Manchester, 5 November 1859 

Dear Mrs Marx, 

I must really beg you to forgive me for having been so 
shockingly remiss that Moor finally had to get you to extract the 
article in question” from me. However, I had no idea that it was 
needed for anything except staving off possible ructions on Mr 
Pulszky’s part and hence was in no hurry at all about returning it. 
But this time it really is enclosed. 

Freiligrath, the fat philistine, is really behaving in a most 
disgraceful way and deserves to be well and truly chastised, for 
which an opportunity will, I trust, soon present itself. Most 
amusing is the Trojan War over the momentous question as to 
who should have the cantata and who the festive speech, and 
which is to come first, the speech or the cantata.* The philistines 
up here are greatly vexed by Lupus’ and my refusal to get mixed 
up in the Schiller do. Only yesterday evening I had another 
sparring match with three enthusiastic Schillerians. These folk are 
quite unable to comprehend how anyone could fail to jump at 
such a beautiful opportunity for self-advertisement. They want to 
found a ‘Schiller Institute’ *? here, i.e. a German club in which to 
read, eat, drink, hold lectures, do gymnastics, act plays, make 
music and goodness knows what else. Borchardt was silly enough 
to attend the preliminary meeting and to speak against it (he 
urged me to go too but for that very reason I stayed away) and 
when it was put to the vote, Hoyoll the crippled painter and one 
other man voted with him, and Borchardt, of course, suffered a 
spectacular defeat. Subsequently he subscribed £4 10/- to the 
thing, which makes him a member for 3 years. You have no idea 
what German erudition has suddenly come to light here on this 
occasion. There’s a Dr Gétze, a Dr Marcus, a Dr Dolch, a Dr 
Samelson, all fellows of whom one had never heard before. These 
and a few aesthetic Jews have taken charge of the whole thing, 
and once again erudition plays mentor to the Jews—save in the 

a written in reply to Jenny Marx’s letter of 4 November 1859 (see this volume, 
. 573) — > K. Marx, ‘Kossuth and Louis Napoleon’. -« See this volume, p. 
507. - 4 Ibid., pp. 511-12.