Manchester, 20 May 1857 

Dear Marx, 

As you will no doubt see from the enclosed article,” it was 
written UNDER difficulties. Each time I propose to do a Tribune 
article, it seems to bring out all the evil humours latent in my 
frame. On this occasion I’m sitting at home with linseed poultices 
on the left-hand side of my face in the hope of getting the better 

a more or less - > F. Engels, ‘Persia—China’. 

of a nasty abscess; I’ve been put on a frugal diet and forbidden 
beer, but by good fortune ordered to take a glass of wine. It’s 
alleged that I’ve been eating too much roast beef; at all events I 
have had continual trouble with my face for the past month—first 
toothache, then a swollen cheek, then more toothache and now the 
whole thing has blossomed out into a furuncle, as littke Heckscher 
calls it. In addition, I have to drink mineral water and—great fun, 
this—go out at 7 o’clock each morning. 

Everyone up here is an art lover just now and the talk is all of 
the pictures at the exhibition. The thing is proving plus ou moins? 
a FAILURE, financially, at any rate. Admittedly there are some very 
fine pictures, though most of those by the better or very best 
artists are no more than seconp-rate. Among the finest is a 
magnificent portrait of Ariosto by Titian. The later German and 
French schools very poor, hardly represented at all. Three- 
quarters consists of English trash. Best represented are the 
Spanish and Flemish and, after them, the Italians. S’1l y a moyen, 
you and your wife ought to come up this summer and see the 
thing. It wouldn’t do to write about it for the Tribune; and I 
wouldn’t know where to begin—the Tribune can find the usual 
chit-chat in any paper. 

Lupus, as I believe I told you, has moved out and is again 
fighting the good fight with his Lanptapy. To make matters worse, 
his new landlady was brought to bed a week after he moved in. 
Next door there’s a chap who not only has a fiddle which he plays 
badly but also a French horn which he plays completely out of 
tune. Hence the study of the pedagogic sciences is attended by 
enormous difficulties, so that the old chap is spending more time 
than usual at the Chatsworth. 

I shall be in London in a fortnight or 3 weeks’ time, either 
during Whitsuntide or the week after. 

Warm regards to your wife and children. 

Your 
F. E.