London, 22 March 1875 

Dear Rudolf, 

I have received your letter as well as the two from Ermen & 
Engels and have made entries in conformity with them. Many 
thanks for dealing with the matter, which has been settled to my 
entire satisfaction. 

Today there is something else. The day before yesterday in the 
evening little Heinrich Ermen suddenly turned up from Manches- 
ter with the following story: 

Gottfried Ermen intends to retire in two years’ time and has 
actually allowed Peter Ermen to insinuate his son-in-law, 
Matilda’s husband, the schoolmaster Roby, into the business as an 
associé.” No more than a fortnight after Roby’s arrival, however, he 
apparently had second thoughts when it transpired that the 
aforementioned Roby, who had been described to him in glowing 
terms as a man of many parts, a builder of schools and heaven 
knows what else, was no good at business. But Gottfried had 
become so deeply involved that he could find no way out and, 
despite the -fact that Roby does nothing save study the bank 
account and The Times, Gottfried now wants to [force] him—now his 
nephew—onto his nephews as principal associé with a share 
approximately as large as those of the three nephews (Heinrich and 
his brother Franz and Franz, Franz’s son) put together. 

This Roby, you see, had a very nice little post on the Enpowep 
ScHoots Commission, a government commission set up by Gladstone 
several years ago to investigate and redress at least some of the 
most flagrant abuses in the administration of the very considerable 
endowments designated for schools; he was one of the commis- 
sioners. But as soon as Disraeli took the helm he engineered a vote 
in Parliament whereby he was authorised to disband the whole 
commission and assign such work as was still outstanding to the 
Charity Commissioners who, having been elected under a Conserva- 
tive government, are much more inclined to conserve moderate 
abuses.” In this way our Roby lost his little post and, with Peter’s 
help, hit upon the ingenious notion of becoming a manufacturer. 

Now, the contract which Gottfried has had drawn up for this 
purpose between Roby and the three nephews is so framed that 
the three nephews actually undertake to work for fourteen years, in 
return for which Mr Roby can expect to get an income of £5,000 
and they, between the three of them, perhaps slightly more. True, 
the two Franzes have signed but not, as yet, Heinrich, and if needs 
be this will enable the other two to withdraw, as Heinrich thinks 
his brother Franz would do, should he, Heinrich, not sign and 
find something else. 

He then asked me to inquire whether you might feel disposed to 
carry on the business of Ermen & Engels in Manchester with him 
and/or his brother Franz and turn to account its already 

“ partner 

established reputation, either by simply forming a partnership 
with the pair of them or, as is now very common over here, by 
turning the concern into a limited partnership (Ermen & Engels 
Limited, as the firm would then be called); in that case it would 
have to be ascertained which of the associés (the gérants of the 
Code Napoléon) would be liable to the full extent of their 
assets—the law on this point is almost exactly the same as in the 
Code Napoléon. As to the capital, he maintains that he will be able 
to raise it immediately— whether for the former or the latter—as 
soon as you give your assent, and this I can well believe, for after 
the good years of 1870-73 Lancashire is again so flush with money 
that people don’t know how to invest it. 

I said you would be unlikely to agree to this. You had quite 
enough to cope with; a limited company would be unlikely to suit 
you and you would be unlikely to agree to an ordinary company, 
if only because it might entail the removal of one of you to 
Manchester, and that wouldn’t suit you; moreover you would be 
unlikely to start up a firm on the money that could be raised in 
Manchester. In short I was fairly lukewarm about the matter. 

But the fact remains that there is still a fair amount of money to 
be made with the firm of Ermen & Engels in Manchester, 
particularly if, as would be the case here, one starts off with 
entirely new machinery which will soon be obtainable very cheaply. 
Heinrich is a very good spinner and twister and has a wife and 
4'/. children, which does at least provide some guarantee for his 
performance. Franz has an exhaustive knowledge of bleaching, 
dyeing and bobbin manufacture and of the whole actual manufac- 
turing process of sewing and knitting yarns, including steel thread. 
On top of that Heinrich says that Franz has become an excellent 
businessman, which I can well believe, for all his talents lay in that 
direction. At any rate the two together would always be more 
acceptable to me than Gottfried. If you feel inclined to take up the 
idea, H. Ermen will come over at once when you will be able to 
take a closer look at him and question him at greater length about 
the details of his plan. 

So think the matter over and let me know as soon as possible; 
apparently Heinrich can’t postpone a definite decision vis-a-vis 
Gottfried for very much longer. 

Love to Mathilde,* the children and yourself, 

Your 
Friedrich 

a Mathilde Engels