Manchester, 13 March 1870 

Dear Moor, 

Mr J. Williams* has certainly had a bang-up and well-earned 
success. The dodge by the Marseillaise in printing the letter as an 
original” has got the whole English press into a fine pickle, and 
has finally forced The Irishman to admit its debt to the Marseillaise 
and the Internationale. The hushing-up is at an end, and Mr 
Bruce—although in the lousy Daily News he again has O’Donovan 
Rossa described as ‘ordinary CONVICT AND NOTHING ELSE’—will probably 
sing quite a different tune in answering the interpellations that are 
to come. Bravo Jenny! Lizzie is particularly grateful to you for the 
articles in the Internationale, which pleased her enormously. 

The two letters enclosed came to me from Solingen. I had 

a Marx’s daughter Jenny - > See the previous letter. -* K. Marx, The English 
Government and the Fenian Prisoners. 

456° 302. Engels to Marx. 13 March 1870 

addressed this Moll? as ‘thou’, assuming him to be the brother of 
Jupp,” and an old member of the League‘; thus the intimate tone. 
You will also note that we have also fallen prey to myth-formation. 
I know nothing about either the Schapper business, which looks 
very fuddled, or the business with my old man.‘ My old man 
would have taken care not to let me pay out wages or anything like 
that; for this, I could not count well enough for his taste.°” Since 
I have to answer the fellows soon, you might let me know whether 
you have heard anything concerning Menke in the meantime. 

The whole week I have been standing ready to have to go away 
because of my mother, but luckily things are getting better. 

The following passage suffices to characterise gentle old 
Gladstone’s whole long Land Bill as pure muck: 

“THE LEASES IN QUESTION’ (namely, as they are given today, now and then, in 
Ireland by the LANDLORDS to the TENANTS) ‘ARE QUITE AS PRECARIOUS AS TENANCIES AT 
WILL. THEY HAVE NO EFFICACY WHATEVER IN REMOVING THE SENSE OF INSECURITY. A 
LEASE TO BE OF ANY AVAIL FOR THAT PURPOSE, SHOULD, SAVE IN THE PARTICULARS OF 
SUBDIVIDING AND SUBLETTING, BE FREE AND UNFETTERED—ABOVE ALL, IT SHOULD PUT 
NO OBSTACLE TO THE SALE OF THE TENANT'S INTEREST. BUT MODERN LEASES ARE THE 
REVERSE OF THIS—THEY ARE ENCUMBERED WITH CLAUSES AND COVENANTS PRESCRIBING 
THE MODE OF CULTIVATION AND THE DISPOSAL OF THE PRODUCE, NEGATIVELY AND 
AFFIRMATIVELY REGULATING THE ACTION OF THE TENANT AND ENTIRELY FORBIDDING 
THE ESSENTIAL POWER OF FREE ALIENATION. EVERY LINE IN THESE DOCUMENTS MAY