Manchester, 11 June 1866 

Dear Moor, 

The crate of Bordeaux will be sent off to you this evening. It is 
very good wine from Borkheim. I should have sent it to you 
before, but the lads here have dilly-dallied over it, partly from 
overwork. I had written out the address for them long since. I 
hope that it and regular exercise will do you good. What do you 
say to coming up here for a week, say, end of this inst. would suit 
me, and then you could take the money straight back with you 
early in July? At the same time, you could for once have a 
thorough consultation with Gumpert. 

We have so far just escaped the spate of bank-failures 
unscathed. Dronke told me himself that he was in for a bit with 
Barnett, but more because he had had to change his banker; he 
had £3,000 credit there—however, he was also a shareholder, and 
that’s where he will lose. Eichhoff also has had the honour of 
seeing his banker fail, and has come a cropper to the tune of £16. 
He is not losing any sleep over it; if he cannot pay a bill that’s due, 
he just lets it be. 

Mr G. Kinkel has been putting it around every year that he has 
been offered the chair in Zurich—so, does that mean the people 
of Zurich are in fact really going to have to believe it at last? 

In Germany it looks more like revolution every day. In Berlin 
and Barmen menacing crowds of laid-off workers are roaming the 

4 spontaneous generation 

streets. G. Ermen, who came back on Friday, told me that he 
happened to engage in discussion about the war with some 
Prussian lieutenant on the Rhine Bridge at Coblenz, and the man 
had been very doubtful about the issue of the affair, admitted that 
both the men and the leadership of the Austrians were better than 
the Prussians’, and when G. Ermen asked, ‘What would happen if 
the Prussians were whacked?’ he answered, ‘Then we'll have a 
revolution.’ Another philistine told me that he had heard from a 
reliable source in Cologne that the militia companies are being 
dispersed among the line, and that the militia regiments are being 
topped up with line; the order has apparently been given out. In 
any case, the army must be in such a state that a victory can only 
be expected if the Austrians move across the frontier first, and this 
time they seem to be flatly refusing to do so. But, for that same 
reason, the Prussians don’t want to move either. This state of 
affairs may drag on for another week, until the situation is so 
tense that it breaks. 

There is a delightful historical irony being enacted through 
Bismarck’s person. At the same moment that he utters liberal 
phrases he is forced to perform absolutist actions. In one and the 
same breath he will proclaim the German imperial constitution 
and suspend the Prussian constitution (the ordinances are already 
prepared).*?! Good idea to try and play the Bonaparte against 
the bourgeoisie with the Junkers behind one instead of the peas- 
ants! 

The militia will be just as much of a danger to the Prussians in 
this war as the Poles were in 1806,°* who also comprised over ‘/s 
of the army and threw the whole show into disorder before the 
battle. Only instead of disbanding, the militia will rebel after the 
defeat. 

The whole left bank of the Rhine has been denuded of troops, 
there are only 2 militia regiments stationed in Luxemburg, and 
they say the fortress is already being secretly evacuated; in 
Saarlouis there is merely a militia battalion that is not yet up to 
strength. Von der Heydt is to arrange the Saarbrücken coal-mine 
and State Railway deal via Oppenheim to raise money, and the 
Westphalian State Railway is to be sold to the Bergisch-Markische 
Railway. The bonds for its Cologne-Minden shares” have been 
advanced to the state by the Bank of Prussia, which was the sole 
purpose of the affair. In all this the Berlin bankers are all working 
hand in glove with the government. 

I think that in a fortnight the storm will break in Prussia. If this 
opportunity passes without being used, and if the people allow 

that to happen, we can then calmly pack up our revolutionary 
paraphernalia and devote ourselves to pure theory. 

Stieber is chief of police in the field, is organising the ‘Blind 
conspiracy’ and has, to this end, sent our friend Greif to London 
again. Can we not arrange for him to be given a good hiding? 

Kindest regards. 

Your 
F. E.