139 

MARX TO HERMANN BECKER *” 

{London,] 8 February 1851 

..apropos! Willich and Schapper in company with Barthélemy, 
etc., have, by monstrous bragging about their influence in 
Germany and by monstrous calumnies against ourselves, at long 
last succeeded in bamboozling Louis Blanc to such an extent that 
he has combined with this ‘scum’ to arrange a banquet for 
February and, in concert with same, has issued a programme 
of festivities along with a kind of manifesto. The little man 
walked into the trap out of vanity, so as to show Ledru-Rollin 
that he, too, could wag a German-French-Polish-Hungarian 
tail. Now the business is en pleine déroute* again and the little 
man suspects that he has compromised himself for nothing and 
has committed a fruitless piece of perfidy against ourselves 
who, since 1843, have maintained a kind of lukewarm alliance 
with him. 

But do you know what Willich impresses strangers? by 
most? His tremendous influence in Cologne. Hence it is all 
the more necessary for you to send me the letters,° so that a 

dyke can be thrown up against the ‘carpenter’s’** machinations. 
Adieu...