[London,] 2 February 1855 

Dear Frederic, 

Many thanks for the article.** Russell has been horribly 

discredited by Newcastle, though that ass waxed altogether too 
touching at the end of his speech.? 

a J. Bright, [Speech in the House of Commons on 29 May 1854,] The Times, 
No. 21754, 30 May 1854.- H. Newcastle [Speech in the House of Lords on 
1 February 1855,] The Times, No. 21967, 2 February 1855. 

My wife is getting on satisfactorily. But all is by no means well 
with the child,’ I fear. 

Enclosed 1. Letter from Lassalle; 2. from Daniels; 3. the cuttings 
to which Lassalle refers; Goldheim has been prowling about 
among the workers in Solingen etc. under the name of ‘Lassalle’. 
4. Letter from Steffen who, however, has omitted to give his 
Brighton address and will begin to grumble again if, in the 
circumstances, 1 don’t reply. 

As a result of the Barbés business Jones, of course, got mixed up 
with the crapauds,” and with the crapule‘ among them at that. So 
another big banquet of all nations was arranged for the February 
celebrations.©° He came to see me, too, and I laughed in his face. 
Meanwhile his Frenchmen (a quite unknown mos) had dug up the 
ex-Schapper Association which did not, or coursr, reject such 
good graces. Moreover the malcontents among the Polish and 
Italian émigrés—who are not accounted ‘superior refugees’ —are 
said to have organised themselves for the purpose of sending 
delegates to the Committee. For the fun of it, Gétz and I let 
Jones take us to their meeting yesterday, we being designated 
‘observers’. He introduced us as ‘OLD FRIENDS OF THE Cxartist Party’ 
who, doubtless, were entitled to satisfy their curiosity. Who was 
there? Various crapauds of the basest sort. A Spanish tailor or 
tobacco manufacturer who had ‘convened himself’. Stechan (half 
crazed) and behind him three notorious German louts. Schapper 
himself being no longer available, Stechan, tried to ape the 
former’s physiognomy, his morose gravity, his gesticulations, as 
once the butcher Legendre those of Danton. But that was not all. 
Herzen the Russian went uninvited to the previous meeting, and 
(himself) moved that he be nominated a member of the 
Committee. At the meeting we attended, an obsequious letter 
from him was read out and, because the politically wise 
Frenchmen thought him ‘un gargon charmant’’ he was admitted 
without further ado. The meeting, the chattering of the 
Frenchmen, the glazed expressions of the Germans, the gesticula- 
tions of the Spanish tailor were so awful that Jones (chairman) 1. 
proposed that everyone should speak only once and for not more 
than ten minutes; 2. upon its being remarked that the Spaniard 
was not an émigré because democracy had triumphed there, he 
came out with an ambiguous compliment that ‘he wished every 
émigré community in London a similar lof so that thus ‘no 
international committees need be maintained’ here. 

@ Eleanor - © philistines (see this volume, p. 502) - © dregs - 4 a charming fellow 

Gétz and I were treated to a free comedy and we smoked 
furiously in our role of mute onlookers. Here one could see with 
one’s own eyes the pass to which ‘la vraie démocratie* has come. 

Your 
K. Marx