Works of Frederick Engels

French Communism


Source: MECW Volume 3, p. 414;
Written: January 28, 1844;
First published: in The New Moral World, Third Series, No. 32, February 3, 1844.


To the Editor of the New Moral World

Manchester, January 28, 1844

DEAR SIR, — In my letter to you in the New Moral World of the 13th instant I committed an error. I considered the correspondent of the Times wrong in naming a M. Constant as a Communist; but since I wrote, I have received some French Communist publications, in which an Abbé Constant is named as a partisan of the Community System. At the same time, Mr. Goodwyn Barmby had the kindness to give me some further information about the Abbé Constant, who, he says, has been imprisoned for his principles, and is the author of several Communist works. His creed is thus expressed in his own words: I am a Christian and I take Christianity to be community only.

Requesting you, therefore, to correct the above error in your next number,

I am, dear Sir, yours respectfully,

F. Engels