Letter to Karl Marx, October 5, 1860

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To Marx in London

Manchester, 5 October 1860

Dear Moor,

Enclosed £5 note E/L 33688 Manchester, 12 Jan. 60.

I would have sent it sooner, but Gumpert touched me for ten pounds, after which I had to wait a day or two so as not to make myself conspicuous by drawing a lot of money all at once.

As to printing in London, the chief consideration, of course, is that the thing should appear and appear quickly; but printing in Germany was preferable and could undoubtedly have been arranged. However sharp Petsch may be, a German publisher, e.g. Meissner (who is far from being the philistine you imagine him to be — just take a look at his list) is in a much stronger position to break the conspiration du silence. Nor do I account it in any way a blessing that the party is thus also compelled to invest capital, for we've little enough as it is.

Title — I would repeat, and this is quite definitely Lupus’s opinion also, that at any rate, a title that requires one to read half the book before one finds out what it means could not be more unhappy. Your philistine has long since ceased to take such an interest in Vogt as to puzzle over why you should call him Dâ-Dâ. The only thing that can make Vogt interesting is his connection with Bonaparte and Plon-Plon, and this you must emphasise in the title, if you are to arouse the philistine’s curiosity. So far as the title is concerned, your system of mockery and contempt is unlikely to produce anything but a title that is affected or contrived. A simple title is surely the best; mockery and contempt comes in the book soon enough.

So, père Garibaldi has drubbed the Neapolitans again after all, and taken 2,000 prisoners. The impression the chap makes on the troops must be tremendous. It’s an excellent thing that Türr should have been discredited along with Rustow’s theory. Otherwise, the latter would undoubtedly have taken it into his head to become the German Garibaldi; among the bourgeois republicans, the chap could come to be dangerous. It will probably be all up with Bombalino before long; the troops will soon have nothing left to eat and will disperse, for the area is not large enough to support them. Apart from that, there’s nothing to be said about the affair for the time being. By the way, there’s no denying that the rè galantuomo is playing his hand with a great deal of pluck if he should now go to Naples.

The success of my rifle article was not altogether fortuitous. I sent the little sheet, boldly marked in red, to the main London papers and the press up here and wrote to them more or less as follows: *The Correspondent, for England, of the Allgemeine Militär-Zeitung presents his compliments to the Editor of the ... and begs to call his attention to an article of his in the Volunteer Journal (a copy of which is sent by post) on the Newton review. As this is the first professional opinion of a foreign military paper on the voluntary movement, it may be of interest.* — Quite anonymously, of course. I didn’t write to The Times but they published an excerpt, nevertheless.

Siebel has sent me a Portrait of his betrothed, very pretty. Marie Antoinette with just a tiny soupçon of the virtuous Eugénie, but exceedingly mannish, notwithstanding — she will wear the breeches. His ‘sensible creature’ will surprise him yet. Madame la baronne, her mother, was a milliner-cum-shop assistant in Düsseldorf and is still said to frequent Küpper’s beer garden, where she puts away her 3 or 4 pints in an afternoon. Or so the philistines say.

According to the latest reports, Garibaldi is the grandson or great-grandson of the Dr Jos. Bapt. Maria Garibaldi of Ajaccio who was sent to Germany by King Theodore Neuhof, married Miss Katharina von Neuhof in Westphalia and, after the overthrow of his brother-in-law, settled in Nice. His face certainly has a Westphalian cast to it. Ewerbeck and Willich are both caricatures of G. in their own way.

In number one, volume three, of Kolatschek’s German monthly there is said to be a very pointed article against Vogt.

Kind regards to the family.

Your
F. E.