[Manchester,] Wednesday, 19 March 1851 

Dear Marx, 

The business of Blanqui’s toast is coming on very nicely 
indeed. Vidil’s statement* with regard to Louis Blanc is priceless— 
the fellow branded a common liar in the eyes of France and 
England. Barthélemy has got himself wonderfully embroiled. — 
There’s part of your letter I don’t understand: Vidil declares: “The 
committee had consisted of 13 persons, not 6.... He had been 
among the 6.’ Who are the 6? The signatories of the first 
statement or, perhaps, the faction which voted in favour of 
reading out Blanqui’s toast? *** 

The tittle-tattle among the Germans also makes agreeable 
reading. I saw the account of the banquet in the Daily 
News—-since the thing was respectable it was an occasion which 
even Mr Mazzini felt able to attend without embarrassment. 
‘General Haug in the chair!’ That fellow shows promise of 
becoming a caricature of Général Dubourg as he was in 1830. To 
judge by the advertisement in The Times, Gohringer’s Golden Star 
TAVERN 18 NOW very RESPECTABLE. Since I must collect together all the 
tittle-tattle, it might not be a bad idea to send out a patrol to 

a La Patrie, No. 69, 10 March 1851. - & The banquet held on 13 March 1851 to 
celebrate the anniversary of the revolution in Vienna on 13 March 1848 (The Daily 
News, 14 March 1851). 

reconnoitre there— il s’en trouvera bien un qui voudra mettre son nez 
dans cette merde-la, méme au risque d’étre mis a la porte.* 

Last—but not least—the Willichiana” did a great deal to enliven 
my breakfast this morning. What a numskull! How he could 
regard Schramm’s‘ letter as an answer to his first one, I really 
cannot conceive. But the chance of a military dictatorship in the 
Rhine province, without a press to plague him, sapristi,’ that would 
be quite enough to turn the dense oaf’s head. Capitaine d’armes* 
and sergeant, no more nor less! Social revolution by means of 
providing paupers’ victuals for Landwehr families; statistics 
reduced to a register of ‘rations, livestock, vehicles, and troops’! 
This plan for revolution knocks into a cocked hat the earlier one 
for conquering Germany with 5,000 men. If that doesn’t make 
sense to the Landwehr, one can only despair of humankind. ‘I 
would take a few men with me and call upon others’—and do you 
know what the fellow’s intention was? ‘Citizen Karl Marx is called 
upon to present himself in Cologne within 48 hours and to take 
charge of public finance and social reforms under the supervision 
and control of Citizen Gebert. Failure to comply with this order 
and any contrariness or argument, as also unseemly jokes, will be 
punishable with death. Citizen Marx will be provided with a guard 
of one corporal and six men.’—And now, hearken to what this 
fellow says of Schapper: ‘Nous ne voulons plus de jouisseurs!’' So 
even the spartan por HALF and HALF and the fat pig’s unresisting 
inamorata count for sybaritism with this self-sufficient sergeant 
who tipples gratis. Indeed, who knows whether, if Cologne were to 
be besieged, the fat pig would not imitate the conduct of the noble 
Palafox at Saragossa who, throughout the whole of the second (the 
real) siege of Saragossa,**° never put in an appearance because, 
together with 3-4 dissolute fellows and a crowd of whores, he was 
busying himself among the wine barrels in the bomb-proof cellar 
of a convent, and didn’t show his nose until the time came to 
conclude the capitulation. 

But to what is Willich replying in the third, jubilant letter which 
betrays a certainty of victory and a lack of nothing but funds? Had 
Schramm written him a second one, or had Becker replied to 
Willich’s 2nd letter? Explique-moi cela and let me know whether 
you need the things back yet; I'd like to keep them here for the 
present so that I can occasionally make what notes J want. 

a there’s sure to be someone prepared to nose about in that muck, even at the risk 
of being thrown out - > i.e. Willich’s letters to Hermann Becker, see this volume, p. 
314.-¢ Conrad Schramm -¢ great heavens - ¢ Master-at-arms -' We will no 
longer tolerate sybarites. - 8 Explain that to me 

Speculation in railways is again reaching dazzling heights—since 
1 January most shares have risen by 40 per cent, and the worst 
ones more than any. Ca promet!?* 

Your 
F. Engels