Manchester, 4 September 1870 

What care I for wife, what care I for child— 
I .have higher yearnings; 

If hungry they are, let them go and beg— 
My Emperor, my Emperor a captive! @ 

World history is surely the greatest of poets; it has even 
succeeded in parodying Heine! My Emperor,” my Emperor a 
captive! *' And what is more, a captive of the ‘stinking Prussians’, 
and poor William‘ stands by and assures everybody for the 
hundredth time that he is really quite innocent of the whole 
business and that it is purely the will of God! William really is just 
like the schoolboy: ‘Who created the world?’ ‘Please, teacher, I 
did—but I won’t ever do it again!’ 

And then that wretch Jules Favre comes along with the proposal 
that Palikao, Trochu and a few Arcadians” should form a 
government. There has never been such a band of riff-raff. But 
all the same, when this becomes known in Paris we must expect 
something or other to happen. I cannot believe that this flood of 
news, which is bound to become known today or tomorrow, will 
fail to produce its effect. Perhaps a government of the gauche 
which, after a show of resistance, will conclude peace. 

The war is at an end. There is no longer an army in France. 

a from Heinrich Heine’s Die Grenadiere - & Napoleon III - © William I - 4 Left 

As soon as Bazaine capitulates, which will likely as not happen 
this week,” half the German army will march on Paris and the 
other half across the Loire to sweep the country clean of all armed 
units. 

On the subject of my articles,” you will have seen that I did 
what was necessary in the one that appeared the day before 
yesterday.*, But my worst enemy in the English press is Mr 
Greenwood himself. The fool regularly cuts out all the taunts I 
make about his competitors’ plagiarisms, and what is even better, 
in his Epitome he excerpts the articles copied from mine the 
previous night with the greatest good humour and without even 
allowing himself a jibe about their plagiarism. The trouble is that 
the fellow cannot refrain from indulging his private passion for 
his own military opinion, which is pure nonsense. Every philistine 
regards the ability to ride as a matter of honour, and understand- 
ing strategy comes into the same category. But even that is not 
enough to satisfy him. A few days ago he inserted a few utterly 
absurd lines about the siege of Strasbourg—simply in order to fill 
up the column. At the first opportunity I shall write an article on 
the same subject and say the exact opposite.” But what can one 
say? Journalism in peacetime is nothing but a continual process of 
reasoning about things which one has not learned about, and so I 
have no real right to complain. 

Cash the cheque yourself and keep the money.” Half belongs to 
you by rights and the other half is an advance on the next 
payment when I shall send you a further £70. 

The Alsace swindle—apart from its pristine Teutonic features— 
is mainly of a strategic nature and aims at getting the line of the 
Vosges and German Lorraine as border territory. (Language 
frontier: if you draw a straight line from Donon or Schirmeck in 
the Vosges to one hour’s travelling east of Longwy where the 
Belgian-Luxembourg and French frontiers meet, that is almost the 
exact place: from Donon along the Vosges to the Swiss frontier.) 
Northwards from Donon the Vosges are actually not so high and 
steep as in the south. Only the jackasses of the Staats-Anzeiger and 
Brass & Co. could get the notion that France will be ‘throttled’ by 
the snipping off of this narrow strip with its 1'/, million or so 
inhabitants. The hysterical demands of the philistines for ‘guaran- 
tees’ are altogether absurd, but they tell because they suit the book 
of the people at Court. 

a F. Engels, Notes on the War.— XV. -» See this volume, p. 58. 

I have not yet read the great medical-orderly poem.’ It must be 
great. Moreover, these medical orderlies are the greatest loafers; 
when they are needed they are never on hand, but they stuff 
themselves, booze and bluster to such an extent that everyone in 
the army is fed up with them. Only a few exceptions. 

In Saarbrücken the French did as much damage as they could. 
Of course the bombardment lasted only a few hours and not, as in 
Strasbourg, day and night for weeks. 

Herewith returning Cacadou’s” letter with thanks. Very interest- 
ing. The defence of Paris will be an entertaining episode, if 
nothing out of the way happens inside. These perpetual little 
panics on the part of the French—all of which arise from fear of 
the moment when they will at last have to learn the truth—give 
one a much better idea of the Reign of Terror. We take this to 
mean the rule of people who inspire terror. On the contrary, it is 
the rule of people who themselves are terror-stricken. La terreur 
implies mostly useless cruelties perpetuated by frightened people 
in order to reassure themselves. I am convinced that the blame for 
the Reign of Terror in 1793 lies almost exclusively with the 
bourgeois frightened out of their wits and setting out to comport 
themselves like patriots, with the small philistines crapping their 
trousers, and with the mob of the underworld who knew how to 
coin profit from the terreur. These are the very classes active in the 
present minor terreur too. 

Best regards to all of you from all of us, including Jollymeyer‘ 
and Moore. 

Your 
F. E.