besides paying for unforeseen incidental expenses—doctor's bills, etc., for about five or six years, he asks Marx to let him know the exact sum of his debts and whether if he (Engels) clears these completely first he could then manage to live on £350 (and extras) without making any further debts, as upon that depends how he will deal with Ermen's offer. What will happen after the five or six years he does not know. He will even then be able to assure Marx at least £150 a year, and he hopes that something else may turn up so as to enable him to make that sum larger, and that Marx's literary work may bring him in something. If £350 is not sufficient, Marx must let him know immediately what yearly sum would be enough. No wonder Marx replies that he is quite "knocked down" by Engels' goodness!
At last, July 1, 1869, Engels writes:—
"Hurrah! To-day I have done with sweet commerce and am a free man. … Gottfried (Ermen) has given way in everything. Tussy (Marx's youngest daughter Eleanor, who was spending a few weeks with Engels and his wife) and I have celebrated my first free day by taking a long country walk this morning. In addition, my eye (he had been troubled with his eyes for some time) is getting much better, and with a little care will be quite all right soon.
"The balances and lawyers will still tie me somewhat for a few more weeks—but this will no longer mean the enormous loss of time of hitherto. …"
To this Marx replies:—
"Best congratulations on your liberation from the Egyptian bondage! In honour of this event, I have taken a glass too much, bu late in the evening, not like the Prussian gendarmes before dawn. …"
In London Again
Finally, at the end of September, 1870, having won over his wife, whose relatives were all in Manchester, to the idea, Engels removed to London. Here the division of labour between him and Marx took on a more definite character. Not a single piece of work by one or the other but was discussed by both before publication, but whilst Marx devoted himself mainly to a systematic working-out of their fundamental economic and philosophic theories, Engels undertook the carrying on of polemics and the discussion and solution of important questions of the day in the light of these theories. But how intimate was their co-work is proved by Engels' statement in the preface to the second edition of his Anti-Dühring:—
"The greater part of the point of view developed here was founded and worked out by Marx and only a small part of it by me. Its presentation has not been made without his knowledge. I have read the whole
