[London,] 13 February 1860 

Dear Frederick, 

The book arrived today. Nothing but shit. Sheer tripe. Luckily, 
the worthy National-Zeitung has reprinted in its two leaders 
(No. 37 and No. 41) all the passages which are actionable and in 
which all the scurrilities are concentrated. 

Today (on receiving a second letter from Fischel), I at once sent 
Legal Counsellor Weber (the leading lawyer in Berlin) an 
indictment together with a retaining fee of 15 talers (£2 10sh). 
The case would have cost me nothing if, instead of instituting a 
private action for libel, I had had recourse to the Royal Prussian 
Public Prosecutor, but as I wrote and told Fischel, I could not 
expect the Royal Prussian Public Prosecutor to ‘display especial 
zeal in upholding the honour of my name’. Moreover, the whole 
procedure costs very little. 

Of the £5 you sent me, £2 10 has therefore gone to Weber, £1 
today to the County Court, 5/—to Vögele and 2/—on the two 
affidavits he made; also a lot on stamps for letters. Before going 
to the City today I had to borrow a further £1 from a baker, 
repayable on Wednesday. 

Luckily, Urquhart has written Collet a rude letter in which he 
lashes out at him for sending me the printer’s bill. This (ie. my 
publication) was, he said, an expense chargeable to his agitational 
activities. So I don’t have to pay him. 

Tomorrow I shall be faced with yet another expense and I don’t 
know how I'm going to meet it. For I have got to call on that 
bastard Zimmermann (from Spandau, a Vogtian and, at the same 
time, an advocate to the Austrian Embassy) so that he can supply me 
with the wording for the power of attorney which must go off to 
Weber without delay. There’s no time to be lost, you see, because 
actions of this kind become ‘statute-barred’ remarkably quickly in 
Prussia. 

In addition to the Volks-Zeitung, the Berlin Publicist has 
published my statement, the latter having placed it alongside an 
extract from the English anti-Blind circular. This last I have today 
sent to Louis Blanc and Félix Pyat, together with the affidavits of 
Wiehe and Vögele. 

The Kölnische Zeitung and the N.-Z. did not publish my 
statement. 

Mr F. Freiligrath—whom (with seeming benevolence) I shall 
compromise in no mean fashion—did not even acknowledge 
receipt of the things I sent him. 

You must surely have got my last important communication? 

After I’ve settled the matter of the power of attorney tomorrow, 
I shall leave on Wednesday (having notified you beforehand) for 
Manchester where, in addition to our indispensable meeting, I 
have business connected with Roberts. 

You will have gathered from the foregoing that I’m now 
stone-broke. 

Your 
K. M.