[London,] 23 February 1853 

Dear Engels, 

I have been sérieusement indisposed; for the ‘perfidious Prus- 
sians’ have not permitted me either to stand, sit or lie down. 
Hence my long silence and my failure so much as to acknowledge 
the money. 

You will have seen that Kossuth, through an American 
filibuster, Captain Mayne Reid, has disavowed his alleged Milan 
proclamation.***? Well, yesterday Szemere wrote to me from Paris, 
saying he knew for certain that the proclamation was authentic, as 
was evident in any case from its contents. The Leader (pro- 
Mazzini) 

*‘deems it his duty to caution his readers, that this affair lies entirely between Mr 
Kossuth and Mr Mazzini and that the latter is absent from England’.*4 

You will yourself have seen, in The Daily News, Della Rocco’s 
statement aimed directly at Agostini, but also indirectly at 

a we shall see - © seriously - © ‘In the Name of the Hungarian Nation.—To the 
Soldiers Quartered in Italy (February 1853)’, The Times, No. 21348, 10 February 
1853. - 4 Cf. ‘Kossuth and the Milan Revolt’, The Leader, No. 152, 19 February 
1853. - © Della Rocco, ‘Mazzini’s Proclamation. (To the Editor of The Daily News)’, 
The Daily News, No. 2107, 21 February 1853. 

Kossuth.” The par nobile fratrum* seems to have fallen out. 
Kossuth is as false as he is cowardly. 

You have rated Mazzini too high if you imagine he was present 
in person at Milan. At critical moments like these he absents 
himself from England so that he may be suspected of being in the 
theatre of war. 

Pitiable finale though the Milan business is to Mazzini’s eternal 
plotting, and despite my conviction that he has done himself 
personal injury, I am sure that the revolutionary movement as a 
whole will benefit by what is happening. I.e., by the brutal manner 
in which the Austrians are exploiting [...]. Had Radetzky followed 
Strassoldo’s example, had he praised the Milanese citizenry for 
their ‘orderly conduct’, had he described the whole thing as the 
wretched uprising of a few ‘miscreants’ and, as a token of his 
confidence, appeared to loosen the reins a little, the revolutionary 
party would have been discredited in the eyes of the whole world. 
But as it is, by introducing a system of wholesale plunder, he is 
turning Italy into the ‘revolutionary crater’ which Mazzini, for all 
his declaiming, was unable to conjure into existence. 

And another thing. Could any one of us have believed that, 
after its 4 years of victory, military preparations and rodomontade, 
reaction should feel itself so infinitely weak that, at the first sign of 
a riot, it lets out a scream of genuine terror? The fellows’ belief in 
revolution is unshakable. Once again they have testified to the 
whole world how insecure they feel. Whereas realiter’ the 
‘emigration’ is totally bankrupt and impotent, they loudly proclaim 
its power through all government papers and encourage the belief 
that a net of conspiracy is closing in from all sides on the worthy 
citizens. 

Ad vocem* Bangya. Is presently in Paris. I now possess actual 
proof that the gallant fellow is an agent of the Austrian 
government. He bought his way back to France by accepting a 
clandestine post in the-French Police Ministry. At the same time 
he is in Paris as official agent for Kossuth, who wants money from 
Bonaparte. In Paris, by the by, the fellow has woven a net in 
which he himself will become ensnared. As to our manuscript,’ he 
sold it to Greif, who was travelling under the name of ‘Schulz’. 
Incidentally, both of them misled the government into believing 
that they had ‘managed to procure’—note the professional 
term—this ‘document’ from the archives of a ‘secret society’. 

a noble pair of brothers (Horace, Satires, I], 3) - » im reality - © re - 4 K. Marx and 
F. Engels, The Great Men of the Exile. 

Still no news from Schabelitz, save that the thing is circulating 
in Germany. He still doesn’t dare send anything here, for fear that 
the French police will open the parcel and denounce the business 
to the Prussian police. 

I have heard from a reliable source, mais c’est un secret? (which 
Napoleon doubtless knows as well as I do), that Ledru intends to 
go into action in Paris in 3-4 weeks. I have been told by an 
eye-witness that the first news of the rising in Milan created a 
great sensation in Paris. Gatherings in the streets, etc., not to rebel 
but to confer. On the whole the Frencumen here are well content 
that Mr Mazzini should have discredited himself by his ‘action’. 
They see themselves avenged. 

Thanks to Cluss our appeal on behalf of the Cologne 
people “—6 lines long—has appeared in all the American papers, 
in each case under the auspices of the local gymnastic club."*? Nous 
[verrons}].© Our dear acquaintances in Cologne itself have as yet 
given no sign of life. That’s caution for you! One of them, 
ex-lieutenant Steffen, who figured as a defence witness at the 
Cologne trial, is here and promptly found himself a teaching post 
in Friedlander’s establishment. Blind is dunning me daily for the 
Herzen, as is Dronke for Reichenbach’s circular.*** This is essential 
to Dronke since he wants to become a correspondent of the 
Volkshalle in Cologne under another name. 

What do you think of the lively sympathy shown by the clerics 
of the Established Church towards the unfortunate Ten Hours 
Movement **'? Always the same old game. On Saturday I'll send 
you a parcel containing all the remaining newspapers, and letters 
from Cluss. 

Of all yrmrLe Finauity Joun's rerrormances, the last was probably the 
most classical.**? Even The Times was forced to admit that Joxnnny 
EXCITES ‘MIGHTILY LITTLE ENTHUSIASM’? 

Mrs Harney' is dead. Likewise Mrs von Briiningk. A short while 
ago there was an exchange of letters between myself and 

aK. Marx, Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne. -» but it’s a 
secret - © See this volume, p. 73. - 4 K. Marx and F. Engels, ‘Appeal for Support 
of the Men Sentenced in Cologne’, New-Yorker Criminal-Zeitung, No. 45, 21 January 
1853. - © We shall see. -' A. Herzen, Du développement des idées révolutionnaires en 
Russie. - 8 Nickname given by the Radicals to John Russell who qualified the 1832 
Parliamentary Reform as finality of Britain’s constitutional development. - 5 The 
Times, No. 21350, 12 February 1853 [leader]. - 1 Mary 

143. Engels to Marx. 10 March 1853. 283 

Bruningk, in which everything hinged on Kinkel and Willich.* As 
I have already told you, Willich sailed for America 4 weeks ago. 
Salut. 

Your 
K. M.