[London,| 14 December 1853 

Dear Frederic, 

As you know, everyone gets an occasional bee in his bonnet, and 
nihil humani* etc. Needless to say, there was never any question of 
‘conspiring’ and suchlike nonsense.*”” You are accustomed to some 
jeacousy and, au fond, the only thing that vexes me is our not being 
able to be together now, to work and have fun together, whereas 
your ‘protégés’ have you conveniently to hand. 

Enclosed one copy of the Knight. The other arrived in 
Washington either today or yesterday. I sent the thing to Cluss so 
that the 2 statements should not conflict, and so that he can 
delete anything that has already been said. A few small stylistic 
changes were made in the copy I sent. The last page is missing 
from the one I sent you; it got mislaid and contains only a few 
concluding remarks in a humorous vein. 

Although we have heard nothing of him, Willich must be back in 
London again. Did you see in the Reform the splendid minutes of the 
meeting presided over by Anneke, in which not a single person 

a Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto (I am a man and I think nothing 
human is alien to me), Terence, Heautontimorumenos.-» at bottom - 
© J. Weydemeyer, A. Cluss, A. Jacobi, ‘An die Redaktion der New-Yorker Criminal- 
Zeitung’ and K. Marx, “The Knight of the Noble Consciousness’. 

declares himself willing to return to Germany as ‘a revolutionary 
fighter under Willich’s military leadership’?* 

Quant a” Palmerston,* I could agree to a ‘German’ version only 
if I could be sure that the work would subsequently be accepted by 
a publisher. For I haven’t a German MS, since I myself had to 
write the thing in English, i.e. Anglo-Saxonise the original from 
the word go. As regards the Tribune I intend to conclude with the 
TREATIES OF 1840 anv °41,*° and for this I have at my disposal some 
very bulky Brut Books, sesies Hansard and the Moniteur. Have left 
out Palmerston’s machinations in Greece, Afghanistan, Persia and 
Serbia, as being of lesser importance. That would still leave the 
revolutionary period for which the Buue Books again provide 
important (if considerably curtailed) material, as well as for our 
‘patriotic’ war, etc., in Schleswig-Holstein 

Concerning your Bonaparte as a captain of artillery, or writer 
thereon, I think you would do best to send a paper of this sort 
under your own naine either to 1. The Daily News, 2. The 
Examiner, or 3. The Westminster Review. The first would probably 
be best. An article of this kind would at one fell swoop— par coup 
d’état*—put you in such a position vis-a-vis the London Press that 
you could ‘press’ it and at the same time, perhaps, get a chance to 
have your book on the Hungarian compaign published in English 
in London, which would in any case be more profitable and 
effective than in poor old Leipzig. 

Needless to say, the Tribune is making a great splash with your 
articles, poor Dana, no doubt, being regarded as their author. At 
the same time they have appropriated ‘Palmerston’, which means 
that, for 8 weeks past, Marx-Engels have virtually constituted the 
EDITORIAL STAFF Of the Tribune. 

In addition to your lengthier expositions which are appropriated 
by them for Leavers and are feasible only in the case of certain 
important Events or periods, e.g. the initial phase, then the battle 
of Oltenitza, etc., I should be grateful if (time permitting) you 
could—during the less important interludes—let me have a brief 
summary of the facts—1-2 pages, say—in English. I have greater 
difficulties—even from the language standpoimt—with the lesser 
stuff than with profound (!) expositions, especially with material I 
have long been familiar with by reading in an English context, i.e. 
English works. I only require this, of course, when there is a 

a [Report from Newark,] Die Reform, No. 91, 24 November 1853. -> As 
for -° K. Marx, ‘Lord Palmerston’.-¢ by a coup d’état -* See this volume, 
pp. 104 and 309-10. 

dearth of ‘great’ événements.* The main difficulty is the uneasiness 
of my critical conscience in regard to matters with which I feel I 
am not 4 la hauteur.” My competitor* quite simply copies out the 
facts (or rather what are given out as such by the London Press). 

What do you think of my brother-in-law Juta’s proposal, 
enclosed herewith, that we should write a monthly article for the 
Zuid-Afrikaan (Cape Town)? Rotten though Juta’s French may 
be, he’s a good, sensible chap. If only you and I had set up an 
English correspondence business at the right moment in London, 
you wouldn’t be stuck in Manchester tormented by the office, nor 
I tormented by debts. Incidentally, I believe that if you were to 
send military articles to the London papers now, you would, 
within a few weeks, be able to secure a permanent post which 
would pay as well as the Manchester business and leave you more 
spare time. At present the DEMAND For MILITARY writers exceeds the 
supply. 

It might even be asked whether The Times itself might not be 
very glad to hook a mitirary Collaborator since it is wretchedly 
served in this respect. It would be worth trying. For we have, of 
course, now reached the stage at which we regard any English 
newspaper merely as an emporium and it matters not a rap in 
which of these emporia we display our ‘articles’, supposé’ they are 
not tampered with. 

Your 
K. M.