[London,} 18 January 1854 
28 Dean Street, Scho 

Dear Frederic, 

You must let me have by Friday* something of a general nature 
(it is hardly possible to be specific) about the Battle of Citale or 
Zitale.” It seems to me that: 

1. The battle of Oltenitza was a misunderstanding which 
frustrated the armistice imposed by the Ambassadors on the Porte. 
Similarly the Battle of Citatea was a misunderstanding which 
frustrated the peace proposals dictated to the Porte under the 
guns of the English warships. 

2. The obverse of Oltenitza. In the one case the Turks 
entrenched, in the other the Russians, etc. 

3. Same result. After a murderous set-to lasting five days, the 
fellows drew in their respective horns. All I see is the result. I 
don’t know what should have happened. All I do know is that this 
is not the way Napoleon fought a war. 

So enmeshed in their own webs have the diplomatic intriguers 
become that a guerre générale“ is imminent. As you know, the EVENT 
at Sinope—not to mention Mr Redcliffe’s threats—was intended 
to induce the Turks to accept the Protocol of Vienna and bring 
Halil and Riza Pasha into the government.*” Once all this had 

@ 20 January. - * Marx took the wrong spelling from the English newspapers; 
should be Citatea as below. - © general war 

been engineered, Palmerston resigned.“ On 19 December, while 
he was still out of office, the coalition smelt a rat and ordered a 
demonstration in the Black Sea. Palmerston, doubly discredited, 
returned to office and effected the decision of the 26th, that the 
entire fleet was to sail into the Black Sea, but to do no more than 
assume a neutral role vis-a-vis the two BELLIGERENTS; ostensibly going 
further than the decision of the 19th, but in fact attempting to 
thwart it and cut the Turks off from their Asiatic theatre of war. 
In the meantime, however, Mr Bonaparte, basing himself on the 
decision of the 19th, has already issued contrary orders and 
purports to interpret the decision of the 26th merely as an 
extension of the first. Palmerston, or coursr, had to make the best 
of a bad thing and preserve his reputation as an energetic patriot. 
In this way the fellows have got themselves into a pretty pickle and 
their dissimulation will land them in an even worse one, especially 
since Parliament will have to be shown on the 31st that ‘energetic’ 
steps are being taken.“ The Note which the fellows submitted to 
the Turks for signature shows that the former were prepared for 
a total surrenper To Russia and that only ‘misunderstandings’ 
frustrated this good intention.*” 

My brother-in-law— le ministre’— wrote and told my mother-in- 
law” that she was unfortunately about to relive her experience of 
40 years ago, namely a general war.* 

I forwarded your letter to Steffen *” the same day to Brussels 
where Steffen is still staying with his sister. I fear that, at this 
particular juncture, your ‘Napoleon as Lieutenant of Artillery’ *” 
will be rejected, as The Times has had orders to refrain from any 
semblance of anti-Bonaparte polemics. Since he is ‘our’ ally, every 
paper will be moved by the same patriotic considerations just now. 
Anyway, as soon as the thing is ready, and if the papers won’t 
have it, we shall bring it out as a pamphlet. Where my own work is 
concerned, I feel embarrassed about offering it to a publisher. The 
same géne© would not apply to yours, 

That jackass Weydemeyer has again shelved ‘the noble con- 
sciousness’. The main thing was speed in answering. 6 weeks too 
late, and the thing’s stale. I cannot under:tand Cluss, and why he 
should always pick on me of all people to be Mr Weydemeyer’s 
victim. 

72 

Your 
K. M. 

a Ferdinand von Westphalen - > Caroline von Westphalen - © embarrassment - 
4 K. Marx, ‘The Knight of the Noble Consciousness’. 

God bless you, Brother Straubinger.*! A MAN OF HIGHBIRTH HONOUR PEACE 
PROSPERITY. 

SMALL WIT*