[London,] 18 May 1874 

Dear Kugelmann, 

I have received everything: your letters (including some kind 
lines from your dear wife and Franzchen*), the ‘Meyer’ (police- 
socialist, faiseur,” literary scribbler), the. cuttings from the 
Frankfurter, etc., and finally a letter from Madame Tenge. 

I am very grateful to you, your family and Madame Tenge for 
the kind interest in my progress. But you do me an injustice if you 
ascribe my failure to write to any other cause than shaky state of 
health, which continually interrupts my work, then goads me on to 
make up for the time lost by neglecting all other duties (letters 
included), and finally puts a man out of humour and makes him 
disinclined to activity. 

After my return from Harrogate’ I had an attack of carbuncles 
d’abord, then my headaches returned, insomnia, etc., so that I had 
to remain from the middle of April to 5 May in Ramsgate 
(seaside).© Since then I have been feeling much better, but am far 
from being quite well. My specialist (Dr Gumpert in Manchester) 
insists upon my going to Karlsbad“ and would like to make 
me travel there as soon as possible, but I must finally complete 
the French translation’? which has come to a full stop, and, 
apart from that, I should much prefer it if I could meet you 
there. 

In the meantime, while I was unable to write, I worked through 
a lot of important new material for the second volume.* But I 
cannot start on its final composition until the French edition is 
completed and my health fully restored. 

So I have by no means yet decided how I shall spend the 
summer. 

The progress of the German labour movement (ditto in Austria) 
is wholly satisfactory. In France the absence of a theoretical 
foundation and of practical common sense is very evident. In 
England at the moment only the agricultural labourers’ movement 

4 Gertrud and Franziska Kugelmann - > mountebank - ¢ See this volume, pp. 13- 
14. - 4 Czech name: Karlovy Vary.- € of Capital 

shows any advance ‘9: the industrial workers have first of all to get 
rid of their present leaders. When I] denounced the fellows* at the 
Hague Congress” I knew that I was letting myself in for 
unpopularity, slander, etc., but such consequences have always 
been a matter of indifference to me. Here and there people are 
beginning to see that in making that denunciation I was only 
doing my duty. 

In the United States our party has to fight against great 
difficulties, partly economic, partly political, but is making 
headway. The greatest obstacle there are the professional politi- 
cians, who immediately try to falsify every new movement and 
change it into a new ‘floatation business’ [‘Griindungsgeschaft’}. 

Notwithstanding all diplomatic moves, a new war is inevitable au 
peu plus tét, au peu plus tard,” and before its conclusion there are 
hardly likely to be any violent popular movements anywhere, or, 
at the most, they will remain local and unimportant. 

The visit of the Russian emperor‘ is giving the London police a 
great deal to do and the government here will be glad to get rid of 
the man as soon as possible.) As a precautionary measure it 
requisitioned forty police (mouchards*), with the notorious police 
commissioner Bloche at their head (Ali Baba and the forty 
thieves), from the French government, to watch the Poles and 
Russians here (during the Tsar’s stay). The so-called amnesty 
petition of the Poles here is the work of the Russian embassy; in 
answer to it the Poles here issued an address, written and signed 
by Wrdéblewski, which is aimed at the English and which has been 
distributed in large numbers at the Sunday meetings in Hyde Park. 
The English press (with very few exceptions) is obsequious—the 
Tsar is after all ‘ovr curst’; but for all that the real feeling against 
Russia is incomparably more hostile than it has been since the 
Crimean War,” and the entry of a Russian princess * into the royal 
family has aroused rather than disarmed suspicion. The facts— 
the arbitrary abrogation of the decisions concerning the Black Sea 
in the Paris Treaty,” the conquests and trickeries in Central Asia, 
etc.—irritate John Bull, and Disraeli has no chance of remaining 
at the helm for any length of time if he continues Gladstone's 
unctuous foreign policy. 

* in a speech on 3 September 1872 (see The Hague Congress of the First International. 
Jater - © Alexander II - 4 spies - © Maria Alexandrovna 

With my warmest greetings to your dear family and Madame 
Tenge. 

Your 
K. M.