{London,| Saturday, 13 September 1851 
28 Dean Street, Soho 

Dear Engels, 

Did you in fact—while your brother* was there—get a letter 
from me? I ask, because you don’t mention it, not on account of 
its contents. It contained only gossip, although even that might as 

4 probably Hermann Engels 

well be kept on record. But I would rather it didn’t fall into the 
hands of strangers. 

Your various letters, including the one with the five pounds, 
have arrived here safely. 

Kinkel is now making his tour of northern England. Hasn’t he 
been to Manchester yet? 

Little has happened here since the matter referred to in my last 
letter. A week ago yesterday (Friday), Count Reichenbach* 
announced his resignation from the general refugee society. You, 
too, Brutus? Sigel,’ etc., who had still not definitively resigned, 
have now done so. Willich, however, is conducting a campaign 
against the ‘Lumpenproletariat’ among the refugees. As yet I’ve had 
no report of the sitting held yesterday evening. 

There has also been a split in the Italian committee.’ An 
appreciable minority has resigned. Mazzini gives a sorrowful 
account of the event in the Voix du Peuple. The main causes would 
appear to be: 

D’abord Dio. Ils ne veulent pas de dieu. Ensuite, et cest plus grave, ils 
reprochent a Maitre Mazzini de travailler dans lintérét autrichien en préchant 
Pinsurrection, d. h. en la précipitant. Enfin: Ils insistent sur un appel direct aux 
intéréts matériels des paysans italiens, ce qui ne peut se faire sans attaquer de 
Vautre cété les intéréts matériels des bourgeois et de la noblesse libérale qui 
forment la grande phalange mazzinienne.4 

This last matter is exceedingly important. If Mazzini, or anyone 
else puts himself at the head of the Italian agitators and fails this time 
to transform the peasants, franchement and immédiatement, from 
métaires' into free landowners,—the condition of the Italian peasants 
is atrocious, [ have thoroughly mugged up the beastly subject—, the 
Austrian government will, in the event of revolution, have recourse 
to Galician methods.**' In the Lloyd it has already threatened ‘a 
complete transformation of the state of tenure’ and the ‘extermina- 
tion of the turbulent nobility’. If Mazzini’s eyes have not yet been 
opened, then he’s a dunderhead. Admittedly certain agitational 
interests are involved here. Where will he find the 10 million fr. if he 

2 Oskar Reichenbach -> Franz Sigel - © Marx probably means La Voix du 
Prascrit - 4 ‘Firstly, Dio. They don’t want a god. Next, and more serious, they blame 
Maitre Mazzini for working for the Austrian interest by preaching insurrection, i.e. by 
precipitating it. Finally, they insist on a direct appeal to the material interests of the 
Italian peasants, and this cannot be made without a corresponding attack on the 
material interests of the bourgeoisie and liberal nobility, who form the great 
Mazzinian phalanx. - © outright and immediately - f tenant share-croppers 

213. Engels to Marx. 19 September 185] 457 

antagonises the bourgeoisie? How retain the services of the nobility, 
if he informs them that their expropriation comes first on the 
agenda? Such are the difficulties encountered by a demagogue of the 
old school. 

Unfortunately those arrested in Paris include that rascal 
Schramm.**? The day before yesterday Liebknecht had a letter 
from the rogue, and we are faced with the agreeable prospect of 
having this dissolute character once again in our midst. But he'll 
get a bit of a shock, ce monsieur la!* You would greatly oblige me 
by sending me the essay for Dana by Tuesday morning?” 

Herewith letter from Dronke. By the by, should you write him a 
ietter, you must send it direct to his address. Schuster’s is by no 
means safe. In a day or two Vl] send you a note for him, to which 
you can add something before forwarding it to the little fellow.