[London,] 22[-23] March 1853 

Dear Engels, 

Your article on Turkey* splendid. Sent off. 
I don’t know if you have seen the following comments in a 
recent number of The Economist on the ‘value or Turkey’, 

* ‘While our commerce with Austria and Russia is either stationary or on the 
decline, with Turkey it is rapidly increasing. We are not able to state what 
proportion of our exports may find their way to Austria through Germany, but we 
believe it [is] only small. Our direct trade with Austria is absolutely insignificant. 
Our exports of British produces to her Adriatic ports (the only ones she has) were 
not given separately from those to the rest of Italy till 1846, when they reached 
£721,981. In 1850 they had fallen to £607,755 and in 1851 had risen to £812,942. 
Our exports to Russia were on the average of 1840 and 1841: £1,605,000, in 1846 
and 1847, £1,785,000, and in 1850 and 1851, £1,372,000.’ ‘Our exports to the 

* See section on Turkey in the article by Marx and Engels, ‘British Politics.— 
Disraeli The Refugees.—Mazzini in London.—Turkey’. 

Turkish dominions, including Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Moldavia and Wallachia, have 
progressed as follows: 

1840 inne 1844 ee 1848 5:66.94 
1841 1,885,840 1845 3,134,759 1849 = 3,569,023 
1842 = 2,068,842 1846 2,707,571 1850 3,762,480 
1843 2,548,321 1847 3,530,589 1851 3,548,959 

Our exports are therefore threefold those to Russia and nearly double those to 
Russia and Austria together.’ * 356 

So much for The Economist.* 

There must be a considerable row going on about the “Turkisu 
question’ within the English Ministry itself, for the tune being 
piped by Palmerston’s journal, The Morning Post, is altogether 
different from that in The Times. 

Disraeli has happily been deposed from his teapersnie of the 
“GREAT CONSERVATIVE PARTY and his place taken by Sir John Pakington, 
A MOURNFUL MAN OTHERWISE. It is the first time since 1828 that the 
Tory party has possessed a ‘Leader’ no less mediocre than its rank 
and file. 

You will have seen that during the last division on the Clergy 
Reserves Bill, when the worthy Russell himself rrorosep THE omission 
or THE 3rD of his 3 original clauses, it was only the votes of the 
conservative minority that secured victory for the Ministry.**” A 
bad sign, that. 

Mazzini has been here for a few days, but for the time being 
incognito. 

That the ‘coop Aserpgen’” is much inclined to pick on the 
refugees will be evidensto you from the fact that Jast week the 
English police took a kind of census of refugees. Two or three 
detectives IN PLAIN CLOTHES went from square to square and from 
street to street, jotting down information, most of it culled from 
neighbours or nearby ale-house keepers. In exceptional cases, 
however—e.g. at Pulszky’s, the blackguard himself being now in 
America—they actually pushed their way into the homes of the 
refugees on the pretext that a theft, etc., had been committed, and 
scrutinised their papers. 

4 ‘Turkey and Its Value’, The Economist, No. 498, 12 March 1853. - > Marx quotes 
Louis Philippe. 

The estimable Barthélemy got away with 2 months’ imprison- 
ment." The fellow had the effrontery to have Ledru-Rollin 
informed he would shoot him down like a dog. To this Ledru 
replied that he would never exchange shots with such a man. 
Barthélemy, for his part, retorted that, if he wanted to induce a 
man to exchange shots with him, he knew very well how to do 
it—tested methods being to box his ears in public, spit in his face, 
etc. Whereat Ledru sent word that, in such a case, Barthélemy 
would become acquainted with his stick and with an English 
MAGISTRATE, This Barthélemy seems intent on becoming the Rinaldo 
Rinaldini of the emigration. Some ambition! 

Pére Willich has landed in New York. Friend Weitling organised 
a banquet for him attended by 300 persons, at which Willich 
appeared in a vast red sash, made a long speech to the effect that 
bread is worth more than liberty, and was presented by Weitling 
with a sword. Then Weitling took the floor and proceeded to prove 
that Jesus Christ was the first communist and his successor none 
other than the well-known Wilhelm Weitling. 

I have received a letter from Schabelitz, which I enclose and 
from which it emerges |. that, though he has not betrayed us 
politically, he has behaved very stupidly indeed; 2. that he meant, 
and still means, to swindle me, at least commercially. Originally, 
and under the contract, he was to run off only 2,000 copies.* From 
his letter it appears that he has run off more. How many, he has 
still not divulged. At the same time Dronke has received an answer 
from Dr Feddersen to whom he had written about the matter. 
Feddersen confirms Schabelitz’s letter, but at the same time states 
that, in his opinion, nothing would come of a judicial inquiry 
concerning Schabelitz. The question is, what is to be done? The 
Prussian government wants to hush the whole thing up, so much 
so that the Foreign Minister” is looking for a Theory of Communism 
allegedly published by me in Basle. So even the title is to be kept 
from the public. Que fatre?* 

Schabelitz sent me 2 copies, 1 direct to me and | to Freiligrath, 
which together cost me 15/-. A fine return! So far I have not been 
able to drag the copies away from the gang. But I think I might 
succeed in getting hold of one by Wednesday (tomorrow) and will 
send it with the parcel that has long been waiting to go off to you. 

Zerffi is here. He fled from Paris during the razzia on foreign 
correspondents. He believes that friend Bangya (who, by the by 

4 of Marx’s Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne - » Presumably 
Manteuffel. - * What’s to be done? 

and en passant, is said to be finding life difficult and intends to 
return here in May) had denounced him as the author of a 
number of articles in the Kolnische Zeitung compromising to the 
‘Blonde Souveraine’.* Zerffi is a chatterbox, but his opinions on 
conditions in Hungary are more independent and accurate than 
any I have yet heard expressed by refugees from that country. 
This may be due to the fact that he is no Magyar born and bred, but a 
‘Swabian’, and not only a Swabian but the son of a Hanover Jew, 
whose name was probably Cerf and was magyarised as Zerffi. 

What wretchedly indolent dogs our people in Germany are! Not 
a word has come through from the fellows. By now they'll have 
seen from the newspapers that a pamphlet has been published 
about their case. But they don’t so much as inquire about it. 
There’s no responsiveness, no élan about the chaps. Old women— 
voila tout.” 

A funny piece of news in La Nation will hardly have come your 
way in Manchester. That angel Montijo suffers, it seems, from a 
most indelicate complaint. She is passionately addicted to farting 
and is incapable, even in company, of suppressing it. At one time 
she resorted to horse-riding as a remedy. But this having now 
been forbidden her by Bonaparte, she ‘vents’ herself. Ce n’est qu’un 
bruit, un petit murmure, un rien, mais enfin, vous savez que les 
Frangais ont le nez au plus petit vent@ 

Is there no news of Weerth in Manchester yet? 

Your 
K. M. 

23 March. Yesterday, in response to our appeal* consisting of 
three lines and all our names, Freiligrath, the treasurer, received 
from the gymnastic club in Washington the sum of £20 17s. for 
the Cologne people. 

Schimmelpfennig has inherited £1,000 from the Briningk 
woman.