| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 4 February 1852 |
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 4 February 1852
28 Dean Street, Soho
Dear Engels,
Weerth left this morning for Holland. Where will he go from there? I do not know and neither does Weerth himself perhaps. He was as always very much disgruntled at his lot and, as for ours, the only disagreeable thing about it seemed to him our being forced to remain here in London instead of Cadiz, Saragossa, or some other confounded place in Spain. Indeed, since he's been living in Yorkshire again, Weerth has been saying that the time spent in Spain was the best in his life. He maintains that he can't stand the English climate and may therefore find that of Holland very COMFORTABLE. Let us wish him le bon voyage and wait and see whether he keeps his word and remembers about Weydemeyer.
My LETTER TO THE EDITOR[1] was sent to The Times last Thursday, i.e. il y a donc presque une semaine. It would seem that this paper, now that it makes a métier of polemicising against Bonaparte, deems it necessary to spare Prussia. So you must approach The Daily News. If that, too, misfires, which I doubt, there still remains The Spectator. Il est presque sûr.
Yesterday G. J. Harney sent me the first issue of his resuscitated and somewhat enlarged Friend of the People.[2] If that's what he withdrew from the world for 8 months and buried himself in melancholy Scotland for...! But un seul passage suffira pour te faire goûter ce fruit délicieux:
*Justice—Immutable, Universal, Eternal—proclaims the sublime principle which will be, at once, our guiding star, the rule of our conduct, and the test, etc.*[3]
En voilà assez! Bonaparte, however, he has adequately chastised by calling him 'Louis THE BASE'.
I do not know whether our EXDEAR sent me his little paper in order to wring our hearts or whether, out of spite towards us, he has become even more tritely democratic than we would have believed possible. By the by, alongside the platitudes and the JUSTICE IMMUTABLE there are barefaced tricks played by the TRADING DEMAGOGUE. Against Jones—via the 'SPIRIT OF FREEDOM',[4] via that SPOUTER Massey, secretary of the Tailors' Association of Castle Street, lickspittle to the clerics who keep this SHOP. Herald, à tort et à travers of the petits grands hommes whom the Continent has spewed out, calumniator of Jones, married to a saltimbanque who has duped him into believing that she is clairvoyant—he gets this Massey to have an apologia published for the associations in general and the AMALGAMATED SOCIETY in particular, a piece which threatens to extend over numerous issues. And Rhadamanthus Harney had told Jones in person that au fond he shared his views on the Associations. At the same time he announces: 'KOSSUTHS RECEPTION AND PROGRESS IN AMERICA',[5] although in a letter to Jones he described Kossuth as a HUMBUG. That is what the gentlemen of SUBLIME PRINCIPLE are like. Je ne sais que c'est que des principes, sinon des règles qu'on present aux autres pour soi? Harney retired for a while, allowing Jones, with his tempérament fougueux, to spoil the broth of popularity and then drink it himself. But even though he may harm Jones, he himself will achieve nothing. The fellow's completely done for as a writer and also, according to Lupus who heard him speECH-making in Jones Street, as a speaker, but above all as a man. May the devil take these popular 'movements, more especially when they are pacifiques. In the course of this Chartist agitation O'Connor has gone mad (have you read about his latest scene in court?), Harney has gone stale and Jones bankrupt. Voilà le dernier but de la vie dans tous les mouvements populaires.
Yesterday 'Colonel Bangya' came to see me. Amongst other things he said: 'Kossuth made the following speech to the Hungarian refugees who had foregathered with him in London: "I will take care of you all but I demand that you all remain loyal, devoted and attached to me. I am not such a fool as to sustain people who intrigue with my opponents. I demand that everyone declare himself unconditionally."' Thus the HUMBLE Kossuth behind the scenes. I further learned from Bangya that Szemere, Kasimir Batthyâny and Perczel (le general) are coming to London and will set up an anti-Kossuth committee. Lastly, the master mind behind the whole DODGE is Signore Mazzini. He is using Kossuth as a mouthpiece and, in his cabinet, regards himself as something of a Machiavelli. It is he who pulls the strings. But this gentleman is unaware that the puppets he causes to dance are heroes only in his own eyes and in no one else's. Thus he wrote and told Kossuth to get on intimate terms with Kinkel, saying that he personally had been unable to do so because he already had the other lot of German bigwigs sur le bras; Kossuth must now really make friends with Kinkel and Kinkel must write in all his letters about his worthy, his eminent friend and "equal", Kossuth. As for Kossuth, however, his idea is to lean on Germany's dictator, Kinkel, on the one hand, and on Italy's dictator, Mazzini, on the other, and to secure his rear with his ally, the dictator of France, Ledru-Rollin. The poor devil has sunk low.
A Frenchman, Massol by name, has paid me a visit. For a short spell he was on the Réforme under Lamennais. Formerly one of the civilisateurs whom Mohammed Ali had summoned from Gaul,[6] he is also one of the few hommes d'esprit still to be found among the French. According to him, Sasonow's stay in Paris (which, by the way he must now leave) is wholly attributable to his possession of a very reliable false passport and to his connections with a few femmes galantes who have INFLUENCE in the top circles. You will like Massol.
In addition I have seen les citoyens Vallières (former Barbèsiste and officer at the barricades), Bianchi and Sabatier. Though very refined, the latter is en general not above the usual run.
Dronke, I hear, is in Savoy. Bangya has suggested that Szemere and Perczel should write for Weydemeyer. What are the main points in the Hungarian business (military or otherwise) upon which elucidation should be sought from these gentlemen? It goes without saying that they must not write under their own names, for we do not want to identify ourselves with any coterie. But Perczel is du moins bon républicain and very knowledgeable.
Be so good—and mind you don't forget—as to send me the Tribunes. Johnson — Freiligrath's friend — wants to read the articles on Germany.[7] Lupus wants to write an anti-Kossuth piece for Weydemeyer.
As for the commercial business, I can no longer make head or tail of it. At one moment crisis seems imminent and the CITY prostrated, the next everything is set fair. I know that none of this will have any impact on the catastrophe. But at the present moment London is not the place in which to observe the current tendency.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
The matter of the seal is highly suspect.[8] Send this one back to me; I have examined it minutely.