in Manchester 
London, 22/23 March 1853 

22 March 1853. 
Dear Engels, 

Your article on Turkey is capital. Despatched. 

I do not know whether you have read the following notes on the “value of Turkey” in one of the last “Economists”: 

“While our commerce with Austria and Russia is either stationary or on the decline, with Turkey it is rapidly increasing. We are not able to state what proportion of our exports may find their way to Austria through Germany, but we believe it is only small. Our direct trade with Austria is absolutely insignificant. Our exports of British produce to her Adriatic ports (the only ones she has) were not given separately from those to the rest of Italy till 1846, when they reached 721,981 l. In 1850 they had fallen to 607,755 l. and in 1851 had risen to 812,942 l. Our exports to Russia were on the average of 1840 and 1841: 1,605,000 l., in 1846 and 1847, 1,785,000 l., and in 1850 and 1851, 1,372,000.” “Our exports to the Turkish dominions, including Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Moldavia and Wallachia, have progressed as follows: 

£. £. 
1840. | .1,440,592 1846. | .2,707,571 
1841. | .1,885,840 1847. | .3,530,589 
1842. | .2,068,842 1848. | .3,626,241 
1843. | .2,548,321 1849. | .3,569,023 
1844. | .3,271,333 1850. | .3,762,480 
1845. | .3,134,759 1851. | 3,548,595 

Our exports are therefore threefold those to Russia and nearly double those to Russia and Austria together.” Thus far the Economist. 

Within the English ministry itself there must be a big row over the “Turkish question”, for Palmerston’s paper, the “Morning Post”, is piping straight out of the opposite hole from the “Times”. 

D’Israeli has been happily relieved of his leadership of the “great conservative party”, and Sir John Pakington, a mournful man otherwise, has taken his place. This is the first time since 1828 that the Tory party possesses a “Leader” who is as obtuse as the mass of its members. 

You will have seen that in the last vote on the Clergy Reserves bill, when the worthy Russell himself proposed the omission of the 3rd clause from the 3 clauses he had proposed, the ministry carried the day only by the votes of the conservative minority. A bad sign that. 

Mazzini has been here for some days, but for the time being still incognito. 

That “good Aberdeen” is very much inclined to make trouble for the refugees you may gather from the fact that last week the English police took a kind of refugee census. 2-3 detectives, in plain clothes, betook themselves from square to square and from street to street and committed notes to paper, in most instances calling on the neighbours or the nearest beer-house keepers. Exceptionally, however—e.g. at Pulzky’s house, the wretch himself is now in America—they forced their way, under the pretext that a theft etc. had been committed, into the refugees’ own domiciles and rummaged through their papers. 

The honourable Barthélemy has got off with 2 months’ imprisonment. The impudent fellow sent word to Ledru Rollin that he would shoot him down like a dog. Ledru answered that he would never shoot it out with a man of that sort. B. for his part retorted that if he wanted to bring a man to a shooting, he knew how—public box on the ears, spitting in the face, and the like were tried and proven means. Thereupon Ledru let him know that, in such a case, B. would make the acquaintance of his stick and the English magistrate. This B. insists on becoming the Rinaldo Rinaldini of the emigration. That is an ambition, too. 

Father Willich has landed in New York. Friend Weitling organised a banquet for him, with 300 persons, at which Willich appeared with a monstrous red sash, delivered a long speech to the effect that bread was worth more than freedom, and was presented with a sword by Weitling. Then Weitling came forward and proved that Jesus Christ was the first communist, and that his successor is none other than the well-known Wilhelm Weitling. 

I have received a letter from Schabelitz, which I enclose. From it emerges 1) that although he has not acted the political traitor, he has proceeded with infinite foolishness; 2) that he wanted, and still wants, at least commercially to diddle me. Originally and according to contract, he was only to print 2,000 copies. From his letter it follows that he has printed more. How many? he does not even yet say. At the same time, Dr Feddersen replied to Dronke, who had written to him about the matter. He confirms Sch.’s letter, but at the same time communicates that, in his view, no further steps will be taken in the judicial investigation against Sch. The question is, what to do now? The Prussian government wishes to bury the affair completely, so much so that the Minister of Foreign Affairs is on the scent after a “Theorie des Communismus” which I am supposed to have published in Basle. So even the title is to be kept secret from the public. Que faire? 

Sch. has sent me 2 copies, 1 direct to myself, 1 to Freiligrath, for which I had to pay a total of 15 sh. A fine income. Hitherto it has been impossible for me to wrest the copies from the clique. By Wednesday (tomorrow), however, I think I shall be in possession of one of them, along with the parcel which has long been lying ready for you. 

Zerffi is here. He fled from Paris at the time of the razzia on the foreign correspondents. He believes that friend Bangya (who, by the way, en passant, is said to be badly off and intends to come back here in May) denounced him as the author of some articles in the “K[ölnische] Z[eitung]” compromising for the “Blonde Souveraine”. Zerffi is a chatterer, but on Hungarian conditions he has more independent and more correct views than any I have otherwise heard from refugees from that quarter. This may be rooted in the fact that he is no Magyar by origin, but a “Swabian”, and not only a Swabian, but the son of a Jew from Hanover, who probably was called Cerf and Magyarised himself into Zerffi. 

Our people in Germany are miserable, limp dogs, after all. Not a word is getting through from the fellows. They have now seen in the papers that a brochure about their affair has appeared. But they do not even inquire. There is no reaction, no spring in the fellows. Old women—voilà tout. 

A comical piece of news from the “Nation” can hardly have come to your notice in Manchester. The angel Montijo is, you see, suffering from a most indelicate complaint. She is passionately given to farting and incapable of suppressing it even in company. Previously, riding was her remedy against it. Now that her Bona[parte] has forbidden her that, she “lets off air”. Ce n’est qu’un bruit, un petit murmure, un rien, mais enfin, vous savez, que les Français ont le nez au plus petit vent. 

Have you heard nothing yet about Weerth in Manchester? 

Yours, 
KM 

23 M. Yesterday, in response to our appeal consisting of 3 lines with all our names, a remittance of £20 17s. for the Cologne people arrived from the Washington gymnastic club with the treasurer Freiligrath. 
Schimmelpfennig has inherited £1,000 sterling from von Brüningk.