Manchester, 21 April 1863 

Dear Moor, 

It is hard to say what is to be done about Lassalle; apres tout, I'd 
have assumed it to be beneath the great Izzy’s dignity to reply to 
such petty Meyenian tittle-tattle with the heavy artillery of a 
formal démenti. Let the chap clear up his own messes; if he’s any 
good, he needs no testimonials from you, and why should you 
compromise yourself, now that you’ve told him that he can’t go 
hand in hand with us, or we hand in hand with him?‘ Anyhow, 
what arrant stupidity to involve himself in the affairs of the 
Schulze-Delitzsch louts**? and try to form a party for himself out 
of that, of all things, on the basis of our earlier works. The very 
endeavour of S.-D. and other such rabble in these bourgeois times 
to raise the outlook of the louts to the bourgeois level must needs 
be welcome to us, for otherwise we’d have to deal with this 
business during the revolution, and in Germany, where the small 
state system so greatly complicates matters, we might be con- 
fronted with this piddling stuff as something new and practical. 
That is now disposed of and we now have our opponents where 
we want them; the lout has achieved self-consciousness and thus 
finds himself in the ranks of the petty-bourgeois democrats. But to 
regard these fellows as representatives of the proletariat—it took 
Izzy to do that. 

Lupus and I were greatly amused by the funny tale about 
student Blind.4 Lupus has had another severe attack of gout, 
aggravated by the obstinate way he insists on going out and giving 
lessons when not yet fully recovered, and only sending for the 
doctor when it’s far too late and he’s used up all his medicine. But 
it’s no use remonstrating; ‘I’m going!’ 

Latterly I’ve been reading Russian history in reverse, i.e., first 
Catherine and the partition of Poland,’’’ then Peter I. I must say 
that one would have to be an oaf to work up-any enthusiasm for 
the Poles of 1772. After all, in most parts of Europe at that time 
the aristocracy was caving in with decency if not esprit’ even 

a after all - > See this volume, p. 469. - © ibid., p. 291. - 4 ibid., p. 467. + © wit 

though its general maxim may have been that materialism consists 
in what one eats, drinks, fucks, wins at gaming or is paid in return 
for one’s knavery; but no aristocracy save the Polish adopted so 
stupid a method as selling itself to the Russians. In other respects, 
the general venality of the gentils-hommes* all over Europe presents 
a very jolly spectacle. Another thing that greatly interested me was 
the matter of Monsieur Patkul. This fellow was in fact the 
founding father of Russian diplomacy generally, and already 
possessed all its wiles in nuce? If you haven't been able to procure 
his reports to the Russian government, published in Berlin in 
1795, we'll try and get ourselves a copy by advertising in the 
Buchhdandlerbérsenblatt. How small, by the way, were the contribu- 
tions made by his successors! Always the same turns of speech, 
always the same approach, whatever the country. A necessary 
ingredient, come to that, is the objectivity of your Livonians,*”” 
whose interests, far from being national, are at most local and 
private. A Russian would never be capable of such things. 

Another very pretty affair is the coup d’état Catherine II brought 
off against Peter III. It was here Boustrapa'” learnt his most 
important lessons; the Russian commonness served him as a model 
down to the very last detail. It’s ridiculous the way all such dirty 
dealings are invariably repeated in every particular. 

I have no port at present nor is anything good in that line to be 
had on THE spur OF THE MOMENT. However, I'll look out for some, and 
meanwhile go down into the cellar to fetch up some hock and 
some claret (the former for the healthy, the latter for the invalids). 
‘For which reason I shall now close this letter, enclosing a few 
stamps for little Tussy. 

Your 
F. E. 

There are duplicates of some of the stamps. Over here these may 
be used for swaps. I can supply large quantities of Italian, Swiss, 
Norwegian and certain German ones.