Manchester, 6 July 1869. Dear Mohr, Enclosed: Wilhelm, returned. It is truly mad what he makes you must, must, must do. But always the old story. When he gets into a quarrel with Schweitzer, you must always be called to the rescue. That will happen even more. As for the Basle Congress, I hope you have told him plainly that only representatives of actually affiliated members will be admitted. It would be fatal if he and Bebel had to be excluded because of a formal error. As for my letter, his lament about “reproaches instead of money” is exactly the counterpart of Bismarck’s complaint: “Gentlemen, we ask for bread and you give us stones,” when his taxes were rejected. The point that so “annoyed” Mr W. was the question, how he could tell me in the same letter that he had the money to print the Peasant War, and at the same time that he had none for the paper. Further, how comes it that a year and a half ago the paper was already “secured” and still does not pay for itself now? Monsieur W. is completely silent about that, and is merely morally indignant that I reminded him of the shares he had then voluntarily promised to send me without delay, which of course I shall precisely for that reason not see now because W. says that I shall “of course receive” them. The mention of the shares was only intended to induce Wilh. to comment on the status of the paper; for it is fairly clear to me that W. & Co. have so bungled the affair that the printer or some other creditor can sequester the paper and turn them out into the street, as soon as it pays. In that case it might be very convenient for Mr W. if he had a few shareholders sitting here who could assert their legal claim in his favour. If the fool had answered me satisfactorily (which however was hardly possible) he would also have received money, but on the bare demand, which contradicted itself, and without his apologising for his earlier bungling or even saying a word about the state of the paper, it did not occur to me. We must not accustom W. to that sort of thing. How premature his shouts of victory were is shown by the four Sozialdemokrat you sent me today. That Schweitzer lies heavily as well is certain, but for the moment he does seem to have saved the mass of the rank and file. However, things are going sharply downhill with him, and if he had any other opponent than Wilh., that would greatly accelerate the process. But of course the close, stuffy drivel which Wilh. is now having printed as his “Speech” will not do much good. Bebel, however, goes straight for Schweitzer’s throat and brings up some fatal things against him, according to which it would indeed be quite possible that Schweitzer received his share of the Guelph funds handed over to Stieber. In any case, nothing can be done with Wilh. as long as he has not quite decisively separated his organisation from the Volkspartei and placed himself at most in a loose cartel relationship with these people. A good thing too that he wants to put the International on the title of his little paper, which would then be at once the organ of the Volkspartei and of the I. A. Assoc.! Organ of the German philistines and the European workers! Another fine standpoint of Wilh.’s, that one must neither accept concessions from the “present state” to the workers nor even enforce them oneself. With that he will achieve a damned lot among the workers. For Meissner I cannot possibly get anything ready in time for you. Until the balance sheet is ready, I must go into town at least 2–3 times a week, and presumably even more in the next few weeks, as I have to check the stuff closely. My eye is indeed much better, but still needs to be spared if I don’t want to make it worse again. In addition, I must now put a mass of other money matters, my private bookkeeping etc., in order once and for all, and that also delays me a great deal. And then I should also like to hear M.’s opinion beforehand, particularly in this special case, as you say he is somewhat touchy in these matters. Tell Jenny I shall answer her as soon as the beer in question has come in here, which has not been the case so far. Tussy says she will write tomorrow. She is now reading the Serbian folk songs in the German translation, which seem to please her very much, and has taken my place in giving Mary Ellen piano lessons, to the great benefit of the latter. If the weather is fine and I do not have to go into town, we go for a walk of a couple of hours every morning, otherwise, weather permitting, in the evening. Tridon’s pamphlet interested me mainly on account of the 2nd part, as I am not acquainted with the more recent material on the first Revolution. In the first part there is certainly great confusion, especially about centralisation and decentralisation; it is just as well that the “Renaissance” is adjourned for the time being, the people would soon be at each other’s hair. It is comical the idea that the dictatorship of Paris over France, which brought the first Revolution to ruin, could be simply re-enacted today, and with a different result. Bruce’s declaration regarding Mold has certainly proved that the previous notions about English legislation in this respect were quite wrong and that here they adopt a completely Prussian standpoint. Also good for the workers to know. I hope you can soon give me better news of Laura’s health. Moving house is, in any case, very sensible. Best regards, Your F.E.