Letter to Friedrich Engels, about August 20, 1851

---

---

Add a subpage to this text

Read the help page for usage.

 

[London, about 20 August 1851] 28 Dean Street, Soho

Dear Engels,

The meeting of the “agreers” on the 15th was not well attended and was, as the English say, indifferent. Meanwhile great things were taking place – on the 17th – and the true course of the affair assumed, as our great A. Ruge would say, the following course:

Mr Kinkel summoned Willich, Techow, Goegg, Sigel and a few others, and revealed to them that he had received £160 through Fischer from New Orleans and had been charged with disposing of this money in consultation with the above-named and with Mr “Fr. Engels”. Instead of the latter, he had invited Fickler who, however, had declared that he had nothing to do with the “scoundrels”. Mr Kinkel was forced to show the letter from which it transpired that, anonymous and incognito, this money had already been at his lodgings for three weeks, unable to decide whether or not it should generously unbosom itself to the profane world. Though Kinkel spake with the tongues of angels, it availed him nothing. The Fickler clique realised that the Kinkel clique was doing some considerable angling on the side and would merely exploit the storm in the émigrés’ communal tea-cup to lure the “goldfish” away by stealth. And thus it was in vain that the great Heinzen had cast such lovelorn and plain-speaking glances at the funds collected in New Orleans! Goegg and Sigel left the conclave. A separate sitting of the Fickler-Ruge-Tausenau clique took place.

For the South Germans had privily discovered that A. Ruge was an imbecile. They need him because he provides a channel to Ledru-Rollin and Mazzini, and this patronage is of great importance to the South Germans. Tausenau appears to have opened their eyes for them and is now their real leader alongside Fickler. Tausenau is, in general, very much a wiseacre and intriguer, dabbling in diplomacy and equipped with the petty Jew’s flair for calculation; he believes in the imminence of the revolution.

Ruge, in a tremendous rage over the lost £160, now revealed to his friends that, more than twelve months previously, Willich-Kinkel had sent Schimmelpfennig to Mazzini, saying that he was an emissary and had come for money so that he could travel to Germany for the purpose of agitation. Mazzini gave him 1,000 fr. in cash and 5,000 fr. in Italian notes on condition that in twelve months’ time he would return the 1,000 fr. and two-thirds of the Italian notes provided. On these Schimmelpfennig travelled round France and Germany. The twelve months elapsed but nothing more was heard of either Kinkel-Schimmelpfennig, or the 1,000 fr., or the Italian notes. Now, when the money had arrived from New Orleans, Kinkel had once more sent his envoys to Mazzini, not to pay, but to blow their own trumpets and enter into an alliance with him. Mazzini had too much delicacy to remind them of their debt but told them that, since he had connections in Germany, he could not enter into any new ones. These gentlemen, A. Ruge went on, had also betaken themselves to Ledru-Rollin. But here Ruge had stolen a march on them: since Ledru-Rollin already considers himself President of the French Republic and has determined to wage war abroad forthwith, Ruge had presented Sigel to him as commander-in-chief of the German revolutionary army, whereupon Ledru-Rollin had embarked on a strategical discussion with Sigel. Another snub, then, for Kinkel-Willich.

After these revelations of Ruge’s, therefore, the turpitude of the Kinkel-Willich clique was laid bare before the eyes of the bemused beautiful souls. Now was the time for action, but what action is Ruge capable of other than new combinations and permutations of his mouldy old Central Committee? Hence it was resolved to form an agitation club, not for debating, but “essentially for working,” productive not of words but of works, and above all for inducing like-minded comrades to make financial contributions. To be composed of: Fickler, Tausenau, Franck, Goegg, Sigel, Hertle, J. Ronge, Haug, Ruge. You will immediately note the reconstruction: “Ruge-Ronge-Haug”. But closer inspection reveals that the main components of the club are (1) the western South German worthies: Fickler, Goegg, Sigel, Hertle; (2) the eastern South Germans: Tausenau, Haug and Franck – and hence that the club has been formed mainly as a South German one in opposition to the “Prussians”, and Ruge is only the umbilical cord maintaining the connection with the European Central Committee. In fact, they now call the other societies simply “the Prussians”. This agitation club nominated Tausenau to its executive authority and simultaneously made him its Minister of the Exterior. This meant that the “Central Ruge” was completely ousted. But in order to sugar the pill for him, he was given a douceur in the shape of an acknowledgment that his position on the Central Committee was recognised, as also his previous activities and his representation of the German people in accordance with the wishes of the German people. You’ll have seen this testimonium paupertatis (“certificate of poverty”) in print since it appeared in a notice, published in almost every English newspaper, in which the agitation society most humbly announces its birth to the European public and solicits its custom. Even this douceur was soured for poor Ruge by the fact that Fickler imposed the intolerable conditio sine qua non that Ruge should desist from writing and publishing his stupid stuff.

Now – all this being a fait accompli – we mustn’t, as the boobies here wanted to do and in fact did, cry out in self-righteous indignation, but rather let the vagabond continue for a while to believe he’s still connected with us, until such time as we have the power and the opportunity to dispose of the fellow, d’une manière ou d’une autre. If we were in any way to confront him with our knowledge of his dishonourable, scoundrelly conduct, he might at this moment constitute a real danger to our German comrades.

You will believe, by the by – without my insisting – that I am damned sick of my situation. I’ve written to America to find out whether there’s any possibility of setting up, in collaboration with Lupus, as correspondent here for a couple of dozen journals. It is impossible to go on living like this.

As to the negotiations with Ebner in Frankfurt, he writes to say that Cotta will probably take my Political Economy – of which I sent an outline – and that, if not, he will find another publisher. I should have finished at the library long ago. But there have been too many interruptions and disturbances and at home everything’s always in a state of siege. For nights on end I am set on edge and infuriated by floods of tears. So I cannot of course do very much. I feel sorry for my wife. The main burden falls on her and, au fond, she is right. Il faut que l’industrie soit plus productive que le mariage. For all that, you must remember that by nature I am très peu endurant and even quelque peu dur, so that from time to time I lose my equanimity.

Julius was buried about a week ago. I was present at the funeral. The precious Kinkel delivered a few platitudes at the graveside. Julius was the only one of the émigrés who applied himself to study and was progressively moving away from idealism into our own sphere.

The precious Dulon is here.

Heinzen and Ruge are still thundering in the New York Schnellpost against the communists, and against ourselves in particular. But the stuff’s so abysmally stupid that it’s impossible to deal with it other than by selecting, at some opportune moment, the funniest bits in Ruge’s concoctions and thereby revealing to the Germans by whom, malgré eux, they are ruled.

Have you by any chance read Proudhon’s latest book?

Weydemeyer has written to me from Zurich. Karstens is jailed in Mainz. He made an unsuccessful attempt to escape.

Your K. M.

P.S. It would, by the by, be a very good idea if you were to write a signed article for Jones. He is making progress with his paper; he is learning. Ce n’est pas un Harney (“He’s no Harney”). The Notes to the People is, accordingly, on the up and up, while The Friend of the People is going to pot.```