Engels to Marx
Manchester, 11 February 1858

Dear Mohr,

Dana cannot read – it is called team-horses, i.e. Bespannungspferde, the horses harnessed to any gun or carriage in order to draw it! The expression team occurs frequently elsewhere in the article, and if he wants to have an authority, he should look up the article “Artillery” in the “Encyclopaedia Britannica”.

Unfortunately I can send nothing today. I allowed myself to be tempted yesterday to ride to a coursing meeting, where hares are coursed by greyhounds, and was 7 hours in the saddle. This has indeed done me a great deal of good on the whole, but it prevented me from working, and with the things I had started – “Burmah” etc. I am not yet far enough along to be able to think of getting them finished in good time this evening.
The “Burmah” is very disgusting, to read through long books and yet make nothing proper out of it, as it must be pretty short. On the other hand, I shall make up for it with “Cavalry”; Dana will get the whole of Griesheim, as far as it refers to it.

Lupus seems to want to retire from pub-crawling; in all these annals I’ve only met him once in his usual pub, the Chatsworth. Since I go there only on his account, this is a great waste of time for me and must be changed.

I have also been sent the drivel of Harney dear. Harro Harring, who is in Jersey (though I have never seen him), must bear the main blame for it. The description of Krefeld is divinely good. The same old Harney. He has again made a great melodramatic spectacle out of Schramm’s death, in which G.J.H. naturally plays the leading role. The whole rubbish, funeral and all, his letters with superscriptions:

Haste! Immediate!! etc., on top of that the impertinence of asking me to come to Jersey, also to figure among the crapauds! and Washlapskis! – the whole business is repulsive to me. He is a lousy little louse-boy who is entirely in his right place in Jersey, besides being overjoyed at having got himself a press trial for slandering the feudal lord of Jersey, Fr. Godfrey.

Jones also seems to be making fine doings. The fat Livesay, whom he has made chairman!! of his conference, is a wretched little bourgeois who swears by Miall and who already in 1842, with Sturge and consorts, made the Complete Suffrage secession, when all the petty bourgeois separated.

But never mind! Mr. Bonaparte travaille pour nous! We could not possibly ask for anything better than the way he carries on. Espinasse Minister of the Interior, that beats cockfighting! And then the stupidity of having the addresses printed!

In order that you may not form any false notions of my physical condition, I shall tell you that yesterday I jumped my nag over an earth bank and hedge which was 5 feet and some inches high, the highest jump I have ever made. Such efforts, to be able to perform them with comfort, do presuppose fairly sound limbs. In general, we shall show the Prussian cavalry a thing or two when we come back to Germany. The gentlemen will find it hard to follow me; I am getting a great deal of practice now and improving daily, my renown also establishes itself in time. The real difficulties of riding in difficult terrain, however, I am only now getting to know; it is a highly complicated business.

Many greetings to your wife and children. By Monday some articles will come in any case. I think we shall wait another post with India, unless we get very interesting details.

Your
F.E.

The Engels Esq. looks really very comical. I should never forget to H[arney] that the best he knows how to say of me is confined to the Esq. Great ox!