{Manchester,] Wednesday, 26 February [1851] 

Dear Marx, 

Your letter of the 23rd, postmarked the 25th, arrived this 
morning. In future you should always write to me ‘care of Messrs 
Ermen & Engels, Manchester’. Your letters will reach me more 
surely and quickly since my homecomings are often irregular, and 
in any case the letters addressed to my lodgings are sometimes 
delivered by the post to the office—where I go at least once a day 
anyway. If possible send them by the first evening post from 
London — up till 6 from Charing Cross, or half past five from the 
smaller offices, and the letters will certainly reach the office by ten 
the next morning. 

You forgot to enclose the letter from Dronke. Send it soon, as I 
want to write to him, particularly so as to resume my correspon- 
dence with Lupus, of whose whereabouts I know nothing, as I 
receive no reply to any of my letters.*”? If you would rather not 
bear the cost of postage of overseas letters and of pre-paid replies, 
send them, or have them addressed, to me, and I shall charge it to 
the firm. 

According to the Constitutionnel, d’Ester has been banished from 
Switzerland and has already left— en sais-tu quelque chose*? 

Your atlas> has been saved. In the end I refused to sell it and 
am keeping it here for the time being as J need it badly; I am now 
reading the history of the Consulat and Empire in the works of 
French and English historians, particularly military. The best I 
have found so far in this tine is W. P. Napier (now General), 
History of the War in the Peninsula Like all Napiers, the fellow has 
his quirks but also an enormous amount of common sense and, what 
is more, shows a very true eye in evaluating Napoleon’s military 
and administrative genius. A Frenchman would be_ utterly 
incapable of writing such a book. So far as historical reliability and 
even correct judgment are concerned, Thiers‘ is no whit better 

ado you know anything about it? - > Historischer und geographischer Atlas von 
Europa -¢ A reference to A. Thiers’ Histoire du Consulat et de U'Empive. 

than that wretched Tory, Southey, late port raureate, who has 
also written a history of the Peninsular War replete with invec- 
tive and rodomontade.* Napier, however, gives too much prom- 
inence to his commander-in-chief, Wellington, but I haven't 
yet read enough of his account to be able to give a definite 
opinion. 

I shall take due note of the information on citoyens Blanc and 
Harney. As yet [ have heard nothing from the latter. I rather 
suspected that his spiritus familiaris‘ had a finger in this pie. She 
has unbounded admiration for great men, and has become 
generally increasingly disagreeable. He must, incidentally, be made 
to feel this when he turns up again. As for that litthe man Blanc, it 
could do no harm if we were to go over his oeuvres completes’ at 
the earliest opportunity— you the Organisation du travail and the 
Histoire de la révolution, 1 the Dix ans, sauf a critiquer ensemble 
Vassociation du travail mise en pratique apres février, et les “Pages 
@histoire’* 1 shall be coming to London at Easter and something 
might be done then. The things themselves should be obtainable 
here cheaply in a Belgian reprint. Since my ploy with my old man 
has proved wholly successful, at least up till now, I can definitely 
settle down here, and shall in any case be sending for my books 
from Brussels. If you by chance have anything to be sent for from 
Cologne, let me know; I shall be writing to Daniels about my 
things in the next few days, and then it could all be sent in one 
parcel. NB. Everything, except English books reprinted on the 
Continent. How matters are developing with my old man, and the 
new ploy I had to think up, firstly, to prolong my indispensability 
here and 2, to spare myself undue work in the office, I will tell 
you when we meet; in any case Easter is only six weeks away and 
it’s an involved story. What is certain is that my old man is going 
to pay through the nose in cash to compensate me for everything, 
especially once he’s been here and I’ve got him even further 
embroiled. The difficulty is this: to be given an official appoint- 
ment vis-a-vis the Ermens as my old man’s representative, and yet 
to have no official appointment within the firm here, which would 
involve working for and drawing a salary from the firm. I hope, 
however, to bring it off; my old man is enchanted with my 
business letters and he regards my remaining here as a great 

4 R. Southey, History of the Peninsular War. -> citizens - ¢ familiar spirit (Harney’s 
wife) - 4 complete works -¢ save that we shall. jointly criticise the labour 
association as put into practice after February, and the Pages d’histoire (a reference to 
L. Blanc’s Pages d’histoire de la révolution) 

sacrifice on my part. Ceci me vaut, ou me vaudra sous peu, £5 
additionelles par mois, sauf additions futures.* 

Your 
F. E. 

Don’t forget to send me the titbits from Cologne with which to 
solace my loneliness, as soon as you have received and read them.”