{Manchester,] Wednesday [12 February 1851] 

Dear Marx, 

I have just found your letter at home and am at once writing 
by today’s post to tell you that by the end of this or the beginning 
of next week at the latest, ] shall somehow arrange to send you 
the £1.10s. for Landolphe so that this business, which must be 
protracted no longer, is settled once and for all.* Notre ami? 
Landolphe has once again shown what an old woman he is, while 
the fatuous vanity of the hyperclever L. Blanc is taking such a 

* See this volume, p. 284. - > Our friend 

turn as to brand the sublime dwarf a fool pure and simple. C’est 
bien.* One comes to realise more and more that emigration is an 
institution which inevitably turns a man into a fool, an ass and a 
base rascal unless he withdraws wholly therefrom, and unless he is 
content to be an independent writer who doesn’t give a tinker’s 
curse for the so-called revolutionary party. It is a real school oF 
SCANDAL AND MEANNESS in Which the hindmost donkey becomes the 
foremost saviour of his country. At any rate the little popularity- 
monger will atone for it once we have a press organ again. As you 
know, I have none of my papers with me here, so I'd like you to 
suggest a few more sources on French affairs between 1830 and 1848 
which you may happen to know about, and I shall endeavour to 
shovel coals of fire, at least in a literary sense, under the worthy 
pretender’s backside. At all events, in my articles in The Friend of the 
People, 1 shall call on him to publish—provided you have no 
objection, since it was you to whom he told the story—the 
information given him by Mr Mazzini concerning the character 
of the European Central Committee and its attitude towards 
socialists and communists, and shall make such allusions as are 
necessary for this to be understood.*” Pourquoi nous génerions- 
nous?” 

Today Harney will be getting 3 articles by way of introduction, 
pretty lengthy, a gentle hint dropped here and there. The 
awkward part of it is that it’s difficult to attack Ledru & Co., 
without at least partially identifying oneself with the Willich- 
Barthélemy clique in the eyes of the English proletariat and 
Harney’s readers. Ultimately the only way out will be to devote a 
few special articles to that clique. Not, however, in the 
first 3 articles, which have been written for Harney’s benefit, to 
PUT HIM IN THE RIGHT TRACK, rather than' for any other purpose. But 
in numbers 4-9 Ledru, Mazzini, Ruge, etc., etc., will be attacked in 
rapid succession and in as direct and personal a manner as 
possible. 

The Willich affair is impayable“ Only do make sure that you get hold 
of the letters“ I’d like to witness the moral indignation when the 
bomb goes off. It would seem that for some time past you’ve again 
had good spies in Great Windmill Street **'; cela ne fait pas de mal 
and at least provides some entertainment. I confess I could never 
have thought the fellow so stupid. He will, incidentally, be well 
and truly on fire now that the Prussian ministerial press is holding 

a Well and good. - ' Why should we make any bones about it? - © priceless - 4 See 
this volume, p. 284. - € that does no harm : 

288 142, Engels to Marx. 12 February 1851 

out the prospect of war with Switzerland and the reserve 
guardsmen—as they were informed on parade—are being kept 
under arms for that very reason. The governments of the Holy 
Alliance?” are playing into the hands of these fantastic idiots in a 
truly irresponsible way and, were it not for Palmerston, the next 
‘emancipation of general stupidity’ might well see the light of day 
six months prematurely. 

Your latest economic discovery is at present being subjected to 
my most earnest scrutiny. I have no time today to go into it 
further, but the thing seems to me to be absolutely right. But 
figures are not to be trifled with and I am therefore considering 
the matter in detail. 

Quelle béte que ce Louis-Napoléon!* He sells his doubts about the 
electoral law to the assembly, and himself to Montalembert, for 
1,800,000 fr. which in the end he does not get after all.*° There's 
nothing you can do with an adventurer of this stamp. If, for the 
space of four weeks, he allows himself to be guided by ingenious 
intriguers, you may be quite sure that, come the fifth, he will in 
the most fatuous fashion bring to nought all that has been 
accomplished. Aut Caesar aut Clichy!” 

Not long ago we inaugurated a new Cnartist Locauiry here. 
These English are far less conscientious than we honest, timid 
Germans in the matter of democratic forms. There were thirteen 
of us, and it was immediately resolved to elect a counci: of thirteen 
members, namely those present. ‘Thereupon each man proposed 
one of those present and, in place of myself, since I, of course, 
refused, one who was absent and, in less than five minutes, these 
PRIVATE GENTLEMEN had turned themselves into a councn, and yet each 
one of them had been elected, and this comical proceeding PASSED OFF 
VERY SERIOUSLY AND AS A MATTER OF Course. What will come of this business 
I shall see ere long. For today, prosit‘ 

Your 
FL E.