[London,] 20 July 1870 

Dear Fred, 

Enclosed a letter from Kugelmann? which significantly clarifies 
the political mysteries of the present war.” He is in the right with his 
criticism of the proclamation of the Brunswick meeting * some copies 
of which I enclose. I am also sending you the Réveil.* You will find 
in it the first half of the acte d’accusation’ presented before the 
Supreme Court at Blois; what a poor figure the French 
CONSPIRATORS cut, compared to the Fenians,° as they transform 
themselves into mouchards‘ without the least provocation. The 
paper is also interesting on account of the leading article by old 
Delescluze. Although he is opposed to the government, it’s just 
unadulterated chauvinism, car la France est le seul pays de Vidée 
(namely, the idea it has of itself). These republican chauvinists are 
only indignant because the actual incarnation of their idol— 
Louis Bonaparte with his long nose and his stock exchange rigging 
—does not correspond to their fancy. The French deserve a good 
hiding. If the Prussians win, then centralisation of the state power 
will be beneficial for the centralisation of the German working 
class. German predominance would then shift the centre of gravity 
of the West European workers’ movement from France to 
Germany, and you need only to compare developments in the two 
countries from 1866 to the present day to realise that the German 
working class is superior to the French both in theory and 

a ‘Proletarier aller Lander vereinigt Euch!’, Der Volksstaat, No. 58, 20 July 
1870, - > bill of indictment - < spies - 4 for France is the only nation of the Idea 

organisation. Its predominance over the French on the interna- 
tional stage would also mean the predominance of our theory over 
Proudhon’s, etc. 

Finally, I enclose a review of my book from Hiuldebrand’s journal 
for economics and statistics." The state of my health does not 
really predispose me to merriment, but this essay brought the 
tears to my eyes, bona fide tears of laughter. With the reaction and 
the pownratt of the heroic age of philosophy in Germany, the ‘petty 
bourgeois’ latent in the German citizen has once again come to the 
fore—in philosophy nonsense worthy of Moses Mendelssohn; 
the smart-alecky, bad-tempered carping of wiseacres and know- 
alls. And they now want to dissolve political economy into a lot of 
rubbish about legal concepts! That goes one better than the 
‘logarithm of stimuli’.”? As Schiller, a competent judge in this 
sphere, has already noted, the philistine resolves all questions by 
making them ‘a matter of conscience’. 

Apropos! A Yankee journal which I was reading yesterday in the 
Central Council is publishing a series of articles about capital, etc. 
It refers to my book” among others. According to them I believe 
that the worker must work for a certain portion of the day for his 
own needs, and that therefore the work over and above that time, 
which I call surplus labour, forms the surplus value and hence the 
source of profit, etc. There is something in this, no doubt, they 
continue, but it is not the whole truth. For instance, the goods 
produced by a manufacturer=0 for him until they have been sold. 
Let us assume then that the real value (he means cost price) of 
clothes, etc.=a. By selling them to the merchant the manufacturer 
adds 6, and this is then increased by c by the different 
businessmen through whose hands the articles pass. 

Therefore: value=a. The increments=b+c. VALUE IN USE, 
THEREFORE, =a+b+c. Therefore, surplus value=excess of use value (!) 
over value. This really beats the ‘rormute’ which Frankel learnt in 
Paris! 

Just interrupted while writing. Taran,° the French Italian, drove 
up in a cas (he’s the man from The Pall Mall Gazette). He brought 
back the things by Lassalle, etc., that I had lent him. He is going 
to Paris as war-correspondent. Inquired whether I would like to go 
to Prussia in that capacity, or if not, whether I could propose 
anyone else. Through him I am now so far in contact with the Pall 

a [H. K. F. Résler,] ‘Karl Marx. Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Oekonomie’, 
Jahrbiicher für Nationalékonomie und Statistik, Vol. 12, Jena, 1869. - Volume I of 
Capital - < Nicolas Léon Thieblin 

Mall that if I want to write something political or you something 
military during the farce, it would be accepted and paid for 1nTo 
THE BARGAIN. 

Yesterday I heard from Perret in Geneva that our resolution* 
granting recognition to the Genevan Comité Fédéral Romand, in 
preference to the counter-committee formed by Bakunin, came 
like a bombshell to the fellows.? They telegraphed Bakunin at 
once. At the next congress the Generat Counci is to be put in the 
dock on account of this coup. It is now absolutely essential that 
Dupont should at long | last send me the copies of our resolutions” 
concerning the Auuance.'° Do press him on this score immédiatement 
and sérieusement in my name. 

The Generar Counci, yesterday commissioned me to draw up an 
address.“ By no means welcome 1n my present state Of liver troubles 
and putiness. If it does not improve, Allen and Maddison, whom I 
saw yesterday, advise me to go to the seaside, the East coast of 
England, in fact, because it’s fresher there. 

Berst COMPLIMENTS TO Mrs Lizzy AND FRIENDS. 

Your 
K. M. 

Apropos! Hasn't Wilhelm’s? stupidity excelled itself in his last 
Volksstaat ? ¢