Manchester, 1 May 1854

Dear Marx,

The business with Heise is somewhat disastrous. You really ought in any case to have informed me if the fellow had behaved dubiously! in party matters. In that case I could not but assume that, for a newcomer, he was perfectly safe? I had previously only seen him for a couple of days in the Palatinate, met him in London in that intimate circle where you seemed especially to favour him and Meyer, so I had to conclude that the fellow had already done penance in London, made his *preuves* and had been received into grace. That is the way I have treated him hitherto, and since he had nothing to do and is otherwise a jolly chap, I’ve knocked about with him more than with anyone else and even, since the philistines got wind of my living together with Mary and the thing had to be ended, rented a flat next door to him, but have not yet moved in. All that is now hard to redress; I see only one way: I must conclude from your letter that you gave him a letter to me. I never received it. Write to me immediately so that I can interpellate him.

I wrote the Schimmelpf[ennig] article with him for two reasons: 1. because I wanted the fellow taken down, without appearing to be working for the “Reform”; 2. because H[eise] absolutely had to get something to do, to lift him out of his loafing ways. The article is very good, spoilt here and there by Heise’s style, but Herr Schimmelpf[ennig] gets a thorough going-over in it. The affair can be of no further use to H[eise], as he can never write a second one of the kind; on the contrary, the business impressed him as a specimen of the safe and well-‘based’ manner in which we operate. Nevertheless, this would not have happened if I had been instructed, and in any case the fellow would have cost me less money; as it is, I have him on my hands and am *au bout du compte* more or less responsible for his household debts, etc.

My trip to London is looking very doubtful. I have far too much to do at the office to get away easily; at the same time, I had certainly intended, if the business with the “D[aily] N[ews]” succeeded, to come and bring it to a close by word of mouth. That reason has now gone by the board, and since the affair would nonetheless cost me some £7–8, which I can ill spare, and I could stay there at most 3–4 days, I am trying to get out of it.

I shall now, after returning Cluss’s letter herewith, send the article on Sch[immelpfennig] to Cluss, who can make use of it as circumstances permit; if he has already become too deeply involved with Sch[immelpfennig], it will at least serve to enlighten Cluss privately about Sch[immelpfennig] and help to prevent Cl[uss] from getting too deeply involved with him. Soldier against soldier, I still prefer Willich to that affected ass Sch[immelpfennig], behind whom there really is nothing but pure vanity and arrogance, and whose entire learning is thrown together from a few of the most vulgar handbooks and compendiums.

For next Friday’s steamer I shall again write you a military or otherwise Turkish article. It is time to return, also politically, to our first articles on the subject; conditions have also there borne us out brilliantly, the stubbornness of the Greek insurrection and the evident uneasiness of the Turks in Bulgaria prove, after all, that the Christian population is beginning to stir and the empire of the Turks is rapidly approaching its end. On the other hand, the great weakness of the Turks shows that their army, as often before, has for the most part run off home during the winter and all the reforms have still not pounded any European soldierly spirit into these fellows. We must first have closer news of the Odessa business; everything is still too contradictory. Lupus is furious about the Allies for not smashing the Russians to the greater glory of Aberdeen and Bonaparte. He and Heise are now vying with each other to make themselves a terror to the philistines by absolute contradiction and gross loutishness. One or both will soon get a thrashing; yesterday they came near to it when I suddenly began to speak the Lancashire dialect, which made the philistines laugh and enabled an honourable retreat.

By the way, H[eise] will never become dangerous; his literary capacity is far below that of little Dronke, loafing is his main subject, knowledge is altogether absent, only a great inclination to acquire the abc of everything. He has also managed to painfully acquire the Russian abc, but has since forgotten it again.

So long as God keep him in his holy keeping, I don’t care a straw!

Yours,
F. E.