IN SALT-BOMMEL 

Margate, 18 March 1866 
5 Lansell’s Place 

My dear Child, 

From the address you will see that I have been banished, by my 
medical adviser, to this seaside place, which, at this time of the 
year, is quite solitary. Margate lives only upon the Londoners, who 
regularly inundate it at the bathing season. During the other 
months it vegetates only. For my own part right glad I am to have 
got rid of all company, even that of my books. I have taken a 
private lodging which fronts the sea. In an inn or Hotel one might 
have been exposed to the danger of falling in with a stray 
traveller, or being pestered by local politics, vestry interests, and 
neighbourly gossip. As it is, ‘I care for nobody, and nobody cares 
for me’.* But the air is wonderfully pure and reinvigorating, and 
you have here at the same time sea air and mountain air. I have 
become myself a sort of walking stick, running up and down the 

4 from the English folk-song “The Miller of the Dee’ 

whole day, and keeping my mind in that state of nothingness 
which Buddhaism considers the climax of human bliss. Of course, 
you have not forgotten the pretty little diction: “When the devil 
was sick, the devil a monk would be; when the devil was well, the 
devil a monk was he.’ 

Withdrawing a little from the seaside, and roaming over the 
adjacent agricultural districts, you are painfully reminded of 
‘civilisation’, because from all sides you are startled by large 
boards, with governmental proclamations on them, headed: Cattle 
Disease. The ruling English oligarchs were never suspected to care 
one farthing for ‘der Menschheit ganzes Weh’,* but as to cows and 
oxen, they feel deeply. At the opening of Parliament, the horned 
cattle gentlemen of both houses, commoners and lords, made a 
wild rush at government. All their talk sounded like a herd of 
cows’ lowing, translated into English. And they were not like 
honest king Wiswamitra, ‘der kämpfte und bisste fir die Kuh 
Sabalah’.? On the contrary. They seized the opportunity to ‘battre 
monnaie’‘ out of the cows’ ailings at the expense of the people.*” 
By the by, the East sends us always nice things— Religion, 
Etiquette, and the Plague in all forms. 

I am very glad to hear of Waaratje’s“ winding up adventure. 
Verily, verily, I tell thee, my sweet little cousin, I always felt deep 
sympathy for the man, and always hoped that one day or other he 
should fix his melting heart in the right direction, and not 
persevere performing the nasty part in the children’s tale: “The 
Beast and the Beauty’. I’m sure he will make a good husband. Is 
his inamorata a ‘Bommelerin’ or an importation? 

A few days before leaving London, I made the acquaintance of 
Mr Orsini, a very fine fellow, the brother of the Orsini who was 
sent to the grave for sending Bonaparte to Italy.*°° He has now 
left England for the U. States, in commercial matters, but during 
the few days of our acquaintance, he did me good service. 
Although an intimate friend of Mazzini’s, he is far from sharing 

d 

@ ‘all misery of mankind’. Paraphrase of a passage from Schiller’s poem ‘Das 
Eleusische Fest’: ‘doch der Menschheit Angst und Wehen / Fühlet mein gequältes 
Herz’ (yet the pains and woes of humans / ever fill my tortured heart) - > ‘who 
wrangled and suffered for the cow Sabalah’—an episode from the epic poem 
Ramayana; used by Heine in Buch der Lieder, ‘Die Heimkehr’ (Marx gives a free 
rendering of the words from Heine’s poem; see this volume, p. 245). - © ‘coin 
money’ - 4 Waaratje (‘really’, ‘indeed’)—the word always used by student Petrus 
from Hildebrand’s novel Camera obscura. Marx presumably refers in this letter to 
pastor Roodhuizen who later became Antoinette’s husband. - ¢ ‘La Belle et la Béte’, 
a tale by Jeanne Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. 

the antiquated antisocialist and theocratical views of Mazzini. Now, 
during my forced and prolonged absence from the Council of the 
International Association, Mazzini had been busy in stirring a sort 
of revolt against my leadership. ‘Leadership’ is never a pleasant 
thing, nor a thing I ambition. I have always before my mind your 
father’s* saying in regard to Thorbecke that ‘der Eselstreiber den 
Eseln immer verhasst ist’. But having once fairly embarked in an 
enterprise which I consider of import, I certainly, ‘anxious’ man as 
I am, do not like to give way. Mazzini, a most decided hater of 
freethinking and socialism, watched the progress of our society 
with great jealousy. His first attempt of making a tool of it and 
fastening upon it a programme and declaration of principles of his 
hatching, I had baffled.“ His influence, before that time very 
great with the London working class, had sunk to zero. He waxed 
wroth, when he saw that we had founded the English Reform 
League’? and a weekly paper, The Commonwealth, to which the 
most advanced men of London contribute, and of which I shall 
send you a copy after my return to London. His anger increased, 
when the editors of the Rive gauche (the journal of ta jeune 
France,’ directed by Rogeard, author of the Propos de Labienus,>° 
Longuet, etc.) joined us, and when he became aware of the spread 
of our society on the Continent. He improved my absence, to 
intrigue with some English workingmen, raise their jealousies 
against ‘German’ influence, and even sent his bully, a certain 
Major Wolff (a German by birth) to the Council there to lodge his 
complaints and more or less directly to denounce me. He wanted 
to be acknowledged as ‘the leader (I suppose par la grace de dieu‘) 
of the continental democratical movement’. In so doing, he acted 
so far quite sincerely, as he utterly abhors my principles which, in 
his eyes, embody the most damnable ‘materialism’. This whole 
scene was enacted behind my back, and after they had made sure 
that my malady would not allow me to be present. The English 
wavered, but, although still very weak, I rushed to the following 
séance, Mr Orsini accompanying me. On my interpellation, he 
declared them that Mazzini had lost his influence even in Italy and 
was, from his antecedents and prejudices, quite disabled from 
understanding the new movement.*'' All the Foreign secretaries 
declared for me, and, if you, our Dutch secretary,*’? had been 
present, I hope you would have also cast your vote for your 
humble servant and admirer. As it was, I carried a complete 

a Lion Philips - > ‘the ass-driver is always hateful to the ass’ - © See this volume, 
pp. 16-18. - 4 young France - ¢ by the grace of God 

victory over this redoubtable adversary.*!? I think that Mazzini has 
now had enough of me and will make bonne mine a@ mauvais jeu.’ 
I hope to receive a few lines from you. Don’t forget that I am 

quite an insulated hermit. 

Your most sincere friend 

Bloch?