{[Manchester, 2 December 1861] 

I/Z 07595, Newcastle on Tyne, 14 August 1860 
Dear Moor, 

The above is the number of the enclosed fiver, which could not 
go off till today, as the first of December fell on a Sunday. Once 
again, I didn’t register it. 

During the past few days I have at last read some of the 
Lassalle.* His stuff about retroaction may be quite plausible, but 
doesn’t hold water, as is apparent, e.g., in the case of divorce 
legislation, of which it might also be said, and has in fact been said 
by many a Berlin philistine: ‘If I'd known how difficult it was to 
get divorced, I should never have got married’ By the way, it’s 
grossly superstitious of the fellow to go on believing in the ‘idea of 
law’, absolute law. His objections to Hegel’s philosophy of law are 
for the most part perfectly justified, but he hasn’t yet really got 
into his stride with his new philosophy of mind; even from the 
philosophical standpoint he should have progressed sufficiently to 
regard the process alone, not just its momentary result, as the 
absolute, in which case no other idea of law could follow than 
precisely the historical process itself. The style’s nice, too. “The 
hand-wringing despair of the contradictions’, etc., and then the 
introduction. Pure Ephraim Artful. I dare say I shan’t get very 
much further, unless I find it might come in useful as a course in 
Roman law, in which case I shall read the whole thing. How, 

a F. Lassalle, Das System der erworbenen Rechte. 

by the way, one could think it worthwhile to send so simple and, 
au fond, : insignificant an idea chasing right through the Corpus 
juris, * applying it to every single point—as though it would gain 
weight in the process—is quite beyond my comprehension. But 
even nicer is the assumption that this witp Goose chase, conducted in 
and around the ‘plenitude of the concrete’, is the proof of his 
pudding and he must therefore remain infallible ever after. 

In Berlin things will now begin to hum. The new little 
Chamber’s half-hearted ‘progress’ democracy *”’ will prove too red 
for handsome William, after all, and by March they'll already find 
themselves in a state of mild chronic crisis. I am curious to see 
what happens. If only the chaps in the Chamber aren’t too timid, 
they will yet succeed in toppling the handsome one, but I don’t 
trust that democratic breed. 

I hope your wife is feeling better. Cordial regards to her and 
the girls. 

Your 
F. E.