[Manchester, 24 August 1852] 
Dear Marx, 

This evening I shall translate the final part of your article '” and 
shall do the article on ‘Germany’* tomorrow or Thursday. 
Charles” has gone away for a few days and I have a great deal to 
do in the office so that by evening my mind is often in a whirl. 

Thanks for the suggestions on military history.“ Could you 
sometime have a look in the British Museum to see if they have 
1. The Oéesterreichische Militdrische Zeitschrift from 1848 onwards, 
2. the Prussian Militdr-Wochenblatt, the Berlin Wehr-Zeitung, 3. any 
other military periodicals, especially reviews, including French 
ones—from 1848 onwards? Also a set of the Augsburg Allg. Ztg., 
particularly from 1850. I need these things very badly and, if it 
could somehow be arranged, would find time to work through 
them there, when I have got to that stage. 

The excerpt from Cluss’ letter’ shows up pére Weydemeyer in 
an even more Westphalian light’ than we had ever expected. 
Bielefeld tout pur.’ It beats everything. 

Johann Gottfried’s end is pleasing indeed. All that is left to the 
noble fellow is the cold comfort of knowing that he has done his 
duty and swollen the stock or suttion in the Bank of England. 
Furthermore, in fixing a new date for the liberation of the world, 
he had based himself, not on vague trade crises, but on hard, 
ineluctable fact, namely a spurious document in The Morning 
Chronicle! 

The Willich-Schily farce" must have been a hilarious perform- 
ance. Pauvre' Willich, how often during his harassment by the 
philistines must he have wished himself back in red Wolff’s! 
company! 

So Harney’s star of freedom has faded away 

There seems little doubt about the advent of the crisis, even if 
the recent bankruptcies were no more than precursors. Unfortu- 
nately the harvests in north-east Germany, Poland and Russia 

> 195 

2 for the series Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany - » Roesgen - © See 
this volume, pp. 159-60. -4 ibid., pp. 160-61. - © Father - § pure, unalloyed - 
& Gottfried Kinkel is ironically called after his wife ‘Johanna’. - " See this volume, 
p-. 162. - 4 Poor. - i Ferdinand Wolff 

show signs of being passable, and in places even good. Here the 
recent good weather has likewise borne fruit. But France is still in 
the soup, and that’s enough to be going on with. 

The minor panic in the money market appears to be over, consols 
and RAILWAY SHARES are again rising merrily, money Is Easter, specula- 
tion is still pretty evenly distributed over corn, COTTON, STEAM BOATS, 
MINING OPERATIONS, etc., etc. But cotton has already become a very 
risky proposition; despite what is so far a very promising crop, 
prices are rising continuously, merely as a result of high 
consumption and the possibility of a brief cotton shortage before 
fresh imports can arrive. Anyway I don’t believe that the crisis will 
this time be preceded by a regular rage for speculation; if 
circumstances are favourable in other respects, a few mails 
bringing bad news from India, a panic in New York, etc., will very 
soon prove that many a virtuous citizen has been up to all kinds of 
sharp practice on the quiet. And these crucial ill-tidings from 
overstocked markets must surely come soon. Massive shipments 
continue to leave for China and India, and yet the advices are 
nothing out of the ordinary; indeed, Calcutta is decidedly over. 
stockep, and here and there native dealers are going bankrupt. I 
don’t believe that prosperity will continue beyond October or 
November—even Peter Ermen is becoming worried. 

At all events, whether a revolution is immediately produced— 
immediately, ie. in 6-8 months—very largely depends on the 
intensity of the crisis. The poor harvest in France makes it look as 
though something is going to happen there; but if the crisis 
becomes chronic and the harvest turns out after all a little better 
than expected, we might even have to wait until 1854. I admit that 
I should like another year in which to swot, having still a good 
deal of stuff to get through. 

Australia also does some harm. First, directly through her gold 
and the stoppage of all her other exports, as also through the 
correspondingly heavier imports of all commoprrres and the fact that 
she is draining off the surplus population here aT THE RATE OF 5,000 A WEEK. 
California and Australia are two cases which were not foreseen in 
the Manifesto*: creation of large new markets out of nothing. They 
will have to be included. Your 

F. E.