[London,] 23 February [1852] 

Dear Frederic, 

I must again chivvy you about the Tribune since I am myself 
being chivvied daily by Johnson.” I would also ask you to send me 
such documents as you may have received from Weydemeyer. The 
address you gave for Weydemeyer was perfectly correct, 

Apropos. By Pfander’s account the Straubinger Richter is a 
creature of Willich’s. 

E. Jones has been puffing your article for all he is worth 
without, of course, mentioning your name.© He has _ been 
compelled thus to cry his wares by competition from Harney who 
has got hold of some money, the devil knows where from, and has 
large advertising waggons driving round the Crry, with the legend 
‘Reap THE Friend oF THE Peope’, the paper being displayed and on 
sale in all socialist shops. 

a K. Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. - b See this volume, pp. 32 
and 37.-°¢ F. Engels, ‘Real Causes Why the French Proletarians Remained 
Comparatively Inactive in December Last’. See also [E. Jones,| ‘Continental Notes’, 
Notes to the People, No. 43, 21 February 1852. 

I shall search out and send you the issue of the Tribune in 
which Mr Simon blows his own trumpet.” The incompetent 
nincompoop! He still goes on signing himself ‘Simon von Trier’. 
The fellow can’t make up his mind to dispense with his 
parliamentary nobility title. Seiler has read the translation of the 
crap in the Staatszeitung. You know how garbled his accounts 
always are. So far as I could gather it went something like this: 
Ludwig Simon von Trier, speaking on behalf of the Swiss émigrés, 
treats the great controversy between ‘Agitation’ (the name used by 
Ruge and Co. to conceal the dullness of their still-life) and 
‘Emigration’,” with the most prodigious pomposity, as Europe’s 
question briilante* from his ‘Alpine height’. At this juncture—and 
here Willich is also cited as a man of the utmost importance, all 
manner of diffuse reflections being proffered concerning the 
acquisition of this hero—he comes to the third of the dangerous 
parties in London, ‘the party of imposition’, the leaders of which are 
Engels and Marx. For we seek to impose ‘liberty’ on the peoples by 
force. We are worse tyrants than the Emperor of Russia. We were 
the first to treat ‘universal franchise’, etc., with ‘scorn and 
contumely’. And even before that, we ruined everything with our 
‘lust for imposition’. Le pauvre garcon!” Did we impose the Prussian 
Emperor,” the ‘March Associations’ *” or the Imperial Regent Vogt, 
on the Germans”? On him we shall impose a coup de pied“ So far 
as these jackasses are concerned, Bonaparte has lived in vain. 
They still go on believing in ‘universal franchise’, and are solely 
preoccupied with paltry calculations as to how they can again 
impose their rotten personalities on the German people. One can 
hardly believe one’s ears when one hears the fellows indefatigably 
bawling out the same old tune again. They are proper blockheads, 
incorrigible blockheads. As to how the vain little rogue found his 
way into the Tribune, I am in no doubt. Le citoyen Frébel aura été 
Vhomme intermédiaire.” He has long been connected with Dana. 

Enclosed a letter from Reinhardt, which contains some pretty 
cancans.* 

Russell has been overthrown in the drollest possible manner.” I 
can ask nothing more than that Derby should take the helm. 
During this short session you will have seen how pitiable the 
Manchester men™ can be when not driven by la force des choses.‘ I 
don’t hold it against these fellows. Each successive democratic 

4 burning question - » Poor chap! - ¢ a kick - 4 Citizen Frébel will have acted as 
intermediary. - © gossip. Excerpts from Reinhardt’s letter see on pp. 47-49 of this 
volume. - § force of circumstances 

victory, e.g. the satLot,” is a concession which, of course, they 
make to the workers only en cas d’urgence.* 

Yesterday I was talking to a French mercuant just come from 
Paris. Business wretched. And do you know what the jackass said? 
Bonaparte fait pire que la république. Les affaires allaient mieux. It is 
truly fortunate that the French bourgeois should always hold their 
government responsible for commercial crises. No doubt 
Bonaparte is also to blame for the unemployment in New York 
and the bankruptcies in London. 

Another very interesting piece of information (tu sens ici 
Vinfluence de Villustre Seiler‘) about Bonaparte. Bangya, as I have 
already told you, is connected with Szemere and Batthyany." He is 
an agent of the latter’s. He confided to me that Batthyany and 
Czartoryski are in collusion with Bonaparte and see him nearly 
every day. He wants to secure allies behind the backs of Russia 
and Austria amongst the aristocratic émigrés and those streaming 
in from Poland and Hungary and has, moreover, definitely told 
them that, in spite of Nicholas and all the rest, he is going to 
invade Belgium and perhaps Baden as well, and this in the near 
future. 

Ewerbeck has sent me 12 copies of his bulky work, L’Allemagne 
et les Allemands. One for you. Nothing quite like it has ever been 
seen or heard of before. The historical part, which begins ab ovo, 
is copied from out-dated primers. You may judge how competent 
he is as regards more recent history from the following 
particulars: F. List introduced the doctrine of Free Trade, and 
Ruge that of social science, into Germany. Hegel has immortalised 
himself by (literally) enlightening the Germans on the categories of 
quality, quantity, etc., and Feuerbach has proved that men cannot 
extend their knowledge beyond the range of human understand- 
ing. Pedro Disar (brother of the Struve woman) is one of the 
greatest German men of liberty, and Freiligrath made his name as 
a collaborateur on the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. On top of that a 
style @ pouffer de rire’ e.g. how Jason’s warriors grew from 
dragon’s teeth, which is why the German tribes are perpetually at 
odds with one another. Romulus Augustulus était un jeune homme 
doux et agréable, and for three hundred years Germans have been 

ain case of need - > is doing worse than the Republic. Business used to be 
better. - © here you may descry the influence of the illustrious Seiler - 4 See this 
volume, p. 31. - © from the egg—from the very beginning - § to make one split one’s 
sides - 8 was a nice, gentle young man 

used to hearing themselves referred to by their neighbours as des 
bétes.* 
Have you read Mazzini’s simple-minded infamous speech? 

Your 
K. M.