in Manchester  
London, 23 September 1852  

London, 23 September 1852.  
28 Dean Street, Soho.  
Dear Engels,

Received the £1 sterling and the improved translation. With the latter you have taken far too much trouble. If the thing goes (success will depend on this No. 1), you must take it easier; I mean let flowers of speech and stories that are not needed simply run when they are difficult to translate.

Weerth has been here since Sunday. He will leave for Manchester on Saturday and stay 3–4 weeks, then disappear to the West Indies, etc.

Enclosed:

1) A letter in Schurz’s handwriting, found in the pocket of a waistcoat which Kinkel gave to a refugee known to us.

2) Letter from Cluss.

3) 2 extracts from the revelations about the emigration first published by the Karlsruher Zeitung and then reprinted by the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung, etc., in case you haven’t seen the things yourself.

Dr Piali (in Paris) writes to me among other things:

“Kossuth intends to strike in October; Kiss has given Kossuth all sorts of assurances from here, which perhaps belong to the realm of fable, but given the fabulousness of conditions here are also possible. Kossuth is said to have received from Bonaparte a letter in his own hand inviting him to come to Paris. This letter is said to be circulating in word-for-word copy in all the Hungarian comitates. Everything in Hungary is prepared for a general strike by Kossuth. Even imperial-royal officials are involved in the grand conspiracy….”

“Countess Kinski, née Zichy, arrested for infanticide. The child-maker is Dr Chaisée” (our famous Schaisses), “Polish Jew, etc. Madame Beckmann (wife of the police agent and newspaper correspondent) will figure as lady-in-waiting in the assize trial.”

As far as the Kossuth story is concerned, it is quite possible that Bonaparte is setting traps for him in order to ingratiate himself with Austria.

24

Piali has had Häfner open a correspondence with Ruge-Tausenau, so that it is now just as if we were corresponding directly with Mr Arnold. In this way we shall learn the mystères des grands hommes from a primary source.

The People’s Union, 8 men strong (out of which Ruge, according to Weydemeyer’s letter to you, with well-known virtuosity has formed 3 committees), is now wandering around the City (with Ronge and Tralle among others), under the pretext of also founding a “free congregation”. What the devil has the German Catholic Ronge to do with “free congregations”? A few German-Catholic and specifically Jewish merchants have entered their names on the list, if only the initials of their names, and, which is what it was really all about, have contributed a few pounds.

Willich for his part is now collecting every Saturday publicly in the Great Windmill Union, supposedly for correspondence expenses.

What do you say to the ovations B[onaparte] is receiving in the provinces? The French are making a disgraceful fool of themselves. – The Customs Union seems to me to be nearing its certain demise. The Austrian bankruptcy still always knows how to cope with Prussian prosperity. –

Dana, as I have seen, has taken the article. The Staats-Zeitung (New York) is already running a German extract from it. –

The death of old Wellington came at the right time. The old bull would still, at a moment of crisis, have commanded an authority that had become traditional. With him and Peel, the common sense of Old England is duly buried.

So our “people” are now to appear on 4 October. Bürgers confesses everything, at least as far as he is concerned. In keeping with his profession, he will defend himself “on principle”. During the investigation he has given to the record a thirty-sheet memorandum on the “essence of communism”. Honi soit qui mal y pense. Daniels is said to be getting on fairly well. The prosecutor will begin with the Saint-Simonists; Advocate Schneider, in order to beat him, begins with Babeuf. We shall be able to count ourselves lucky if no one goes back to the Incas or Lycurgus.

Pindar, whose “mystères” have greatly amused me, has not let himself be seen by me. Your adventures with old Schily are most charming.

Ad vocem Jones. Although I personally have nothing to praise him for, I – he again overran me, since il y avait crise – supported him, as did our whole corps, last week. The other fellows had called 2 or 3 meetings together, where it was to be resolved: “that this meeting is of opinion that no confidence can be placed in the success of any democratic movement while Mr. Ernest Jones is connected therewith.” They have been beaten, and properly so. The asses first tried to discredit him by shitting money. That misfired. Then they attacked him because we stick by him, because he stirs up “unfriendly feelings amongst the different classes”. Namely, Harney-Holyoake, Hunt of the Leader, Newton (the cooperative) et tutti quanti have joined together to found a “national party”. This national party wants general suffrage, but not Chartism. Old joke. But before opening their campaign, Jones was to be crushed. They have rather miscalculated. He has raised his paper by 1d., without losing 1 subscriber.

Your KM