Letter to Karl Marx, August 7, 1865

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To Marx in London

Manchester, 7 August 1865

Dear Moor,

I have got a remedy for your rheumatism that Gumpert once used to cure me with within 24 hours, and from a much more severe attack, too. Get yourself 2 big bags of flannel made big enough to cover the affected part completely and a bit over; have these bags filled with bran and heated each in turn in the oven, just as hot as you can bear it; you put each in turn on the place, changing them as often as ever you can. All the while keep yourself warm and quiet in bed, and you will soon feel very considerable relief, but you mustn’t discontinue the treatment on that account until all the pain has gone (say 24-36 hours).

Eichhoff has just called; he has got himself made Director of a limited company in London; it is crystal clear to me from the whole affair that the idea is for him to be duped of a substantial sum again, but there’s absolutely no helping the fellow, with his mania for seeing everything couleur de rose. He has now gone so far as believing that the silk-trade here in England absolutely could not go on without him.

I'm so pleased the book [Capital] is making rapid progress, for I had really begun to suspect from one or two phrases in your last letter that you had again reached an unexpected turning-point which might prolong everything indefinitely. The day that manuscript is sent off, I shall drink myself to kingdom come, that is, unless you come up here the next day so that we can seal it together.

Many thanks for the Free Presses.

Our worthy Liebknecht simply cannot help putting his foot in it, or writing off to people just whenever the mood takes him. We shall always be annoyed with him for 10 months out of 12, as soon as he is by himself and has to act on his own initiative. In the meantime que veux-tu? Liebknecht does as Liebknecht is, and all the exasperation and all the grumbling will not help matters. And after all, when all’s said and done, at the moment he is the only reliable link we have in Germany.

A Workingmen’s Congress in Brussels would certainly be the greatest stupidity in present circumstances. Just remember our own experiences in that little country. That sort of thing can only be done in England, the Frenchmen ought to know that. It would just be throwing away money and time and trouble to attempt anything of that kind in Belgium.

Have you got Schilling’s pamphlet on B. Becker? You might let me have it for a couple of days.

I don’t know whether Strohn is in Hamburg or Bradford, I haven’t heard anything from him for quite a long time now.

The Rhineland philistines are supposed to be frightfully angry with Bismarck; it is splendid that those jackasses are having their ‘historical development on a legal basis’ so nicely demonstrated. Have you seen Bismarck’s latest dodge to raise money? The Cologne-Minden Railway had granted the state the right to buy up its shares at par in return for an interest-guarantee from the state (100-taler shares are now standing at over 200 talers); he has bartered away this right to the Railway for 13 million talers, and the Kölner Zeitung calculates that in this way he got hold of 30 million talers, including sale of the shares already owned by the state, etc. The question is, will the Cologne-Minden Railway pay up without the Chamber’s approval for the deal. If it does so, Bismarck will again have a clear road for years ahead, and the philistines will have been atrociously shitted upon. We shall soon see.

Lizzy says Edgar can’t have been wearing his Texan hat, or he couldn’t possibly have caught a cold in the nose.

Your
F. E.