Paris, 14 January 1848 

Dear Marx, 

If I haven’t written to you it was because I have as yet still not 
been able to get hold of that accursed Louis Blanc. Décidément il y 
met de la mauvaise volonté* But I’m determined to catch him— 
every day I go to him or lie in wait for him at the café. Pere 
Flocon, on the other hand, is proving more amenable. He is 
delighted at the way the Briisseler-Zeitung and The Northern Star 
defended the Réforme against the National.» Not even the blame 
against L. Blanc and Ledru-Rollin have succeeded in flustering 
him, any more than my announcement that we have now decided 
in London to come out openly as communists. He, of course, 
made some capital assertions: vous tendez au despotisme, vous tuerez la 
révolution en France, nous avons onze millions de petits paysans qui sont 
en méme temps les propriétaires les plus enragés,° etc., etc., although he 
also abused the peasants,— but enfin, dit-il, nos principes sont trop 
rapprochés les uns des autres pour que nous ne devions pas marcher 
ensemble; quant a nous nous vous appuyerons autant que sera dans notre 
pouvoir, etc., etc. 

a Decidedly, he is showing bad will. - » Reference to Engels’ articles published in 
The Northern Star in November 1847 and January 1848, among them ‘Split in the 
Camp.—The Réforme and the National—March of Democracy’, ‘Reform Move- 
ment in France.—Banquet of Dijon’, “The “Satisfied” Majority...’ (the last two 
criticised the nationalist tendencies of Louis Blanc and Ledru-Rollin) and his article 
‘The Réforme and the National’ in the Deutsche-Briisseler-Zeitung, No. 104, 
30 December 1847. - © you are tending towards despotism, you will kill the revolution 
in France, we have eleven million small peasants who at the same time are the most 
fanatical property owners. - 4 after all, he said, our principles are too similar for us 
not to march together; as for us, we will give you all the support in our power. 

I was enormously tickled by the Mosi* business, although 
annoyed that it should have come to light. Apart from you, no one 
in Brussels knew of it save Gigot and Lupus—and Born, whom I 
told about it in Paris once when I was in my cups. Enfin, c’est égal. 
Moses brandishing his pistols, parading his horns before the whole 
of Brussels, and before Bornstedt into the bargain!!, must have 
been exquisite. Ferdinand Wolff's inventiveness over the minutes 
m'a fait crever de rire-—and Moses believes that! If, by the by, the 
jackass should persist in his preposterous lie about rape, I can 
provide him with enough earlier, concurrent, and later details to 
send him reeling. For only last July here in Paris this Balaam’s 
she-ass* made me, in optima forma, a declaration of love mingled 
with resignation, and confided to me the most intimate nocturnal 
secrets of her ménage! Her rage with me is unrequited love, pure 
and simple. For that matter, Moses came only second in my 
thoughts at Valenciennes, my first desire being to revenge myself 
for all the dirty tricks they had played on Mary.’ 

The strong wine proves to be no more than a '/; bottle of 
Bordeaux. It is only to be regretted that the horned Siegfried did 
not have his unhappy lot publicly minuted by the Workers’ 
Society.'** He is perfectly at liberty, by the way, to avenge himself 
on all my present, past and future mistresses, and for that purpose 
I commend to him 1) the Flemish giantess who lives at my former 
lodgings, 87 chaussée d’Ixelles au premier,” and whose name is 
Mademoiselle Joséphine, and 2) a Frenchwoman, Mademoiselle 
Félicie' who, on Sunday, the 23rd of this month, will be arriving 
in Brussels by the first train from Cologne on her way to Paris. It 
would be bad luck if he were to succeed with neither. Kindly pass 
on this information to him in order that he may appreciate my 
honourable intentions. ] wit ctve HIM Farr PLav.- 

It is nearly all up with Heine. I visited him.a fortnight ago and 
he was in bed, having had a nervous fit. Yesterday he was up but 
extremely ill, He can hardly manage three steps now; supporting 
himself against the wall, he crawls from armchair to bed and vice 
versa. On top of that, the noise in his house, cabinet-making, 
hammering, etc., is driving him mad. Intellectually he is also 
somewhat spent. Heinzen desired to see him but was not admitted. - 

a Moses Hess - > Well, no matter.-¢ made me split my sides with laughter - 
4 Sibylle Hess - € in due form - Mary Burns - 8 An allusion to Hess with a pun on 
the word gehörnte, which, when used to describe Siegfried, the hero of German epic 
literature, means ‘invulnerable’, but in other contexts means ‘cuckold’. - } on the first 
floor - } Félicité André 

I was also at Herwegh’s yesterday. Along with the rest of his 
family he has influenza and is much visited by old women. He told 
me that L. Blanc’s 2nd volume* has been quite eclipsed by the 
enormous success of Michelet’s 2nd volume.” I have not yet read 
either because shortage of money has prevented me from 
subscribing to the reading room. By the way, Michelet’s success can 
only be attributed to his suspension’ and his civic spirit. 

Things are going wretchedly with the League‘ here. Never have 
I encountered such sluggishness and petty jealousy as there is 
among these fellows. Weitlingianism and Proudhonism are truly 
the exact expression of these jackasses’ way of life and hence 
nothing can be done. Some are genuine Straubingers, ageing 
boors, others aspiring petty bourgeois. A class which lives, 
Irish-fashion, by depressing the wages of the French, is utterly 
useless.“I am now making one last attempt, st cela ne réussit pas, je 
me retire de cette espéce de propagande.“ 1 hope that the London 
papers* will arrive soon and help to liven things up somewhat 
again; then I shall strike while the iron is hot. Not yet having seen 
any results from the Congress, the fellows are naturally growing 
completely supine. I am in contact with several new workers 
introduced to me by Stumpf and Neubeck but as yet there is no 
knowing what can be made of them. 

Tell Bornstedt: 1) In the matter of his subscriptions,’ his 
attitude towards the workers here should not be so rigorously 
commercial, otherwise he'll lose them all; 2) the agent procured 
for him by Moses is a feeble Jeremiah and very conceited, but the 
only one who still will and can attend to the thing, so he had 
better not rub him up the wrong way; the fellow has, moreover, 
gone to great pains, but he can’t put in money—which, for that 
matter, he has done already. Out of the money coming in to him he 
has to cover the expenses correspondence, etc. involves for him; 3) 
if he is sending separate issues, he should never send more than 
10-15 at most of |...] one issue, and these as opportunity offers. The 
parcels go through Duchatel’s ministry, whence they have to be 
fetched at considerable expenditure in time’ and where the 
ministry exacts a fearsome postal charge in order to ruin this 
traffic. A parcel of this kind costs 6-8 francs, and what can one do 
if that’s what they ask? Esselens in Liége wanted to appoint a garde 

aL. Blanc, Histoire de la révolution frangaise, t. 2. - > J. Michelet, Histoire de la. 
révolution frangaise, t. 2. - © the Communist League - 4 if that doesn’t succeed, I shall 
give up this kind of propaganda. - € i. e. documents of the Second Congress of the 
Communist League - f to the Deutsche-Briisseler-Zeitung 

de convoi* to deliver it. Write to Liége and tell them this will be 
arranged. 4) The issues that were still here have been sent by third 
party to South Germany. Should occasion offer, Bornstedt should 
send us a few more issues to be used as propaganda in cafés, etc., 
etc. 5) Within the next few days Bornstedt will be receiving an 
article? and the thing about the Prussian finances. But you must 
again cast an eye over the part about the committees of 1843’ 
and alter it where necessary, since my memory of the subject was 
very hazy at the time of writing. 

If the Mosi business eventually leads to your attacking him in 
the Briisseler-Zeitung, I shall be delighted. How the fellow can still 
remain in Brussels, I fail to understand. En voila encore une occasion 
pour Vexiler a Verviers. The matter of the Réforme will be attended 
to. 

Your 
E. 
[On the back of the letter] 

Monsieur Philipp Gigot 

8.-Rue Bodenbroeck, Bruxelles