Manchester, 31 March 1857 
Dear Marx, 

You will have received the £5 note, K/S 84562, this morning. As 
regards ‘depending on’ me, don’t give it another thought. I should 

a K. Marx, ‘The Anglo-Persian War’, ‘The Maritime Commerce of Austria’. 

take umbrage if you were not to inform me when the sovereigns’ 
armed intervention is required. I shall see how my finances go in 
April; I think I shall be able to manage a bit more during the 
second half, at any rate. 

The Tribune’s proposal is most cunning and, since the chaps are 
practically certain to print only one article a week, I shouldn’t send 
two save on special occasions such as the present elections, etc., 
etc. However, circumstances will come to your aid, and in all 
probability the good Yankees will have no reason to complain 
about the DULLNESs oF European politics this summer and autumn, 
while their own merry-go-round will gradually come to a halt. 

I have hardly followed the Persian and Chinese military 
ventures* at all, indeed there has been a great dearth of detail. 
About Captain Jones I know nothing. It would now be utterly 
impossible to get together the necessary material, but when we get 
fuller news about the last big cavalry attack in Persia I shall see 
what can be done. 

The pamphlets have arrived.” If only I could get hold of your 
old Tribune articles! '** Most of the stuff is in them. Washington 
Wilks and Palmerston for Premier contain only generalities, and 
Chisholm Anstey’s speech* is fearfully décousu’ though very 
important, more especially by reason of the personal matters 
relating to the Portfolio'™ but also, here and there, by reason of its 
contents. The only really cogent pamphlets are your two Tucker 
pamphlets, especially Unkiar Skelessi.'*’ If you can supply me with 
any more material, tant mieux! I have taken steps to improve the 
storage arrangements. 

The eight thousand philistines who voted for the fattest man in 
Manchester (Potter) because he makes up for his lack of brains by 
the size of his bottom, are already ashamed of their victory. All the 
same, the elections have made an enormous impression here, and 
the ‘Manchester’ Party'* is beginning to take stock of its 
performance over the past 6 years and to discover in what it has 
failed. I don’t think we shall hear very much more of PEACE-PARTY 
tak °° for the time being, while on the other hand Bright (if he 
rallies) will, with one or two others, undoubtedly advocate a more 
far-reaching electoral reform and, before long, Jones may well 
receive some propositions from these bourgeois. For Pam the most 
gratifying thing must be his triumph over Bright, Gibson, Cobden, 

a A reference to the Anglo-Persian war of 1856-57 and the second Opium War, 
1856-60. - > See this volume, pp. 110-11].- ¢ W. Wilks, Palmerston in Three Epochs. - 
d in the House of Commons on 23 February 1848 - € disjointed - £ so much the 
better 

Miall and Fox (Oldham); I am inclined to believe that the fellow 
will get a working Majority of 60-100. But be that as it may, nous 
aurons du Palmerston tout pur, and with A VENGEANCE 

I've found one of the passages from the Nord in The Morning 
Post, but only eulogising his abilities.” The one in which he appears 
as a ‘TRULY British Minister’ '*! is not to be found. 

Our local Palmerstonians and bourgeois offered Bob Lowe, 
should he be defeated here, the sum of £2,000 to cover his 
election expenses in some other wretched hole. The ass refused, 
preferring the safety of Kidderminster, only to be trounced there. 
But never again will he be able to come to Manchester; he has 
behaved like a real blackguard—first he allows the philistines to 
compromise themselves on his behalf, then cries off and, at the 
same time, writes an article for The Times in which he says it would 
be scandalous if Manchester were not to return Bright.‘ 

This time Philistia was tremendously divided. The vast majority 
of the bourgeoisie, a small majority of the lower-middle class, 
against Bright and Gibson. Quakers '”° and Catholics for Bright to 
a man; the Greeks likewise; the established Germans against him. A 
drunken anti-Bright man shouted: “WE won’T HAVE HOME POLICY, WE WANT 
FOREIGN PoLicy.” What the rationale of the local elections more or less 
amounts to is: To hell with all questions of reform and class 
matters. After all, we philistines form the majority of voters, cela 
suffit? The clamour against the aristocracy, etc., is tedious and 
produces no tangible result. WE DEARLY LOVE A LORD FOR ALL THAT. We’ve 
got FREE TRADE and as much bourgeois social reform as we require. 
We're flourishing like mad, especially since Pam reduced war 
INCOME TAX. So let’s all foregather on territory where we are all 
equal, and let’s be Encuisumen, John Bulls, under the leadership of 
that rruty British Mrnisrer Pam. Such is the present mood of the 
majority of philistines. 

What is piquant about the business up here is the burial of the 
Anti-Corn Law League'; Smith P. Robinson (Hon. sec.) and 
George Wilson, ‘THAT RESPECTABLE FIXTURE’ are being thrown out of 
Newalls Buildings!’ and the Great Liverat Party is casting about 
for a new organisation. G. Wilson loses his snug berth and his 
status on the strength of which he rose to be cnairman of the 
Lancashire and Yorkshire railways at a salary of £1,000 per 
annum—another snug berth that will soon go west, permitting 

a we shall have unadulterated Palmerston - > ‘From Our Own Correspondent. 
Brussels, March 6’, The Morning Post, No. 25955, 9 March 1857. - © ‘One of the 
greatest advantages...’, The Times, No. 22634, 21 March 1857. - 4 that suffices 

Wilson to go back to starch manufacturing as in the days of 
PROTECTION. But your Manchester philistine—even if a partisan of 
Bright—heaves a sigh of relief at the long-awaited demise of that 
old incubus, THE Leacue '°! 

Apropos, I believe that the Ch. Anstey pamphlet contains only a 
small part of Pam’s reply *—the debate lasted 4 days. Couldn’t you 
get hold of the rest? And could you send me a copy of Urquhart’s 
new rag, The Free Press or whatever it’s called? What is there in it 
by your 

NB. You might also, s’il y a lieu,” send me the titles of anything 
else of any use concerning the Pam affair; I could then get them 
myself up here. 

Hearty congratulations on your family prospects. What are the 
girls doing? They must be quite big by now. I look forward very 
much to seeing them at Whitsun. Warm regards to them and your 
wife. 

Your 
F. E.