[London,] 13 October 1851 
28 Dean Street, Soho 

Dear Engels, 

You'll have seen in the Kolnische Zeitung that I’ve made a 
statement” refuting the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung’s nonsense.‘ 
The tittle-tattle was becoming altogether too wild. The ruffians’ 

4 Roland - » K. Marx, ‘Statement and Accompanying Letter to the Editorial Board of 
the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung, 4 October 1851’. - © Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 273, 30 

intention, in Jaunching the recent series of prolonged attacks in all 
the German newspapers, was, I am quite sure, to place me on the 
horns of a dilemma. Either I must publicly disown the conspiracy 
and hence our party friends, or I must publicly acknowledge 
it, thus committing an act of treason ‘in law’. However, these 
gentlemen are too clumsy to catch us out. 

On 29 September Weydemeyer sailed for New York from Le 
Havre. There he met Reich, who was also crossing the ocean to 
the Atlantic regions. Reich had been arrested with Schramm * and 
reports that the police found Schramm in possession of a copy of 
the minutes containing the transaction which caused his duel with 
Willich, the minutes, that is, of that same evening when he 
insulted Willich and walked out of the meeting.*” The thing was 
written in his own hand and was unsigned. In this way the police 
found out that his name was Schramm and not ‘Bamberger’ on 
whose passport he was staying in Paris. On the other hand the 
minutes have added to the confusion of Messrs Chief of the City 
Police Weiss & Co. in that our names thus became mixed up in the 
dirty business. Since it was Schramm who committed this blunder, 
it is at least gratifying that this man of honour is himself being 
punished for it. 

So the £160 sent from America has been used by Kinkel to go 
collecting in America in person, accompanied by his saviour, 
Schurz.° Whether he’s going at the right time, in view of the 
Present pressure ON THE AMERICAN MONEY-Market, WOuld seem doubtful. 
He chose the moment so as to arrive before Kossuth, and likes to 
imagine that he will have some opportunity of publicly embracing 
the latter in the land of the future and of seeing the legend 
‘Kossuth and Kinkel!’ in all the newspapers. 

On the strength of his clamour over the emancipation of 
slaves, Mr Heinzen succeeded in forming a new joint-stock compa- 
ny in New York and is continuing to run his paper‘ under a 
somewhat modified title. 

Stechan—never trust a Straubinger*’—has been here for 
several weeks in Willich-Schapper’s retinue. While the fact remains 
that the letters he wrote to the cockroach Dietz are now in the 
possession of the Hanover police, Stechan has written an article 

September 1851] carried in a supplement an item datelined ‘Cologne, 26 September’ in 
which the arrests of the Communist League members in Cologne were linked with 
information allegedly received by Baroness von Beck from Marx. 

2 See this volume, p. 457. - > ibid., p. 439. - © Deutsche Schnellpost 

for the Norddeutsche Zeitung* in which he reports that Mr Dietz’s 
desk was broken into (quelle bétise!)" and that was how the letters 
were purloined. The spy, as has now been established, was Haupt 
of Hamburg, who had long been in the service of the police. How 
fortunate that a few weeks ago I forestalled any overt moves in the 
Dietz-Stechan affair. As for Haupt, I’ve heard nothing more of 
him, and am vainly racking my brains to find some way of having 
a letter conveyed to him in person, for Haupt has got to declare 
himself. I’ve already tried to do so through Weerth but Haupt’s 
fellow lodgers always turned him away on the pretext that he 
wasn’t in. Que penses-tu de Haupt?* I’m convinced that he isn’t a spy 
and never has been. 

Edgar Bauer is also said to be here. I have not yet seen him. A 
week ago Blind and his wife (Madame Cohen) arrived to visit the 
exhibition and left again on Sunday last. I didn’t see him again 
after the Monday, and this because of the following absurd 
incident, which will show you how very much henpecked the 
wretched man is. Today I received a locally posted letter in which . 
he announces his departure. Now, the previous Monday he had 
come to see me with his wife. Others present were Freiligrath, red 
Wolff" (who, be it said in passing, has crept back again all 
unobtrusively and has, moreover, married an English bluestock- 
ing), Liebknecht, and the luckless Pieper. The wife is a vivacious 
Jewess and we were laughing and chatting quite merrily when the 
father of all lies° brought the conversation round to religion. She 
was showing off on atheism, Feuerbach, etc. I attacked Feuer- 
bachus, but very civilly, of course, and in a most affable way. At 
first it seemed to me that the Jewess was enjoying the discussion 
which, of course, was the only reason why I had engaged in this 
boring topic. In between whiles my dogmatically obtrusive echo, 
Mr Pieper, held forth—but not exactly in a tactful manner. 
Suddenly I noticed that the woman was in floods of tears. Blind 
was casting sorrowfully expressive glances in my direction, she 
decamped—and was not seen again,’ ni lui non plus It was 
something the like of which I had never seen before in all my long 
experience. 

Pieper has set sail for Frankfurt am Main with the house of 
Rothschild. He has acquired a most disagreeable habit of butting 

a G. L. Stechan, ‘Hannover, 28 September’, Zeitung für Norddeutschland, No. 544, 29 
September 1851.-> what a stupidity!-¢ What do you think of Haupt? - 
d Ferdinand Wolff -¢ the devil—see Dante, The Divine Comedy, ‘Heil’, XXVII. - 
£ Goethe, ‘Der Fischer’. - 8 and neither was he 

in on my conversations with other people in a very fatuous, 
pedantic tone. 

What they have just learnt, they must needs teach others forthwith. 
Ah me, what a short gut these gentry have! 

The honourable Goéhringer has sent me a summons for the 22nd 
of this month because of the old demand. At the same time the 
great man set off for Southampton to welcome Kossuth. It would 
seem that I am to pay for the reception ceremonies. 

I have had 2 letters from Paris, one from Ewerbeck and one 
from Sasonow. Mr Ewerbeck is publishing an immortal work: 
L’Allemagne et les Allemands. Ranging from Arminius the Cherus- 
can (his actual words) to the year of Our Lord 1850. He asks me 
for biographical-literary-historical notes on 3 men: F. Engels, 
K. Marx and B. Bauer. The muck’s already printing. Que faire?” I 
fear that if we don’t send the fellow any answer at all, he will 
spread the most arrant nonsense about us. Write and tell me what 
you think about this. 

The most interesting thing about Sasonow’s letter at any rate is 
the postmark, ‘Paris’. How does Sasonow come to be in Paris 
just when things are so difficult? I shall ask him to explain this 
mystere. He, for his part, goes into long complaints about Dronke’s 
being a fainéant and allowing himself to be enjéler’ by a few 
bourgeois. He says he has translated half the Manifesto“ 
Dronke had apparently undertaken to translate the other half 
but, because of his customary negligence and idleness, the whole 
thing had come to naught. This last is, indeed, just like our 
Dronke. 

After the rejection by Mr Campe of my offer regarding the 
anti-Proudhon pamphlet, and by Mr Cotta and, later, Lowenthal 
of the one (transmitted through Ebner in Frankfurt) concerning 
my Economy, there would at last appear to be some prospect for 
the latter.“ I shall know in a week whether anything will come of 
it. It's a publisher in Dessau‘ and through Ebner too. This man 
Ebner is a friend of Freiligrath’s. 

I haven’t yet had a letter from the Tribune, which I have not so 
much as seen, but J don’t doubt that the thing is going ahead.¥ At 
any rate it’s bound to resolve itself in a few days’ time. 

By the way, you must at long last let me have your vues" on 

a F. Schiller, ‘Die Sonntagskinder’. - » What’s to be done? - © lazybones - “4. cajoled - 
© K. Marx and F. Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party. - Friedrich Suchsland - 
& the publishing of Engels’ Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany. =) views 

17* 

Proudhon,* however brief. They are of particular interest to me 
since I am now in the throes of working out the Economy. 
Incidentally, during my recent visits to the library, which I 
continue to frequent, I have been delving mainly into technology, 
the history thereof, and agronomy, so that I can form at least 
some sort of an opinion of the stuff. 

Quest ce que fait la crise commerciale?” The Economist is full of the 
anodynes, assurances and appeals which regularly precede a crisis. 
However, one senses its fear as it seeks to dispel the fears of 
others. If you happen to come upon the following book: Johnston, 
Notes on North America, 2 vols., 1851, you will find all manner of 
interesting information in it. For this Johnston is the English 
Liebig. An atlas of physical geography by ‘Johnston’, not to be 
confused with the above, may perhaps be had from one 
of Manchester’s lending libraries. It is a compilation of all 
the most recent as well as earlier research in this field. Costs 
10 guineas. Thus not meant for private individuals. Not a word 
from our pear Harney. He would seem to be still living in Scot- 
land. 

The English admit that, at the industrial exhibition, the 
Americans carried off the prize and beat them at everything. 
1. Gutta-percha. New materials and new industries. 2. Weapons. 
Revolvers. 3. Machines. Reapers, seed drills and sewing-machines. 
4. Daguerreotypes, used for the first time on a large scale. 
5. Shipping, with their yacht. Finally, to show that they are also 
capable of producing luxury articles, they exhibited an enormous 
lump of Californian gold ore and beside it a golden service of 
vircin gold. 

Salut! 
Your 
K. Marx