{London,] 4 February 18524 
28 Dean Street, Soho 

Dear Engels, 

Weerth left this morning for Holland. Where will he go from 
there? I do not know and neither does Weerth himself perhaps. 
He was as always very much disgruntled at his lot and, as for ours, 
the only disagreeable thing about it seemed to him our being 
forced to remain here in London instead of Cadiz, Saragossa, or 
some other confounded place in Spain. Indeed, since he’s been 
living in Yorkshire again, Weerth has been saying that the time 
spent in Spain was the best in his life. He maintains that he can’t 
stand the English climate and may therefore find that of Holland 
very comfortable. Let us wish him le bon voyage and wait and’ see 
whether he keeps his word and remembers about. Weydemeyer. 

a See this volume, p. 24. -° if necessary - © Die Revolution - 4 The original has 
1851. 

My ‘LETTER To THE Editor' was sent to The Times last Thursday,* il 
y a donc presque une semaine.” It would seem that this paper, now 
that it makes a métier of polemicising against Bonaparte, deems it 
necessary to spare Prussia. So you must approach The Daily News. 
If that, too, misfires, which I doubt, there still remains The 
Spectator. Il est presque stir‘ 

Yesterday G. J. Harney sent me the first issue of his resuscitated 
and somewhat enlarged Friend of the People.” If that’s what he 
withdrew from the world for 8 months and buried himself in 
melancholy Scotland for...! But un seul passage suffira pour te faire 
gotiter ce fruit délicieux: 

* Justice— Immutable, Universal, Eternal— proclaims the sublime principle which 
will be, at once, our guiding star, the rule of our conduct, and the test, etc.’** 

En voila assez!! Bonaparte, however, he has adequately chastised 
by calling him ‘Louis THE Base’. 

I do not know whether our eExpEar sent me his little paper in 
order to wring our hearts or whether, out of spite towards us, he 
has become even more tritely democratic than we would have 
believed possible. By the by, alongside the platitudes and the 
‘JUSTICE IMMUTABLE there are barefaced tricks played by the TRapinc 
pemacocug. Against Jones—via the ‘spirit oF FREEDOM’, via that sPOUTER 
Massey, secretary of the Tailors’ Association of Castle Street, 
lickspittle to the clerics who keep this suor. Herald, a tort et a travers 
of the petits grands hommes” whom the Continent has spewed out, 
calumniator of Jones, married to a saltimbanque' who has duped 
him into believing that she is clairvoyant—he gets this Massey to 
have an apologia published for the associations in general and the 
AMALGAMATED Society in particular, a piece which threatens to 
extend over numerous issues.** And Rhadamanthus Harney had 
told Jones in person that au fond’ he shared his views on the 
Associations. At the same time he announces: ‘Kossutn’s RECEPTION 
AND Procress In AMERICA’,* although in a letter to Jones he described 
Kossuth as a Humbug. That is what the gentlemen of ‘SUBLIME PRINCIPLE’ 
are like. fe ne sais que c'est que des principes, sinon des régles qu’on 

4 See this volume, p. 24. - > ie. nearly a week ago - © It is almost a certainty. - 
4 But a single passage will suffice to give you the flavour of this delicious 
fruit - © (G, J. Harney,} ‘Prologue’, The Friend of the People, No. 1, 7 February 
1852. - £ That’s enough! - 8 An allusion to the journal Spirit of Freedom edited by 
Massey. - without rhyme or reason; petty panjandrums -‘ a charlatan - 
i basically -* A. Bell’s article ‘Reception and Progress of Kossuth in the United 
States’, The Friend of the People, No. 2, 14 February 1852. 

prescrit aux autres pour soi. Harney retired for a while, allowing 
Jones, with his tempérament fougueux,” to spoil the broth of 
popularity and then drink it himself. But even though he may 
harm Jones, he himself will achieve nothing. The _ fellow’s 
completely done for as a writer and also, according to Lupus who 
heard him spescu-making in Jones Street,’ as a speaker, but above 
all as a man. May the devil take these popular ‘movements, more 
especially when they are pacifiques. In the course of this Chartist 
agitation O’Connor has gone mad (have you read about his latest 
scene in court?),° Harney has gone stale and Jones bankrupt. 
Voila le dernier but de la vie dans tous les mouvements populaires.‘ 

Yesterday ‘Colonel Bangya’ came to see me. Amongst other 
things he said: ‘Kossuth made the following speech to the 
Hungarian refugees who had foregathered with him in London: 
“T will take care of you all but I demand that you all remain Joyal, 
devoted and attached to me. I am not such a fool as to sustain 
people who intrigue with my opponents. I demand that everyone 
declare himself unconditionally.”’ Thus the Humble Kossuth behind 
the scenes. I further learned from Bangya that Szemere, Kasimir 
Batthyany and Perczel (le général) are coming to London and will 
set up an anti-Kossuth committee. Lastly, the master mind behind 
the whole popce is Signore Mazzini. He is using Kossuth as a 
mouthpiece and, in his cabinet, regards himself as something of a 
Machiavelli. It is he who pulls the strings. But this gentleman is 
unaware that the puppets he causes to dance are heroes only in 
his own eyes and in no one else’s. Thus he wrote and told Kossuth 
to get on intimate terms with Kinkel, saying that he personally had 
been unable to do so because he already had the other lot of 
German bigwigs sur le bras’; Kossuth must now really make friends 
with Kinkel and Kinkel must write in all his letters about his 
worthy, his eminent friend and “equal’’, Kossuth. As for Kossuth, 
however, his idea is to lean on Germany’s dictator, Kinkel, on the 
one hand, and on Italy’s dictator, Mazzini, on the other, and to 
secure his rear with his ally, the dictator of France, Ledru-Rollin. 
The poor devil has sunk low. 

A Frenchman, Massol by name, has paid me a visit. For a short 
spell he was on the Réforme under Lamennais. Formerly one of 
the civilisateurs whom Mohammed Ali had summoned from 
Gaul,”’ he is also one of the few hommes d’esprit' still to be found 

a I don’t know what principles are unless rules which one prescribes for others for 

banat ce te Pr he 
one’s own benefit. - > fiery temperament - © That is the ultimate end of life in all 
popular movements. - ¢ on his hands - © civilisers - £ men of wit 

3* 

among the French. According to him, Sasonow’s stay in Paris 
(which, by the way he must now leave) is wholly attributable to his 
possession of a very reliable false passport and to his connections 
with a few femmes galantes* who have ir.vence in the top circles. 
You will like Massol. 

In addition J have seen les citoyens> Valliéres (former Barbésiste 
and officer at the barricades), Bianchi and Sabatier. ‘Though very 
refined, the latter is en général not above the usual run. 

Dronke, I hear, is in Savoy. 

Bangya has suggested that Szemere and Perczel should write for 
Weydemeyer. What are the main points in the Hungarian business 
(military or otherwise) upon which elucidation should be sought 
from these gentlemen? It goes without saying that they must not 
write under their own names, for we do not want to identify 
ourselves with any coterie. But Perczel is du moins bon républicain, 
and very knowledgeable. 

Be so good—and mind you don’t forget—as to send me the 
Tribunes. Johnson—Freiligrath’s friend-— wants to read the articles 
on Germany.” Lupus wants to write an’ anti-Kossuth piece for 
Weydemeyer. 

As for the commercial business, I can no longer make head or 
tail of it. At one moment crisis seems imminent and the Crry 
prostrated, the next everything is set fair. I know that none of this 
will have any impact on the catastrophe. But at the present 
moment London is not the place in which to observe the current 
‘tendency. 

Salut. 

Your 
K. M. 

The matter of the seal is highly suspect.* Send this one back to 
me; I have examined it minutely.