Manchester, 6 April 1866 
Dear Hermann, 

Best thanks for your statement of account for 27 March, which 
appears to be in order by and large. The only thing is, it is hard to 

a What is to be done? - » See this volume, p, 255. 

check the interest if it is not given in detail as in other statements, 
and one just has to take the ‘interest-account’ at its word. But 
then, on 31 December 1865, you credit me with the transfer of 
2,112,21.8 talers from Ermen & Engels, Barmen, whilst according 
to E. & E., Barmen’s statement, the same transfer amounts to 
£316.18.2 and a /o makes 2,169.1.8 talers. I can make no sense 
of that. 

It is rather awkward that you make up your accounts on 31 
December, whereas we do so on 30 June. I shall therefore only 
send you a statement once, on 31 December, which will thus never 
coincide with yours, but in the end it will make no odds. 

To keep our entries clear, I would be glad if you would enter all 
business items from E. & E. under E. & E., Barmen, and all private 
items under F. Engels & Co. 

I passed the information on the agent Brown straight on to 
Fr. Boelling; Karth wrote to us about a different matter. 

I do not advise you to obtain your sewincs through us as a rule, 
G. Ermen will always try to palm off his yarn from Pendlebury on 
you, and that would surely not always be in your interest. Besides, 
he would at once claim payment of 2% commission from you as 
the business expands. But if you can make use of his yarn (and 
why not, since we can use it?), you had best apply to us. I am 
today posting you a sample of No. 16, of which he has 120 sates 
[at] 10 pounds, 7 teas in stock, and would take 2[s.]'/) d. per 
No. 16, perhaps even less. You can also obtain the same yarn 
from the broker F. A. Schmits. Fine Nos. and cors, on the other 
hand, in which G. Ermen has no interest we can always supply 
you with. 

How much does the hock cost? That is what really matters. And 
how much of it is there? You should have sent 3 dozen bottles 
straightaway, instead of 3. 

I shall ask around about the ponies. Good, strong coss, however, 
are at the moment much sought after here, and expensive, and 
bargains—a good pair in one lot—not easily come by. 

You don’t think there’ll be war either? It would be a terrible 
business if it came to that, and there is no telling where it would 
end. Recently, when the affair first started, I dreamed that I had 
got mixed up with an enormously large army somewhere on the 
Mosel. They were volunteers of some description, all manner of 
fellows dashing about full of self-importance, and now and again 
someone would shout, ‘We’re surrounded!’—at which they all took 
to their heels. At length, I found my way into the headquarters 
and encountered Peter and Gottfried Ermen there as cenrrats en 

chef, and Anton’ as chief-of-staff. Now I asked him a few 
questions, but received such bizarre replies that I finally asked him 
whether he did actually have maps of the area where he was? At 
which he looked down at me from a great height and said, ‘Maps? 
We do everything here much better without maps.’ When I tried 
to explain to him that he really could not manage without maps, 
nor even find quarters for his men, etc., he answered, ‘If 
absolutely necessary, we do have some maps’, and, with a look of 
triumph, he pulled a map of a quite different area, the other side 
of Aachen and Maastricht, out of his pocket. Don’t imagine I have 
just made this up as a bad joke, that is literally how it happened. 

Kindest regards to Mother—TI’ll write to her one of these 
days—and to all our brothers and sisters. 

Your 
Friedrich