London, 17 March 1851 

Dear Engels, 

1 haven’t written for a week. For one thing, I too had influenza, 
out of elective affinity. For another, was criblé de petites miséres, all 
of which came to a head this fateful week. 

a W. F. P. Napier, History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France, from 
the Year 1807 to the Year 1814. - > Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistolae. - © riddled with 
minor ailments 

Enclosed you will find the Chevalier de Willich’s hilarious 
letters.* 

Heinzen’s disgusting rag” contains what purports to be a letter 
from Paris, concocted here in London, in which, I need hardly 
say, we two are attacked first, and then Rudolf Schramm, the 
deputy, because ‘he did not scruple to fritter away his wife’s 
money’, and then the ‘half-men Tausenau, Julius and Bucher’; 
finally, and with much bitterness, the great Kinkel. Heinzen will 
never, ever, forgive him for competing with him in the begging 
business. Praise is meted out only to the great Ruge and Struve. In 
this letter from Paris, Ruge lets it be said that he made a 
one-day excursion from Brighton to London. This scandal- 
mongering article derived from gossip in a private letter from 
Ruge and a private letter from Bamberger, i.e. two diametrically 
opposed accusations, thrown together and edited by Heinzen. 

The great banquet, where Ruge performed the part of the 
‘Infinite Dullard’—Wolff* and Liebknecht heard him with their 
own ears—was not attended by deputies from either Berlin or 
Frankfurt." They don’t want a Ruge-Struve hegemony.” The 
R. Schramm, Count Reichenbach (the Frankfurt Reichenbach, not 
the party’s beard),° and Oppenheim, Bucher clique and, finally, 
Julius off his own bat, have all resumed their intrigues against the 
deities of duliness. Of course for noble reasons. Je vous dis, de la 
merde, la merde tout pure, toute cette canaille-la! 

At the banquet Kinkel, who is publishing the scandalous 
allegations about us, adopted his best red morocco manner, to 
speak wistfully of conciliation, ‘from the simple champion of the 
Constitution even unto the red republican.’ 

All the jackasses, while sighing for a republic, and Kinkel even 
on occasion for a red republic, paid the most abject homage to the 
English Constitution, a contradiction to which even the innocent 
Morning Chronicle deigned to draw their attention as being short 
on logic. 

Nothing further about Landolphe. As befits an homme d’hon- 
neur, he goes his way unruffled by the knowledge of being a Grec" 
unmasked. 

a See this volume, p. 314.-> Deutsche Schnellpast-¢ Ferdinand Wolff - 4 ice. 
deputies of the Prussian National Assembly of 1848 and the All-German National 
Assembly of 1848-49 in Frankfurt am Main - € i.e. Oskar Reichenbach, not Eduard 
Reichenbach - f Shits, J tell you, shits pure and simple, all this canaille. - 8 man of 
honour - » Greek (here: cheat) 

The Blanqui comedy was not yet over. Vidil, the ancien 
capitaine; sent the Patrie? a statement in which he declared that his 
sense of honour and feeling for truth compelled him to make a 
statement to the effect that, in the original statement, L. Blanc, 
and all the others including himself, had been lying. The 
committee had consisted of 13 persons, not 6. All of them had 
been shown Blanqui’s toast and all of them had discussed it. He 
had been among the 6. A few days later the noble Barthélemy, 
without having seen this letter, also sent a statement to the Patrie‘ 
saying that he had received the toast but had not informed the 
others; he thus reveals himself to be a threefold liar. Beneath this 
letter, the Patrie appended the remark that it would accept 
nothing more from these jackasses. Its introductory comment was 
as follows: 

‘Nous nous sommes demandés souvent—et la question est difficile 4 résoudre— 
qui l'emportait chez les démagogues, de la vantardise ou de la stupidité? Une 
quatriéme lettre de Londres augmente encore notre perplexité 4 cet égard. Ils sont 
la nous ne savons combien de pauvres diables, tourmentés a tel point de la rage 
d’écrire et de voir leurs noms cités dans les journaux réactionnaires, qu’ils ne 
reculent pas méme devant la perspective d’une confusion et d’une dépréciation 
sans borne. Peu leur importe la risée et Yindignation publiques: le ‘Journal des 
Débats’, ‘l’Assemblée nationale’ et la ‘Patrie’, inséreront leur prose; pour obtenir ce 
bonheur, rien ne coüte 4 la Démocratie cosmopolite etc. Nous accueillons donc au 
nom de la commisération littéraire, la lettre suivante du citoyen Barthélemy... C’est 
une nouvelle, et nous lespérons bien, une derniére preuve a l'appui du trop 
célébre toast Blanqui, qu’ils ont tous nié d’abord, et pour l’affirmation duquel ils se 
prennent maintenant aux cheveux.’4 

Is that not supers? 
I received your Post Orrice orver. If you pay such rates of 

a former captain - > La Patrie, No. 69, 10 March 1851. -¢ La Patrie, No. 71, 12 
March 1851. On the statement of Blanqui and others see this volume, p. 313. - 4 ‘We 
have often asked ourselves, and it is a difficult question to answer, whether 
the demagogues are notable more for their beastfulness or their stupidity. A 
fourth letter from London has increased our perplexity. There they are, we do not 
know how many poor wretches, who are so tormented by the longing to write and 
to see their names published in the reactionary press that they are undeterred even 
by the prospect of infinite humiliation and mortification. What do they care for the 
laughter and the indignation of the public—the Journal des Débats, the Assemblée 
nationale and the Patrie will publish their stylistic exercises; to achieve this no cost 
to the cause of cosmopolitan democracy can be too high.... In the name of literary 
commiseration we therefore include the following letter from “citizen” Bar- 
thélemy—it is a novel, and, we hope, the last proof of the authenticity of Blanqui’s 
famous toast whose existence they first all denied and now fight among themselves for 
the right to acknowledge. P. Mayer, [Comments on Barthélemy’s letter,] La Patrie, 
No. 71, 12 March 1851. 

interest in your business, either your profits or your losses must be 
vast. 

Don’t forget to write to Dronke. Galeer is dead. Hence enclosed 
to be sent to Th. Schuster in Frankfurt. 

Your 
K. Marx