Manchester, 18 September 1868 

Dear Moor, 

I think you will not be able to enforce the intended exclusion of 
Eccarius from the congress; he will be indispensable, as a delegate 
too. Apart from this, it is very good, however, that he does not get 
away with this, and that there are various people wHo WILL wash HIS 
HEAD, as Lafargue says. 

As regards the advertisement (annonce) about your book,” it is 
absurd to claim that you could not write it yourself. You even 
wanted to write it yourself when I sent you one that you did not 
like.“ Be so kind as to return to this matter, and send me the 
advertisement you promised me then. I shall then pass it on to 

4 See this volume, p. 100. - > the first volume of Capital - ¢ See this volume, p. 8. 

Meissner. But we shall have to support him somewhat so that his 
good will does not weaken. 

In puncto* money I shall write to Borkheim willingly as soon as 
you inform me that he is back. Apropos this matter, you must, 
however, let me know what happened when you drew the loan. 
For how much did you insure your life, at what premium, and is 
the policy still valid? Because it might still be possible to get a new 
loan or an advance on the policy itself from the same society. But 
how am I to raise money for you if you leave me quite in the dark 
about all these matters? If I can reach agreement with Gottfried 
Ermen, who will scarcely return before the end of October, I shall 
immediately be able to raise some funds once again, but everything 
depends on this. If I can not reach agreement with him, my own 
position will become very uncertain. It can, however, take until the 
end of this year before the matter is settled, and this means 
another 31/. months. 

William the Handsome” is getting exuberant now that his 
Bismarck has left him.’? The drive towards war is becoming ever 
clearer. For all that, I believe it is now too late for this year. 
Purchasing horses and the actual mobilisation still require more 
time in France than in Prussia, and despite all the preparations 
and bragging I do not believe that the French need less than 6 
weeks for this. As the domestic supply of horses is insufficient, the 
beginning of the actual mobilisation, that is to say, now, the firm 
decision to strike, will inevitably be marked by large purchases of 
horses abroad, which immediately becomes public knowledge. 
Even now it will be a long time before they can have the entire 
number of horses necessary for war. Little Louis‘ will have to give 
5-6 weeks norice, and this brings us to the end of October; and 
especially with the enormous masses now involved, a winter 
campaign would certainly only be waged in an extreme emergen- 
cy. If there are not quite special reasons, we are pretty safe until 
March-April, and all sorts of things can happen before then. 

In addition, Louis still does not have anything like the number 
of men he needs. He will hardly be able to raise more than 
650,000 troops of the line (gendarmerie, garde municipale and all 
sorts of other police troops figure in the army budget), and much 
of the garde mobile does not even exist on paper. It takes at least 
6/7 years to fully implement a changed military system, and his is 

‘only one year old. I do not believe that Louis wants a war precisely 
at this moment, if he can avoid it, since every month of delay 

a As regards - > William I - ¢ Napoleon III 

brings stronger reinforcement to his forces than to those of 
Prussia. 
I hope Laura is well again? Best greetings. 

Your 
F. E.