[Manchester,] 13 April 1866 
Dear Moor, 

As I do not exactly know whether you are in Margate at the 
moment, I am today sending your wife 

E/R 13430, Manchester, 21 January 1865 £10 

E/P 43331, Manchester, 20 January 1865 £10-£20 
and am telling her that I have informed you of it. 

So, Bismarck has executed his suffrage universel coup,*! even 
though without his Lassalle. It would appear that, after some show 
of reluctance, the German bourgeois will go along with it, for 
Bonapartism really is the true religion of the modern bourgeoisie. 
It is becoming increasingly clear to me that the bourgeoisie does 
not possess the qualities required to rule directly itself, and that 
therefore, unless there is an oligarchy as here in England capable 
of taking over, for good pay, the management of state and society 
in the interest of the bourgeoisie, a Bonapartist semi-dictatorship 
is the normal form; it promotes the great material interests of the 
bourgeoisie even against the bourgeoisie, but allows it no share in 
the government itself. Conversely, this dictatorship itself is in turn 
compelled unwillingly to adopt these material interests of the 
bourgeoisie. So, now we have Monsieur Bismarck adopting the 
programme of the National Association.’ Its execution is 
admittedly quite another matter, but Bismarck will scarcely be 

321 

baulked by the German bourgeois. A German, who has just 
returned from there, reports that he has already encountered 
many who have nibbled at this bait; according to Reuter (vide* 
below), the people in Karlsruhe have approved of the matter, and 
the K6lnische Zeittung’s unbounded embarrassment over the affair is 
a clear indication of a forthcoming change of course. 

That Bismarck has direct agreements with the Russians, 
however, is once more proved firstly by the fact that not only The 
Times but Reuter, too, is beginning to lie on Prussia’s behalf, in 
complete contrast to their usual custom. There is a method in the 
mistranslations with which the telegrams are now infested more 
than ever. Until a short while ago, against Prussia. Now against 
Austria. Reuter telegraphs: Austria would only go along with the 
plan if all the Austrian provinces (that is, including the 
non-German ones) were represented.’ In the German original it 
merely says: conditional upon the regions of Austria being 
represented, too.—Further: according to the Bromberger Zeitung 
and the Ostsee-Zeitung (the latter is a Russian organ), the Russians 
are continuing to gather more troops in the south-western 
provinces, from the Kingdom of Poland*” to the Prut, doing so 
very slowly and unobtrusively; the soldiers are all expecting to 
move with Prussia against Austria, and those on the Warta repeat 
that their role is to occupy Posen so that the Prussians there can 
march away. 

The Russians can, incidentally, leave Schleswig-Holstein to the 
Prussians for the time being, as the Peace of Vienna and the 
annexation have, after all, saved the main issue for them: the 
Treaty of London and thereby the succession in Denmark” If 
they have the Sound,‘ what does Kiel signify to them? 

At all events, your best course is to stay in Margate until you no 
longer feel anything at all in the affected part, and you are in 
general convinced of a marked turn for the better. 

Write soon. 

Your 
F. E.