| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 2 April 1857 |
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LONDON
Manchester, 2 April 1857
D. M.,
Potter is a great big, enormously fat fellow, aged about 46 years, red haired and red faced, has been mayor of Manchester 3 times, VERY JOLLY,' HAS NO BRAINS, but plenty of belly and bottom, introduced robes into the corporation here on the occasion OF THE QUEENS VISIT, for which he was dubbed a knight, is a lifelong whoremonger (a BACHELOR still), on particularly intimate terms with the celebrated Miss Chester (alias Polly Evans) whose brothel he has twice fitted out and towards whose LAW EXPENSES he allegedly contributed £50 when she appeared before the Liverpool Assizes on a charge of abortion and was acquitted. A man who will greatly please the COUNTRY SQUIRES and whose reputation rests solely on the fact that his father, Sir Thomas Potter, KNIGHT, was once leader of the local liberal movement and introduced Milner Gibson here. He himself is popular with whores, CAB-DRIVERS, PUBLICANS, street urchins and the less respectable variety of philistine GENERALLY. While he was MAYOR the police left the whores in peace. Views—moderate liberal.
J. A. Turner is a respectable philistine who has never forgotten that he once went bankrupt and who, within his restricted circle, makes himself plus ou moins[1] useful as chairman of the COMMERCIAL ASSOCIATION (the rival of the more liberal CHAMBER OF COMMERCE). Might also gain some influence in the House of Commons by his detailed knowledge of commercial questions. Is a Tory (moderate) and very rich. His elder son, Jack Turner, COMMONLY CALLED THE FAT BOY, is a great toper and a good billiards player. His second, an impudent lad, is a FOXHUNTER with considerable pretensions to good horse- manship, an ugly mug and red moustache. To the horror of his family, he married the ballet dancer Annie Payne.[2]
Your
F. E.