{London,] 9 December 1851 
28 Dean Street, Soho 

Dear Frederic, 

I have kept you waiting for an answer, quite Bewildered by the 
tragi-comic sequence of events in Paris. Unlike Willich, I couldn't 
say: ‘Strange, we’ve had no advice from Paris!’ Nor, like Schapper, 
declare myself and my pot of beer a permanent fixture at 
Scharttner’s. To save the fatherland, Schapper and a few of his 
satellites slept two nights at Scharttner’s on the pretext of holding 
a vigil. These gentlemen, like Léwe of Calbe and his like, had 
packed their malles* but, discretion being the better part of 
valour,” decided not to move there until the issue had been 
‘decided’. 

Have you read Louis Blanc’s Miserere‘? The other day Bernard 
le Clubiste protested that he had not been a co-signatory of this 
jeremiad. , 

Enclosed a letter from Reinhardt from Paris and the ‘drunken 
gossip’ I spoke to you about when I was in Manchester.“ 

Pieper is here again, highly delighted with himself. He is leaving 
the Rothschilds but continuing to give German lessons there; 
Madame has given him notice as resident private tutor. Since 
writing to me last he has done nothing, seen nothing and heard 
nothing in connection with my Proudhon business.* It seems to me 
that he has treated the translation as his own work, ce qui n’est pas. 

Maintenant, what can | tell you about the situation? This much 
is clear, the proletariat has spared its strength. For the time being 
Bonaparte is victorious because, overnight, he transformed the 
open ballot into a secret one. With the million f sterling 
purloined, despite all d’Argout’s posthumous protestations, from 
the bank, he has bought the army. Will his coup again succeed if 
the vote goes against him? Will the majority vote at all? The 
Orléans have left for France. It is difficult, indeed impossible, to 

4 trunks - > Cf. Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part One, Act 5, Scene 4. - © Address of the 
French Exiles to Their Countrymen, by Bernard le Clubiste, Louis Blanc and 
others, The Daily News, 5 December 1851. -4 See this volume, p. 492. - € The 
planned publication of The Poverty of Philosophy in German -‘ which is not 
so ~ § Now 

18* 

make any prognostication in a drama with Krapiilinski* for its 
hero. At all events it seems to me that the situation has improved 
rather than deteriorated as a result of the coup d’état. It is easier 
to deal with Bonaparte than it would have been with the National 
Assembly and its generals. And the dictatorship of the National 
Assembly was imminent. 

Capital, the disappointment of Techow & Co., who, without 
more ado, saw in the French army les apétres de la trinité 
démocratique, de la liberté, de lVégalité, de la fraternité. Les pauvres 
hommes!” And Messrs Mazzini and Ledru can also now sleep easy. 
The catastrophe was the powyra.t of the émigrés. It has been 
shown that they are pour rien‘ in the revolution. For these 
gentlemen had resolved to suspend world history until Kossuth’s 
return. Apropos, the penny subscription for the latter in London 
yielded exactly 100d., pronounced pence. 

Salut. 

Your 
K. M. 

Apropos, didn’t I send you a letter from Pieper to me, written 
in French? If so, let me have it back by return.