IN HOTTINGEN-ZURICH 
London, 9 October 1885 

Dear Mr Schliiter, 
Yesterday I sent the introduction to the Cologne Trial” to Ede in 
case he wished to print it beforehand in the Sozialdemokrat, in which 

* F. Engels, ‘On the History of the Communist League’. -° K. Marx, Revelations Con- 
cerning the Communist Trial in Cologne. 

case he would have to arrange matters with you. * Herewith now the 
list of contents to show you how it has been arranged; also printing er- 
rors in, and notes on, the Leipzig edition of 1875. *°° I have included 
only the London Central Authority’s two Addresses of March and 
June’; the Cologne Address of December 1850° offers nothing new in 
the way of theory, being a detailed account of the party’s break-up 
which today would be of importance only in a circumstantial history 
of the movement of those days. 

The thing has got badly behindhand— through no fault of my 
own. La bravoure, c’est dans le ventre,? as Marshal Davout once said to 
his host, Marx’s father-in-law, ° when the latter congratulated him on 
his appetite. L’esprit, c’est dans le ventre’ is what I say, after discover- 
ing to what depths of stupidity and incapacity one can be reduced 
by catarrh of the stomach. To sweat away for five hours at one page 
and then furiously consign what one has written to the flames— 
WELL, it’s all over now, not to return for a very long time, or so I 
hope. 

Tomorrow JI shall tackle the introduction to the Schlestsche Mil- 
liarde. 

As regards the June battle, however, there’s nothing doing yet. 
I have become convinced that the things from the Neue Rheinische Zet- 
tung can’t be printed on their own without a real history of 
events. *’? But this would call for specialised studies which can’t be 
done until I have sorted out the piles of Marx’s pamphlets, because 
only then shall I know what stuff I have yet to procure for the pur- 
pose. And only then could I embark on my studies. So for the time 
being this will have to be shelved. 

With kindest regards, 

Yours, 
F. Engels