London, 16 May 1851 

Dear Engels, 

I received your letter, which arrived the day before yesterday ,*'* 
too late for me to answer. I was, as it happens, already at the 
Museum by the time the postman arrived, and didn’t return home 
until 7 o'clock in the evening. Even with the best will in the world 
I couldn’t have written to you yesterday since I had such severe 
abdominal trouble that I felt as though my head would burst like 
the negro’s drum in Freiligrath’s poem.° 

The earlier confusion was due simply to the fact that I 
immediately gave one of the two idlers (Schramm) a note to post 
off to you in answer to your first letter. He missed the post, and 
still had the note in his pocket-book yesterday.*% 

As for the electricity, the account appeared in The Economist of 
1845° and contains, besides what I passed on to you, nothing save 
the statement that the experiment was carried out with great 
success in Scotland. Even the rarmer is named. 

a British Museum - > F. Freiligrath, ‘Der Mohrenfiirst’. -¢ Conrad Schramm - 
d The Economist, Vol. 111, Nos. 17 and 18, 26 April and 3 May, 1845. 

Freiligrath will be here within the next few days. 

Now to the business of the post. I believe the post office to be 
innocent. At all events I alone am responsible for the poor shape 
of the seal. The only thing that quite alienum est* to me is the 
x Manchester x.” 

Did you see how the impertinent Kinkel got his wife to deny in 
the Kolnische Zeitung that he had any connection with the 
manifesto of the bold ‘Provisionals’?‘ and how, in order to titillate 
the interest of the German philistine, he purports to have a 
‘serious disease’? 

As a result of intervention by my worthy brother-in-law-cum- 
minister, the printing of my things, as of the Revue,’ has again 
come to a standstill.” It would seem that Becker’ has run into 
difficulties in Verviers. 

In France Cavaignac appears to be making spanking progress. 
While his election would be the rational solution, it would 
postpone the revolution for years to come. The meeting between 
Nicholas, Frederick William and Habsburg *”” is neither more nor 
less significant than that between General Haug, Ruge and Ronge. 
Incidentally, to tax incomes was at that particular moment the 
shrewdest thing the Prussians could do. 

Now a look at the émigrés here. 

Led by a fellow (a German) whose name I don’t know, or 
rather, along with this fellow, the immortal Faucher, the inevitable 
E. Meyen, now also here, etc., undertook the editing of the 
German article for the London (pany) Illustrated News. As none of 
the chaps knows English, they asked that a German-Englishman 
should supervise the editing. The superior allotted to them was an 
old woman who was last in Germany 20 years ago and speaks 
broken German. Her deletions equalled old Dolleschall’s, notably 
E. Meyen’s profound article ‘Skulptur’. What this idiot was doing 
was to reproduce here in London the asinine artistic concoctions 
that appeared 10 years ago in a Berlin literary gossip sheet.* 
Faucher was also unmercifully blue-pencilled. And a few days ago 
the editor summoned these louts, who humbly, if reluctantly, 
suffer the old woman’s domination, and told the gentlemen that 

ais incomprehensible - > See this volume, p. 349.-¢ The reference is to the 
manifesto “To the Germans’ issued by the Committee for German Affairs (see this 
volume, p. 342). An excerpt from Johanna Kinkel’s letter about Gottfried Kinkel 
having nothing to do with the manifesto was published in the Kélnische Zeitung, No. 
114, 13 May 1851.-4 Ferdinand von Westphalen -¢ K. Marx, ‘Gesammelte 
Aufsatze’ and the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ckonomische Revue. - Hermann 
Becker - 8 Athendum 

he couldn’t use their concoctions and that they must confine 
themselves to translating articles from the English. Since the 
unfortunate pair know not a word of English, this was tantamount 
to a polite good-bye. And they went. And Meyen will have to wait 
and while away another decade before he can find a taker for his 
‘Skulptur’. 

What is more, Mr Faucher was unceremoniously jettisoned by 
the Kélnische Zeitung weeks ago on the grounds that the public 
found his articles boring. 

What is your view of the Portuguese revolution? *!* 

Mr A. Goegg is here, was immediately taken in tow by Willich & 
Co., and gives lectures in Windmill Street.**! Hurrah! 

Maintenant, mon cher; farewell. From now on our correspon- 
dence will get properly back on the rails again. 

Your 
K. M.