[London,] 12 September 1863 

Dear Frederick, 

My family has been back for asour 10 days.” Little Jenny is 
much better and has stopped coughing. She is now taking salt 
water baths at home, i.e. baths with sea salt. Asour 2 months ago I, 
too, started taking a bath at home every morning, sluicing myself 
with cold water from head to foot, since when I have been feeling 
much better. 

The most interesting acquaintanceship I have struck up here is 
that of Colonel Lapiiski. He is without doubt the cleverest 
Pole—besides being an homme d’action‘--I have ever met. His 
sympathies are all on the German side, though in manners and 
speech he is also a Frenchman. He cares nothing for the national 
struggle and only knows the racial struggle. He hates all Orientals, 
among whom he numbers Russians, Turks, Greeks, Armenians, 
etc., with equal impartiality. He spent some time here in company 
with Urquhart, but, not content with describing him as a ‘humbug’, 
he actually doubts his probity, which is unjust. : 

The ‘Circassian’ princes exhibited in England by Urquhart and 
Lapinski were two—menials. Lapifiski maintains that Urquhart is 
being well and truly led by the nose by Zamoyski, who in turn is 
himself simply a tool of Palmerston’s and hence, by this circuitous 
route, of the Russian Embassy. Although of Catholic stock, he 
(Lap.) finds Urquhart’s relations with the Catholic bishops in 

Discoveries in the field of politics, war, literature, theology, medicine, chemistry. - 
b See this volume, p. 488.- © man of action - ¢ Hadji Hayden Hassan and Kustar Ogli 
Ismael 

20—S58 

England highly suspect. As soon as ‘action’ was called for, he 
says,—e.g. the equipping of a Polish corps to invade Circassia,”™ 
which £., too, regards as the best diversion— Urquhart allowed 
himself to be dissuaded by Zamoyski. By and large, Urquhart only 
wants to ‘talk’. He is a ‘big liar’ and he (ap.) took it particularly 
amiss that he should have made him (4#..) his co-liar without 
consulting him beforehand. Not a soul in Circassia knows 
Urquhart, who spent only 24 hours there and doesn’t speak the 
language. By way of illustrating U’s imaginative powers, he 
mentioned the latter’s boast that he (Urq.) had killed Chartism in 
England! 

There has been another purge of the National Government in 
Warsaw.*” This had been infiltrated by Czartoryski’s supporters as 
a result of the intrigues of Bonaparte and Palmerston. Three of 
these were stabbed and that, pro nunc, has intimidated the rest. 
(The said Czartoryski party was headed by Majewski.”) The power 
of the National Government is evident from the fact that the 
Grand Duke Constantine accepted a passport from it for a journey 
abroad. According to +., Herzen and Bakunin are thoroughly 
CHAPFALLEN because your Russian, upon being scratched a little, has 
again revealed himself to be a Tartar. 

Bakunin has become a monster, A HUGE MASS OF FLESH AND FAT, and is 
barely capable of walking any more. To crown it all, he is sexually 
perverse and jealous of the seventeen year-old Polish girl 
who married him in Siberia because of his martyrdom.‘ He is 
presently in Sweden, where he is hatching ‘revolution’ with the 
Finns.*” 

In Poland, £.. said, it had been necessary de prime abord* to 
disregard the peasantry, that ‘ultra-reactionary rabble’. But they 
were now ripe for the fray and would rise at the government's call 
for a levée en masse.“ 

Without Austria, he went on, the movement would have come 
to grief long ago and, if Austria were to close her frontiers 
in earnest, the rebellion would be done for in 3 weeks. But 
Austria was cheating the Poles. Solely out of desperation, because 
Francis Joseph knew that he was threatened by a Russian-Serbian- 
Romanian-Italian-French-Hungarian-Prussian bomb did he go to 
Frankfurt, and it was for the same reason that the Pope’ had 
issued his latest edict in support of Poland. 

@ for the moment -? Melinski in the original. - © Antonina Bakunina - 4 at 
first - © levy in mass - f Pius IX 

295. Engels to Marx. 24 November , 1863 493 

£.. told me there could be no doubt whatever that it was not just 
Bangya who had an understanding with Russia, but also Stein, 
Turr, Klapka, and Kossuth. 

His aim now is to raise a German legion in London, even if only 
200 strong, so that he can confront the Russians in Poland with 
the black, red and gold flag,'” partly to ‘exasperate’ the Parisians, 
partly to see whether there is any possibility whatsoever of 
bringing the Germans in Germany back to their senses. 

What’s lacking is money. Efforts are being made down here to 
exploit all the German societies, etc., to this end. You must be the 
best judge of whether anything can be done in this une in 
Manchester. The cause as such would appear to be excellent. 

Give my regards to Lupus and tell him that I’ve sent on his 
Jetter to Eccarius. 

Salut. 
Your 
K. M.