[London,] 17 December [1858] 

Dear Frederick, 

£2 received with THANKs. 

I knew about Blind’s confection (just the kind of thing, as he 
told me himself, that Hecker used to do), although I wasn’t, of 
course, aware of some of the nicer details. D’abord,* this Telegraph 
Morning Express is edited by several English Seilers, and all its 
telegraphic despatches, or at any rate the better part of them, are 
reprinted from London morning papers. I can vouch for the Fact 
that Blind smuggled a bogus ‘rezzcr. pesparcu’ (dated Brussels) into 
The Morning Advertiser. This was, or course, instantly appropriated 
by the Telegraph Morning Express. Secondly, Dr Bronner is not 
merely an but the agent of Blind, [he] having ‘no other’ to send. 
I also believe it was he himself who ‘decreed’ that [the missive] be 
sent to Lupus, since Bronner never does anything [without] 
official sanction. In today’s Daily Telegraph also, you will find in 
the letter from Berlin: * ‘Similar petitions have been presented to 
the (Holstein) Diet by the German merchants resident at Bradford 
and Liverpool.’* The industry of these little Baden fleas hatched 
in the democratic midden is touching. Even the Ancients indulged 
in sundry edifying reflections on the subject of flea jumps. 

I’ve had a satisfying experience with the Tribune. For months 
that rotten sheet had published as Leavers all my articles on China 
(a complete history of Anglo-Chinese trade,” etc.) and had even 
been complimented on them. But when the official text of the 
Anglo-Chinese treaty**’ was finally released, I wrote an article in 
which I said inter alia that the Chinese ‘would now legalise the 
import of opium, likewise put an m™port duty on opium and, LASTLY, 
might even permit the cultivation of opium actually in China’, and 
thus the ‘second opium waR' would sooner oR LATER deal a DEADLY BLOW to 
the English opium Trave, and notably to the Inpian Excuequer Wet! 
Mr Dana printed this article as being from an _ ‘occasional 
CORRESPONDENT’ in London, and himself wrote a bombastic LEADER 

a First - > K. Marx. ‘History of the Opium Trade’ (two articles). - © K. Marx, ‘The 
British and Chinese Treaty’. 

refuting his ‘occasional CORRESPONDENT.” Now, [the day before yester- 
day]? (on Monday, ratuer), my predictions were confirmed word for 
word in the Housrt or Commons by Fitzgerald and Stanley in the 
name of the Ministry.” So on Tuesday, qua ‘occasional CORRESPONDENT’ 
I wrote a somewhat mocking though, of course, restrained piece about 
my ‘castigator’.°* 

Apropos. My brother-in-law,° a tall and tedious if worthy 
Dutchman, is coming up to Manchester on business. And notably 
to ascertain the solvency of certain individuals. Send me your 
private address, as he wishes to contact you. But avoid any allusion 
to my PRIVATE AFFAIRS. 

Salut. 

Your 
K. M. 

Little by little philistine Freiligrath is coughing up sundry things 
about Gottfried.“ 1. that Gottfried is sending Gerstenberg to see 
various MERCHANTS in the City, suggesting they subscribe to the 
Hermann. After all, says he, the poor man has got to ‘live’ and 
make up for the ‘loss’ incurred through the death of his wife. 
2. He tells me that Gottfried, immediately after the Mockel woman’s 
death, approached him and asked whether (and how big) a deal 
might be done with Cotta over her literary estate. ‘After all’, says 
Gottfried, ‘I enjoy the favour of the public.’ 

It could be that Blind himself is again hoodwinking The Morning 
Advertiser and getting friend Schiitz to send bogus telegraphic 
despatches from Brussels. 

Cluss has married someone he met at Dr Wiss’s in Baltimore. 

Apropos, on the strength of Blind’s recommendation, Bronner 
has found Landolphe the grec* a schoolmaster’s post in Bradford. 

Mr Liebknecht has introduced Edgar Bauer into the Workers’ 
Society.*? I watcu HM.