London, 26 February 1862 

Dear Becker, 

You must attribute my prolonged silence to one thing only—my 
inability to help. The American civil war has meant the total loss 
of my principal source of income for a whole year. Subsequently 
(a couple of months ago), this ‘business’ was resumed, but on a 
very ‘restricted’ basis.°*** So far as acquaintances are concerned, 
however, I can count very few who have any means at their 
disposal. E. g., it is some while since that I wrote to Siebel on your 
behalf“? but I am told by Borkheim that he gave no signs of life. 
In Manchester, a few ‘revolutionary adventurers, who were sailing 

a The Free Press. See this volume, p. 344. - > Probably Collet’s article ‘Bakunin’ in The 
Free Press, Vol. X, No. 3, 5 March 1862. - © Das System der erworbenen Rechte 

to the United States for the good cause, had scraped the bottom 
of the barrel. 

Now, as regards the subscription to your work,’ I shall do my 
utmost but can hold out little hope. All the riff-raff in the 
associations here—with the exception of the Workers’ Educational 
Society,’ which has nothing in the way of funds—is constitutional, 
and actually favours the Prussian National Association.’ The 
fellows would sooner give money to have a work like yours 
suppressed. As you probably know, these Germans, both young 
and old, are all of them pert men of sterling worth and practical 
insight, and look upon people like you and me as immature fools 
who have still not recovered from their revolutionary fancies. Nor 
is the riff-raff at home any better than it is abroad. The time I 
spent in Berlin,? etc., convinced me that any attempt to influence 
the canaille by literary means would prove utterly futile. The 
fellows’ self-complacent stupidity, which possesses in its press— 
that pitiable press—an extraordinary elixir of life, is beyond 
belief. And then the spiritual passivity to boot—nothing 
short of a sound thrashing would reanimate your stolid German 
who, having lost his philosophical illusions and applied himself to 
money-making and ‘Little Germany’ and ‘practical constitutional- 
ism’, is now no better than an impulsive crown. So far as I’m 
concerned, Germany may altogether [...],“ but a roomful of 
precocious and decrepit children.‘ 

The Hermann is the property of the erstwhile Royal Prussian 
Procurator Heintzmann: ‘with God for King and Fatherland’, ‘a 
modicum of Little Germany’ and moderation in the exercise of 
freedom. A namesake of yours, one Becker from Leipzig, who writes 
for that paper, is a good chap but not influential enough to help us in 
a matter such as a subscription. Engels only returned to Manchester 
a few days ago after an absence of several months. He and Wolff (of 
Breslau) * will do what they can. However, with the exception of the 
above-named and 3 or 4 others, the numerous German population 
in Manchester consists of the same philistines as it does here and 
everywhere else. 

Quoad' ‘Vogt’, do with it as you please. It goes without saying, 
of course, that I could not but be delighted if the pamphlet which 

a J. Ph. Becker, Wie und Wann? Ein ernstes Wort tiber die Fragen und Aufgaben der Zeit, 
Geneva, London. Manchester, 1862. -> See this volume, pp. 279-82, 286-89, - 
¢ Manuscript damaged. - ¢ Allusion to a passage in Heine’s poem, ‘Zur Beruhigung’ 
(paraphrased). - € Wilhelm Wolff - f As regards - 8 K. Marx, Herr Vogt. 

the press has all but killed by silence in Germany, could be 
used to some effect at least in Switzerland. A French translation 
was made in Paris, without my previous knowledge, and was 
already being printed but vanished by supreme imperial ukase.* 
So, in fact, there is no French edition. 

Let me assure you, my dear friend, that nothing could be more 
painful to me than to have to stand by helpless and passive and 
witness the struggles of a man such as yourself. I admire your 
steadfastness, your fervour, and your energy. The Ancients—I 
think it was Aeschines—said that one should endeavour to acquire 
worldly goods so that one might help one’s friends in need! What 
profound and humane wisdom lies therein! 

At the earliest possible opportunity I shall let you know the 
result of communications to various persons about the subscrip- 
ton. 

In the meantime, farewell. My wife asks to be kindly remem- 
bered to you. 

Yours 
K. M.