{[London,] 29 March 1854 
28 Dean Street, Soho 

Dear Engels, 

I have not yet acknowledged receipt of the £5, or used the 
money for the intended purpose, or written—all for the same 
reason. I have been saddled with Pieper. Ten days ago he was 
thrown out of his lodgings and I or course had to take him in here. 
He has drawn a bill on the Union and, if it’s not protested, one of 
the next mails from America should bring him the money. This 
week Freiligrath has, sesipes, found him a German lesson. which 
will bring in 15/- a weex. And he was to have secured a similar 
lesson at asour 10/- through Meyer—who has gone back to 
Germany today and asks me to send you his regards. But he didn’t 
turn up at the appointed place. Instead, he told Meyer that he was 
fed up with giving lessons. Feels his vocation is to be a writer. Le 
matheureux!? 

There’s still much I don’t understand about Lupus’ adventure.‘ 
Did it happen in the street? Doubtless after he’d been out on a 
drinking spree with you and Heise! What a prep impression it made 
on my family you will gather from the enclosed letter of little 
Laura’s, in which she relates the great événement for Jenny and 
Edgar who were at school. 

4 See this volume, p. 423. - > Unfortunate man! - © See this volume, pp. 420 and 
428. - 4 event 

The diplomatic part of Lassalle—aside from the information, 
which is well done—is as bad as his military one. What he says 
about Palmerston is simply the gossip current on the Continent.” 

Have you read the secret corresponpence **? If the ministers who 
conducted it are allowed to conduct the war—as everything seems 
to indicate—the affair can only end in England’s utter disgrace, 
although ar att instances the Continent will be thrown into a 
welcome confusion. 

Enclosed an article on the war by Urquhart, of yesterday’s date,* 
and cuttings from an earlier pamphlet on his military plans. I 
should like your detailed opinion of both. 

One of the Prussian instructors with the Turks, whom I met by 
chance yesterday, says that the Turkish artillery is excellent but 
the army as a whole no more than an ornament, inasmuch as any 
vigorous action has been frustrated by Constantinople. 

In your essay on the Russian retreat from Kalafat you say that 
the purpose of this manoeuvre was to set up camp in Odessa, 
having regard to the Anglo-French army. According to the latest 
news, however, it would seem that the Russians have crossed the 
Danube on the opposite side, or intend to do so. There might be 
some more detailed information to hand tomorrow, in which case 
you could let me have something about it the day after.> In my 
letter of the day before yesterday *” I forbade the Tribune, which 
was really overdoing things, to annex as Leapers anything except 
military pieces—or else omit my name altogether, since [ don’t 
want it to appear only beneath indifferent stuff. For it is 
essential—and now is the moment—to show them by military preces 
that they cannot dispense with me. 

If the Times commercial correspondent in Manchester has 
reported aright, business must be in very poor shape. Serious 
FAILURES are expected down here any day. Likewise in Paris. It goes 
without saying that concerns which have long been laboriously 
staving off bankruptcy will choose the time when war is declared 
to go under with decorum. 

I haven’t yet seen your article in The Daily News and have 
certainly not overlooked it! *° 

The Naval and Military Gazette maintains that the Russians 
bought a destructive device, invented in France and rejected by 
Louis Philippe’s government, which continues to burn under 

a D. Urquhart, ‘How is the War to Be Carried on? To the Editor of The Morning 
Advertiser’, The Morning Advertiser, No. 19583, 28 March 1854. - » See this volume, 
pp. 426-27.-¢ [Report on the cotton market in Manchester,] The Times, 
No. 21700, 28 March 1854.