Jones knew Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels personally. Marx and Engels at the same time commented on the Chartist movement and Jones' work in their letters and articles: Marx described Jones as "the most talented, consistent and energetic representative of Chartism". Marx also contributed to "Notes to The People": two articles on the French Revolution of 1848 were credited to him, he co-authored six more with Jones, and according to Marx, he also made contributions to all articles on economics published in the paper from 1851 to 1852, which constituted two-thirds of articles appearing in the publication. He also contributed 25 articles to the "People's Paper". Jones, a strident anti-imperialist, has been credited as an influence on Marx's views regarding colonialism, which shifted during the 1850s from seeing imperialism as a progressive, modernising force to regarding it as having a destructive effect on colonised societies: Jones' imprisonment had come about after he had given a speech in east London advocating the liberation of Ireland from British control, and wrote a series of articles in the "People's Paper" in 1853 expressing the hope that the sepoys would turn against the rule of the East India Company to launch a struggle for Indian independence, prefiguring the Indian Rebellion of 1857 by four years.