Brussels, 26 October [1847] rue 
d’Orléans, 42, Faubourg Namur 

Dear Herwegh, 

I wanted to give Engels a letter to bring you, but there was so 
much pressing business on the day of his departure that this was 
lost sight of and forgotten. 

I had further been asked by Countess Hatzfeldt to write you a 
few lines of introduction for her. I imagine that by now you will 
already have made her acquaintance. For a German woman, she has 
developed great vigour sparring with her husband.'” 

Here in Brussels we have founded two public democratic 
societies. 

a Jenny and Laura - » What bug can have bitten poor Moses to make him thus 
perpetually air in the newspaper his fantasies on the consequences of a revolution by 
the proletariat? (A reference to M. Hess, ‘Die Folgen einer Revolution des 
Proletariats', Deutsche-Brtisseler-Zeitung, Nos. 82, 87, 89 and 90, 14 and 31 October, 7 
and 11 November 1847,) 

1. A-German Workers’ Society '* which already has about 100 
members. Besides debates of quite a parliamentary nature, there is 
also social entertainment with singing, recitation, theatricals and 
the like. 

2. A smaller cosmopolitan-democratic society to which Belgians, 
French, Poles, Swiss and Germans belong.’° 

If you come up here again you'll find that even in little Belgium 
more can be done by way of direct propaganda than in big 
France. Moreover, I believe that, however minor it may be, public 
activity is infinitely refreshing for everyone. 

It is possible, there being now a liberal ministry at the helm,” 
that we shall run into some trouble with the police, for liberals 
always remain liberals. 

But we shall be able to deal with them. Here it is not as in Paris, 
where foreigners confront the government in isolation. 

Since it is impossible in present circumstances to make any use 
of the book trade in Germany, I have agreed with Germans from 
Germany to produce a review— monthly—supported by subscrip- 
tions to shares.'*’ In the Rhine Province and Baden a number of 
shares have already been bought up. We intend to make a start as 
soon as there’s enough money to last 3 months. 

If subscriptions in any way permitted, we would establish our own 
type-setting room here, which could also be used for printing 
separate works. 

Now I should like you to tell me: 

1. Whether you, for your part, would also be prepared to drum 
up a few subscriptions for shares (25 talers per share). 

2. Whether you are prepared to collaborate and to figure as a 
collaborator on the title page. 

But I would ask you, since you have in any case long owed me a 
letter, to overcome for once your aversion to writing and to reply 
soon. I also wanted to request you to ask Bakunin by what route, to 
what address and by what means a letter can be conveyed to 
Tolstoy. 

My wife sends her warm regards to you and your wife. 

The strange business of the Prussian Embassy in Paris’ is 
certainly indicative of our sovereign’s” mounting and impotent 
rage. 

Farewell. 

Your 
Marx 

a formed in August 1847 - > Frederick William IV of Prussia 

[The address written by Jenny Marx on the fourth page of the letter] 

Dr Gottschalk, General Practitioner in Cologne. 
[Beneath it Karl Marx has written} 

Dear Herwegh, 
Due to an oversight, the above wrong address nearly appeared on 
this letter.