Holland would also be near enough for the purpose. I do not 
believe the Leipzig proof-readers will have enough learning for 
your approach. Meissner also got Wigand to print my pamphlet," 
and the things those wretches corrected into it! I am convinced 
that the book will create a real stir from the moment it appears, 
but it will be very necessary to help the enthusiasm of the 
scientifically-inclined burghers and officials on to its feet and 
not to despise petty stratagems. There is much that can be done to 
that end from Hanover after publication, and you could also enlist 
to advantage the support of amicus” Siebel, who is at the moment 
en route back from Madeira via England, in the best of spirits, as 
he says. This will be necessary vis-a-vis the vulgar scribbling 
fraternity, of whose deep-seated hatred for us we have proof 
enough. Furthermore, thick, scholarly works are always slow to 
make their mark without such assistance, but with it they act like 
‘wildfire’— confer* Heraclitus the Dark,’ etc.’ On this occasion, 
however, we must be all the more assiduous in ensuring this is 
done, as money is also at stake. Meissner will then be happy to take 
the collected essays, which would mean more money and further 
literary success. The pieces from the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, the 
‘18th Brumaire’,© etc., will make an enormous impression on the 
philistines just now, and once we have gained a little more ground 
on that basis, all manner of other lucrative possibilities will soon 
present themselves, too. I am exceedingly gratified by this whole 
turn of events, firstly, for its own sake, secondly, for your sake in 
particular and your wife’s, and, thirdly, because it really is time 
things looked up. In 2 years my conrracr with that swine 
Gottfried‘ expires, and the way things are going here, neither of 
us will really be wishing to extend it; it is even not impossible that 
our ways may part even earlier. If that should be so, I shall have 
to leave commerce entirely, for to start up a business of my own at 
this late stage would mean 5-6 years of the most fearful drudgery 
with nothing worth speaking of to show for it, and then another 
5-6 years of drudgery to reap the benefits of the first 5 years. But 
that would be the end of me. There is nothing I long for so much 
as for release from this vile commercr, which is completely 
demoralising me with all the time it is wasting. For as long as I am 
in it, I am good for nothing else, especially since I have become 
principal it has been much aggravated on account of the greater 

4 F. Engels, The Prussian Military Question and the German Workers’ Party. - 
b friend - © compare - 4 F. Lassalle, Die Philosophie Herakleitos des Dunklen von 
Ephesos. - © K. Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. - £ Gottfried Ermen 

14* 

responsibility. If it were not for the increased remuneration, I 
really would rather be a clerk again. At all events, in a few years 
my life as a businessman will come to an end, and then my income 
will be very, very much reduced, and the question of what we can 
do then has always been in my mind. However, if things go as 
they are now beginning to, we shall be able to make provision for 
that all right, too, even if no revolution intervenes and puts an 
end to all financial schemes. If that does not happen, I have a 
plan up my sleeve to have a fling for my deliverance and write a 
light-hearted book entitled: Woes and Joys of the English Bourgeoisie. 

I cannot go along with Meissner’s suggestion.’ A few sheets could 
be quickly knocked together, but something longer, 6 a 10 sheets, 
would require more work and be too late for the war now 
brewing.*”? One really cannot just knock together rubbish in the 
manner of Vogt’s Studien.” Furthermore, the stuff would be looked 
upon more or less as a party manifesto, and for that we would 
have to discuss the matter first. However, I have had an 
anu-Russian piece in mind for some time, and, if events provide 
me with an excuse, I shall start on it without more ado and write 
to Meissner. The only thing I am still in two minds about is 
whether I should make the ‘nationality principle’ ** or the ‘Eastern 
Question’ the chief theme. 

I had expected that Bismarck would come knocking at your 
door, although not his haste.‘ It is characteristic of the fellow’s 
mentality and outlook that he judges everybody by his own 
standards. The bourgeoisie may well admire the great men of 
today, it sees itself reflected in them. All the qualities to which 
Bonaparte and Bismarck owe their successes are the qualities of 
businessman: the pursuit of a specific purpose by a policy of 
wait-and-see and experimentation, until they hit the right moment, 
the diplomacy of always leaving the back door open, negotiating 
and haggling, swallowing insults if it is in one’s interest, the 
attitude of ‘ne soyons pas larrons’’ in short, the businessman in all 
things. In his own way, Gottfried Ermen is as great a statesman as 
Bismarck, and, if one follows the tricks of these great men, one is 
constantly reminded of the Manchester Exchange. Bismarck 
thinks, if I only continue knocking at Marx’s door, I am bound to 
hit upon the right moment eventually, and then we shall do a deal 
together after all. Gottfried Ermen to a tee. 

* See this volume, pp. 359-60. - > C. Vogt, Studien zur gegenwartigen Lage Europas (for 
Marx’s criticism of this work see present edition, Vol. 17). - © See this volume, 
p- 361. - 4 let us not be robbers 

I would not have expected the Prussians to be so hated there. 
But how do you reconcile that with the election results? Those 
jackasses from the National Association’ did get half their men 
through, and in Electoral Hesse all but one. 

Vogt has got a life-size portrait of himself in the Gartenlaube. 
He has become a proper porker in the last few years, and looks 
fine. 

In the Demokratische Studien, which recently came my way, Simon 
of Trier has quite naively copied out whole pages from Po and 
Rhine,” without suspecting from what poisoned source he was 
drawing!‘ Similarly, in ‘Preussen in Waffen’, the lieutenant who 
writes the military articles in Unsere Zeit has borrowed at length 
from my pamphlet,* likewise without giving his sources, of course. 

Rustow will stop at nothing to become a Prussian general, as 
though that could be as easily done as with Garibaldi. In his 
abysmal and slipshod book on the war,* he grovels in optima forma‘ 
before William the Conqueror and the Prince. That’s why he is 
moving to Berlin. 

I saw Ernest Jones the other day, he has had enquiries from 4 
places about standing for election under the new Bui*”’—from 
Manchester as well. Has not a good word to say for the workers 
here AND BACKS ‘THE PRUSSIANS AT ANY ODDS AGAINST THE Frencu. I hope this 
wretched war passes over, I cannot see that any good can come of 
it. A French revolution saddled in advance with the obligation to 
go a-conquering would be very nasty; it almost seems as though 
Bonaparte would be satisfied with the tiniest tit-bit, but whether 
the Lord of Hosts will permit handsome William to grant him 
even that tit-bit, time alone will show. 

My kindest regards to Dr Kugelmann, although we are not 
acquainted, and my thanks to him for The Holy Family.* 

Your 
F. E.