First of all my warmest thanks for the Californian supply. However, I was unable to pay the landlord, who is again demanding two quarters. Above all I had to make instalment payments to those fellows who torment me daily and hourly.

As for my state of health to begin with, I have again been working quite steadily these last two weeks, and hope to be finished by the end of August with the first volume, which I am having published independently, if I keep this level of health. I am, of course, forced to continue taking Gumpert’s liver medicine daily, as otherwise I should immediately come to a standstill. Question: Is the arsenic (which has now been eliminated for many weeks) compatible with it? I ask because for 4 days a carbuncular beginning has again manifested itself over the right breast bone. More than any medicine I owe it to the Bordeaux. Incidentally, I work only by day, since the sporadic attempt at night work (once or twice) immediately had very unfavourable consequences.

Before I proceed to general matters, translate into German for me “put stretches upon the mule” and tell me what “picks” in weaving is called in German. What is a “flyer” on the mule called? The London workers’ demonstrations, fabulous compared with anything we have seen in England since 1849, are purely the work of the “International”. Mr. Lucraft, for instance, the captain on Trafalgar Square, is one of our council. Here the difference is revealed between working behind the scenes and disappearing publicly, and the democratic method of publicly making a noise to make oneself important and doing nothing. The “Commonwealth” will soon croak. Fox leaves next week.

A propos. Stumpf writes me from Mainz that the demand among the workers for your book “The Condition etc” is growing daily and that you absolutely must bring out the second edition, if only from the party standpoint. At the same time, from his personal experience, he believes that immediately after the war “the labour question” in Germany will come remarkably to the fore. Freiligrath has let loose a little lyrically melancholy shit about the fratricidal war, which his daughter Kate today has Englished in today’s Athenaeum. Next to a great defeat of the Prussians, which might perhaps (but the Berliners!) have led to a revolution, nothing better could have happened than their immense victory. Thiers had denounced Bonaparte’s policy of helping to “make” Prussia with such effect (for, next to the English, the Frenchman actually hates only the Prussians) that Boustrapa was obliged to alter the French octroyée constitution and to “abolish” the debate on the address par ordre du Moniteur. (I enclose J. Favre’s speech on Mexico and Glais Bizoin’s poor jokes, so that you may see what Bonaparte’s situation was before the outbreak of the war.) Mr. Bonaparte reckoned that victory and defeat would fluctuate between Prussia and Austria, so that in the end he could step in as Jupiter Scapin between the exhausted parties. The success of the Prussians exposes his regime in France to real mortal danger (it is his second great miscalculation since the American Civil War), if he does not succeed in dictating the peace terms. On the other hand, the same success makes it impossible, scarcely possible, for the Prussian dynasty (we are no longer in 1815) to accept other conditions than those which Austria must reject, not to mention the impossibility for William the Fair, alias Alexander the Great, to cede German territory to France. The decision of the Prussians will depend on the “nephew” in Petersburg. It is impossible to say what he will do, as one would need the material of the Russian state chancellery for that. But for my part I do not understand how the Russians, moreover insulted by the Austrian rejection of their aid, can permit Austria to draw breath again and miss this favourable moment for their Danubian-Turkish manoeuvres. Mr. Victor Emmanuel is also in a nice mess. Venice now belongs to Bonaparte. If he accepts it from him as a gift, his dynasty is finished. On the other hand, what can he do against France and where can he attack Austria now? But what do you say to our little Fox, who rushed breathlessly into our house the day before yesterday with the exclamation: “Bonaparte has saved Germany!” That is the view of Beesley, Harrison, etc., and the whole Comtist clique. Write soon, since oral communication in this eventful period must be replaced by ink and paper. My best regards to Mrs. Lizzy.

Little Jenny wants to know how your “Africans” are getting on?

Salut D KM. Bonaparte, of course, does not want war now, before he has introduced the needle gun or an equivalent.

A Yankee here has offered the War Ministry a rifle which, as a Prussian refugee officer (Wilke) assures me, surpasses the needle gun in absolute simplicity of construction, absence of heating, less need for cleaning and cheapness, just as the needle gun surpasses “Old Bess”. Does our theory that the organisation of labour is determined by the means of production show itself anywhere more brilliantly than in the human-slaughter industry? It would truly be worth your while to write something about this (I lack the knowledge to do so), which I could incorporate in my book under your name as an appendix. Think it over. But if it is to be done, it must be done for the first volume, where I treat this theme ex professo. You understand what great pleasure it would give me if you were to appear in my principal work, too, as a direct collaborator, not merely by citation – (hitherto I have only done little things) – !

I am now studying Comte on the side, because the English and French make so much noise about the fellow. What impresses them is the encyclopedic quality, la synthèse. But it is pitiable compared with Hegel (although Comte, being a mathematician and physicist by profession, is superior to him, i.e. superior in detail, yet Hegel is infinitely greater in the whole even here). And this crap positivism appeared in 1832!