London, 7 May 1872 

Dear Liebknecht, 

I see now where your mistrust of Cuno stems from: you thought 
he was an agent of Becker’s” who had come on a mission to lead 
the German International back into the arms of its mother-section 
in Geneva.“ This was quite unnecessary. When Cuno was in 
Chemnitz,* he could have been enrolled as a member there and 
then, if you had not treated the International so platonically. In 

a That’s all. - © Johann Philipp Becker - ¢ See this volume, pp. 370-72. - 4 Modern 
name: .Karl-Marx-Stadt. 

Milan, since he did not have our address, he turned to the only 
one known to him, that of Becker, and Becker, having admitted 
him, directed him to us. So just because Becker had once 
experienced the desire to annex Germany for himself, and 
because he may still intrigue a little here and there, you have to 
suspect every honest fellow who has had to turn to Becker because 
you were unwilling to act! I shall not believe your allegations about 
his boastfulness until I see proof; I have far less confidence in 
your correspondents in Nuremberg and elsewhere than I have in 
Cuno, who has never tried to pull the wool over our eyes, but has 
always reported more truthfully than most other people. Cuno’s 
father is a Prussian official in Düsseldorf who simply threw him 
out; now he is stuck without a penny to his name. His possessions 
and those of his father are two different things altogether. 

Enclosed an article by Lafargue from the Emancipacién; you will 
have someone or other who knows enough Spanish to translate 
it. Lafargue is doing a terrific amount of work in Spain and very 
skilfully too. The report from the Liberté on the congress in 
Saragossa was also by him. Incidentally, do not forget to publish the 
second report, the one in the previous issue of the ‘Liberté’, in which he 
unmasks the secret intrigues of the Bakuninists and describes the 
spectacular victory gained over them by our supporters there.” 
This was the decisive defeat for that pig-headed Bakunin. The 
Emancipacién is now the best paper we have. These Bakuninists 
are jackasses. The Spaniards have a very good organisation, one 
which has stood the test with flying colours precisely in the last 6 
months, and now these fools come along and imagine that they 
can seduce people with their phrases about autonomy and get 
them to dissolve their organisation to all intents and purposes. 

You ought to make more use of The Eastern Post; the 
information we make available there is truly of greater interest 
than the dogmatic legalistic waffle of Mr Acollas about the best of 
all possible constitutions.°” 

I still believe that the conviction will be quashed. In the first 
place, too many formal errors have been made, and secondly, the 
trial has already caused far too much of a rumpus.” Bismarck 
must surely perceive that he has gone too far and that quashing 
the sentence will be more advantageous for him than confirming 
It. 

To the best of my knowledge, Stefanoni has not published your 
letter.* I have not received all the issues of the Libero Pensiero and 

a See this volume, p. 577. 

unfortunately your letter arrived in Italy at the very moment when 
all our papers I had sent it to folded up simultaneously. As for 
Biichner, you only need glance at his last would-be socialist 
production to see the envy and hatred the little cripple feels for 
Marx, whom he plunders and distorts without ever mentioning 
him by name.’ And I stick to my belief that it is he who has filled 
Stefanoni’s head with all that junk. That he is on good terms with 
you is something he shares with Malon and many others who 
cherish a mortal hatred for us. 

I am sending you today’s Daily News with a delightful account 
of the behaviour of the German professors and students in Alsace 
and the reception given them by the Alsatians. A description of 
the German student is enclosed.? Both reports are by Major 
Forbes, the same man who was with the Saxons before Paris and 
was, at the time, beside himself with admiration for the German 
officers and soldiers, i.e. if anything he is prejudiced in favour of 
the Germans. You should make use of these descriptions of the 
representatives of ‘German culture’; they are striking proof as to 
how threadbare that ‘culture’ of the bourgeoisie has become, and 
how ludicrous its official spokesmen.”” 

As soon as I have time I shall write you an article on the 
housing shortage and against the absurd Proudhonist stories that 
have appeared in a series of articles on the subject in the 
Volksstaat.°™ 

Our reply to the Jurassians‘ is still in the press. The devil take 
all these co-operative printers. 

There its nothing to tell you about the Congress. Where it will 
take place can only be decided at the last moment.“ That it will 
take place, you know already. 

The arrest of our people in Denmark will be of enormous 
advantage to us and will not do much harm to the victims.*” 
Denmark is not Saxony. Unfortunately, I do not know who has 
been arrested and so am forced to interrupt the correspondence. 

The Emancipacién now regularly publishes extracts from the 
Volksstaat. Laura is looking after it, so make sure that the paper is 
sent there regularly. 

In Belgium the Brussels Federal Council has let everything go to 
rack and ruin; the two decent people we have there do not have 

a This presumably refers to L. Biichner’s book Die Stellung des Menschen in der Natur 
in Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft. - > [A. Forbes,] ‘The Opening of the 
Strasburg University. The Academical Excursion’, The Daily News, No. 8120, 7 May 
1872. - © K. Marx and F., Engels, Fictitious Splits in the International.