Dear Mohr,

Of course correspondence with Wilhelmchen requires caution. As I already told you earlier, his narrow-minded, one-sided singleness of purpose was his good fortune and the secret of his effect in the Reichstag. Unfortunately, however, that only works once, and the publication of the speeches – apart from Kugelmann’s letters – proved that things had already gone too far. Now on top of that comes the little paper, where the winged words are set down in black and white and foisted upon us – then the Customs Parliament, and with it certain embarrassment for us if Wilhelmchen is not instructed to some extent. Given his eminent talent for putting his foot in it, great things were to be expected there, and still are. We can certainly only protect him from the very worst blunders, but his Vienna address and his friendship with the federalists, i.e. Grün!!, is surely gross enough already. I can therefore give him only 2 main points of view: 1) not to adopt a simply negative, i.e. reactionary, attitude to the events and results of 1866, but a critical one (which will of course be difficult for him), and 2) to attack Bismarck’s enemies just as much as Bismarck himself, since they are likewise worthless. You see how nicely he has already ridden himself into a mess with Grün & Co.; it would be a fine triumph for Bismarck if we or our people were to form an alliance with that pack! Well, we must wait and see what comes of it. The Clerkenwell stupidity was obviously the work of a few special fanatics; it is the bane of all conspiracies to lead to such stupidities, because “something must be done, something must be undertaken”. In this line of bombing and arson, too, there has been a lot of bluster in America, and then a few asses come along and instigate such idiocy. These man-eaters are usually the greatest cowards, as indeed the aforesaid Allen already seems to have turned queen’s evidence. All this with the idea of liberating Ireland by setting fire to a London tailor’s shop! Have you read the Russians’ threat (in the Russischer Invalid) that the alliance between France and Austria makes European peace impossible, because it prevents the German, Italian, and Eastern questions from being resolved? Quite neat. Bismarck and Gorchakov appear now to want to take the offensive. Your friend Lippe has been sacrificed to the manes of the dispossessed – his dismissal was the price for which the National Liberals dropped their opposition to the 25 million to the Guelphs and Nassauers.

Many greetings to the ladies.
Yours,
F. E.