Manchester, 16 July 1858

Dear Mohr,

It is very good of you that you have let me see clearly into these difficulties!¹ Here immediate action is certainly necessary. According to my calculation, about £50 to 60 are urgent, the rest can still be postponed. Of this sum, £30 could be raised at once by a new acceptance from me, if the fellow will agree to make the acceptance out at least 4 months after date; otherwise I should not be in a position to raise the money. If he is willing, £20 at 4 months after date and another £20 at 6 months after date can also be drawn (with interest to be added on), so that I would have to pay in November and January, and that would at once put £40 clear into your hands. So go at once to Freiligrath and see what can be done. It is of course absolutely necessary that the acceptances remain in the discounter’s portfolio, otherwise I should be ruined. The scoundrel must also not take more than the calculated 20%, that already gives a loss of almost £5.

By this, I should think, you would at least be covered so far that in case of need you could await the time of the next draft. But considering the state of your wife’s health, still more is certainly necessary, and unfortunately I cannot manage that. I cannot even go to Watts here because of his Provident Institution!, since I have fallen out with the fellow. However, here he has only a branch-office?²; the main office is in London, and you will find it in any Directory”³. The thing is called: People’s Provident Assurance Society and Life & Equitable Institution. Freiligrath will easily be able to provide you with a prospectus, Terms?⁴ etc. and, if anything can be done, which I doubt, also to set the matter in train.

Another method of raising money here in England, despite all my pondering, does not occur to me. I think it would be time for you to make an attempt with your old woman⁵ or some Dutchman⁶. After all, it is a matter of wiping off the old debts, and a fresh start”⁷; all these loan⁸ transactions only put off the matter and in the end only make the crisis worse, apart from the large amount of money eaten up by fees⁹ etc. and the time consumed by attempts. Moreover, my accepting bills anticipates the moneys which I could otherwise gradually let you have in smaller sums, and although the money in one sum is worth more to you than the odd¹⁰ five-pound notes that turn up now and then, a corresponding shortfall in the current receipts does result from it.

You really must here set aside any scruples — s’il y en aurait!¹¹! — and attempt a coup. It is a matter of raising about £50 more, and I absolutely cannot see how they can be procured otherwise than through your relatives.

In the meantime, I shall let the matter run through my head for a few more days, to see if I can find something else. In any case, however, we will burn this correspondence so that the matter remains between us.

Yours,
F.E.

In the most extreme emergency, I will also accept £20 at 3 months and £20 at 6 months, but shorter cannot be managed. Interest on top, so that you have £40 net.