MARX TO HERMANN BECKER”’ 

{London, about | February 1851] 

..You would very greatly oblige me by sending me Willich’s 
letters.? Partly because we here by the rivers of Babylon” should 
also be vouchsafed a share of your Homeric laughter. And on the 
other hand because the man is exploiting the ‘alleged’ connection 
in order to brag in front of foreigners and, at the same time, 
make denunciations. Finally I feel it necessary that you should 
convey a note to him, either through me or direct, in which you 
most politely decline further correspondence on the grounds that, 
while humour may not greatly endanger him in London, for you 
in Cologne—and not for you alone but, by way of repercussion, 
for our party comrades in Germany—its effects may be dire. And 
what could be more ominous and at the same time more absurd 
than to be nailed to the cross as a result of a trick played through 
some mere whim of the ‘carpenter’s’**...