[London] 5 March 1856 
28 Dean Street, Soho 

Dear Frederic, 

Next week I shall take a closer look at the Heffter.* If there’s 
anything to it, I shall order it. Eichhoff’s Histotre de la langue et de 
la littérature des Slaves, Paris 1839, is very poor indeed. Apart from 
the grammatical section, which I’m unable to assess (but I notice 
that the Lithuanians and Letts are said to be Slavs. Isn’t that 
NONSENSE?), the rest is mostly plagiarisms from Schaffarik.? The 
fellow also gives samples of the Slavs’ vernacular poetry in the 
original, together with a French translation. Indeed, it was 
amongst these that I found Igor’s expedition.” In essence, the 
poem is a call for unity on the part of the Russian princes just 
before the invasion by the Mongol hordes proper. The poem 
contains a curious passage, ‘Voici les jolies filles des Gothes 
entonnent leurs chants au bord de la Mer noire’.“ From this it 
would seem that the Getae or Goths celebrated the victory of the 
Turkish Polovtsians”” over the Russians. The whole poem is 
epic-Christian, although heathen elements are still strongly in 
evidence. The Bohemian epic Zabot (Samo?), in the anthology of 
Bohemian epic poetry in a German translation published by Hanka 
and Swoboda?* is, on the other hand, fairly polemical and 
fanatically anti-German. Appears to be directed against a German 
capitano of Dagobert’s who was beaten by the Bohemians. But it is 
a call for vengeance as much upon Christianity as upon the 
Germans, who are reproached in the most naively poetical terms 
with having, amongst other things, sought to compel the worthy 
Bohemians to be satisfied with only one wife. Other folk poetry I 
discovered (the Poles have none save for Adalbert’s Prayer to the 
Mother of God”) are: 

aM. W. Heffter, Der Weltkampf der Deutschen und Slaven seit dem Ende des fünften 
Jahrhunderts....- > P. J. Schaffarik, Geschichte der slawischen Sprache und Literatur nach 
allen Mundarten. - © Here are the pretty daughters of the Goths singing their songs 
on the shore of the Black Sea. 

Gotze, Fürst Vladimir und seine Tafelrunde,* 1819. Stimmen des 
russischen Volkes, 1828. 

Kapper (Siegfried), Slavische Melodien, Leipzig 1844. By the 
same, Die Gesange der Serben, 1852. (More comprehensive than 
[those] of Jakob.” Lastly, by Vuk Stephanovitsch, Serbische Hoch- 
zeitslieder. German by E. Wesely. Pest 1826. 

Works which I have noted and shall be looking through for you 
next week are, besides the Cyprien and the Desprez‘: Siidslavische 
Wanderungen im Sommer 1850, 2 vols, Leipzig 1851.° (Has also 
been translated into English.) Betrachtungen tiber das Fiirstenthum 
Serbien, Vienna 1851. Die serbische Bewegung in Sudungarn, 1851 
Berlin. Slawismus und Pseudomagyarismus. Von aller Menschen 
Freunde, nur der Pseudomagyaren Feinde, Leipzig 1842. Die Beschwer- 
den und Klagen der Slaven in Ungarn, Leipzig 1843. 

I don’t remember whether the Neue Preussische Zeitung is to be 
had in Manchester. At present it is very interesting. The Prussian 
government has now, as once Louis XVIII, got its chambre 
introuvable, and the bureaucratic government is beginning to be 
afraid of the backwoods squires, who are taking their victory au 
sérieux.° During debates on rural parish, dee: court, and land 
tenure relations, when, as old Dolleschall said, ‘it’s his bread and 
butter that is at stake’*—the clashes in the Priissian Chamber are 
becoming serious. You will have seen, among other things, that 
Count Pfeil claimed for landowners the privilege of flogging their 
people, and boasted of having himself performed heroic deeds in 
this line. Now the Left has dug up posters of 1848, signed by this 
same Pfeil in 1848, and altogether in the style of the ‘crazy year’.”’ 
There have even been duels between the two sides, and today the 
Neue Preussische Zeitung carries a teaver! roundly declaring that 
there are ‘depraved scoundrels’ in its party just as there are very 
‘noble’ people in the Liberal Party. It preaches ‘moderation’, 
‘conciliation’, ‘a battle of principles, but no personalities’. The Left 
is adjured to reflect that ‘the Mountain will always swallow the 

a The name of the publisher or translator is not indicated on the title-page of 
this book. It is probable, however, that it was not P. O. Gétze but von Busse who 
translated it. - > A reference to Volkslieder der Serben by Therese Albertine Luise 
von Jakob-Robinson (she wrote under the pen-name of Talvj). - © Cyprien Robert, 
Les slaves de Turquie; H. Desprez, Les peuples de V'Autriche et de la Turquie. - ¢ The 
author was S. Kapper. In English the book appeared under the title A Visit to 
Belgrade. - ¢ Laurenz Dolleschall, censor of the Rheinische Zeitung in 1842, claimed 
that he was forced to do this work because he had to support his family. - f ‘Den 
Streitenden’, Neue PreuPische Zeitung, No. 54, 4 March 1856. 

. 23 . ‘ . 
Gironde’™” and to consider that ‘peace or no peace, for Prussia 

there lies ahead a time of very great confusion, at home or abroad’ 
and that at this moment a ‘party split’ means ‘suicide’. Capital, is it 
not? And withal no one in Prussia cares a rap about the Chamber 
and its splits. All the more significant, then, this admission of fear. 
Father Leo delivered a lecture before the King* on Münzer (part 
of which was printed in the Neue Preussische’). One might almost 
think it was a direct riposte to your essay in the Revue der Neuen 
Rheinischen Zeitung. Essential, of course, that the Reformation be 
absolved of the responsibility of having given birth to the 
Revolution. Münzer was a ‘fanatic’ who said: ‘intelligo ut credam’s 
Luther said: ‘credo ut intelligam’* The Spenersche’s' reply was that 
in his later years Luther repented, etc., of the abject role he had 
played in politics. As you see, the ferment is at work even in 
official circles. 

Apropos the Reformation, it was Astra who, from the start, 
laid the foundations of the Slav peril at a time when all races save 
the Russian were inclined to support the Reformation. With the 
Reformation came the translation of the Bible into all the popular 
Slav dialects. And thereby of course awakening national conscious- 
ness. On the other hand, deep-rooted alliance with the German 
Protestant North. Had Austria not suppressed this movement, 
Protestantism would have provided not only the foundations for 
the dominance of the German spirit, but also and equally, 
bulwarks against Greek-Orthodox Russia. Not a pitfall but Austria 
has driven the Germans into it and, in Germany as in the East, she 
paved the way for the Russians. 

Did you read about last Friday’s parliamentary sitting, at which 
Evans reproached Palmerston for feigning incredulity when, 3 ‘fo 
months ago, he warned him about Kars; at which he said that 
Panmure in the despatch informing Simpson, ‘You arr Nominated 
SUCCESSOR OF Racian’, added “Take care oF Dows’, The unfortunate 
Simpson replied: ‘RerraT your despatch’, whereat Panmure (‘Lord 
Carnot’? as Evans calls him), ‘TAKE caRE oF Dowsiccin, a cousin of 
his**; at which, finally, Lord Hamilton slated Evans for having, 
after the battle of Inkerman,™ advised Raglan to abandon cannon 
and Trenches and to embark the British army. The day before 

a Frederick William IV - > ‘Leo tiber Thomas Minzer’, Neue Preufische Zeitung, 
No. 51, 29 February 1856. - © F. Engels, The Peasant War in Germany (published i in 
the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-Ghonomische Revue). - 4 I understand in order 
to believe. - © I believe in order to understand. -‘ Berlinische Nachrichten von 
Staats- und gelehrten Sachen, 27 February 1856. - 8 A reference to the parliamentary 
sitting on 29 February 1856, reported on in The Times, No. 22304, 1 March 1856. 

yesterday, poor Evans made amende honorable That there was a 
betrayal at Kars would seem to be pretty clear from the written 
account of a certain Swan, recently returned from the East—a 
betrayal which took place not during the last few days but earlier, 
in order to bring the situation about. 

Now for Seiler. Threatened with prosecution by the surrir, he 
set off for America some 3 weeks ago by the Southampton steamer, 
fully intending on arrival in Halifax to telegraph the New-Yorker 
Staatszeitung (for which he once wrote) as follows: ‘Sebastian Seiler, 
the famous author of Kaspar Hauser, has landed safely on the west 
coast of the Atlantic Ocean.’ The great man left behind his 
Alexander II, 55 pages, mostly extracts from the Augsburg 
Aligemeine Zeitung, one copy of which was to be sent on 
immediately in his wake. For it is to appear on both sides of the 
Atlantic. This gossipy rubbish he surrounded with a great deal of 
humbug, having parts of it copied out by his wife, sister-in-law, 
etc., so that one and all they were astounded by poor Sebastian’s 
untiring industry. Negotiations with the London booksellers over 
this Alexander II served to give a veneer of erudition to his 
‘business errands’ to town where every day he carefully investi- 
gated the quality of the Losster and suchlike, not forgetting the 
French ‘omelette’. Besides this Alexander, he has left other 
unpleasant surprises behind. You will remember that Liebknecht 
signed a bill for him, lured on by the foolish hope that Seiler 
would deduct a few pounds in his favour from the amount 
discounted. The bill fell due but was not presented. Seiler made 
out that he had paid it. He had only renewed it. Two days after 
he left, Liebknecht got a letter from a lawyer in the City requiring 
_ him to pay the bill. Pieper, whom Seiler’s green-bespectacled 
sister-in-law loves for the sake of his glassy eyes, was despatched to 
the GREENGRoceR. Consternation in the Famity. For Sebastian had 
already received the money to pay the bill, but had poured it 
down his gullet. Love, however, overcomes all obstacles, and his 
wife is convinced that she can Jay claim to love only once, and then 
only from Sebastian. Hence she is trying to arrange matters. But 
the GREENGROcERis grave and glum, becoming daily more enlight- 
ened as to the WHEREABOUTS OF HIS DEAR son-IN-LAW. The thing is still 
pending. Meanwhile fresh bills, allegedly honoured, keep arriving 
every day. 

Levy. Sent here by the Dusseldorf workers with a_ twofold 
mission. 

a Marx refers to Evans’ speech in the House of Commons on 3 March 1856, published 

in The Times, No. 22306, 4 March 1856. - > This refers to A Narrative of the Siege of 
Kars... by H. Sandwith. 

1. Denunciation of Lassalle. And, having considered the matter 
very carefully, I think they are right. Since the countess’ got her 
300,000 talers,*’ Lassalle has changed completely; deliberately 
repulsing the workers, a sybarite, coquetting with the Blues.” He is 
further accused of having constantly exploited the party for his 
filthy personal ends and wanting to make use of the workers 
themselves for personal crimes in the interests of the law-suit. The 
law-suit ended as follows: Count Hatzfeldt’s head clerk, Stockum 
who, as you know, was subsequently sentenced at the Assizes to 5 
years’ penal servitude, had quarrelled with the count. He gave 
Lassalle to understand that he had in his possession documents 
which could have the count put in chains for perjury, forgery, etc. 
Lassalle promises him 10,000 talers. On the other hand, Lassalle 
persuades Késteritz, the Chief Public Prosecutor (who has been 
compelled to resign as a result of this affair), to let Count 
Hatzfeldt know that there’s a bill of indictment hanging over his 
head. Hatzfeldt is making a bolt for Paris when Lassalle hands him 
the incriminating documents in return for his signing the settlement 
with the countess, and withdraws the bill of indictment. (K6steritz, 
of course, was acting purely as his instrument.) Hence it was not his 
legal acumen that brought the law-suit to a sudden close, but a 
quite vulgar intrigue. Lassalle did not pay Stockum the 10,000 
talers, and the workers are right in saying that such a breach of 
faith would be excusable only if he had handed over the money to 
the party instead of fraudulently keeping it for the countess. They 
report a host of personal dirty tricks which I cannot repeat 
because too many to remember. For instance, Lassalle gambled in 
foreign government paper with Scheuer of Dusseldorf, who 
advanced him the money for the purpose. They lost. Meanwhile 
Scheuer went bankrupt. Lassalle wins the law-suit. Scheuer 
demands the money he advanced Lassalle. The latter contemptu- 
ously draws his attention to §6 of the Code, which forbids gam- 
bling on foreign Exchanges. The workers say they turned a blind 
eye to everything done by Lassalle because of his plea that he was 
involved in the law-suit for reasons of honour. Now, having won, 
instead of getting the countess to pay him for his work and 
achieving independence, he is, they say, living shamefully under 
her thumb as homme entretenu, without ANY PRETEXT WHATEVER. He had 
always boasted about what he would do as soon as the law-suit had 
been won and now he was casting them aside, deliberately and ~ 
defiantly, as redundant instruments of no further use. He had 

a Sophie von Hatzfeldt - > the aristocracy - ¢ kept man 

attended one more (private) meeting on New Year’s Day because a 
French colonel was present. To everyone’s astonishment, he 
addressed 60 working-men exclusively on the subject of ‘the 
struggle of civilisation against barbarism’, the Western Powers 
versus Russia. Apparently he had planned to go to Berlin, play the 
grand gentleman there and open a salon. On his return, he 
promised the countess in Levy’s presence to set up ‘a court of 
literati’ for her. Likewise in Levy’s presence, he was constantly 
reiterating his ‘dictatorial aspirations’, etc., etc. (he seems to see 
himself quite differently from the way we see him, regarding 
himself as able to subdue the world because of his ruthlessness in 
a private intrigue, as though a man of real worth would sacrifice 
10 years to such a bagatelle). An instance, by the by, of how 
dangerous he can be: in order to smuggle a labour party man into 
the police, ostensibly as a spy, he gave him one of my letters with 
instructions to say he had stolen it from Lassalle to establish his 
credibility. The workers further say that, being the diplomat he is, 
he would not have behaved so brusquely towards them had it not 
been his direct intention to go over to the bourgeois party. At the 
same time, he believes his influence is such that if he climbed onto 
a table at a moment of insurrection and harangued the masses, 
etc., he could talk them round. According to Levy, he is so much 
hated that, whatever we might decide, the workers would massacre 
him should he be in Disseldorf at the moment of action. They 
are, by the by, convinced that he would lose no time in placing 
himself at the disposal of the other side should he hear of 
anything suspicious. 

These are nothing but isolated points, deduced from what I 
heard, and only partially retained. The whole thing made a distinct 
impression on myself and Freiligrath, however prejudiced in 
Lassalle’s favour and mistrustful of workers’ tittle-tattle I may have 
been. I told Levy that it was, of course, impossible to reach any 
conclusion on the strength of a report from one side only; 
suspicion was in place whatever the circumstances; they should 
continue to keep an eye on the man but for the time being avoid 
any public row; we might perhaps find some opportunity of 
forcing Lassalle to make his position clear, etc., etc. 

Qu’en pensez-vous?* I should like to have Lupus’ opinion too. 

2. The second purpose of Levy’s mission was to give me 
information on how things stand with the workers in the Rhine 
Province. The Düsseldorf workers are still in contact with the 

a What do you think of it? 

Cologne people, amongst whom there are no longer any 
‘gentlemen’. But those chiefly concerned with propaganda are now 
the factory workers in Solingen, Iserlohn and district, Elberfeld and the 
ducal-Westphalia area. In the iron districts the fellows are all for 
force, and are held back only by the prospect of a French 
revolution and the fact that ‘the Londoners think the time is not 
yet ripe’.*° If the thing drags on much longer Levy believes that a 
rising will be difficult to prevent. But whatever the circumstances, 
an insurrection in Paris would be the signal. These people seem to 
be firmly convinced that we and our friends would instantly hasten to 
join them. They naturally feel the need for political and military 
leaders. Not that one can in any way blame the chaps for that. But 
I fear that, with their exceedingly artless plans, they would be 
smashed to smithereens before we had so much as a chance of 
leaving England. At all events, we owe it them to point out exactly 
what is and what isn’t feasible from the military point of view. I 
have, or course, declared that, circumstances permitting, we would 
range ourselves with the Rhenish workers; that any uprising, 
undertaken off their own bat, without prior initiatives in Paris or 
Vienna or Berlin, would be idiotic; that, should Paris give the 
signal, it would be advisable, whatever the circumstances, to risk 
all, since then even the ill-effects of a momentary defeat could 
themselves be no more than momentary; that I and my friends 
would seriously consider what direct action might be taken by the 
working population of the Rhine Province, and that in due course 
they should again send someone to London, but do_ nothing 
without prior agreement. 

The tanners of Elberfeld (or Barmen?) who were pretty 
reactionary in 1848 and °49, are now particularly eager for 
revolution. Levy assures me that the workers in the Wupper valley 
regard you, personally, as ‘their’ man. It would seem, by the way, 
that on the Rhine the belief in a revolution in France is fairly 
widespread, and even the philistines are saying: “This time it will 
be different from 1848. This time there'll be people like 
Robespierre, etc., instead of the chatter-boxes of 1848.’ On the 
Rhine at least, democracy’s reputation has sunk very Low. 

Salut. Your 
K. M.