Hanover, 7 May 1867 

Dear Frep, 

D’abord,' best thanks for your intervention in the most pressing 
casus delicti, as well as for your very detailed letter. 

4 Otto Meissner - > Ernestine Liebknecht - © Laura’s jocular nickname - ¢ a charac- 
ter from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women - © Eleanor Marx (these lines have not been 
found) - £ First of all - & difficult case 

First, susiness. That damned Wigand did not start printing? until 
29 April, so that I received the first sheet for correction the day 
before yesterday, on my birthday. Post tot pericula!” The misprints 
were relatively insignificant. It’s impossible to wait here until the 
printing is completed. In the first instance, I fear that the book 
will prove much fatter than I had originally calculated. Second, I 
am not getting the manuscript back, so that for many quotations, 
especially those involving figures or Greek, I need to have my 
home manuscript to hand, nor can I impose on Dr Kugelmann’s 
hospitality for too long. Finally, Meissner is demanding the 2nd 
volume by the end of the autumn at the latest. I shall therefore 
have to get my nose to the grindstone as soon as possible, as a lot 
of new material relating especially to the chapters on credit and 
landed property has become available since the manuscript was 
composed. The third volume must be completed during the 
winter, so that I shall have shaken off the whole opus by next 
spring.*'* The business of writing, of course, is quite different 
once the proofs for what has already been done start coming in a 
fur et mesure,” and under pressure from the publisher. 

Meanwhile, my time here has not been wasted. Letters have 
been written to all and sundry, and preliminary notices have 
appeared in most German papers. 

I hope and confidently believe that in the space of a year I shall 
be made, in the sense that I shall be able to fundamentally rectify 
my financial affairs and at last stand on my own feet again. 
Without you, I would never have been able to bring the work to a 
conclusion, and I can assure you it always weighed like a 
nightmare on my conscience that you were allowing your fine 
energies to be squandered and to rust in commerce, chiefly for my 
sake, and, into THE Bargain, that you had to share all my _ petites 
miséres* as well. On the other hand, I cannot conceal from myself 
that I still have a year or Tria. ahead of me. I have taken a step on 
which a great deal depends, viz., on which it depends whether 
several £100 will be made available to me from the only quarter 
where that is possible. There is a tolerable prospect of a positive 
outcome, but I shall remain uncertain for asout 6 weeks. I shall 
not have definite confirmation until then. What I am most afraid 
of—apart from the uncertainty—is my return to London, which 
will be necessary in 6-8 days. My debts there are considerable, and 

4 the first volume of Capital - > After so many perils! (Paraphrase of an expression 
from Virgil’s Aeneid, I, 204: post tot discrimina rerum—after so many setbacks.) - 
© gradually - 4 little miseries 

the Manichaeans**! are ‘urgently’ awaiting my return. And then 

the torments of family life, the domestic conflicts, the constant 
harassment, instead of settling down to work refreshed and free of 
care. 

Dr Kugelmann and his wife* are being exceptionally kind to me 
and anticipate my every need. They are splendid people. They 
really leave me no time to explore ‘the gloomy paths of my inner 
self’. Apropos, the Bismarck affair must be kept absolutely secret.” 
I promised to tell no one, not even Kugelmann, about it. Nor have 
I done so. I did, however, of course make the reservatio mentalis to 
except yourself. 

You express surprise that the National-Liberals (or, as 
Kugelmann calls them, the Europeans) did so well in the elections,‘ 
when the Prussians are so hated here. The matter is very simple. 
They did badly in all the larger towns, in smaller places they owed 
their victories to their organisation, which has existed ever since 
Gotha.*” These fellows do, on the whole, show how important 
party organisation is. That is the position in Hanover. In Electoral 
Hesse, there is no limit to the influence of Prussian intimidation, 
backed up by the shouting of the members of the National 
Association.” The Prussians meanwhile are operating quite in the 
Persian manner here. It is true that they cannot transplant the 
population to their Eastern provinces, but they are doing so with 
their officials, right down to the ramway conductors, and for the 
officers. Even those poor devils of postmen are having to move to 
Pomerania. In the meantime, trains full of Hessians, Hanoverians, 
etc., are to be seen on the railway every day en route to Bremen, 
emigrating to the United States. Not since dear old Germany came 
into existence has it sent such a motley crowd of people from all 
parts across the Atlantic. One is trying to avoid his taxes, another, 
his military service, a third the political situation, and all of them 
the hegemony of the sword and the gathering storm of war. 

I am greatly diverted by the (pro-Prussian) bourgeoisie here. 
They want war, but immédiatement‘ Business, they say, can stand 
the uncertainty no longer, and where the devil are the taxes to 
come from if business stagnates for much longer? Incidentally, 
you would scarcely conceive the burden that. the last war and 
taxation have imposed upon the rural populace in Prussia. Here in 
the vicinity of Prussian Westphalia, e.g., truly Irish conditions 
prevail. 

By tue sy a few days ago the director of the joint-stock foundry 

432 

 Gertruda Kugelmann - > See this volume, p. 361. -¢ to the North German 
Parliament (see this volume, p. 365) - ¢ immediately 

here (manufacturing chiefly water and gas pipes) conducted me 
round the works. On the whole, it is very well organised and 
utilises much quite modern equipment. But, on the other hand, 
there is still a good deal of turning by hand (detail work), where 
the English and Scots are using automatic machinery. The same 
director took me into the Hermann’s-column workshop. The thing 
is as long in the making as Germany itself. Hermann’s head is so 
colossal that you’d seem like a child beside it, and it has a fine look 
of honest stupidity, and Mr Arminius was above all a diplomat. 
His air of worthy Westphalian simplicity served but as a mask for 
a most subtle mind. As chance would have it, I had renewed my 
acquaintance with Mr Arminius, shortly before my departure from 
London, tn the Grimm edition of historical sources* with which 
you are familiar. 

I am sure you will recall J. Meyer (at Bielefeld), who refused to 
print our manuscript on Stirner, etc.,” and sent the youth Kriege 
to annoy us?*** A few months ago he threw himself out of the 
window in Warsaw, whither his business affairs had taken him, 
and broke his neck, if you please. 

Our friend Miquel, who declared himself prepared to sacrifice 
freedom so readily for the sake of unity, is believed to be 
job-hunting. In my view, le brave homme’ has miscalculated. Had 
he not hurled himself so fanatically and unconditionally at 
Bismarck’s feet, he would have been able to pick up a generous 
gratuity. But now! What need is there for that? He has made 
himself so hated by his performance in the North German 
Parliament *” that he is chained to the Prussians like one convict to 
the next. And the Prussians, as you know, do not like to make 
‘useless’ and superfluous dépenses.1 Recently, the Bismarckite 
newspaper, the Norddeutsche Allgemeine, produced by that scoun- 
dre] Brass published a very witty article’ about the National- 
Associationites, pleading inability to emulate even the de mortuis nil 
nisi bene! It sent Bismarck’s North-German-Confederationite, 
National-Associationite minions packing with some artistic kicks 
delivered con amore? 

As far as the war is concerned, I am entirely of your opinion. At 
the present moment, it can only do harm. If it could be delayed, even 

a Die geschichtsschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit, Vol. 1, Die Urzeit (Jacob Grimm took 
part in publishing this series of historical documents). - > K. Marx and F. Engels, 
The German Ideology. - © the good man - 4 expenditure - € ‘Politischer Tagesbericht. 
25. April 1867’, Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 97, 26 April 1867. - £ motto, 
{speak] only good of the dead (Diogenes Laertius, De vitis philosophorum, 1, 3, 
70) - 8 with love 

just for a year, that would be worth its weight in gold to us. In the 
first place, Bonaparte and William the Conqueror* would neces- 
sarily be made to look foolish. The opposition is reviving in 
Prussia (its only press organ just now is Die Zukunft in Berlin, 
founded by Jacobi”), and events may occur in France. Business is 
becoming more and more stagnant, and it will then be impossible 
to cover up the suffering there on the Continent with empty 
phrases, whether they be of teutonic or gallic provenance. 

In my view, we owe the postponement of war exclusively to the 
Derby ministry. It is anti-Russian, and Russia dares not give the 
signal until she is sure of Britain. Gladstone, THe pHRASEMONGER 
(entirely under the influence of Lavy Palmerston, Shaftesbury, 
and Lorn Cowper), and Bright, not forgetting Russell, would 
gladly provide her with the guarantees that Britain was disposed 
as required. Derby had to be removed in 1859, too, in order to 
stage the Great Drama in Italy.‘ In the North German Parliament 
Bismarck was obliged to throw down the gauntlet to the Poles in 
the most brutal manner*! and thus declare his total subservience 
to the Tsar‘. 

In the Prussian army there prevails deep distrust of the Russians 
amongst the better officers, as I learnt personally from Captain 
von Bélzig here (Guards Regiment, raised in the Cadet Corps, 
loyal to the Prussian monarchy, but a nice fellow). ‘Bismarck’s 
conduct in North Schleswig is incomprehensible to me. Only the 
Russians,’ this he said quite unprompted, ‘have any interest in 
maintaining tension between ourselves and Denmark.’ He went on 
to call Frederick William IV a ‘shady cavalier’, who had turned 
Germany into Russia’s lackey for '/, century. The Russian officers 
were ‘shitty fellows’, the army good for nothing, except for the 
Guards Regiments, pas alone was capable of matching the 
Russian army, etc. I also put a good many more ideas into his 
head about the Muscovites. 

And now adio. Kindest regards to Mrs Lizzy.‘ 

Tout a vous: 

Your 
Moor