{London,] 7 March‘ 1865 

Dear Frep, 

My brother-in-law! is leaving today to return to the Cape. I’ve 
got to accompany him onto the ship. So, I’m very short of 
time—hence just the following in the utmost brevity: 

1. Ad vocem Bruhn. A worker in Paris received a letter from a 
worker in Hamburg saying that Bruhn is slandering us in every 
way he can. Firstly, he says I owe him 60 talers which I never 

a F. Engels, The Prussian Military Question and the German Workers’ Party. - > Kélnische 
Zeitung - © probably Carl Schorlemmer - ¢ See this volume, p. 91. - ¢ In the original: 
May. - § Johann Cart Juta - & As regards 

repaid. Secondly, you and I are said to have sold the Prussian 
government, or rather ‘Police-Chief Stieber, a manuscript about 
the refugees.' The Parisian sent the letter to Lessner, who passed 
it on to me. I replied to Lessner by return of post, for 
communication to the Parisian, that I had never had any financial 
dealings with Bruhn (which I believed at that time to be the case), 
and in general considered that for Bruhn to ever have 60 talers to 
his name was like something out of Munchausen. Furthermore, | 
explained the affair of Bangya and the manuscript, in which 
connection our declaration of April 18537 in the New-Yorker 
Criminal-Zeitung’ and references to it in Herr Vogt page such and 
such‘ were to be consulted. Wet! Then Bruhn’s letter arrived. So, 
I racked my brains and think I remember the following: in the 
spring of 1849 I came to Hamburg to collect money for the Neue 
Rheinische Zeitung. I had just enough in my pocket to get to 
Hamburg. However, stayed 14 days in a riest-rate hotel. I 
explained to Baron Frisch, who later intended to send us 
donations, that I needed money to pay the hotel bill and my 
return fare. I now have a dim recollection that since I didn’t want 
to take the money as a ‘present’ from him and he for his part didn’t 
want it back, it was agreed that Bruhn, who was just as much a 
scoundrel then as now, should receive it. I had forgotten the 
whole bloody business; however, I now wrote to Bruhn"! that I 
couldn’t remember any financial transaction with him. Since the 
Neue Rheinische Zeitung was banned when I got back to Cologne 
from Hamburg and I myself was kicked out of Prussia, it was 
possible that in the whirl of events at the time I had forgotten.'” 
It is still striking that he waited from 1849 to 1865 to remind me. 
But it was a simple matter. He should let me know by letter how 
much he thought he had on me and send me Griibel’s address. I 
would then write to Grtibel myself. If the latter confirmed what he 
said, his demand would be satisfied. This procedure is absolutely 
essential, as I am_ still uncertain about the matter even at this 
moment, and the way I have been fleeced by claims of this kind is 
really scandalous. 

2. From the enclosed from Schily you will see what transpired in 
Paris whither we sent Le Lubez to settle the disputes that had 
broken out there. (We had given Schily ditto rutt power to 
negotiate,* as we were aware of Le Lubez’s bias towards Lefort.” 
Here I should just mention in passing that Béluze, President of the 

@ In the original: January 1852. - > K. Marx, ‘Hirsch’s Confessions’. - © See present 
edition, Vol. 17, pp. 219-20. - 4 See this volume, pp. 108-09. 

People’s Bank,!”! who controls the few Paris Associations and their 
organ L’Association, is with Lefort.) What else happens—which will 
only be concluded this evening, as far as our intervention is 
concerned—in the next letter.* 

3. The things from Siebel returned. It strikes me as most 
unfortunate that he gives London as the origin of the notice put in 
the Düsseldorfer Zeitung” thus exposing me as the presumed 
author. 

4. Letter from Liebknecht enclosed. 

5. One copy of the circular from the Geneva Brancu-Association © 
enclosed. 

6. The letter from Meissner enclosed. 

7. Lange: not to be directly rebuffed.“ Write and tell him that he 
would do best to post the thing to you, 2 copies, and you would 
send one to me each time. As he rightly realises himself, after our 
recent experience we would have to hold back for the present from 
making contributions to any German paper. He would, of course, 
have the same right as any other editor of a journal to reprint 
whatever extracts he liked from your pamphlet.‘ 

Salut. 

Your 
K. M. 

The first numbers (2 sheets) of Blind’s Eidgenosse have come, 
with the only contributions by Blind, Struve and Rasch.'” Trivia. 
Emblem consisting of hand with dagger, to kill the ‘tyrants’.