in Frankfurt a.M.

Dear Friend, [London] 15 July 1878

I received your letter the same day that I had already sent you a few lines by a roundabout route.

Your last letter but one (of 30 June) puts no question to me, except: whether I received mailings of some of the statements contained in the German press about my first epistle to the “Daily News”? Answer: no.

It never occurred to me even in my dreams to dedicate a “book” to Herr Bucher.¹ He owes me an answer to my “30” lines. I have neither time nor cause to supply, in his stead, the “3,000” lines he deems necessary. This fable has been put into the world by the London correspondent of the “Vossische Zeitung”. It is, so far as I know, Dr. Elard Biscamp, a notorious scoundrel. Yet this time his sorry joke has succeeded.

My state of health urgently requires Carlsbad. But Herr Bismarck, who was himself so eager to get to Kissingen, will not have it. Что делать? (que faire?),⁵ as the Russians say. To look around for a makeshift at one of the British seaside resorts, not yet under the tutelage of the society-rescuers of the new Holy Alliance!⁸ My wife is seriously ill, must probably go to Carlsbad, and the ex-gracious ex-baroness von Westphalen perhaps does not count as contraband.

Your journey, I hope, will do you good. Should you linger longer at any place, write to me from there. I may possibly have to send you an English article of mine (not yet printed), which, however, does not at all concern the worthy “fatherland”,⁰ as the English call it.

With best greetings Your
Karl Marx

¹See previous volume, p. 331 – “Herr Bucher” – “Reply to Bucher’s ‘Declaration’” – see Volume 19 of our edition, p. 140. – ⁵what is to be done? – ⁸Mr George Howell’s “History of the International Working Men’s Association”. – ⁰“fatherland”, as the English call it.