwischen 23. und 25. November 1867 (Marx an P. Fox André, zw. 23. u. 25.11.1867; siehe „the point you take: ...“) und P. Fox André an Marx, 23.11.1867).

 

Zitiervorschlag

Peter Fox André an Karl Marx in London. London, Montag, 25. November 1867. In: Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe digital. Hg. von der Internationalen Marx-Engels-Stiftung. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin. URL: http://megadigital.bbaw.de/briefe/detail.xql?id=M0000442. Abgerufen am 28.03.2024.