[London,] 15 September 1872 

Dear Barry, 

Marx wishes me to send you a few notes on the Hall of Science 
men,” here they are, I hope they will prove sufficient. Marx said 
he would send you the circular of the General Council* relating to 
these fellows, but for safety’s sake I enclose you a copy which 
please return. 

Yours truly, 
F. Engels? 

About April last a knot of men clubbed together, pretending to 
represent a few societies which nobody knows, and adopted the 
grandiloquent name of Universal Federalist Council of the 
I.W.M.A. and of the sections adhering to it.*’? Not one of the 
societies they pretended to represent belonged to the Internation- 
al. Not one of themselves belonged to it, on the contrary, two of 
them had been expelled from it. But this was the very reason why 
they claimed the right to supersede the then existing General 
Council and to [take the] direction of the International into their 
own hands. A circular of that General Council held them up to 
the ridicule of Europe and they were silent for a time. Now these 
very same men reappear under the name of Universal Federalist 

a K. Marx, ‘Declaration of the General Council Concerning the Universal Federalist 
Council’. - ’ Engels’ signature is witnessed by the copyist. 

Congress. We find here again the same Landeck who entered at 
the last trial of the International in Paris (June 1870) into a 
solemn engagement with the Prefect of Police* not ,to occupy 
himself anymore with politics or with the International,” and [was] 
since expelled from the London society of French refugees.” The 
same Vésinier, author of a whole library of Holywell street‘ 
literature ad* Louis Napoleon, expelled from the International by 
a committee of the Brussels Congress in 1868, and from the 
London society of refugees in 1872. The same Schneider, 
denounced in the German Press as a disturber of workmen’s 
meetings (the police used next morning to pay for the windows, 
glasses and furniture smashed by him and his helpmates) and as a 
swindler.“ The same Zielinski, his right hand man, the same 
Adolphe Smith, etc., we find moreover a few additional preten- 
ders to fame such as the Pole Mileski who during the conference‘ 
translated all speeches into Polish for the exclusive benefit of 
himself, he being the only Pole present most of the time, and 
Oudet whose harebrained tomfooleries during the Commune are 
still in the recollection of many. Add a few German poor 
workingmen from the East End and you have the whole 
composition of this Universal Congress of twenty five rogues and 
fools.