{London,] 3 February 1860 

Dear Engels, 

After one minor alteration, or rather the deletion of one 
sentence, C. D. Collet yesterday declared himself willing, but, at 
the same time, said that, as Urquhart was the actual editor, he 
must first submit the thing to him, which means a delay of 24 
hours.*” Collet admitted that I could, of course, publish the 
statement malgré eux, but, if it was done the way he suggested, I 
could subsequently, To a certain degree, fall back on him and Urq. 
Wei. I conceded this and intend to see what Father U. has to say. 
(For the sequel see immediately below.) 

Incidentally, it’s no go either with a pamphlet or a statement in 
the newspapers— just now. The pamphlet would se xittep by the 
self-same press WHICH NOW TRUMPETS THE GRANDEUR OF Vogt. The latter’s 

a F. Engels, Savoy, Nice and the Rhine. - » See this volume, p. 13. - © A reference to 
Peter Imandt, who lived in' Dundee, Scotland. See this volume, p. 16. - 4 Ernst 
Dronke - ¢ Charles Roesgen - f despite them 

attack on me—he is obviously seeking to represent me as an 
insignificant and rascally bourgeois blackguard—(this ‘emerges 
from everything I’ve learnt from hearsay up till now) is intended 
to be the grand coup of bourgeois vulgar democracy—and likewise 
of the Russo-Bonapartist riff-raff—against the party as a whole. 
Hence it must likewise be countered with a grand coup. Further- 
more, the defensive does not suit our purpose.. I shall sue the 
National-Zeitung. I've now made up my mind to do so. Not a great 
deal of money will be required for the time being—I am referring 
to the preliminary deposition in court. But lawyers will be 
exceptionally keen to make themselves available for, whatever 
happens, the lawsuit will make a great noise throughout the length 
and breadth of Germany. As soon as I have Fischel’s letter* (it will 
arrive, I think, tomorrow) I shall issue a brief statement to the 
various German newspapers announcing that I am instituting an 
action for libel against the N.-Z. in Berlin. In its second article,° 
which I have got, I have already discovered items so actionable as to 
bring about its immediate undoing in a legal sense.° This lawsuit will 
be the peg on which we can hang the whole of our riposte to the public 
at large in court. Later on, we can turn our attention to that bastard 
Vogt. 

When you consider that in a week or two, in connection with 
Stieber, the Cologne communist trial’ will be re-enacted all over 
again,” this vile attack could, if skilfully exploited, help rather 
than hinder us, for this will ar once enable us to state our case 
forcefully to the mass of the workers. 

On the other hand, what evidence can Vogt or the National- 
Zeitung produce against us? At the most, there is Techow’s 
gossip’ and, perhaps (in tHE worst casz), some’ not altogether 
pleasant reviews by Liining™’ but, these apart, the fact that Vogt 
knows nothing of conditions here and makes the most absurd 
mistakes is apparent if only from his article in the Biel 
Handels-Courier“ 

So my plan is this: Next week, as soon as Vogt’s rubbish ¢ arrives, 
I shall come and visit you for a few days in order to talk the whole 
thing over.”* As to the costs of the action, Dronke (who, by the by, 
owes me money) must also bear his share. (Whatever happens you 
must come here a few days at Easter.) 

a See this volume, p. 15. - © ‘Wie man radikale Flugblatter macht’, National-Zeitung, 
No. 41, 25 January 1860.-¢ See this volume, pp. 40-45. - ¢ (K. Vogt,] ‘Zur 
Warnung’, Schweizer Handels-Courier, No. 150 (extraordinary supplement), 2 June 
1859. - © C. Vogt, Mein Prozess gegen die Allgemeine Zeitung, Geneva, 1859. 

For the rest (I have already written to everyone imaginable), in 
addition to procuring the necessary material for the action, I’m 
working on my Capital.” If I set about it with determination, it will 
be finished in 6 weeks and, after the lawsuit, it will be a success. 

A fine thing it would be—with a crisis in the offing, with the 
King of Prussia? at death’s door, etc.—if we were to allow ourselves 
to be finished off in this way by Imperial Vogt” et cie., or 
even— autore Lassallo>—to cut our own throats. 

The enclosed piece of paper will tell you waar Mr Vocr ts now 
azour and how, in your pamphlet, you can deal him a contemptu- 
ous kick, if only by way of a marginal note. 

Your 
K. M. 

As you will see from the contents of my letter, the anti-Blind 
operation ™ is proceeding independently of the German operation, 
but will be used to further the latter.