[London,] 15 June 1876 

My dear Friend, 

I am delighted to see from your letter that the suspicions about 
R.* cannot be anything other than figments of the imagination. 

Liebknecht first wrote to Engels, telling him that certain 
suspicions attached to R. and that he (Engels) should privately 
warn our Russian friends in London.‘ Engels replied that he 
would do nothing so long as Liebknecht had not informed him of 
the facts upon which those suspicions were based. Then Lieb- 
knecht wrote saying that one evening, while in the company of 
several members of the Volksstaat’s despatch department and some 
other working men, R., who was not altogether sober, tried to filch a 
packet of letters (from the Volksstaat) intended for the post, that 
his friends did not try to stop him, but went with him to the post 
office and made him post the packet. The matter was reported to 
Liebknecht, so that it was not he, but the working men—who had 
previously trusted R. implicitly —who raised the alarm. Liebknecht 
himself says that the adage ‘in vino veritas” is very far from being 
gospel truth, but nevertheless the incident gives food for thought. 
As you well know, once a suspicion of this kind has been aroused, 
other evidence invariably comes to mind which, however vague, 
lends itself to unfavourable interpretation. 

In my opinion, Liebknecht was doing no more than his duty in 
reporting the matter; neither he (and up to a point this also 
applies to me) nor his friends were aware of the intimate ties 
between R. and yourself; otherwise he would certainly not have 
thought it necessary to have you informed. Misunderstandings of 
this kind can best be cleared up by plain speaking. In the life of a 
militant party one must be ready for anything; I, at any rate, was 
not at all surprised when I was accused of being one of Mr 
Bismarck’s agents. 

Engels was here last night. I asked him if he had written to you; 
he said he had not; he did not think it right to write to you on the 
subject, since Liebknecht had enjoined him to inform you 

a Dmitry Richter - > See next fetter. - © Truth comes out in wine. 

privately, and he had not yet had time to go and see you. I told 
him I had written to you, whereupon he said he would also write.* 

I shall write and give Liebknecht the gist of your letter. At the 
same time I feel that it might be better not to let R. know anything 
about what has happened. When Liebknecht shows my letter to his 
friends, the latter—I feel sure—will do all in their power (for 
they are honest working men) to right the wrong they have done 
their comrade. 

Last week’s Pall Mall Gazette carried an article fulminating 
against Russia’s financial policy.” 

Yours ever, 

K. Marx