MARX TO ENGELS” 

{London,j 3 July 1869 

Dear Frep, 

Best congratulations upon your escape from Egyptian bondage’! 

In honour of this event, I drank ‘one glass too many’, but late 
in the evening, not before sunrise like the Prussian gendarmes. 

Enclosed a momentous letter from Wilhelm,*” from which you 
will see that he has suddenly appointed himself my curator, and lays 
down this and that which I ‘must’ do. 

I must come to their August congress,” must show myself to the 
German workers; must send the International cards immediately 
(after they had not replied to two queries on the subject in 3 months), 
must muck the Communist Manifesto about; must come to Leipzig! 

373 

a Exodus 13:14; see also this volume, p. 299. 

It is really very naive that, in the same letter in which he 
complains that he cannot pay back the £2 (which I gave to 
Eccarius for him), he offers me my fare to Germany. Toujours le 
méme!* 

He appears to be morally indignant about you. I have already 
replied to him that he has misinterpreted your letter. The fellow 
simply cannot grasp that convictions and business management are 
not poles apart, as he assumes in his newspaper administration, 
and as others have to assume if they do not wish to become 
SUSPECTS. 

Our Wilhelm has a sanguine nature and is a liar. So there are 
probably, once again, exaggerations in his description of the 
victory over Schweitzer. Still, there must be something in it. 
Schweitzer would not have returned to the Church of Hatzfeldt 
had he not been shaky in his own association. On the other hand, 
he speeded up the general dissolution by the doltish management 
of his latest coup d'état? J hope that, as a result of this business, 
the German workers’ movement will finally leave the stage of 
Lassallean infantile disorders behind, and that the Lassallean 
residue will decay in sectarian isolation. 

As for Wilhelm’s various ‘absolute commandments’, I have 
answered him ro THIS EFFECT: 

I feel absolutely no need to show myself to the German workers, 
and will not go to their congress. Once they have really joined the 
Internationa] and given themselves a proper party organisation — 
and the Nuremberg Congress '*? showed how litle trust can be put 
in just promises, tendencies, etc.—then there will be an opportuni- 
ty sy anv BY. In addition, it must be clearly understood that the new 
organisation must be, for us, neither People’s Party*’ nor 
Lassallean church—as little the one as the other. If we went now 
we would have to speak against the People’s Party, and that would 
not please Wilhelm and Bebel! And if they—mirabile dictu— 
would themselves admit this, we would have to throw our weight 
directly onto the scales against Schweitzer and Co., instead of 
having the change-over appear as a free action by the workers. 

As far as polishing up the Manifesto‘ is concerned, we would 
consider this as soon as we have seen the decisions of their 
congress, etc. 

He should hang on to his £2 and not worry about my fare. I praise 
their action against Becker.* 

« Always the same! - > strange to say - © K. Marx and F. Engels, Manifesto of the 
Communist Party.- 4 Johann Philipp Becker 

That’s all on that. 

About Meissner it is probably best if I speak to him. 
Incidentally, if you have time (that is, if it doesn’t bother your eye) 
to finish something, it is easier to negotiate with a manuscript 
rather than without one. I know enough to know that Meissner 
prefers 5 sheets to 2. The shorter the pamphlet, the harder to sell, 
as he told me himself. 

What do you say about the way that the virtuous Gladstone and 
puritanical Bright acted with regard to Overend, Gurney, et 
Co.???” 

Remarkable, also, was Bruce’s declaration on the Mold shoot- 
ing,” which was not so innocent as the Manchester papers 
reported. So the Rior Acr*” need not be read. It is enough for 
some fox-hunting unpamw magistrate to whisper in the ear of an 
officer, and the peppering starts. Yet even this is not necessary. 
The soldiers may use their RIFLES IN SELF-DEFENCE (and they themselves 
judge whether this is necessary). But then, shouldn't the Arms 
Acts*”” be repealed, so everybody would be able to use his own 
RIFLE IN SELF-DEFENCE against the soldiers? 

The Gurney business, or rather the attitude of the Ministry 
towards it, ditto the Mold affair, finally the ministerial trickery 
with Lamuda and other scoundrels against the Trapes-Unions- 
Bu *’’—have made a mighty big dent in the fascination held by 
the names Gladstone and Bright amongst the workers here in 
London. 

Laura was ill and bed-ridden for 14 days, but is said to be better 
now. They have given notice on their rooms, and in October will 
move to a more airy locality (Montmartre or some such). 

Best COMPLIMENTS TO ALL. 

El 
Moro