{[London,] 29 November 1858 

Dear Frederick, 

Arricie received.* Very coop. Quoad” Bonaparte, I have lately 
dealt with two separate points—the sham provocation of England in 
the Portuguese affair **? and how the fellow is generally avenging 
Waterloo*"” only in so far as he can do so by sham DEMONSTRATIONS 
within the ‘limits of the English alliance’ and hence, 1n ract, with 
the permission of the English government, although he is, in 
reality, England’s underling. Secondly, his edict re the corn. 
Granaries,” by which this ‘socialist’ proposes to remedy the ruinously 
LOW PRICES OF Corn—dangerously low, in view of the grumbles of the 
PEASANTRY —by creating an artificial demand at the savers expense.‘ 
GENERALLY, A VERY DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT THIS, TO RAISE THE PRICE OF CORN 
THROUGH GOVERNMENT ukases. Increasing the cost of bread will do more 
harm to his popularity in the towns than it can do good in the 
country. 

a F. Engels, ‘Europe in 1858’. - > As regards - © Napoleon III’s decree on grain 
reserves of 16 November 1858, Le Moniteur universel, No. 322, 18 November 
1858. - 4 K. Marx, ‘Project for the Regulation of the Price of Bread in France’. 

I have not written about the cenerat risinc of the bourgeoisie in 
Europe but did, of course, allude to it in what I wrote about 
Prussia. I have dealt with the Russian peasant movement about 
twice in 6 months,* the second time simply to show that on the 
first occasion my diagnosis was correct. 

As regards the refoim movement in England, all I have 
discussed latterly is Bright’s meeting in Birmingham,” the gist of 
the article being THAT HIS PROGRAMME IS A REDUCTION OF THE PEOPLE'S 
CHARTER TO THE MIDDLE CLASS STANDARD.*“* Earlier on, asout 8-12 weeks 
ago (I think Parliament was actually still sitting), a piece to the effect 
that Whiggism MUST DISSOLVE AND COALESCE WITH TORYISM INTO THE PARTY OF THE 
aristocracy. That is all. 

My wife is copying the manuscript‘ and it’s hardly likely to go 
off before the end of this month. The reasons for the delay: long 
intervals of physical indisposition which, with the cold weather, has 
now come to an end. Too much domestic and financial Trouble. 
Finally, the first section is now longer because the two initial 
chapters, of which the first, The Commodity, did not appear at all in 
the rough draft while the second, Money, or Simple Circulation, was 
only sketched in the briefest outline, have been written at greater 
length than I originally planned. 

Salut. 

Your 

K. M. 

Mr Edgar Bauer is now the real, and Mr Lout and Weitlingian 
Scherzer the nominal, editor of the London Neue Zeit. Mr Edgar, 
of course, has a great deal to say on the subject of Mr Edgar and 
his lectures to the working men,° for he himself writes about 
everything concerning Mr Edgar. This clown deems it necessary to 
take a revolutionary turn. He presided at the Robert Blum 
ceremony. In an essay in the last issue the clown makes the 
discovery that ‘imperialism’ has now been introduced into Prussia 

4 K. Marx, ‘Political Parties in England.— The Situation in Europe’, “The Question of 
the Abolition of Serfdom in Russia’. - > A reference to J. Bright’s speech at a meeting 
of Birmingham constituents on 27 October 1858 (the meeting was reported in The 
Times, No. 23136, 28 October 1858). - © Marx expressed this idea in his article 
‘Political Parties in England.—The Situation in Europe’, - 4 K. Marx, A Contribution 
to the Critique of Political Economy. - ¢ E. Bauer, ‘Vortrage über die Geschichte der 
Politik...’, Die Neue Zeit, No. 20, 6 November 1858.