Kmflett's Blog

175 years ago Marx visited Engels in Manchester where he was working at the family firm. Engels letter of invitation has survived. He explains that there are three trains a day from London to Manchester. The first left at 6.30am and took seven and half hours.

The second was the Parliamentary Train. Under an 1844 Act the train had to travel at no more than 12 mph and could charge no more than 1d a mile in fare. The distance from London to Manchester is 140 miles hence the train took eleven and half hours…

Unfortunately since social media did not exist in 1851 we don’t know what Marx and Engels actually did in Manchester at Easter 1851 but visiting the pub seems likely.

M a n c h e s t e r , T u e s d a y , 15 April [1851]
D e a r M a r x ,
Herewith POST OFFICE ORDER for £ 5 .

If your  wife’s state of h e a l t h and your other circumstances
permit , come up the day after tomorrow , Thursday .  There a r e
three trains for you to choose from: 1. at half past six in the
morning , arriving here at 2 o’clock (has 2nd class); 2. the
PARLIAMENTARY TRAIN at seven in the morning ( 2nd and 3rd class),
arriving at half past six in the evening ; 3. at 12 o’clock midday ,
arriving at 9 in the evening ( 2nd class). Then , from Friday to
Monday we could make a tour of the  neighbourhood
Anyway, write and tell me by return whether you ‘are coming and
by which train; I shall then be at the station. If you can’t come up
on Thursday , although sous beaucoup de rapports that would be
preferable , then come up on Friday. At any r a t e , let me know at
once how and  when . All else I’ll leave for verbal discussion, since I’d better go and
get the POST OFFICE ORDER straight away.

My regards to your wife and c h i l d r e n .
Y o u r
F. E.