4 October. 1859. Dear Fred,

After my return from Manchester I have been ill almost up to now, with a feverish cold. I caught the cold at the railway mishap. As I have all sorts of things, on public & private affairs, to write to you in this letter, so as not to forget, I begin with the book. You would certainly have had to hunt about a long time in Table C to find the decrease in the cultivation of green crops (p. 695). Herr Wigand has printed C instead of B (p. 690), where under the heading “Green crops” it says that from 1861–65: 107,984 acres, lying waste(?), were thrown out of cultivation. Incidentally, you will see from the list of errata, p. 784, that Herr Wigand, in order to tack it on to the last page, has arbitrarily abridged it from p. 292 onwards. The section on Ireland is admittedly written in a very sketchy way, but could be put in order in a second edition with a few formal alterations. The main thing is the facts, which are not known even in England.

I have heard nothing from Meissner. Borkheim told Schabelitz (Basel) that he had ordered 5 copies for cash, and demanded 5 commission copies, but M. replied that he didn’t have enough to send him that many on commission. But this may also be just a diplomatic manoeuvre on Meissner’s part.

From the enclosed lines from Liebknecht (who, by the by, has done us credit by his first appearance in the Reichstag, see *Zukunft*, No. 229 of 1 October), I see that M. does not carry everything out exactly. It was agreed that he should send 1 copy to Liebknecht, and 1 editorial copy to Dr. Weiss (*Zukunft*).

Prof. Beesley has now returned home and I shall hear from him in the next few days.

Quant à Siebel, I should also like to know whether he received the copies, 1 for himself, 1 for Rittershaus? and what the latter has done for it?

Ad vocem Vogt: In the enclosed letter from Kugelmann you will find something about V. After Kugelmann had departed and the crowd likewise believed Borkheim to have gone, a final meeting of the Germans took place, at which Borkheim suddenly appeared and witnessed the following scene. Herr Gögg handed Vice-President Büchner a scrap of paper in which he declares the Bonapartist rumours, etc., about Vogt to be false and issues a testimonium virtutis to the man he has known for 20 years. He demands that Büchner sign this slip, i.e., certify it as communicated to him. B. naturally did so. Thereupon little Beust jumps up, and commits himself to paper, declaring that Gögg is merely expressing a private view by no means shared in Switzerland, etc., etc. He likewise demands certification of his protest from Büchner, which the latter gives. Thus Vogt’s manoeuvre was thwarted. How low the fellow has sunk!

Another incident from the Peace Congress! Ludwig Simon comes to Gögg: “Why have you no longer placed my name at the head of the list of speakers? Why gave you the floor to Borkheim before me?” Gögg: “The fellows – the proletarians – had 4 among the German vice-presidents. To get our Grün in and to make Borkheim renounce his place, we had to make him the concession, etc.!” Hardly had the words escaped the popinjay, when he looks round and, to his horror, sees Eccarius grinning behind him.

Ad vocem Stumpf: It is possible that Stumpf understands me, but I do not understand Stumpf. Perhaps you are luckier and can “mark out the scientific series of immiseration” for him and ditto “the correct conclusion” to “proofs” which he keeps in his pocket and does not share. His letter enclosed.

Ad vocem Dronke: Borkheim spoke to a man in Paris who is thoroughly acquainted with D.’s circumstances and who described him as a “voleur”. The copper company had given D. notice of dismissal a year ago. They ha//ve associated themselves with a firm in Glasgow and therefore no longer require an English agency. D., dicitur, has committed large “embezzlements” in the last year and exposed himself to a “painful” process. I hope the matter will be hushed up.

Ad vocem Collet: To explain the enclosed curiosities, the following: C.’s little girl (you know her) and her still younger brother were with us a few days ago. The boy boxed with Lafargue, who finally held him down on the ground in a humiliating position. Thereupon the boy: “Remember how you got on at Waterloo!” Hence this comical correspondence, the girl having denounced the lad to the old man. Collet has withdrawn from the *Dipl. Review*, although his name still figures this time as // on the paper. I noticed the change in the editorial office right away, because they sent me only 1 copy. You’ll get it as soon as I’ve finished with it. It’s a perfectly silly number. Garibaldi is characterised as a “common bandit, atheist, fool, etc.”, whereas M. Dupanloup, the évêque of Orleans, as the great man of the age. Will David not turn Catholic after all? The Russians, of course, fabricated the Peace Congress at Geneva, and hence also sent their “well worn out agent Bakounine”. It seems to me that the *Dipl. Rev.* is on its last legs.

Ad vocem: International Assoc. The office of President was abolished on my motion after Odger had already been proposed for re-election. – Fox, who has displayed great hatred towards Eccarius on every occasion since his return, gave notice for the next meeting (Tuesday) that he would bring up for discussion, for the censure of the Council, E.’s *Times* articles. I, to Fox’s great astonishment, then gave ditto notice that I would next Tuesday interpellate F. concerning a “secret letter” he had written to Becker with the appeal “to do all in his power to remove the seat of the Central Council from London”. Fox, who is composed of caprices and crotchets, imagines he must found an “opposition party” in the Council against, as he says, the “German dictatorship”. He will be surprised at his successes in this line!

Ad vocem Borkheim: D’abord these facts. B. spoke (or rather read from his MS) for over 20 minutes, whereas only 10 were permitted by the rules. Naturally, what Garibaldi and Edgar Quinet did, he also thought he could allow himself. Second: He mounted the speaker’s tribune in the greatest excitement and, as Eccarius says, “would not even let himself get a word in”. No one understood him. One only heard the few catchwords about Schulze-Delitzsch, where Vogt jumped up and clenched both fists, and about the Cossacks. That was a real stroke of luck. People considered his speech important because they did not understand it. Hence he plays a sort of role, both in *The Times* and the French press. But now comes the drawback. This fool wants his speech printed in German, English, Russian, and in the French original. The latter now lies before me. He sent it to me so that Lafargue could look through it. Apart from the few catchwords I prompted him with, it is not only tasteless claptrap, but often sheer drivel. And then the French! For example: “Sans stultification il serait impossible de discuter, s’il faudrait d’abord faire enlever la femelle Isabelle, faire sauter le mâle Bismark ou faire s’évanouir l’agile hermaphrodite Beust. Il y a de grands orateurs, de profonds penseurs français, membres de cette union, mais fûssent-ils tous des Mirabeaux achevés et des Descartes consommés, les têtes Allemandes seraient trop carrées pour le trouver rond, qu’il fût d’abord et avant tout le gouvernement français, l’abolition duquel introniserait l’ère de la paix internationale.” Assez! How little he suspected what kind of “his French” was, is shown by the following marginal gloss he wrote on the MS sent to me: “Please have Herr Lafargue quickly look through it, and correct any (!) bad French in the margin!” I was, of course, obliged to inform him that Lafargue would have to see him, since he could not undertake the “deletions” (L. wants to delete the whole of the first half from the outset) and “alterations” without him. He is coming to my place this evening for that reason. Lafargue, moreover, pointed out to me in almost every sentence the slang of a French commercial traveller. For example, “Parlons rondement!”

Private Affairs: I have spoken with Borkheim as to whether it might not be possible to raise a loan in London of at least £100. He says yes, he will be one guarantor, if you are the other. However, he must hear about the matter from you yourself first. The status is simply this: I can neither finish Vol. II, nor find the time to intrigue for the English edition, nor even remain in England, unless I can secure peace for some weeks at least among the Manichaeans. If the English transaction succeeds and in Germany things are so worked—which seems easy to me—that a 2nd edition is soon needed, then the crisis will be overcome. This damned year all the worse because Lafargue is staying with me until now, Laura is to marry in the spring, etc.

Salut D KM