Manchester, 20 February 1860 
6 Thorncliffe Grove, Oxford Road 

Dear Lassalle, 

Many thanks for sending me Vogt’s concoction.* More about this 
below. 

As Duncker has doubtless told you, I have offered him a sort of 
sequel to Po and Rhine” which he accepts subject to the proviso 
‘considerations of principle’. Even though I find it somewhat 
surprising that the publisher and not the author should be 
responsible for the principles advanced in a work, I have, 
nevertheless, tried in vain to discover what can be meant by this. 
Surely D. isn’t claiming that his publishing house is simply an 
extension of the Volks-Zeitung, which, by the way, I never see up 
here. Finally, it occurred to me that D. may have got wind of the 
fact that my views on the Italian question are different from yours 
and made this proviso out of excessive concern for your 
pamphlet.‘ I’m convinced that, should this be the case, I would 
only have to draw your attention to it, for you to reassure D. on 
this score. In view of your objectivity, you would, I know, consider 
it an insult, were anyone to suppose you capable of even remotely 
desiring the suppression of a work because it was opposed to your 
own views on a question of this kind. In fact, I had to spend a 
long time thinking things over before I could make up my mind 
to raise this point with you, being afraid you might be offended 
with me for assuming such -mputations to be possible, even at 
third hand. But since there seems no other explanation for D.’s 
‘considerations’, I have no choice. 

Settling Vogt’s hash will be mere child’s play. We dealt with this 
ancient, warmed-up drivel as much as eight years ago*’ (though 
the little Genevan philistine in his secluded corner doesn’t know it) 
and we'll jolly well demolish it so that nothing’s left but the stench, 

aC. Vogt, Mein Prozess gegen die Allgemeine Zeitung, Geneva, 1859. - > F. Engels, 
Savoy, Nice and the Rhine. - © See this volume, p. 50. - 4 [F. Lassalle,] Der italienische 
Krieg und die Aufgabe Preussens, Eine Stimme aus der Demokratie, Berlin, 1859. 

peculiar to Vogt, which he has injected into it. Incidentally, the 
statements of Blind,*? Biscamp” and, in particular, Lupus have 
compromised the fellow to such an extent that, if things go on like 
this, there'll be literally nothing left to do. And now we have 
Schaible’s statement about the provenance of the pamphlet Zur 
Warnung,’ which completely nullifies the legal proceedings in 
Augsburg * and will ultimately compel Vogt, should he wish to 
demonstrate the contrary, to do so in London. All this has, of 
course, meant our rummaging through the whole of our archives, 
in which we have the life histories of the entire democratic gang; 
we can do for every one of them. This ignoramus Vogt, with his 
letter from Techow”™ (which Vogt stole, to boot) and his paltry, 
parochial Genevan gossip, imagines that we others are just as 
ignorant, just as low and just as cowardly as he. He is in for a 
surprise. 
Most cordially, 

Yours, 
Engels