Dear Mohr,

If Imandt had also gone straight to a solicitor, like the North German consul, he would most probably have heard that a debt contracted abroad is not actionable in Scotland – or should Scotland be an exception to all other countries? The Code Civil says, regarding prescription, Art. 2262: all actions prescribe in 30 years; Art. 2265: he who acquires a thing in good faith prescribes in 10 or 20 years respectively; Art. 2271: the action of masters and teachers of the sciences and arts for the instruction which they give on a monthly basis prescribes in 6 months. Since the latter article does not apply, the action is obviously brought merely to interrupt the prescription in Rhenish Prussia, or also, in case // to try whether Imandt can be intimidated into paying for fear of being compromised. Possibly his promissory notes are given on word of honour, and in that case he could indeed be seriously compromised in his position. A summons before the court interrupts the prescription according to Art. 2244.

Katkoff’s revelations about Bakunin are not worth much. It is not stated to whom the remorseful letters were supposed to have been written. Money-sponging is too common a Russian staple for one Russian to reproach another with it. And that B. used the 6,000 rubles he sponged to effect his flight and not to pay the otkupshchik is simply ridiculous. And that a person banished to Siberia should once also turn to Katkoff, although he otherwise has nothing in common with him, not much is to be made of that either. It will annoy B., but I do not see that Gaudissart will make much capital out of it. About G. you can tell him, with regard to his intention concerning Flerowski, 1) that if an English publisher is willing to go into it, he will look for a translator who translates at the market rate, which is essentially different from what G. calls “paying well,” and who will finish the job in 2–3 months and not need a whole year. G. mustn’t imagine he is the only person who knows Russian. There is still time to come back to the other points once he has really found a publisher. For the rest, it does no harm at all if G. makes reconnaissances among the London publishers. Should he find someone, which I doubt very much, one could use this point of contact later on. You can very well decline the preface on the ground that it would be arrogant of you to want to introduce a foreign book into English literature before you yourself have been introduced into it by an English edition of your own book.

By the by, why don’t you set Eccarius on to tackle the prison filth in the Volksstaat? Sybel does mention the carrying out of the Second Partition of Poland behind Austria’s back, but again he tries to prove that Prussia was entitled to do so by some previous Austrian treachery or other. His whole line of reasoning is this: if Prussia allies itself with Russia against Austria, that is in order, but if Austria seeks to ally itself with Russia against Prussia, that is treason. The Greater Germans and Austrians, Arneth, Vivenot & Co., now maintain the opposite; so that the two schools of falsifiers of history are now behaving, with regard to Russia, just as stupidly as the two German powers did at that time.

The damned Irish statutes I still haven’t got. I have discovered Giraldus Cambrensis, to be had at Bohn’s in translation for 5/–. At the moment I am going through Wakefield, who has a great deal of good material on climate, soil, etc., with all sorts of mishmash in between. The fellow fancies himself extremely learned, and is fond of citing German, Dutch, Danish etc. rubbish.

I haven’t laughed so much in a long while as I did yesterday reading Moses’s Paris letter in the Volksstaat, about Flourens and the other new “forces” that are replacing and supplanting the old Blanqui etc. That old beast always remains the same. Wilhelm ditto: his latest news, dated 19 Feb., are: Hanover 13 Jan., Lörrach 23 Jan., Munich 25 Jan., Ernstthal 17 Jan! For the rest, things are moving fast in France. Jules Favre could have done nothing better than to declare himself so vehemently against all violence and in favour of peaceful, even though limited, progress.

My removal to London next late summer is now a settled matter. Lizzie has told me that the sooner she leaves Manchester the better, she has had some ructions with relations and is now sick of the whole place. We shall be free of our house in September, so the matter must be settled between July and September.

Best greetings,
Your F. E.