1882
Dear Laurachen,
Today is our first sunny and tolerable day in Ventnor. The weather is said to have been excellent — up till the time of our arrival.[234] Thereafter GALES EVERY DAY, wind raging and howling throughout the night, in the morning THE SKY OVERCAST, LEADEN, LONDONLIKE. Temperature significantly lower than in London and, on top of that, and most tiresome of all, a great deal of rain. (The air itself was of course 'purer' than in London.)
In the circumstances it was only natural that my cough, IN FACT my bronchial catarrh, should have got worse rather than better. But for all that I have progressed to the extent that for part of the night I sleep naturally, without opium, etc. However my general condition is not such as to render me fit for work. Today, ABOUT the end of the first week of our stay, it looks as though a change is setting in. Given warmer weather this would certainly be a splendid health resort for convalescents of my description.
My companion(1) (this strictly between ourselves) eats practically nothing; suffers badly from nervous tics; reads and writes all day long, when not engaged in buying the necessary provisions or taking short walks. She is very taciturn and, INDEED, seemingly endures staying with me simply out of a sense of duty, as a self-sacrificing martyr.
Has there been no more news from Jenny about the arrival of the CHRISTMAS Boxb? I'm worried about the thing.
You will understand, dear child, if I have nothing positive to report to you from here, my experiences hitherto having been purely nega-tive, unless it be the great discovery that local literature here is represented by 3 newspapers, and that there is even A SCHOOL OF ART and SCIENCE INSTITUTION where a big lecture is to be given next Monday evening ON THE CASTES AND 'MÉTIERS' OF INDIA.
Today I received a letter from Reinhardt in Paris in which he speaks of our sad bereavement(2) in the MOST SINCERE and MOST SYMPA-THETIC manner. The vehemence with which the bourgeois papers in Germany have announced either my demise, or at any rate the inevitable imminence thereof, has tickled me hugely, and the 'man at odds with the world' will have to get fit for action again, if only to oblige them.
Willard Brown has written to Tussy from New York; he has entrusted the business of your house to a very intimate and competent friend of his in new Orleans[235]; the latter has written to say that AT FIRST SIGHT there has been a great deal of underhand work but that he must first make further investigations in order to obtain actual proof.
I enclose, as a curiosity for Paul,c a cutting from the MONEY ARTICLE in The Times (29 December 1881) which was obviously inserted by Messrs Say and Rothschild/(Regards to Paul and Helen.d)
Adio, MY DEAR CHILD, write soon.
Your
OLD NICK
102. Marx to Engels. 5 January
102
MARX TO ENGELS [1 4 0]
IN LONDON
Ventnor, 5 January 1882 1 St Boniface Gardens
Dear FRED,
Cold and wet during the day, raging winds at night; that, by and large, is the kind of weather and climate we've been experiencing here up till today.[234] — The exception was yesterday, when it was dry with brilliant sunshine.— According to letters received by Tussy, it has been the same everywhere on the south coast of England; disap-pointment everywhere on the part of the not inconsiderable number of convalescing, etc., rabble. Qui vivra verra.* Perhaps there will be a change for the better.
I now wear—{au cas de besoin(1))—a muzzle, alias RESPIRATOR; this makes one less dependent on the caprices of the weather when taking one's obligatory walk.
I still have a tiresome and persistent cough and bronchial catarrh; but it's an undoubted step forward that I should get a few hours sleep at night without recourse to artificial remedies, and this despite the roar of the wind across the sea close by; on the contrary, the noise helps to send me to sleep.
My companion, Tussy, is sorely plagued with nervous tics and insomnia, etc. However I hope that her frequent excursions in the fresh air — for she goes into 'town' every day to attend to this and that — will have a beneficial effect on her.
What has tickled me greatly was the announcement by the LIBERAL ASSOCIATION — I no longer recall where, Birmingham perhaps[236] — that, in celebration of some ANNIVERSARY or other, not only will OLD Bright and THE ILLUSTRIOUS VESTRYMAN AND CAUCUSMAN Chamberlain be speaking, *but that also old Obadiah's 'son', Mr Jacob Bright jun.[237]
and several 'Miss' Cobden, are to put in their appearance. It is not said whether one of the 'Miss' Cobden or all of them will be given away to the young Obadiah, so as to perpetuate in the most appropriate and safest way the Bright-Cobden stock.* A different picture is presented by the 3,000 LANDLORDS'MEETING AT Dublin,[238] duce* Abercorn, the sole aim of which is *'to maintain... contracts and the freedom between man and man in this realm'.* The laddies' rage at the ASSISTANT COMMISSIONERS is comical.Their attacks on Gladstone are, by the by, fully justified, but it is only the latter's COER-CITIVE [sic] MEASURES and his 50,000 men,[123] not counting the police, that permit these gentlemen to confront him in so critical and threatening a manner. All this uproar is, of course, merely aimed at getting John Bull ready to pay 'compensation costs'. SERVES HIM RIGHT.
You will see from the enclosed letter from Dietzgen that the un-happy fellow has 'progressed' backwards and safely 'arrived' at the Phänomenologie.[239] I regard the case as an incurable one.
I have also had a very kind letter of condolence from Reinhardt in Paris who asks me to give you, amongst others, his kindest regards. He always had a soft spot for my beloved partner.
I wish I were fit for action again; not yet reached that stage, alas. With best wishes from Tussy.
Your
Moor
103. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 6 January
Dear Mr Bernstein,
I am writing to you in haste today in order to shed some light on the peculiar expressions that occur in the last number of the Égalité on the subject of the Sozialdemokrat. The point is that, out of the goodness of his heart, Guesde engaged for the German section of the paper a person known to be the mortal enemy of everything apper-taining to 'Zurich',[3] and the said person was unable to refrain from thus expressing his displeasure that the Sozialdemokrat should survive and not the Laterne. You would oblige us and serve the cause by taking no notice of this. If it happens again, we shall at once put a stop to it. By contrast, we were delighted that the Sozialdemokrat should not have hesitated to accuse the deputies of downright cowardice, thus bringing matters to a head, something which many of them, had Bebel not been there, would doubtless have sooner avoided.[240]
The Egalité people, by the way, have been luckier than, aufond,(1)
they deserved. Malon and Brousse made horrible fools of themselves in connection with Joffrin's candidature by putting forward a watered-down programme — in defiance of the congressional resolution passed at Rheims,[223] and quite simply suppressed one of the points discussed there, just because it happened not to suit their book (Egalité, No. 4, p. 7, Paris).b In this way they put the Egalité in the right which, in the circumstances and on tactical grounds, was absolutely imperative — not Guesde and Co., but Malon and Co., were the real 'autoritaires',(2) the strivers after dictatorship.r And, now that the struggle has come out into the open, I need hardly say that our sympathies lie wholly with Guesde and his friends. Moreover, the Egalité is, and always has been, infinitely superior to the Prolétaire as far as content is concerned. Malon and Brousse are again behaving like true Bakuninists: they accuse others of hankering for dictatorship and, under pretence of maintaining their 'autonomy', want to rule the roost themselves without regard for party resolutions.
Marx is at Veninor in the Isle of Wight, but writes to say that the weather is atrocious/ worse than here. Well, it will soon change, no doubt; at all events, there would now seem to be no real danger of a relapse. The haste the bourgeois press was in to disseminate the news of his confidently anticipated demise did him no end of good: 'Now I must live to a ripe old age, if only to spite the damned rascals.'
104. Engels to Marx. 8 January
Kautsky will have to be patient for a few more days. Schorlemmer is still here, which means that the most that I can do is dabble in natural science; on top of that, there's all the coming and going which won't be over until next week. Then, when time's no object, as Schorlemmer says Darmstadt-fashion, I'll write to him about the Poles.(1)
Kindest regards to him and you,
from yours
F. Engels
104
ENGELS TO MARX
IN VENTNOR
London, 8 January 1882
Dear Moor,
We were glad to hear that there was no reason for yours and Tussy's silence and, even though you couldn't be expected to make very much progress in view of the adverse weather, you have at least bene-fited to the extent that the danger of a relapse has now been pretty well eliminated, which was, after all, the main reason why you were sent to Ventnor.
The festive season here ends tomorrow. Schorlemmer will be returning to Manchester, and then it's back to the grindstone. I am looking forward to it; things were really getting too much. Tuesday with Lenchen, Friday with Pumps, yesterday with the Lafargues, today here at my house — and every morning the eternal Pilsener; it couldn't go on indefinitely. Lenchen was always one of the party, of course, and still is, so she hasn't felt too lonely.
By the time you get this note you will have been edified by old William's[3] magnificent proclamation in which he avows his solidarity with Bismarck and declares all this to be the free expression of his own opinion.[241] I also liked the bit about the inviolability of the person of the monarch having persisted in Prussia since time immemorial. Particularly when one considers the shots fired by Nobiling. [12]° How comforting for Alexander II and III that their persons should be in-violable! One might, by the way, imagine that one was living under a travesty of Charles X when one reads that sort of drivel.
There has been yet another nice item in The Standard, a letter from a Russian general about the situation and the Nihilists,[242] just like what used to be said and written by the Prussian generals of 1845 about demagogues,[243] liberals, Jews, the bad principles of the French, and the universal and undying loyalty to the king felt by the sound core of the nation. Which didn't, of course, set the revolution back one day. You will have seen that the zemstvos[37] have rebelled against Ignatiev, partly via the medium of petitions, partly by an outright refusal to convene.[244] That is a most important step, the first to be taken by official bodies under Alexander III.
Like you, we hope for better weather. Yesterday was very fine with a north-wester from which you will have been sheltered. Schorlemmer and I were on the go the whole day and it was not until half past midnight that we accompanied Lenchen home from Laura's, covering the whole distance on foot. Today it's been beastly and wet, though during a brighter spell we got out and about for an hour or so with Sam Moore who turned up again the day before yesterday. It's blowing good and hard again outside. How is Tussy actually? Regards to her and to you from us all.
Your
F. E.
1913
105. Marx to Engels. 12 January
105
M A R X T O E N G E L S [1 6 6]
IN LONDON
Ventnor, 12 J a n u a r y 1882 1 St Boniface Gardens
Dear Engels,
I am going to try spending one more week here (the 3rd as from today); so far there's been no improvement in the weather — if anything the reverse. O n Monday, Tussy is going up to London for a theatrical performance she is taking part in, after which she will come back here.
By the time I left London, I had to pay out SOMEWHAT LESS THAN -£ 20 of the £ 4 0 you gave me on unavoidable expenses. Here my lodgings cost me 2 GUINEAS a week and with coal and gas but excluding other EX-
TRAS, ABOUT £2 15s.; remaining weekly expenditure ABOUT 4 GUINEAS. Considering the climatic performance this hole has put up, it's a tidy sum. Including travelling expenses, I have spent ABOUT -£ 17 and have still got £5. This will not suffice for the last week (incl. Tussy's INCI-DENTAL London TRIP and our probable return together next week). So I'd be grateful if you could let me have SOME£ by Monday NEXT, if it can be done.
As for future plans, the first consideration must be to relieve Tussy of her role as my companion (when I again set forth I shall be able to dispense with an escort altogether). T h e girl is under such MENTAL PRESSURE that it is undermining her health. Neither travelling, nor
CHANGE OF CLIMATE, nor PHYSICIANS CAN DO ANYTHING IN THIS CASE. All one can do for her is to do as she wishes, and let her take a course of theatrical LESSONS with M a d a m e J u n g . She has an ardent desire to open u p a ca-reer for herself, or so she imagines, as an independent, active artist and, once this has been conceded, she is undoubtedly right in saying that, at her age, there's no more time to be lost. Not for anything in the world would I have the girl think she is to be sacrificed as an old man's 'nurse' on the altar of family. In fact, I am convinced that pro nunc' M a d a m e J u n g is the only doctor for her. She is not open with me; what I say is based on observation, not on her own statements. Nor is the above assertion in any way incompatible with the fact that the most disquieting symptoms, which notably occur at night, are of an alarmingly hysterical nature, or so Miss Maitlandb
told me (she spent 2 days here). But for this, too, no remedy is available just now save an absorbing and congenial pursuit. I have certain conjectures about her affairs of the 'heart', but that is too delicate a subject to admit of discussion in black and white.
I have had a letter from the Sorge family,[245] written by the old man, countersigned by Mrs Sorge and Sorge jun.,c in which they invite me TO TURN OVER A NEW LEAF, i. e. go and settle with them in New York. Well meant, at any rate!
In the Arbeiterstimme in which C. Schramm, invoking myself, attacked Karl Bürkli,d Bürkli now attacks Schramm,A for whose benefit he demonstrates that everything he [Schramm] has adduced is quite beside the point since I nowhere consider the kind of money he, Bürkli, proposes, namely 'interest-bearing mortgage bank certificates'. Bürkli does, however, express surprise that I should make no mention of the Pole, August Cieszkowski [Du crédit et de la circulation, Paris,
1839), although in his Système des contradictions économiques that 'rough diamond Proudhon' frequently, if respectfully, takes issue with Cieszkowski (the 'prior inventor' of Bürkli's bank certificates). The said Cieszkowski — a count, as Bürkli, NATIVE of Switzerland, remarks, and a ['doctor of philosophy' and 'Hegelian'](1) INTO THE BARGAIN, if not actually a 'fellow-countryman of Marx', i.e. as 'deputy for Posen' in the 'Prussian' National Assembly — the said count, etc., did in fact once call on me in Paris (at the time of the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher), and such was the impression he made on me that I neither wanted nor would have been able to read anything whatever of his contriv-ing. Nevertheless, it's a notable fact that the inventors of 'real' credit money, which was meant to serve as a means of circulation at the same time, as opposed to what they call 'personal' credit money (e. g. present-day bank-notes), should have chanced their hand — albeit in vain — as far back as the founding of the Bank of England, and this in the interests and at the behest of the landed aristocracy/ At
106. Engels to Emil Engels. 12 January
all events, Bürkli is under a delusion as to the 'historical' date of birth of the Cieszkowskian 'idea', independently rediscovered by himself.
What has struck me from the first about the Bismarck-William manifesto[241] is the confusion as between Prussian king and German emperor! In the latter capacity, the laddie has, after all, no historical antecedents whatsoever, nor yet Hohenzollern traditions (on which a start has now been made with the 'Prince of Prussia's' ostentatious trip to England — to study the Constitution![246]). After the nauseous protestations, expiring in submissive love, of your Mommsens, Rich-ters, Hänels [2 4 7] et tutti quanti," it was charming of Bismarck to play this card — however silly his manner of doing it. With any luck we shall yet see something happen.
Your
K. M.
in jo Published in English in full for the first time
106
ENGELS TO EMIL ENGELS
IN ENGELSKIRCHEN
London, 12 January 1882
Dear Emil,
After sundry disturbances and unforeseen events, among which the eating and drinking that goes with the festive season, I have composed myself sufficiently to send you, Lottchen, Elisabeth and her fiancéb my heartiest congratulations on their engagement. I would never have thought, when travelling to Manchester with August Erbslöh in the late autumn of 1842 [248] (I've only seen him once or twice since then in Barmen), that his son would marry a niece of mine. Admittedly, neither of the two young people had been so much as thought of at that time. It is a subject that lends itself to all kinds of suitable and unsuitable remarks — which, however, I shall refrain from making since anyone can easily do that for himself and the young couple will in any case be much too preoccupied with present and future to have time for utterly useless comments on a past that is antecedent to their births.
Apart from that, I shall soon be moved to hope that engagements in our family, along with their more immediate and more remote consequences, will come at rather less frequent intervals, though admittedly in a family as numerous and prolific as ours these cases mul-tiply proportionately to the square of the distance in time from a starting-point that lies over 60 years behind us, and there's no going against a natural law such as that.
I'm keeping quite well on the whole, except that I'm rather deaf in my left ear and regularly catch cold during the winter, but I got used to that years ago. At all events, the mild winter will help you shake off the effects of pneumonia, or at any rate alleviate them. Today it turned so warm again that I had to take my greatcoat off, despite a bit of SCOTCH MIST.
Love to you all, especially to Lottchen and the happy couple.
Your
Friedrich
I shall be glad to see Emil(1) here.
Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVII, Moscow, 1935
107. Marx to Amalie Daniels. 12 January
107
MARX TO AMALIE DANIELS
IN COLOGNE
[Ventnor,] Isle of Wight, 12 January 1882 1 St Boniface Gardens
My dear Mrs Daniels,
On the same day as I wrote to you,[233] my daughter(1) found an even earlier photograph of mine among the papers she had brought with her from London. I at once sent it to Cologneb in the enclosed envelope, the same in which it was returned to me by the 'Imperial Post Office'.
Perhaps you would be so good as to send me your exact address. I shall then despatch the corpus delicti' anew.[249]
Best regards.
Yours very sincerely,
K. Marx
108. Engels to Marx. 13 January
Dear Moor,
First, I enclose £ 2 0 in 4 bank-notes à 5 GK 53969, 70, 71, 72. London, 7 October 1881. I have in addition given Lenchen £ 10 so that she can pay the RATES and still have something in hand. Next week, larger amounts will become available and then, after your return, we shall be able to make further plans.
I'm very glad that you should feel strong enough to be able to travel alone in future.
I skimmed through part of the Schramm-Bürkliade(1) and was greatly tickled by it. Even before 1842, Cieszkowski had already written a book on natural philosophy (botany)b and, if I am not mistaken, also contributed to the Deutsche, if not actually the Hallische Jahrbücher."
Our Parisian friends have reaped what they had sown. What we had both of us told them would happen has actually come to pass. They have, by their impatience, ruined what was a first-rate position which, if they were to have made the most of it, called precisely for discretion and the ability to wait and see. For Malon and Brousse had set a trap for them in true old Alliance stylec ' — calumny in the form of mere hints, no open naming of names, and supplemented on the sly by word of mouth; they went straight into it like so many schoolboys (Lafargue in the van), inasmuch as they counterattacked by name, and were then dubbed disturbers of the peace. Moreover, their argument is so utterly puerile; as soon as one reads their opponents' retort, this leaps to the eye. Thus Guesde suppresses important qualificative passages of Joffrin's because they don't suit his book, and fails to mention the fact that, despite his opposition, the Comité national [25]° declared Joffrin's programme to be more radical than the programme minimum,[251]
thus giving Joffrin the party's blessing. A fact which he, of course, triumphantly parades before Guesde.c Then Lafargue words his articles in such a way as to enable Malon to say in reply: 'But have we ever maintained that the struggles of the medieval communiers' against the feudal aristocracy were anything but class struggles — and do you, Mr Lafargue, contest this?' — And now we get jeremiad after jeremiad from Paris, saying that they have been hopelessly defeated and, at the next meeting of the Comité national, would even be set upon physically, and Guesde is as despairing as he was uppish 4 weeks ago, and can see no salvation in anything short of secession by the minority. And now, finding to their astonishment that they are having to lie on the bed they have made,— now they come to the laudable conclusion that they must eschew all personalities!
I am sending you an old Kölnische Leitung which, however, contains a very interesting article on Russia.[252]
Incidentally, the factum (anti-Guesde) in the Prolétaire, written by Malon and Brousse and signed by Joffrin, is a splendid example of Bakuninist polemics and very much in the style of the 'Sonvillier circular',[253] but ruder.
So the ukase has been issued re the reduction of vykup* payments. [254] Having regard to the colossal nedoimki,(2) the paltry per cent or two will, no doubt, make a great deal of difference! But every million it doesn't get makes a difference to the Russian Treasury.
Bismarck, by the way, has had better luck than might have been expected: the Reichstag has endorsed his pilgrimage to Canossa by a [2]/[3] majority.[255] But that would seem to be about the only thing upon which this Reichstag is able to agree. A fine majority: feudalists, ultramontanes, particularists, Poles, Danes, Alsatians, a few men of Progress,[256] demoscratchers and socialists!
Ad vocemb pilgrimages, this morning I met Furnivall wearing a blue ulster, belted at the waist, and a broad-brimmed hat — he looked exactly like a pilgrim going to the Holy Land on a quest for St Antho-ny's beard.
Kindest regards to Tussy.
Your
F. E.
109. Marx to Engels. 15 January
109
MARX TO ENGELS
IN LONDON
[Ventnor,] 15 January 1882
DEAR FRED,
BEST THANKS FOR THE £ 20. I have resolved to leave tomorrow as the weather is getting progressively 'colder', which does my swollen cheek no good. So I shall lose only 2 days, and this will also save Tussy the double journey.
Though repeatedly warned, our people in Paris have got themselves into a nice mess(1) (SERVES Lafargue AND Guesde RIGHT) ; however, since they possess two papers,b they may, with a little ingenuity, nevertheless gain command of the field.
I regard it as a major victory, not only in Germany itself but vis-à-vis the outside world GENERALLY, that Bismarck should admit in the Reichstag that the German workers have to some extent 'given the thumbs down' to his state socialism.[257] London's rascally bourgeois press always sought to disseminate the opposite.
I have received an extraordinarily kind letter from OLD Frankel from the 'state prison', ditto a letter from Wrôblewski who was évidem-ment' writing on behalf of his Polish party in Geneva[258]; but in his haste he forgot to append not only the party's name but also his own.
If, as Joffrin relates in his factum in the Prolétaire* he once staged a pro-Guesde demonstration in London against the 'International' there, it was at all events such a platonic demonstration that no one knew anything about it apart from Joffrin himself and perhaps a few of his closest accomplices, i. e. it was carried out entirely in 'private'.
Salut.
Your
Moor
110. Marx to Pyotr Lavrov. 23 January[7 2]
IN PARIS
London, 23 January 1882 41 Maitland Park Road, N. W.
Dear Friend,
I enclose a few lines for the Russian edition of the Communist Manifesto"; as these are to be translated into Russian they have not been polished to the degree that would be necessary if they were to be published IN THE GERMAN VERNACULAR.
I have only been back in London for a few days. For as a result of pleurisy and bronchitis, from which I had recovered, I was left with chronic bronchial catarrh which my doctorb hoped to clear up by sending me to Ventnor (Isle of Wight), a place that is usually warm, even in winter. On this occasion, however,—during the 3 weeks of my stay there — Ventnor was invaded by cold, wet, dull, misty weather while at the same time in London the weather turned almost summery, only to change again, however, on my return.
The intention now is to send me somewhere in the south, possibly Algiers. It is a difficult choice, because Italy is barred to me (a man was arrested in Milan for having a name like mine); I can't even go from here to Gibraltar by STEAMER, as I have no passport and even the English demand a passport there.
Despite all the urging on the part of doctors and those closest to me, I would never have agreed to such a time-wasting operation were it not for the fact that this accursed 'English' disease impairs one's intellect. Moreover a relapse, even if I pulled through, would take up still more time. All the same I intend to carry out some further experi-ments here first.
*I send you a number of Modern Thought with an article on myselfc; I need not tell you that the biographical notice of the author is altogether wrong. My daughter — your correspondent Eleanor, who sends you her love — has in the copy forwarded to you taken upon herself to correct the English misquotations from the Capital. But however badly Mr Bax — I hear he is quite a young man — may translate, he certainly is the first English critic who takes a real interest in modern socialism. There is a sincerity of speech and a ring of true conviction about him which strike you. A certain John Rae — I think he is lecturer of Political Economy at some English University— has, some months ago, published in The Contemporary Review an article on the same subject," very superficial (though he affects to quote many of my writings he has evidently never seen), and full of that pretence of superiority which the true Briton is inspired with thanks to a peculiar gift of stolid blockheadedness. Still he tries hard to be so condescending as to suppose, that from conviction, and not from interested motives, I am, for almost 40 years, misleading the working class by unsound doctrines! Generally speaking, people here commence to yearn for some knowledge of socialism, nihilism, and so forth. Ireland and the United States on the one hand; on the other, the impending struggle between farmers and landlords, between agricultural labourers and farmers, between capitalism and landlordism; some symptoms of revival among the industrial working class, as f. i. at some late partial elections for the House of Commons, where the official workingmen's candidates (especially the renegade of the International, miserable Howell[259]), proposed by the acknowledged leaders of Trades' Unions and publicly recommended by Mr Gladstone, 'the people's William' — were disdainfully rejected by the workmen; the demonstrative radical clubs forming in London, mostly composed of workmen, English and Irish intermingling, dead against the 'great liberal party', official trades-unionism, and the people's William, etc. etc.— all this induces the British philistine to want just now some information on Socialism. Unfortunately, the reviews, ma-gazines, journals, etc., exploit this 'demand' only to 'offer' the public the expectorations of venal, ignorant, and sycophantic penny-a-liners (suppose even that they are shilling-a-liners).
There appears a 'weekly', called The Radical, full of good aspirations, bold in language (the boldness is in the sans gêne,b not in the vigour), trying to break through the trammels of the British press, but, with all that, of feeble performance. What the paper lacks, are intelligent editors. Many months ago these people wrote to me, I was then at Eastbourne [160] with my dear wife, then at Paris,[164] etc., so that they had not yet any interview with me. I consider it in fact useless.
The more I have read of their paper, the more I feel convinced that it is incurable.
My daughtera reminds me that it is high time to finish this letter, the last minutes for letter delivery being near.*
Salut,
Karl Marx
111. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 25 and 31 January[2 6 0]
Dear Mr Bernstein,
Not until today have I been able to get round to answering your letter of the 12th. Marx is home from the Isle of Wight with his youngest daughter,a both considerably better, and Marx strong enough to go walking with me yesterday for 2 hours without a break. Since he isn't working yet and the Lafargues as often as not also drop in before dinner (i. e. 5 o'clock) when a bottle of good Pilsener is served up, my hours of daylight are usually frittered away and I have never liked writing by lamplight after the warning (chronic conjucti-vitis) that was given to my left eye 3 years ago.
Just now I happen to be at Marx's, so would you be so good as to thank Höchberg very much on Marx's behalf for his kind offer which, however, he is unlikely to be able to make use of; all that he knows for certain about his journey south is that he is not going to the Riviera or to any part of Italy, if only on account of the police. The first proviso where convalescents are concerned is that there should be no harassment by the police, in which respect Italy can hold put fewer guarantees than anywhere else — save, of course, Bismarck's empire.
We were greatly interested by what you told us of the goings-on among the 'leaders' in Germany. I have never made a secret of my opinion that the masses in Germany have been far better than their leaders, particularly since the press and agitation combined to turn the party into the latter's milch cow and butter purveyor, only to see the said cow abruptly slaughtered by Bismarck and the bourgeoisie. [261] For the thousands instantly ruined thereby, it is a personal disaster not to have been placed in an immediately revolutionary situation, i. e. exile. Otherwise not a few who are now bemoaning their fate would have gone over to Most's camp or at any rate found the Sozialdemokrat far too moderate. The majority of our people remained in Germany, as they needs must, for the most part going to fairly reactionary places, where they remained social outcasts dependent for their living on philistines and became, to a great extent, themselves tainted with philistinism. For them, everything soon began to turn on the hope that the Anti-Socialist Law would be repealed. Small wonder that, under pressure from the philistine establishment, some of them became obsessed with the idea — in reality an absurd one — that this could be attained by the exercise of moderation. Germany is a truly infamous country for people without much will-power. The narrowness and pettiness of prevailing conditions, both civil and political, the provincial character of even the cities, the petty but cumulative harassment in the running battle with police and bureaucracy — all this enervates instead of stimulating resistance, and in this way many of those in the 'great nursery'(1) grow childish themselves. Petty conditions engender a petty outlook, so that a great deal of intelligence and vigour is called for if anyone living in Germany is to look beyond the immediate future, to keep his eyes fixed on the wider context of world events and not succumb to that complacent 'objectivity' that cannot see beyond its own nose and is therefore the most blinkered subjectivity, even though it be shared by a thousand other such fellow-subjects.
True, the emergence of such a tendency, cloaking its lack of insight and resolution under the mantle of 'objective' wisdom, is natural enough; nevertheless it must be ruthlessly combated. And for this the working masses themselves provide the best purchase. They alone in Germany live in anything approaching modern conditions, all their misfortunes, great and small, are attributable to the pressure exerted by capital and, whereas all other struggles in Germany, both social and political, are petty and paltry and revolve round paltry issues which have long been surmounted elsewhere, the workers' struggle alone is noble, it alone is abreast of the times, it alone does not ener-vate the participants but is for them a constant source of fresh energy. So the more you are able to draw your correspondents from amongst the genuine workers,— not those who have become 'leaders' — the better will be your chance of counterbalancing the whines of the leadership.
This time it was inevitable that all manner of peculiar people should get into the Reichstag. All the more unfortunate, then, that Bebel should not have been elected.[222] He alone is lucid, politically far-sighted and energetic enough to prevent blunders being committed.
Could you not, after you have done with them, let us have for a week or two the 'stenographic reports' of debates" in which our deputies have played a serious part? I will vouch for their return. Newspaper reports, as we have often seen, simply cannot be relied on and none of the deputies, not even Liebknecht, could be induced to send us speeches that do them no honour.
31 January
More interruptions. Amongst others, little Hepner has been here, on his way to seek refuge in America, his purse and heart alike empty of content. A poor little chap in every respect, author of a well-intentioned pamphlet on distraint, the law governing bills of exchange, the Jewish question and postal reform, dull as dull can be, all the old Jewish stuff he turned out 10 years ago, [2 6 2] completely gone to rack and ruin; I almost felt like advising him to get baptised. Yet he provided me with the opportunity of finding out about the new imperial judicial code. [2 6 3] It really is unutterably infamous! All the dirty tricks of Prussian law combined with all the infamies of the Code Napoléon,[264] and without any of the latter's better side. The judge has freedom of decision in all spheres, being bound by nothing save — the Disciplinary Law which, in political cases, will undoubtedly, and indeed does, grant him power of 'discretion'. Thus — within the general German context — the judge inevitably becomes the executive official and tool of the police. Incidentally, here is a joke (originating no doubt from Windthorst) about Leonhardt, who is alleged to have said on his death-bed: 'Now I have avenged myself on Prussia; I've given it a legal system that's bound to bring it to its knees.'
Bürkli's interest-bearing mortgage certificates, also supposed to represent money, go back much further than that thoroughly addle-pated, old Hegelian Pole, Cieszkowski.(2) Similar schemes for the general good of mankind had already been adumbrated as far back as the founding of the Bank of England. Since there is no mention whatever of credit in the first volume of Capital (apart from the conditions governing simple debt), credit money admits of consideration here only, if at all, in its very simplest form (token of value, etc.) and in relation to its lowliest monetary functions, while interest-bearing credit money does not admit of consideration at all. Hence Bürkli is right in telling Schramm that none of these passages in Capital apply to my particular monetary paper; and Schramm is right when he proves to Bürkli from Capital that he, Bürkli, hasn't the faintest idea of the nature and function of money.b This is not to say, however, that Bürkli's own particular monetary proposal is actually reduced to its own absur-dity; that would require, besides general proof that this 'money' is incapable of fulfilling the most essential monetary functions, particular proof as to the functions which such paper might really be able to fulfil. Moreover, when Bürkli says, 'What concern have I with Marx? I stick to Cieszkowski' — the whole argument adduced by Schramm against Bürkli falls to the ground.— How fortunate that the Sozialdemokrat shouldn't have got mixed up in all this business! No doubt the whole hullabaloo will eventually die down of its own accord.
That crises are one of the most powerful levers of political upheaval has already been pointed out in the Communist Manifesto and was expounded in the Neue Rheinische Leitung Review up to and including 1848, not without the rider, however, that a recurrence of prosperity will in turn hamstring the revolutions and pave the way for the victory of reaction. * Any detailed argument in support of this should take into consideration intermediate crises, some being of a more localised and some of a more specialised character; we are currently experiencing one such intermediate crisis which may be attributed entirely to swindle on the stock exchange; up till 1847 they were recurring middle terms, which is why, in my Condition of the Working Class,h the cycle is still shown as a five-year one.
In France, there have been gross blunders on both sides. However, in the end Malon and Brousse, in their impatience to bring matters to a head and engineer the suspension of the Egalité (which is quite outside the competence of the Union Federative [2 6 5]), have put themselves so clearly in the wrong that they are likely to suffer for it. Such bungling would be incomprehensible in cabalists as wily as Malon and Brousse, unless they felt that time was against them. For the Prolétaire is said to be on its last legs and, if it expires, they will have no paper at all while the others will have two.c Hence the issue had to be decided while they still had a paper in which the resolutions -were published. The scurrilities and pure fabrications they are now dissem-inating against Guesde, Lafargue, etc., and in particular Joffrin's concoctiond — not concocted by him, however, but by Brousse and Malon — are altogether in the style of the old Bakuninist Alliance,[67]
and have awakened old memories in us. The Sozialdemokrat is absolutely right not to get involved until things have cleared up a bit, which they will, I think, before very long.
I had also meant to write to Kautsky about the Poles,[224] but will have to drop that for today. Kindest regards,
Yours,
F.E.
112. Engels to Karl Kautsky. 7 February[140]
Dear Mr Kautsky,
I have at last got round to answering your letter of 8 November. [2 2 4]
One of the real tasks of the revolution of'48 (and the real as distinct from illusory tasks of a revolution are always carried out on the strength of that revolution) was the restoration of the oppressed and disunited nationalities of Central Europe in so far as these were at all viable and, in particular, ripe for independence. In the case of Italy, Hungary and Germany, this task was carried out by the executors of the revolution, Bonaparte, Cavour and Bismarck, in accordance with the circumstances obtaining at the time. There remained Ireland and Poland. Ireland need not be considered here; it is only very indirectly concerned with conditions on the Continent. But Poland lies in the middle of the Continent and keeping it partitioned is precisely the bond that continually re-cements the Holy Alliance [2 6 6] and hence Poland is of great interest to us.
Now it is historically impossible for a great people to discuss this or that internal question in any way seriously so long as national independence is lacking. Prior to 1859 there was no question of socialism in Italy; even the republicans were few in number, although they constituted the most vigorous element. Not until 1861 did the republicans begin to expand,[267] subsequently yielding their best elements to the socialists. Similarly in Germany. Lassalle was on the point of giving up the cause for lost when he was lucky enough to be shot. It was not until 1866, the year that actually decided Little Germany's Greater Prussian unity,[268] that both the Lassallean and the so-called Eisenach parties[2] [6 9] acquired any significance, and it was not until 1870, when the Bonapartist urge to interfere had been eliminated for good, that the cause gathered momentum. If we still had the old Federal Diet [2 7]°, where would our party be now? Similarly in Hungary. It wasn't until 1860 that it was drawn into the modern movement — sharp practice above, socialism below.[271]
Generally speaking an international movement of the proletariat is possible only as between independent nations. What little republican internationalism there was in the years 1830-48 was grouped round the France that was to liberate Europe, and French chauvinism was thus raised to such a pitch that we are still hampered at every turn by France's mission as universal liberator and hence by its natural right to take the lead (seen as a caricature in the case of the Blanquists but also much in evidence in that of e.g. Malon & Co.). In the International, too, the French not unnaturally took this view. They, and many others, had first to learn from events, and must still do so daily, that international co-operation is possible only among equals, and even a. primus inter pares* at most for immediate action. So long as Poland remains partitioned and subjugated, therefore, there can be no development either of a powerful socialist party within the country itself or of genuine international intercourse between Poles other than émigrés and the rest of the proletarian parties in Germany, etc. Every Polish peasant and workman who rouses himself out of his stupor to participate in the common interest is confronted first of all with the fact of national subjugation; that is the first obstacle he encounters everywhere. Its removal is the prime requirement for any free and healthy development. Polish socialists who fail to put the liberation of the country at the forefront of their programme remind me of those German socialists who were reluctant to demand the immediate repeal of the Anti-Socialist Law ' [6] and freedom of association, assembly and the press. To be able to fight, you must first have a terrain, light, air and elbow-room. Otherwise you never get further than chit-chat. Whether, in this connection, a restoration of Poland is possible before the next revolution is of no significance. It is in no way our business to restrain the efforts of the Poles to attain living conditions essential to their further development, or to persuade them that, from the international standpoint, national independence is a very secondary matter when it is in fact the basis of all international cooperation. Besides, in 1873, Germany and Russia were on the brink of war [2 7 2] and the restoration of some kind of Poland, the embryo of a later, real Poland, was therefore a strong possibility. And if these Russian gents don't soon put a stop to their pan-Slav intrigues and rabble-rousing in Herzegovina,[273] they may well find themselves with a war on their hands, a war neither they, nor Austria nor Bismarck will be able to control. The only people who are concerned that the
first among equals Herzegovina affair should take a serious turn are the Russian Pan-Slav Party and the Tsar; no one can really concern himself with the rapacious Bosnian riff-raff any more than with the idiotic Austrian ministers and officials who are presently pursuing their activities there. So even without an uprising, as a result, rather, of purely European conflicts, the establishment of an independent Little Poland would be by no means impossible, just as the Prussian Little Germany invented by the bourgeois owed its establishment not to the revolutionary or parliamentary methods they had dreamed of, but to war.
Hence I am of the opinion that two nations in Europe are not only entitled but duty-bound to be national before they are international— Ireland and Poland. For the best way they can be international is by being well and truly national. That's what the Poles have understood in every crisis and proved on every revolutionary battleground. Deprive them of the prospect of restoring Poland, or persuade them that before long a new Poland will automatically fall into their laps, and their interest in the European revolution will be at an end.
We, in particular, have absolutely no reason to impede the Poles in their necessary efforts to attain independence. In the first place they invented and put into practice in 1863 the methods of struggle which the Russians are now so successfully imitating (cf. Berlin und [St] Petersburg, Appendix 2) [274] and, in the second, they were the only reliable and capable military leaders in the Paris Commune. [2 7 5]
Come to that, who are the people who oppose the Poles' national aspirations? First, the European bourgeoisie in whose eyes the Poles have been utterly discredited since the 1846 insurrection with its socialist tendencies [276] and, secondly, the Russian pan-Slavs and those they have influenced, such as Proudhon, who saw this through Her-zen's spectacles. But up till today few Russians, even the best of them, are free of pan-Slav tendencies and recollections; they take Russia's pan-Slav vocation for granted, just as the French do France's natural revolutionary initiative. In reality, however, pan-Slavism is an imposture, a bid for world hegemony under the cloak of a non-existent Slav nationality, and it is our and the Russians' worst enemy. That imposture will in due course disintegrate into the void, but in the meantime it could make things very awkward for us. A pan-Slav war, as the last sheet-anchor for Russian Tsardom and Russian reaction, is presently in preparation; whether it will actually materialise is a moot point, but if it does there is one thing of which we may be certain, namely that the splendid progress in the direction of revolution now being made in Germany, Austria and Russia itself will be totally disrupt-ed and forced into different and quite unpredictable channels. At best, this would set us back by 3-10 years; in all likelihood it would mean one last respite for a constitutional 'new era' (1) in Germany and also, perhaps, Russia; a Little Poland under German hegemony, a war of retribution with France, renewed racial incitement and, finally, another Holy Alliance. Hence pan-Slavism is now more than ever our mortal enemy, despite — or perhaps just because of — its having one foot in the grave. For the Katkovs, Aksakovs, Ignatievs and Co. know that their empire will be gone for ever the moment Tsardom is overthrown and the stage taken by the Russian people. And hence this ardent desire for war at a moment when the treasury contains less than nothing and not a banker is willing to advance the Russian government so much as a penny.
That is precisely why the pan-Slavs have a mortal hatred of the Poles. Being the only anft'-pan-Slav Slavs, they are consequently traitors to the sacred cause of Slavdom and must be forcibly incorporated into the Great Slav Tsardom of which the future capital is Tsarigrad, i. e. Constantinople.
Now you may perhaps ask me whether I have no feeling of sympathy for the small Slav peoples and fragments thereof which have been split apart by those three wedges — the German, the Magyar and the Turkish — driven into the Slav domain? To tell the truth, damned little. The Czecho-Slovak cry of distress:
Bote! ... Ach nikdo neni na zemi Kdoby Slavûm (sic) spravedlivost cinil.?i
has been answered by Petersburg, and the entire Czech national movement cherishes the aspiration that the Tsar should spravedlivost finitib them. The same applies to the others — Serbs, Bulgarians, Slo-venes, Galician Ruthenians (at least some of them). But these are aims of a kind we cannot support. Only when the collapse of Tsardom frees the national aspirations of these diminutive peoples from their entangle-ment in pan-Slav hegemonic tendencies, only then can we let them do as they please and, in the case of most of the Austro-Hungarian Slavs, I am sure that six months of independence will suffice to bring them begging for re-admittance. But in no circumstances will these little nationalities be granted the right they are presently arrogating to themselves in Serbia, Bulgaria and East Rumelia — of preventing, that is, the extension of the European railway network to Constantinople.
Now as for the differences that have arisen between the Poles in Switzerland, these are émigré squabbles[224] such as are seldom of any consequence, least of all in the case of an emigration which will be cel-ebrating its centenary in 3 years' time and which, owing to the urge felt by all émigrés to do, or at any rate plan, something, has given birth to plan after plan, one new so-called theory after another. But, as you will see from the foregoing, we are not of the same opinion as the RôwnoÈc people and, indeed, we told them as much in a message sent on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of 29 November 1830, which was read out at the meeting in Geneva.a You will find a Polish version of it in the report (Sprawozdanie, etc.— Biblijoteka Rôwnosci: No. 1, Geneva, 1881), pp. 30 ff. The Rôwnoiï people have apparently allowed themselves to be impressed by the radical-sounding slogans of the Genevan Russians and are now anxious to prove that they are not open to the reproach of national chauvinism. This aberration, of which the causes are purely local and transitory, will blow over without having any appreciable effect on Poland as such, and refuting it in detail would be more trouble than it was worth.
How the Poles, by the way, will sort things out with the White and Little Russians and Lithuanians of the old Poland, or with the Germans as regards the frontier is, for the time being, no concern of ours.
Proof, by the way, of how little the workers, even in allegedly 'oppressed' countries, are tainted by the pan-Slav yearnings of the aca-demics and bourgeois is provided by the splendid accord between German and Czech workers in Bohemia.
But enough for now. Kindest regards from
Yours,
F.E.
113. Engels to Johann Philipp Becker. 10 February
Dear Old Man,
We had absolutely no idea that you were so seriously ill; all we knew was that you had been suffering from erysipelas and that's something that can be cleared up pretty easily. Had I had an inkling of how matters stood, I should have raised some money for you straight away, even though I myself was very short at the time and calls were being made on me from all sides. However, it's still not too late and I've therefore taken out a money order for you for four pounds = 100 frs 80 cts. of which you will doubtless have already been advised; because of an irregularity that cropped up here I wasn't able to write until today.
Between ourselves, one might almost count it a blessing that Marx should have been so preoccupied with his own illness during his wife's last days as to prevent him being unduly preoccupied with his loss, both when it was impending and when it actually happened. Even though we had known for 6 months or more how matters stood, the event itself still came as a terribly hard blow. Marx left yesterday for the South of France [2 7 8]; where he will go from there won't be defi-nitely decided until he gets to Paris. Under no circumstances will he make for Italy first; at the start of his convalescence even the possibility of harassment by the police must be avoided.
We have thought about your proposal[2] [7 9] and take the view that the time has not yet come, though it soon will, to put it into effect. Firstly, a new, formally reorganised International in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy and Spain would only give rise to fresh persecution and ultimately leave one with the choice either of giving the thing up, or of carrying on in secret. The latter option would be a ca-lamity on account of the inevitable passion for coups and conspiracies and the no less inevitable admittance of mouchards.* Even in France the renewed application of the law banning the International,[280]
a informers a law which has not been repealed — far from it — is by no means impossible.— Secondly, in view of the current wrangles between the Egalité and the Prolétaire, there's absolutely no counting on the French; we would have to declare ourselves for one party or the other and that, too, has its disadvantages. As individuals we are on the side of the Egalité, but shall take good care not to support them publicly just now after the succession of tactical blunders they have made, despite our express warnings.— Thirdly, the English are proving more intractable than ever at present. For 5 whole months I tried, through The Labour Standard, for which I wrote leading articles, ' [6] (1) to pick up the threads of the old Chartist movement and disseminate our ideas so as to see whether this might evoke some response. Absolutely nothing, and since the editor,[2] a well-meaning but feeble milksop, ended up by taking fright even at the Continental heresies I introduced into the paper, I called it a day.b
Thus, we should have been left with an International confined, apart from Belgium, exclusively to refugees, for with the possible exception of Geneva and its environs we couldn't even count on the Swiss — vide the Arbeiter stimme and Bürkli.c It would, however, hardly be worth the trouble to set up a mere refugee association. For the Dutch, Portuguese and Danes wouldn't really improve matters either and the less one has to do with Serbs and Romanians the better.
On the other hand the International does indeed still exist. In so far as it can be effective, there is liaison between the revolutionary workers of all countries. Every socialist journal is an international centre; from Geneva, Zurich, London, Paris, Brussels and Milan the threads run criss-cross in all directions and I honestly don't see how at this juncture the grouping of these small centres round a large main centre could give added strength to the movement — it would probably only lead to greater friction. But once the moment comes for us to concentrate our forces, it will, for that very reason, be the work of a moment, nor will any lengthy preparation be called for. The names of the pioneers in one country are known in all the others and a manifesto signed and supported by them all would make a tremendous im-pact— something altogether different from the largely unknown names of the old General Council. But that is precisely why such a manifesto should be saved up for the moment when it can really strike home, i. e. when events in Europe provoke it. Otherwise you will de-
114. Marx to Engels. 17 February
tract from its future effect and will simply have put yourselves out for nothing. But such events are already taking shape in Russia where the avant-garde of the revolution will be going into battle. You should — or so we think — wait for this and its inevitable repercussions on Germany, and then the moment will also have come for a big manifesto and the establishment of an official, formal International, which can, however, no longer be a propaganda association but simply an association for action. For that reason we are firmly of the opinion that so splendid a weapon ought not to be dulled and blunted during the comparatively peaceful days on the very eve of the revolution.
I believe that if you think the matter over again you will come round to our view. Meanwhile we both wish you a good and speedy recovery and hope to hear before long that you are quite all right again.
Ever your old friend,
F. E.
114
MARX TO ENGELS [7 2]
IN LONDON
Marseilles, 17 February 1882 Hôtel au petit Louvre, Rue de Cannebière
DEAR FRED,
I presume that Tussy dropped you a line yesterday. I had not originally intended to leave Paris until next Monday(1); since my *state of health was rather not improving, I took at once the resolution of re-
17 1882
moving to Marseilles, and thence at once, on Saturday, to sail for Algiers*. [2 7 8]
In Paris, accompanied by my Johnny," I called upon but one mortal, namely Mesa. (In fact he, Mesa, sollicitierteb me to chatter too much, in addition to which I returned to Argenteuil somewhat too late, ABOUT 7 O'CLOCK IN THE EVENING. I didn't sleep a wink all night.) I tried to persuade Mesa to ask his friends, notably Guesde, if they would be kind enough to postpone a meeting with me until my return *from Algiers. But all that in vain. In fact, Guesde is so much on all parts assailed just now, that it was important for him to have an 'official' meeting on my side*. After all, one was bound to concede that much to the party. Hence I arranged a meeting at the Hôtel de Lyon et de Mulhouse, 8 boulevard Beaumarchais, to which Guesde and Deville came with Mesa at ABOUT 5 in the afternoon. I first received them downstairs in the restaurant, having been accompanied there from Argenteuil (on Wednesday 0 afternoon) by Tussy and Jennychen. Guesde was rather embarrassed on Jennychen's account BECAUSE HE HAD JUST [brought out] an acrimonious article against Longuet, ALTHOUGH SHE (Jennychen) DID NOT TAKE NO REGARD WHATEVER TO THAT INCIDENT. As soon as the young ladies had left, I d'abordA went up to ma chambre' with them, chatted there for ABOUT 1 HOUR, then DOWN — it being now time for Mesa to be off — to the restaurant where they still had leisure ENOUGH to empty a BOTTLE of Beauve with me. By 7 o'clock they'd 'all' gone. WITH ALL THAT, although I was in bed by 9 o'clock, a fiendish din of traffic without intermission until 1 o'clock, at which time (ABOUT 1 O'CLOCK) I had a vomissement? having again got too much engrossed in conversation.
A fine day for the journey to Marseilles, and ALL RIGHT until just beyond the STATION at Lyons. First, l'/s hours d'arrêfi AT Cassis on account of the locomotive's DISTEMPER; then again the same mishap with the engine AT Valence, although this time the arrêt wasn't so long. Meanwhile it had turned bitter cold with a nasty BITING WIND. Instead of arriving some time before midnight, we did not reach [Marseilles] until after 2 o'clock in the morning; to some extent I was MORE OR LESS FREEZING, despite all my wrappings, the only antidote I found being 'alcohol' and I AGAIN AND AGAIN RESORTED TO IT. During the last quarter of an hour (if not more) in the exposed, cold and windswept gare de Mar-
17 1882
seule,'1 there was one last épreuve* in the shape of prolonged formali-ties before obtaining possession of one's LUGGAGE.
Today it's sunny in Marseilles, but the wind itself not yet warm. Dr Dourlen advised me to stay at the above-named hotel, whence I shall leave for Algiers tomorrow (Saturday) at 5 in the afternoon. T h e office of the Paquebots à vapeur des Postes françaises' is located here, in the very hotel at which I am staying, so that I was able to take a ticket (at 80 frs FIRST CLASS) for the paquebot? Said straight away; one's BAGGAGE is likewise ENREGISTERED here, so that everything is as convenient as can be.
Apropos. I [got] hold of a Prolétaire {L'Egalité is also SOLD here). Lafargue seems to me to be constantly fomenting further USELESS INCIDENTS — though maybe the DETAILS are *far from exact. As to his characterising Fourier a 'Communist', he is now that theye make fun of him obliged to explain in what sense he might have called Fourier as a 'Communist'.* Such 'audacities' may be ignored, 'interpreted' or 'differently interpreted'; what is worse is that SUCH small FACTS
BE SAVED at all. T o my mind, he is far too long-winded.
*My best compliments to Laura; I shall write her from Algiers. There is one single m a n sufficient as patron; it is a long letter written by Longuet to his friend* Fermé, who has successfully made his way from being an erstwhile deportee to Algeria (under Napoleon III) to the post of juge d'appel' of Algiers. No question of passports and such like. Nothing is entered on the passengers' tickets save Christian and surnames.
M y compliments also to Lenchen g AND THE OTHER FRIENDS. Addio.
OLD Moor
115. Engels to Pyotr Lavrov. 18 February
IN LONDON
[Postcard]
[London,] 18 February 1882 122 Regent's Park Road
My dear Mr Lavrov,
I am exceedingly sorry to have missed you this afternoon — however if, as I hope, this note reaches you tonight, I would ask you to be so good as to come to my house tomorrow, Sunday evening, at about 7 or 8 o'clock. You will find some friends there and we shall all be very pleased to see you.
Yours ever,
F. Engels
[On the side reserved for the address]
P. Lavrov, Esq. 13 Alfred Place Tottenham Court Road W. C.
116. Marx to Engels. 21 February
116
MARX TO ENGELS [7 2]
IN LONDON
[Postcard, unsigned]
Alger,» 21 February 1882 Hôtel d'Orient
Dear Fred,
I left Marseilles on Saturday 18 February at 5 in the afternoon aboard the Said, EXCELLENT STEAMER; the PASSAGE was a fast one, so that we had already reached Algiers by half past three in the morning on Monday (20 February).[278] However, it was a chilly crossing and, though the ship was equipped with every comfort, the 2 nights were sleepless ones for me owing to the diabolical noise of the engines, wind, etc., which were disturbing in the cabin.
Here again, I found in store for me the same quid pro quo, mutatis mutandis"(1) as in the Isle of Wight.[234] This particular SEASON happens to be, for Algiers, exceptionally cold and wet, while Nice and Menton are presently luring away most of its visitors! I had in any case had some misgivings and more than once hinted at the possibility of starting off d'abord" with the Riviera. However it would seem to be a.fatalité* The good juge' gave me a most friendly welcome yesterday; Longuet's letter had forewarned him the day before I arrived; he is calling on me today to consider future moves. Then I shall write at greater length. Kindest regards to all. Letters aren't dispatched every day to France and England.
Write to me under my name, Aux soins de Monsieur Fermé, juge au tribunal civil,[1] No. 37, Route Mustapha Supérieur, Alger.
[On the side reserved for the address]
Fr. Engels, Esq.
122 Regent's Park Road, Londres, N. W. Angleterre
117. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 22 and 25 February[2 4]
IN ZURICH
London, 22 February 1882
Dear Mr Bernstein,
I am answering your letter straight away, 1. because of the increasing urgency of the pan-Slav business, and 2. because, now that Marx has left,[278] I shall have to set seriously to work again and shall no longer have time for such lengthy dissertations.
The 'short-hand reports'" will be returned today. Many thanks. Mostly rather dull, but I'm happy enough if it all passed off without any denial of principles or anything really discreditable happening. I should always be grateful if you could send me further con-signments from time to time. I was much gratified to see that the shocking blunders perpetrated earlier in the Saxon Landtag had been retrieved.[118] I imagine the Sozialdemokrat is quite satisfied with the result of its intervention. Signing the statement must have been a bitter pill for Bios.[240] I am delighted that subscriptions should have passed the 4,000 mark and that the paper should find regular distribution in Germany, despite the police, etc. It is an incredible feat for a German paper that is banned. Before '48 such papers got in much more easily through having the support of the bourgeois and the booksellers, but no subscriptions were ever received. But in this case the workers actually pay — proof of their discipline and of the extent to which they live and have their being in the movement. I have no misgivings whatever about our German lads when things come to a head. They have stood the test splendidly on every occasion. And it's not they who are behaving like philistines but only their leaders who, from the start, have been prompted by the masses, not the masses by them.
That my letterb should have failed to convert you is quite understandable, since you were already in sympathy with the 'oppressed' southern Slavs. For after all, everyone of us, in so far as he has first gone through a liberal or radical phase, has emerged from it with these feelings of sympathy for all 'oppressed' nationalities, and I for one know how much time and study it took me to shake them off— but then it was for good and all.
Now, however, I must ask you not to ascribe to me opinions I have never expressed. I am in no way concerned with the official Austrian viewpoint represented for years by the Augsburg Allgemeine Leitung. Where it was right, it's out of date, and where it isn't out of date, it's wrong. I have absolutely no cause for complaint about the centrifugal movement in Austria. A 'bulwark against Russia' becomes superfluous the moment revolution breaks out in Russia, i. e. when some sort of representative assembly meets. As from that day, Russia will be busy with its own affairs, pan-Slavism will collapse like the nonentity it is and the Empire will begin to crumble. Pan-Slavism is simply an artificial product of the 'educated classes', of the towns and universi-ties, the army and the civil service; it is unknown in the country and even the landed aristocracy is in such a fix that it would execrate any kind of war. From 1815-59, cowardly and foolish though its policy may have been, Austria was indeed a bulwark against Russia. To afford it yet another opportunity — now, on the eve of revolution in Russia — of setting itself up as a 'bulwark' would be tantamount to giving Austria a new lease of life, a new historical justification for its existence, and postponing the disintegration which inevitably awaits it. And in allowing the Slavs to come to power, Austria has, with true historical irony, itself declared that what has hitherto been its sole rai-son d'être has ceased to exist. Come to that, a war with Russia would, within 24 hours, put paid to Slav domination in Austria.
You say that, as soon as the Slav peoples (always excepting the Poles!) have no further grounds for looking to Russia as their only liberator, pan-Slavism will be checkmated. That's easily said and it sounds plausible. But in the first place the danger of pan-Slavism, in so far as it exists, does not lie at the periphery but at the centre, not in the Balkans but in the 80 million slaves upon whom Tsarism draws for its army and its finances. Hence it is there that the greatest effort must be made and, indeed, has been made. And is it to be blighted by a war?
Again, I do not propose to go into the question of how the smaller Slav nations have come to look to the Tsar as their only liberator. Let it suffice that they do so; we cannot alter the fact and it will rest at that until Tsarism has been smashed; if there's a war, all these interesting little nations will be on the side of Tsarism, the enemy of all bourgeois progress in the West. So long as this remains the case, I can take no interest in their immediate liberation here and now; they are as much our declared enemies as their ally and patron, the Tsar.
We must co-operate in the work of setting the West European proletariat free and subordinate everything else to that goal. No matter how interesting the Balkan Slavs, etc., might be, the moment their desire for liberation clashes with the interests of the proletariat they can go hang for all I care. The Alsatians, too, are oppressed, and I shall be glad when we are once more quit of them. But if, on what is patently the very eve of a revolution, they were to try and provoke a war between France and Germany, once more goading on those two countries and thereby postponing the revolution, I should tell them: Hold hard! Surely you can have as much patience as the European proletariat. When they have liberated themselves, you will automatically be free; but till then, we shan't allow you to put a spoke in the wheel of the militant proletariat. The same applies to the Slavs. The victory of the proletariat will liberate them in reality and of necessity and not, like the Tsar, apparently and temporarily. And that's why they, who have hitherto not only failed to contribute anything to Europe and European progress, but have actually retarded it, should have at least as much patience as our proletarians. To stir up a general war for the sake of a few Herzegovinians, which would cost a thousand times more lives than there are inhabitants in Herzegovina, isn't my idea of proletarian politics.
And how does the Tsar 'liberate'? Ask the peasants of Little Russia whom Catherine liberated from 'Polish oppression' (pretext — religion) only to annex them later on. And what does all this Russian pan-Slav imposture amount to? The capture of Constantinople, that's all. Nothing else would act so powerfully on the religious tradi-tions of the Russian peasant, inspire him to defend the holy city of Tsarigrad and give a new lease of life to Tsarism. And once the Russians are in Constantinople, farewell to Bulgarian and Serbian independence and liberty — the little brothers [bratankï) would soon realise how much better off they had been even under the Turks. It calls for the most colossal naivete on the part of the said bratanki for them to believe that the Tsar is out for their good rather than his own.
You say that a Greater Serbia would be as good a bulwark against Russia as Austria. As I have already said, the 'bulwark' theory generally has ceased to hold any water for me since a revolutionary movement gained strength in Russia. I have also said that I look forward with pleasure to Austria's disintegration. But this brings us to the quality of these exiguous nations which is, after all, a consideration when it comes to sympathising with them.
In 2-4 generations' time and after general European upheavals, Greater Serbia will certainly be feasible; today, having regard to the cultural level of its elements, it as certainly is not.
1. The Serbs are divided into 3 denominations (the figures are taken from Safafik, Slovansky Nârodopis and are applicable to 1849): Greek Orthodox 2,880,000; Catholic, including the so-called Croats who, however, speak Serbian, 2,664,000, minus the Croats, 1,884,000; Mohammedans 550,000. Where these people are concerned, religion actually counts for more than nationality, and it is the aim of each deno-mination to predominate. So long as there's no cultural advance such as would at any rate make toleration possible, a Greater Serbia would only spell civil war. See enclosed Standard.
2. The country has 3 political centres — Belgrade, Montenegro, Agram. Neither the Croats nor the Montenegrins wish to submit to the supremacy of Belgrade. On the contrary. The Montenegrins and your friends, the aborigines in Krivosije and Herzegovina, would up-hold their 'independence' vis-à-vis Belgrade or any other central government— Serbian or otherwise — just as much as they would vis-à-vis the Turks or the Austrians. That independence consists in demonstrating their hatred of the oppressor by stealing cattle and other valuable chattels from their own 'oppressed' Serb compatriots as they have done for the past 1,000 years, and any attack on their right of rapine is regarded as an attack on their independence. I am enough of an authoritarian to regard the existence of such aborigines in the heart of Europe as an anachronism. And even if these little folk had had a standing as high as Sir Walter Scott's vaunted Highlanders, who were also really shocking cattle thieves, the most we could do is condemn the manner in which they are treated by present-day society. If we were at the helm, we too should have to put an end to the Rinaldo Rinaldini-Schinderhannes business which, by long tradition, these laddies indulge in. And so would the government of Greater Serbia. Here too, then, Greater Serbia would mean a revival of the struggle now being conducted by the Herzegovinians, and hence civil war involving all the highlanders of Montenegro, Cattaro and Herzegovina.
On closer consideration, then, Greater Serbia does not appear anything like as simple and straightforward a matter as pan-Slavs and liberals à la Rasch would have us believe.
Well, go on sympathising with these aborigines as much as you like; there's certainly no denying them a sort of poetic radiance and, in fact, they do still produce folk songs that closely resemble the old Serbian ones (which are very fine); I shall even send you an article from The Standard by way of proof. But the fact remains that they are the tools of Tsardom, and there's no room in politics for poetical feelings of sympathy. And if the rebellion of these laddies threatens to unleash a general war that would make a complete hash of our revolutionary situation, they and their right of cattle stealing will have to be mercilessly sacrificed to the interests of the European proletariat.
Come to that, if Greater Serbia were to materialise it would only be an enlarged version of the principality of Serbia. And what has the latter achieved? Set up an educated bureaucracy on the Austrian model, consisting of chaps from Belgrade and other towns who have been to university in the West, particularly Vienna, and, knowing nothing of the conditions governing communal ownership among the peasants, make laws after the Austrian pattern that fly in the face of those conditions so that masses of peasants are impoverished and ex-propriated, whereas in the days of the Turks they enjoyed full autonomy, grew rich and paid fewer taxes.
The Bulgarians have depicted themselves in their folk songs, a collection of which, made by a Frenchman, has recently appeared in Paris.a Fire plays a major role here. A house burns down, the young woman is burnt to death because, instead of his wife, her husband chooses to save his black mare. Another time a young woman saves her jewellery and leaves her child to burn. If, by way of exception, there is a noble and courageous act, it is invariably performed by a Turk. In what other part of the world would you find such a beastly lot?
Incidentally, if you take a look at a passable philological map of the district (e. g. Safarik's, in the above-mentioned book, or Kiepert's of Austria and the countries of the Lower Danube 1867b) you will find that the liberation of these Balkan Slavs is not an altogether simple affair and that, with the exception of Serbian territory, there are pock-ets of Turks all over the place, and a Greek fringe along the coast, not to mention Salonika which is a Spanish Jewish town. True, the worthy Bulgarians are now rapidly dealing with the Turks in Bulga-
[1] [A. Dozon,] EbjizapcKU uapodnu menu. Chansons populaires bulgares inédites, Paris, 1875.-b H. Kiepert, Karte von Böhmen, Maehren und Oesterreich, Berlin, 1866.
ria and East Rumelia by slaughtering them, driving them out and burning down their houses over their heads. Had the Turks adopted the same course, instead of allowing them more autonomy and fewer taxes than they have at present, the world would no longer be troubled with a Bulgarian question.
As regards war, you would seem to me to have le coeur un peu trop lé-ger.* If war breaks out, it will be easy for Bismarck to make it look as though Russia were the aggressor: he can wait, but the Russian pan-Slavs can't. But Germany and Austria once committed in the East, one would have to be a poor judge of Frenchmen, and particularly Parisians, not to anticipate that there would instantly arise a chauvinistic clamour for retribution which would reduce to silence the peaceful majority of the people and cause France to appear yet again as the aggressor; or that the chauvinism then prevailing would very soon demand the left bank of the Rhine. That this would soon involve Germany in a struggle for survival so that there, too, patriotic chauvinism would completely regain the upper hand, seems to me self-evident. So far, all the prospects are against us. But once a war is under way, there is no knowing what will be the outcome of this, the first such European conflict since 1813-15, and I would be the last man to wish for it. If it does come, however, then it can't be helped.
But now for the other side of the coin. In Germany we have a situation that is drifting ever more rapidly towards revolution and must before long push our party to the fore. We ourselves needn't lift a finger, just let our opponents do the work for us. On top of which a new era [2 7 7] is impending with a new, liberalising, highly irresolute and wavering Emperor,b who is exactly cut out to be a Louis XVI. All that is wanting is a timely impulse from without. This will be afforded by the situation in Russia where the onset of the revolution is only a question of months. Our people in Russia have virtually taken the Tsar prisoner,[281] have disorganised the government and shattered popular tradition. Even without any other major coup, a collapse must ensue in the very near future, and the process will go on for years, as it did between 1789 and '94. Hence it will allow ample time for repercussions in the West, more notably Germany, so that the movement will gradually gather momentum, unlike 1848, when reaction was already in full swing throughout Europe by 20 March. Never, in short, has there been so magnificent a revolutionary situa-
to be a bit too light-hearted-b William II tion. Only one thing can spoil it: as Skobelev himself said in Paris, only war with another country could get Russia out of the morass into which it is sinking.[282] That war would repair all the damage our people, at the cost of their lives, have done to Tsarism. It would be enough at any rate to rescue the Tsar from his captivity, to expose the social revolutionaries to the general fury of the mob, to deprive them of the support they now get from the Liberals and undo all they have achieved by their sacrifices; everything would have to be begun all over again under less favourable circumstances. But a play of this kind scarcely admits of a second performance and even in Germany — upon that you may depend — our people will either have to join in the patriotic ululations, or draw down upon their heads a furore by comparison with which the one that followed the assassination attempts ' [2 0] was mere child's play; and Bismarck's riposte to the recent elections would be of quite a different order from the one he made then with his Anti-Socialist Law.(1)
If peace is maintained, the Russian pan-Slavs will be bilked and will soon have to retreat. Whereupon the Emperor* can at most try one last throw with the old bankrupt bureaucrats and generals who have already once been on the rocks. That could last for a month or two at the outside, after which there would be no recourse save to call on the Liberals — i. e. a National Assembly of some kind and that, if I know my Russia, would mean revolution à la 1789. And then you go and suggest I want war! Not on your life, even if it means the demise of 200 noble robber nations.
But enough of that. And now for Bürkli. I haven't read his pamphlet b and have mislaid it, but shall look and see if I can find it in Marx's house or mine. So I can't say exactly what he is after.
(25 February)
I have just been hunting high and low at Marx's and couldn't find it. With our division of labour, specialised questions of this kind fall to Marx's share and, because of his illness, we haven't even been able to discuss the matter.
I assume that Bürkli permits every Zurich real property owner to take out a mortgage of this kind on his property, and that the relevant certificate is supposed to circulate as money. In this way the amount of money in circulation is dictated by the amount which the real property in question is worth, and not by the far smaller amount that would suffice for circulation. So even at this stage:
1. Either they are non-redeemable certificates, in which case they depreciate in accordance with the law expounded by Marx [2 8 3];
2. Or they are redeemable, in which case the portion over and above what is needed for circulation returns to the bank for redemption and ceases to be money, which, of course, means that the bank must, tie up capital.
Now a substitute for money which is interest-bearing and of which, therefore, the value fluctuates day by day is, if only for that reason, an unsuitable means of circulation; not only does one first have to agree the price of the commodity in real money, but also the price of the paper. The people of Zurich would have to be worse businessmen than I suppose if, the certificates being redeemable, they didn't all promptly surrender them to the bank for redemption, and go back to using only the old, convenient, non-interest-bearing money. Which means that the cantonal bank would have tied up in mortgages its own capital as well as everything it could borrow and would have to cast round for new sources of working capital.
But, if non-redeemable, they simply cease to be money. Metallic or good paper money is drawn from the outside world which, luckily, is a little bit larger than the Canton of Zurich, and that's what people use, for no one will accept these dreary certificates as money and in that case they are, as you rightly say, no better than Brandenburg mortgage bonds. And if the government insists on forcing the public to accept them as money, it is in for a surprise.
This between ourselves; if you make use of it, please don't mention my name since, as I have said, I have not read the little pamphlet or had time to read up the subject in the classic economic texts; but if one tries to criticise such things out of one's head, just like that, there's no guaranteeing that one won't make blunders. At all events, the thing is nonsensical.
Marx arrived in Algiers [2 7 8] on Monday morning, a place I and the doctors had always wanted him to go to, though he himself wasn't very keen. He has met a judge in the tribunal civil' there, a former deportee of Bonaparte's, who has made a close study of communal ownership among the Arabs and has offered to enlighten him on the subject.
Kindest regards both to yourself and Kautsky.
Yours,
F. E.
118. Engels to Pyotr Lavrov. 23 February
My Dear Friend,
The Financial Reform Almanack 1882 gives the following addresses: Dilke, W. Ashton, 1 Hyde Park Gate, S. W. Ditto Sir Charles, 76 Sloane St, S. W. When I got home from your place I found a letter from Dr Donkin (the one who treated Hartmann some time ago, and also the Marx family) in which he says:
* 'I had a letter from Hartmann a few days ago (dating from 14 Huntley St, Bedford Sq.) asking me if he might come and see me. I answered his letter directly — giving him the choice of two days — but have heard nothing of him.
'In case my letters have miscarried will you tell me if you know anything about him. If you see him perhaps you will tell him that I will see him any morning here (60 Upper Berkeley St., W.) between 11 and 12 o'clock.'*
Would you be so kind as to pass on the preceding lines to Hartmann? Since Donkin's letter failed to arrive, I fear there may be some mistake as to the number, of which I am not sure, since I know of it only from Donkin. Hence it is impossible for me to communicate with Hartmann direct or with any certainty, and that is why I am asking you to act as intermediary, the more so since you say it is quite close to your place.
119. Marx to Jenny Longuet. 23 February
I am replying to Donkin,[284] saying that I hope to be able to tell him something more precise within the next few days; if possible, could you let me have some further information concerning this matter on Sunday evening?
Yours ever,
F. Engels
119
MARX TO JENNY LONGUET
IN ARGENTEUIL
[Postcard]
[Algiers,] 23 February 1882
Dearest Child,
The good weather has set in; live in a most comfortable Villa, out of the fortifications of Algiers, on the hills; only thing I want now is tranquillity, hope soon to be a 'better' man again.
Kisses to all the children; compliments to Longuet.
Yours most devoted
Old Nick
[On the side reserved for the address]
Madame Charles Longuet 11, Boulevard Thiers, Argenteuil
près Paris (France)
120. Marx to Engels. 1 March
120
MARX TO ENGELS [7 2]
IN LONDON
Algiers, 1 March 1882 Hôtel Pension Victoria, Mustapha Supérieur, Boulevard Bon Accueil
(Letters can now be sent to me direct at the above address)
DEAR FRED,
The telegram [284] I sent you anticipated my POSTCARD/ as the latter would have caused somewhat unnecessary anxiety. The fact is that thanks to an accumulation of unfavourable circumstances of a petty nature (incl. the sea crossing), I have been frozen to the marrow, my corpus delicti* having landed at Algiers on 20 February.
December was an atrocious month in Algiers, January fine, February cold when not also damp. I struck the 3 coldest days of the said last month, the 20th, 21st and 22nd of February. No sleep, no appetite, a bad cough, somewhat perplexed, not without an occasional bout of profunda melancolia, like the great Don Quixote. AT ONCE THEN back to Europe, no go, what with the faux frais," on top of which the prospect of another 2 nights in one of the cabines, one's brain tortured by the racket from the engines! Or again, certain escape from the quid pro quod by setting off at once for Biskra, right next to the Sahara Desert? But difficult, considering the fact that the means of communication or transport demand a further journey of 7 to 8 days and, according to the advice of someone familiar with the conditions, no small undertaking for a pro nunce invalid in view of possible INCIDENTS before arrival in Biskra!
Anyway, as the thermometer on the après-midi'of 22 February indicated fair weather and I had already spied out the Hôtel-Pension Victoria on the day of my arrival in company with the good JUDGE 1 1882
Fermé, I left the Grand Hôtel d'Orient (also sleeping there THE ABOMIN-
ABLE PHILOSOPHICAL RADICAL Ash ton Dilke — BY THE BY, to le Petit Colon and other petits journaux Algériens * every Englishman is A LORD, EVEN Bradlaugh FIGURES HERE AS LORD Bradlaugh) with bagage to une des collines en dehors de la fortification, du côté de l'Est de la ville.h
Magnificent position here, from my chambre' the bay of the MEDITER-RANEAN, the port of Algiers, villas climbing up the collines as in an amphitheatre {des ravines au dessous des collines, d'autres collines au dessus)d; further away, des montagnes, ' among those visibles being the snowy crests derrière Matifou, sur les montagnes de Kabilie, des points culminants du Djurdjura.' (All the aforementioned collines are of lime-stone.) At 8 o'clock in the morning there is nothing more magical than the panorama, the air, the vegetation, a wonderful mélange of Europe and Africa. Every morning — at 10 or 9-11 or THEREABOUTS MY PROMENADE between des ravines et les collines situées au dessus de la mienne?
WITH ALL THAT one lives on nothing but dust. IN FIRST INSTANCE only
FROM 23-26TH FEBR. REALLY EXCELLENT CHANGE; but now (and nevertheless I'm still so frozen that EVEN THEN the only difference between my clothing in the Isle of W i g h t [2 3 4] and my clothing in the city of Algiers is that in the villa I have up till now simply replaced the rhinoceros greatcoat with my light greatcoat, no other change having been made so far) there began (and will doubtless last for some 9 days reckoned from the 27raFeb.) the so-called tempête, c.a.d. le tapage du vent sans de tonnerre et sans d'éclairs^ DANGEROUS AND TREACHEROUS TIME
MUCH FEARED EVEN BY THE NATIVES. SO in fact only 3 really fine days up till now.
Meanwhile, my cough got worse FROM DAY TO DAY, le crachement abo-minable,[1] little sleep, * above all a certain nasty feeling that my left side is once for all deteriorated by the perish, and my intellectual state most dejected. Thus I summoned Dr Stephann (best Algiers doctor). I had two interviews yesterday and to-day. What to do? I am just go[ing] to Algiers to make prepare his prescriptions given; they are, after he had very seriously examined me,* 1. collodion cantharidal' applied with a pinceau*; 2. arseniate de soudeb in a specific quantity of water; 1 tablespoon of same at every mealtime; 3. au cas de besoin," especially if the cough comes on at night, a tablespoonful of a MIXTURE of codéine and julep gommeux.d He is coming again in a week's time; as to my BODILY EXERCISES, has ordered me * to keep within very moderate limits; no real intellectual work except some reading for my distrac-tion.* So in fact I shan't be back AT London A BIT (RATHER A LESS) sooner! * Hence a man ought never [to] delude himself by too sanguine views! *
I must break off as I have to go to the chemist in Algiers. *By the by, you know that few people more averse to demonstrative pathos; still, it would be a lie [not] to confess that my thought to great part absorbed by reminiscence of my wife, such a part of my best part of life! Tell my London daughters' to write to Old Nickr instead of expecting him to write himself first.
How is Pumps going on in that serious work of man-creating? Give her my best compliments.
Give my compliments to Helen,8 ditto Moore, Schorlemmer. Now, old good fellow,
Yours,*
Moor
* Apropos! Dr Stephann, like my dear Dr Donkin, does not forget— the cognac*
121. Marx to Engels. 3 March
121
M A R X T O E N G E L S [7 2]
IN LONDON
[Postcard]
[Algiers,] 3 March 1882
Dear FRED,
Your letter dated 25 February [2 8 4] arrived yesterday together with the Daily News CUTS (O. N. a tragicomical secret of politics and passion in England). I trust Tussy will at last stop playing fast and loose with her health; that Cacadou, alias Laurachen, continues to flourish, for she is subjected to a great deal of physical exertion. As yet no reply from Paris.
T h e tempête—c'est ici l'expression sacramentaleh — has been going on since 26 February though always with VARIABLE ASPECTS.
On 2 March confined to the house FOR THE WHOLE DAY in common with all my fellow-lodgers; pouring rain from EARLY MORNING from a SKY of a colour reminiscent of London, grey as grey; this time however the squalls were accompanied by thunder and lightning; at 4 o'clock in the afternoon an azure sky AGAIN; later on a really lovely moonlit evening. O n e short spell alternating with another throughout the day, now a rise in temperature, now a drop. Meanwhile I resumed inter alia the painting of my skin; that very night A REMARKABLE IMPROVEMENT SETTING IN.— This morning, 3 March, painting first task of the day; despite wind not intimidated, from 9 o'clock to ABOUT quarter TO 11 out for a stroll in the balmy sea air which I found MOST DELIGHTFUL; got back just before the wind worked itself into a fury again. I shall be
SUMMONED TO dejeunerc IN A FEW MINUTES and a m making use of this vital moment to send these FEW LINES TO YOU.
Your
Moor
122. Marx to Jenny Longuet. 16 March
[On the side reserved for the address]
Fr. Engels
122 Regent's Park Road, London, N. W., Angleterre
122
MARX TO JENNY LONGUET [166]
IN ARGENTEUIL
[Algiers,] 16 March 1882 Hôtel Victoria
(Go on writing to me here, aux soins de(1) Fermé)
My Dear Child,
After receiving your letter through Fermé, I sent a messenger to the Hôtel d'Orient to make inquiries there as well; he was handed a letter for me from you dated 24 February.
I shall now give you a short account of the state of my health. Since my cough had become more persistent, with severe expecto-ration, insomnia, etc., I sent for Dr Stephann (who also looks after some of my other fellow-lodgers) and have thus been under his care since 26 February when he first examined me. He is a very shrewd and determined man. He found that, as a result of the unfortunate conca-tenation of events from the time I left Paris until now, my left side, which had been weakened by pleurisy, was functioning abnormally. The chief antidote consists in vésicatoiresh (the drawing off of fluid by painting the left side of my back and the lefthand side of my chest with cantharidic collodion) which works well in my case, and also a 'soothing' cough mixture; lastly, an arsenical preparation (as taste-less as water) to be taken after every meal. In so far as the weather permitted, I was to continue taking a gentle stroll each morning.
Unfortunately (had the weather been more favourable, my violent coughing would [undoubtedly](2) have gone of its own accord) I began to spit blood on 6 March but, after 8 and 9 March, had a really serious [haemorrhage] with some residual pain until the 12th, and on the 13th all trace of haemorrhage had gone. So this disagreeable episode lasted a week; Dr Stephann intervened energetically, forbidding all movement (walks, needless to say) ; likewise ALMOST all TALK; hot foot-baths, etc., along with drastic medicaments. During this time the treatment with vésicatoires, cough TONICS, etc., continued and did, in fact, reduce the coughing quite amazingly. Also, the weather has gradually begun to change although not yet ALTOGETHER comme il faut.b
From my hill-top villa (Hôtel Victoria) I have before me the prospect of the bay and, to one side, villas rising in an amphitheatre —, [finest air],c even without a stroll, [wafting] past the little balcony in front of my own and the adjoining chambres,' or again in the verandah, the latter giving access to the first floor. The doctor will not permit me to resume my strolls until he has again examined the corpus delictis Be it noted that latterly not only have I regained my appetite, but have at last managed to snatch some sleep. (From the 16th of February, IN FACT SINCE THE NIGHT IN THE hôtel in Paris, I had suffered from insomnia unre-mittingly until the moment referred to above.)
* Take now all in all, the upshot is, as I too reported to London/ that in this foolish, ill-calculated expedition, I am now just arrived again at that standard of health when I possessed it on leaving Maitland Park.c I must, however, say that many visitors here too passed, and are passing still through the same trial. Since 10 years Alger had not such a failure of the winter season. Myself had had some doubts; there was the experience of the Isle of Wight [2 3 4] and other corners, but Engels and Donkin fired each other mutually into African furor, neither one nor the other getting any special information, considering that in regard to temperature this year was extraordinary. I had now and again by innuendo given to understand to begin at least by Men-tone (or Nizza) as Lavrov had received from Russian friends very favourable news, but all this was ruled down by my sanguine good old Fredr who, I repeat it, I say it amongst you and myself, may easily kill some one out of love.
I must tell you that in this Villa-Hôtel, the two ladies, its mana-gers, did everything in my service, no care nor attention neglecting.
And as to the operations relating to the vésicatoires, a young pharmacien, Mr Casthelaz (with his mother he is here as a patient ever since December) is so kind as to tattoo me, then open the* blisters filled with fluid, *then put linen on the somewhat rough skin, etc. He does all such things in the most genteel way, and offers these voluntary services in the most delicate manner.*
Nothing could be more magical than the city of Algiers,unless it be the campagne* outside that city in summertime [and] before; it would be like the Arabian Nights, particularly — given good health — with all my dear ones (in particular not forgetting my GRANDSONS b) about me. I have been delighted each time you have sent me news of the staunch little fellows; Tussy, too, has written saying that she can't stop thinking about the children, and longs to have them with her again. [It is] hardly likely that I shall be able to leave this place before the month is out, for I must firstly complete the full course of treatment prescribed by Dr Stephann, and not till then (always supposing that ALL THEN AS TO WEATHER ALTOGETHER SETTLED) shall I actually be able to commence the actual fresh air treatment.
I have seen nothing of the Justice (polemic with Citoyen), nor indeed any of the Paris papers save for the Egalité. I was very pleased to learn from your letter that Tussy had found a tactful solution to the cata-strophe.285 If and when Lissagaray launches his Bataille, you will, I presume, send me the early numbers; *I do not believe in a great result*; mais qui vivra verrai
During my very first days here (while I was still at the Hôtel d'Orient), the GOOD Fermé 'over-walked' me — I mean, set me traips-ing up hill and down dale, and likewise OVERTALKED me. *A11 this I put at once an end to this, making him understood that I was an invalid.* But he meant very well, and now he knows rest, SOLITUDE and silence to be duties that are incumbent on me as a citizen.
Kisses to all the children. Regards to Longuet. And many kisses to yourself, dear child,
From your
OLD NICK
123. Marx to Paul Lafargue. 20 March
123
MARX TO PAUL LAFARGUE [2 8 6]
IN PARIS
[Algiers,] Monday, 20 March [1882]
My dear Paul,
Your kind letter of 16 March was delivered to me today (20th) so that it seems to have taken far less time to get here than is usual for letters from London.
First of all, my gallant Gascon, 'what does Mustapha supérieur" refer to?' Mustapha is a proper name like John. If you leave Algiers by the rue dTsly, you see a long street in front of you. On one side of it, in the foothills, rise Mauretanian villas surrounded by gardens (one of these villas is the Hôtel Victoria); on the other side — along the road — houses are spread out in descending terraces. All of this together is called Mustapha supérieur: Mustapha inférieurb begins at the incline of Mustapha supérieur and stretches down to the sea. Both Mustaphas form a single commune (Mustapha) whose mayor (this gentleman bears neither an Arab nor a French name but a German one) communicates with the inhabitants from time to time by means of official notices — a very soft regime, as you see. New houses are constantly being constructed in Mustapha supérieur, old ones are being demolished, etc., but although the workers engaged in this activity are healthy people and local residents they go down with fever after the first three days. Part of their wages, therefore, consists of a daily dose of quinine supplied by the employers. The same practice can be observed in various places in South America.
My dear augur. You are so well informed that you write: 'You must be consuming all the French newspapers that are sold in Algiers'; in actual fact I don't even read the few newspapers which the other hotel residents in the Victoria receive from Paris; my political reading is entirely limited to the telegraphic announcements in the Petit Colon (a small Algerian paper similar to the Parisian Petit-Journal, the Petite République Française, etc.). That's all.
Jenny wrote that she was sending Longuet's articles which you
a Upper Mustapha -b Lower Mustapha mention too, but I still haven't received them. The only newspaper that I receive from London is UEgalité, although you can't call it a newspaper.
What a strange fellow you are, St Paul! Where did you get the idea or who told you that I should 'rub my skin with iodine? You will interrupt me and say that this is a mere trifle, but it does reveal your method of the 'material fact'. Ex ungue leonems In reality, instead of 'rubbing my skin with iodine' I have to have my back painted with cantharidic collodion to draw out the fluid. The first time I saw my left side (chest and back) treated in this manner, it reminded me of a kitchen garden in miniature planted with melons. Since 16 March when I wrote to Engels [284] there has not been a single dry place either on my back or my chest (the latter is also being treated) on which the operation could be repeated; this cannot happen now before the 22nd.
You say: 'A letter of invitation is enclosed which will make you laugh.' Es regular.'' But how do you expect me to laugh when the 'enclosed' letter is still in your hands? When the opportunity arises, I shall remind Mr Fermé of his former comrade — the Proudhonist Lafargue. At present, while Doctor[1] forbids me to go out, I am using the time to refuse frequent visits and prolonged conversations.
The rains continue as before. The climate is so capricious; the weather changes from one hour to the next, going through every phase or suddenly leaping from one extreme to the other. However, there are signs of gradual improvement, but we shall have to wait. And just to think that from the moment of my departure for Marseilles and right up to the present there has been the finest weather in both Nice and Menton! But there was this insistent idea — for which I was not responsible — of the African sun and the wonder-working air out here!
Last Saturday we buried one of the residents of the Victoria, by the name of Armand Magnadère, in Mustapha supérieur; he was quite a young man sent here by Parisian doctors. He worked in a Paris bank; his employers continued to pay his salary in Algiers. To please his mother they arranged by telegraph to have his body exhu-med and sent to Paris — all at their expense. Such generosity is seldom met with even among people charged with 'other people's money'.
Judge the lion from his claws. - b Of course -c Stephann
124. Marx to Engels. 23 March
My sleep is gradually returning; someone who has not suffered from insomnia cannot appreciate that blissful state when the terror of sleepless nights begins to give way.
Greetings to my dear Cacadou(1) and to all the others.
Yours,
K. Marx
124
MARX TO ENGELS
IN LONDON
[Postcard]
[Algiers,] 23 March, Thursday [1882]
DEAR FRED,
Just now — after BREAKFAST — MY HELP[6] lanced, etc., the dense throng of greatly distended blisters produced on one side of my chest by yesterday's embrocation; after which [he told] me to idle away another hour or two in bed; so here I am scribbling a few lines on this postcard, as there's no time to be lost; for a messenger from this house is leaving for Algiers at an unusually early hour in order to take letters to the post office there, etc. (There's no post to France on Mondays and Wednesdays.)
Ever since Tuesday (21 March) another storm has been raging night and day save for the usual INTERVALS — thunder, not much lightning, downpours in the evening and particularly at night, today in the morning as well. As the storm approached on Tuesday afternoon, presaged by a SKY SO overcast, pitch-black and lowering, I was
125. Marx to Jenny Longuet. 27 March
particularly struck by the rôle the TRULY AFRICAN SIROCCO played in the said storm.— Dr Stephann here yesterday; EXAMINATION satisfactory; progress; still peccansa [are] a place at the very bottom of one side of my chest and a corresponding place on my back. Next week (i. e. ABOUT Wednesday or Thursday of next week), my HELP is to refrain from embrocating those spots; so Stephann is specially reserving this for himself.
Regards to all.
Your
Moor
[On the side reserved for the address]
Fr. Engels
122 Regent's Park Road, London, N. W., Angleterre
125
MARX TO JENNY LONGUET
IN ARGENTEUIL
[Algiers,] Monday, 27 March 1882
My Dear Child,
I received your letter to-day (27 March); you know how delighted I am always to hear of you. My reports to you did not conceal the worst from you; so you may also feel quite sure that I simply tell the truth in announcing you that since the date of my last letter to youb
my state of health is progressively improving. There is no longer in-somny (the worst of all), nor want of appetite, nor any violent character of cough, the latter indeed much subdued. Of course the vésicatoires'' can, because of their intense action, only once a week be renewed; so the process of the healing of the membranes (the essential tissue of the organ has not at all suffered) on the left side wants some time. Of course the most unsteady weather, with sudden changes, storms, heats, colds, rain, in fact only a few good intervals,— the steady seas-onable air warm and 'sec'b is still the great desideratum. When we just, like yesterday, had caught the decisive turning point — it was a beautiful day, and I had a promenade,— but to-day sky grey (with a nuance noirâtre'), rain pouring down, wind howling. People here get it quite tired, for, it must not again and again be repeated: this such weather since December (inclus.) quite anormous in Algier. The thing was to inform oneself before starting on such a chasse aux oies sau-vages.A
Entre nousc: Though in the Isle of Wight [234] the weather was unfavourable, but still my health improved so greatly that people won-dered when myself returning to London. But, then, I had tranquillity at Ventnor; at London, on the contrary, Engels' excitement (Lafargue, too, a quack, thought 'walking', free air etc. were all I did want) in fact has upset me: I felt, I could not longer stand it; hence my impatience to get from London away on any condition whatever! People may kill some one out of real most sincere love; with all that nothing more dangerous in such cases for a reconvalescent!
As I told you/ dear child, I have had the good chance of having met with well-meaning, kind and unpretending people (French-Swiss and unmixed French, no German nor English in my Villa-Hôtel). Mr Maurice Casthelaz functions as volunteer under the orders of Dr Stephann; no NymE more careful or attentive. Hence, my child, do not worry yourself as to my fancied helpless situation. Enough of male and female helps; and, on the other hand, it is the privilege of a 'patient' to be silent, to withdraw, etc., whenever I prefer the solitude or take no notice of the company.
Generally I have altogether neglected the French, English etc. daily press; I read only the telegraphic news. What I had desired, f. i., was Longuet's articles on the grève* (Lafargue wrote me greatly praising those articles). As to Massard's sottise,' I know to that moment nothing save what you have written me.
126. Marx to Engels. 28- 31 March
Write to Hirsch to send me his Adam-Contribution.[28]' What I would like, to get durch Wünschenkappe(1) on a brilliant day here over Johnny; what would my little darling,wonder at Maures.,b Arabs, Ber-bers, Turks, niggers, in one word this Babel and costumes (most of them poetic) of this oriental world, mixed with the 'civilised' French etc. and the dull Britons. Kiss also my sweet Harry, the noble Wolf, and the grand Pac!
And now farewell, my best child; also my compliments to Longuet.
Yours,
Old Nick
As to any working, is still out of the question; not even the correc-tion of the Capital for a new edition."d
126
MARX TO ENGELS [7 2]
IN LONDON
[Algiers, 28-] 31 March 1882
DEAR FRED,
28 March: A maddeningly wet day early this morning — when I finished writing a short epistle to Tussy.[284] This had already gone off, however, when a storm developed which, for the first time, put on a good performance; not only howling wind, torrents of rain and thunder, but incessant lightning INTO THE BARGAIN. This went on until late at night, accompanied as usual by a considerable drop in temperature. Interesting, the varying colours of the waves in the lovely, almost elliptical bay; the surf snowy white, and the sea beyond changing from blue to green.
29 March (Wednesday) : Maddening drizzle today; no less maddening the moaning gusts of wind; temperature, cold and damp.
Today, shortly before déjeuner* (takes place at a QUARTER PAST or perhaps half past 11) Dr Stephann arrived for the specific purpose of'de-voting' himself to the painting of those places at the very bottom of my back and chest he had specially signalled out and reserved for his own attack. Beforehand, as on every visit, a thorough examination; by far the largest part of my left side was accorded much better STATUS; the aforementioned nethermost spots, presently giving forth no more than a low murmur in place of Helmholtz's musical note, can only be put to rights by slow degrees (anything speedier being hampered by the bad weather). Today, for the first time,— no doubt because he thought me far enough on the road to recovery for him to speak his mind — Stephann told me that I had already suffered a rechute^ of a most serious kind by the time I arrived in Algiers. The épanchementsc
could only be controlled by recourse to vésicatoires,d and I had made better progress than might have been foreseen. He added, however, that I should have to treat myself very carefully for years. When I leave Algiers, he will give me a written diagnosis — intended in particular for my London doctor/ People of my age, he said, should be careful not to experiment too often with rechutes. A few hours after déjeuner the tableaur on my skin began to come to life in grim earnest; like someone who feels his epidermis has contracted and he himself is seeking to burst out of it; agony all night long; I had been absolutely forbidden to scratch.
30 March: At 8 o'clock in the morning my ASSISTANT-DOCTOR, my help-mate," appeared at my bedside. It transpired that, as a result of spontaneous movements, the blisters GENERALLY had burst; a veritable flood had taken place during the night — linen, flannel, night-shirt soaked. So the painting had had the desired effect on the places under attack. My kind HELP at once proceeded to bandage me, not only so as to prevent the flannel's rubbing, but also to draw off what remained of the fluid. This morning (31 March) Mr Casthelaz discovered that the SUCTION was at last nearing its end and the process of drying-out almost complete. This being so, I shall probably be able to undergo a second application within the same week (beginning 29 March). Tant mieux} 30 March (yesterday), the weather turned nice and warm at about midday, for which reason I strolled out onto the balcony; later I slept a little to make up for the restless night, as I shall also do today, since the strict avoidance of scratching keeps one awake at night even though, as during the night of 30 to 31, it's not agonising.
Weather today (31 March) uncertain; no rain yet, at all events; might turn relatively 'fine' towards midday, as it did yesterday.
There's nothing further to add to the health bulletin; quite satisfactory on the whole.
Have received [a letter] from Tussychen today. Apropos, a short while ago she sent me the enclosed letter; I can't make out the signature; you will be able to. At all events a strange phenomenon, a Quedlinburg lawyer with a Weltanschauung of his own! But one thing I can't make out: Has the copy of the chap's 'book' intended for me arrived at Maitland Park,a or does he want to have my exact address first so as to ensure that his book gets there safely? If the first, Tussy should acknowledge receipt of his book, if the second, send him my 'safe' address.
Mon cher,h like other FAMILY MEMBERS, you, too, will have been struck by my mistakes in spelling and syntax, and bad grammar; I never recall these — my absent-mindedness being still very great — until after the event. SHOWS YOU there's something in the saying sana mens in sano corpore." No doubt this will mend itself BY AND BY.
The tocsin pour déjeunerd has just sounded and this little note must accordingly be got ready for the messenger to Algiers. So my love to one and all.
Your
Moor
127. Engels to Henry Mayers Hyndman. Circa 31 March
Dear Sir,
I thank you for the pamphlet[3] you have sent me. I am very glad that glorious old Tom Spence has been brought out again.
I shall be very happy to make your personal acquaintance as soon as you shall have set yourself right with my friend Marx whom I see you can now afford to quote.
Yours truly,
F.E.
Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVII, Moscow, 1931
[Postcard]
128. Marx to Engels. 4 April
DEAR FRED,
Have received your postcard[284]; Laurachen's letter dated 29 March has also arrived.
My congratulations to Pumps.[288]
I'm progressing well on the whole but the weather is making an April fool of me.
On 31 March, Friday afternoon — a few hours before I DISPATCHED my letter to you (1)—Fermé called; he told me inter alia of a secret vouchsafed to him by an Algerian meteorologist, namely that next week the weather would d'abord*b be very wild for 3 days on account of the sirocco, after which there would be 3-4 wet days but finally a normal spring would step into the breach, booted and spurred. And anyone who doesn't believe it is mistaken.
Meanwhile Saturday (1 April), as well as Monday (3 April), was warm (a bit 'too' CLOSE) but the wind (no sirocco yet) confined me to my balcony on account of the swirls of dust; by contrast, the morning of 2 April (Sunday) was so fine and inviting that I went for a 2 hours' stroll.
Last night a piping wind; rain at ABOUT 5 o'clock this morning; dry since 8 o'clock, sky overcast, continual squalls. Yesterday evening wonderful moonlight on the bay. I can never stop feasting my eyes on the sea in front of my balcony.
Give my best regards to Jollymeyer,c ditto the others.
Your
Moor
[On the side reserved for the address]
Fr. Engels
122 Regent's Park Road, London, N. W. (Angleterre)
1913
129. Marx to Jenny Longuet. 6 and 7 April
129
MARX TO JENNY LONGUET
IN ARGENTEUIL
[Algiers,] 6 April 1882
My Sweet Child,
Just now judge Fermé brought me your letter d. d. March 31; I am always delighted at your letters, but whenever, my dear child, did you find the time for writing them? I think often anxiously at your little household, limited to the services of this queer fish of Emily, and the four little boys(1) alone would absorb the whole working time of a superior servant.
Fermé handed me also a few days ago the promised numbers of the Justice (ci-inclusb Hirsch's elucubrations reproduced from Madame Adam's Revue[287]). Longuet's articles on the 'grèves'd are very good. En passant. He says somewhere that Lassalle did only invent the words (not the law itself developed by Ricardo, Turgot, etc.[289]). In fact, however, he, Lassalle, borrowed, to German 'cultured' people well known, expression of Goethe who himself had modified Sophocles' ''ewige unwandelbare Gesetze'à into 'ewige eherne Gesetze'.'
Fermé had to sit opposite to me in my 'chambre',' silent, reading, until I had finished a letter to Tussy (from her I had the same day received a letter, ditto one from Engels) to be ready for the messenger to Algiers.
I expect Dr Stephann to-day. If he comes, I should be able to report on his examination, before despatching these lines you tomorrow morning. Meanwhile the progress of my health goes on satisfactory, though slowly for somebody eager to be again active and to drop that invalid's, stupid métier. All this delay is due to this violent Algerian dis-temper, altogether quite anormous, never heard of since Fermé's 12 years long sojourn here. The weather remains fidgety, fitful, capricious; April weather, from sunny changing suddenly into rainy, from hot to cold, chilly, from a sky diaphanef to scowling, almost black; from the dry atmosphere to being heavy with aqueous vapours; in one word, the weather far from being 'settled' or having subsided to what here may be considered the average 'normal' Algerian 'spring' character. However, if the wind blows not violently, if there be no rain, the April's early hours were pleasant, so that I could indulge my morning promenades to-day, yesterday, and the day last before yesterday; thus I enjoyed three consecutive morning promenades one or two hours long.
I am just interrupted by a noise rising from the little, in terraces mounting little garden (ein rotblühender Gartena) that forms the avenue to our Verandah (behind it the first étageb of our Villa), while my chambre on the second étage (and 5 other ones) opens upon the little gallery over the Verandah, both of them looking at the sea before and from all sides to a charming panorama. Well, the noise called me upon the gallery, and how he would laugh, at my side, so heartfully, so delightfully, that little Johnny, below him in the garden a real pitch dark negro, dancing, playing a small fiddle, beating his long iron castagnettes, writhing his body into plastic grimaces and folding his face into broad humorous grins. These Algerian Negroes were formerly in general slaves of Turks, Arabs, etc., but were emancipat-ed under the French régime.
Well, there looks down behind him, the negro, another figure, in a dignified manner and rather condescendingly smiling at the bla-ckie's exhibition. This is a Maure (anglice Moor, germ. Mohr); en passant the Maures are called the Arabs in Algeria, a small minority of them, withdrawn from the desert and their communities, dwelling in the towns at the side of the Europeans. They are taller than the average French measure, oval faces, noses aquiline, eyes large and brilliant; hairs and beards black, their skin's colour running over an échel-le' from almost white to darkly bronze. Their costumes — even if in tatters — elegant and graceful, a culotte6 (or a mantle), a rather toga of thin white wool, or a capot à capuchon'; for their cover of the head (for which the capuchon serves also in unfavourable (too hot etc.) weather) a turban or a piece of white mousseline, wound round their culottes; generally they leave their legs naked, the feet also, but more rarely they wear pantoufles1 of yellow or red maroquin.
Even the poorest Maure surpasses the greatest European comedian as to the 'art de se draper' dans son capot f and to show natural, graceful, and dignified attitudes, whether walking or standing (if they ride on their mules, or asses, or exceptionally on horses,— always throwing their both legs on some side down, instead of a European taking his horse between his both legs — then they offer the image of indolence).
Well, the said Maure—behind the negro in our garden — cries out for sale of'oranges' and 'cocks' (incl. hens), a strange combination of these articles vendible. Between the Maure, majestical even then, and the dancing grinning nigger there struts an animal — a most vain paon* (belonging to one of our co-pensionnairesb) with its wonderfully blue throat and most adorned long tail. At this trio, how my Johnny's laughter I should like to hear ring!
It is now 4 o'clock p. m. (during part of the afternoon, I had of course some conversation with Fermé, having brought me your letter, then later on he removed himself to Algiers). The rain pours down: the sudden lowering of the temperature most disgusting. My best compliments to Dr Dourlen!
7 April 1882
Raining through the whole night; this morning is sky covered, but no rain; pleasant air, but too saturated with watery vapours. I had an hour's promenade (9-10 a.m.), doubtful whether not surprised by rain — but none yet. As Dr Stephann came not yesterday nor the day before, I wrote him to-day morning, but at all events these lines, in order to be despatched still to-day, cannot await the Doctor's examination. He will not appear before 5 o'clock afternoon. You see, it is a good sign, that the Dr neglects me a little; in other words, he is no longer anxious to strictly repeat his visits in court intervals.
How I shall feel happy when returning to my grandsons and their excellent Maman! I am not at all inclined here to prolong my sojourn longer than the Dr considers it absolutely necessary. Many kisses from your
Old Nick
The inclosed cut from a German-American paper Engels sent me; it is an amusing criticism of the newest 'Teutsche Bedientenpoesie'.c
I hope Longuet tries to understand it.
130. Marx to Engels. 8 April
Dear child, I had already sealed this letter, but was forced to re-open it. Dr Stephann came a bit earlier than expected. The fresh examination led him to conclude — and I am very pleased to be able to tell you this — that my left side has in the meantime healed almost as well as the right one.[290]
130
MARX T O ENGELS [7 2]
IN LONDON
[Algiers,] 8 April * (Saturday) 1882
DEAR FRED,
At 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon I was examined by Dr Stephann. Despite the changeable weather, which had again brought on a persistent cold, he was very satisfied; found that the épanchementb low down (to the left of my chest) had almost completely disappeared; the one on my back (low down on the left) being rather more stubborn. Yesterday he gave this a special lambasting by painting it with collodion cantharidal.c The result was most acute pain and, thanks to the 'painting', a sleepless night (from 7 to 8 April), but this morning there has also been a MOST EFFECTIVE PUMPING OF WATER from the blisters that have formed. So I have no doubt that this offending spot will also cap-itulate in the very near future. My ASSISTANT-DOCTOR, Mr Casthelaz, had to work away for half an hour in my flourishing watermelon plantation, after which I was made to lie in bed until déjeuner[6] at half past eleven; for after bandaging the drawing off, drop by drop, of any residual fluid works best in that position.
On the other hand Stephann found my cough somewhat worse (only relatively, however, for the cough had reached a nadir), a consequence of the absurd weather; for 4 days this week the mornings were fine enough for walks; since yesterday afternoon it has never stopped raining; in the night and today THE RAIN ASSUMED THE 'caractère torrentier; today there has been a feeble attempt at lighting the fire in the dining-room, but these fireplaces don't in fact seem to exist for that purpose, BUT ONLY FOR SHOWS SAKE.
After déjeuner I retired for a nap AT 2 O'CLOCK to make up in part for last night, but by some infernal chance the courts are on vacation this week and next. So my plan was thwarted by the otherwise most amiable JUDGE Fermé who didn't release me until ABOUT 5 p. m. when dinner time was approaching. Fermé told me amongst other things that during his carrière on the bench a form of torture has been used (and this happens 'regularly') to extract confessions from Arabs; naturally it is done (like the English in India) by the 'police'; the judge is SUPPOSED TO KNOW NOTHING ABOUT ALL OF IT. On the other hand, he says that when, for example, a murder is committed by an Arab gang, usually with robbery in view, and the actual miscreants are in the course of time duly apprehended, tried and executed, this is not regarded as sufficient atonement by the injured colonist family. They demand INTO THE BARGAIN the 'pulling in' of at least half a dozen innocent Arabs. But this is resisted by the French judges and particularly the cours d'appel," though now and again the life of an individual, isolated judge may be threatened by the colonists if he does not provisionally consent (his competence extends no further) to having a dozen innocent Arabs locked up for suspected murder, burglary, etc., and involving them in the investigation. However we are aware that when a European colonist dwells among the 'lesser breeds', either as a set-tler or simply on business, he generally regards himself as even more inviolable than handsome William I. Still, when it comes to bare-faced arrogance and presumptuousness vis-à-vis the 'lesser breeds', to a grisly, Moloch-like obsession with atonement, the British and Dutch outdo the French.
Pumps' FAMILY MISSION shows great promise,[288] as opposed to Hyndman's political mission which might be regarded as problematical. It serves the laddie right that your noteb should have annoyed him, especially since he took these liberties with me only because he was counting on my own inability, for 'considerations of propaganda', to compromise him in public.[291] He knew that well enough.
Scandalmonger Bodenstedt and Friedrich Vischer-Sewer-Aesthete are the Horace and Virgil of William I.[292]
Apropos. The Kölnische J^eitung's article on Skobelev you sent me is most interesting.
This note won't leave today (Saturday), for there are no 'paquebots' * at all to Marseilles on Mondays, Wednesdays or Saturdays; but by way of exception a. paquebot leaves Algiers on a Sunday at 1 p. m. and letters for it must be delivered to the post office by 11 o'clock in the morning (Sunday); the Hôtel Victoria, Algiers, despatches a MESSENGER with the letters early on Sunday mornings. On the other days, when there is a. paquebot from Algiers to Marseilles, departure is at 5.30 in the afternoon.
But I wanted to get these lines off by tomorrow, since Dr Stephann's last examination was so especially favourable.
Best wishes to everyone.
Your
Moor
131. Engels to Pyotr Lavrov. 10 April
My dear Lavrov,
I am returning the proofs,[293] for which I thank you. I should have done so earlier had I not hoped to see you last night and to say Xpwc-
TOC"b, BOCKpeCB AH OHT>? h
Would you be so kind as to lend me the German manuscript of the preface for a day or two? The Sozialdemokrat has asked us to send it to them and, since the thing has appeared in the Hapoduan eonn(1) (to which we are proud to find ourselves contributors), there can no longer be any objection.
Yours sincerely,
F. Engels
Our ideas seem to me to have been very well rendered.
132. Engels to Berthold Sparr. 12 April[2 9 4]
Dear Sir,
I am not acquainted either with you or with the Mr K. Schmidt you refer to. If you mean Mr K. Schneidt, the anarchist, he will be able to get you into the club in Rose Street[295] and obtain assistance for you. In view of the way in which the people on the Freiheit have laid into the Social-Democratic Party in Germany,[296] I hardly feel called upon to give the adherents of that tendency a helping hand. However I do not know which tendency you belong to. The German Club, which sides with the great party in Germany, is, as anyone will tell you, at 49 Tottenham Street[297] and I find it inconceivable that both these clubs should let a fugitive party member starve to death.— In view of the great distress brought about among the members of the great Social-Democratic Party by police persecution in Germany, my resources will scarcely permit me to support, in addition, ad-
herents of other, opposing tendencies. If, however, the Tottenham Street society is prepared to do something for you, I shall be pleased to make a contribution.
Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVII, Moscow, 1935
Yours very truly
133. Engels to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 13 April
Dear Sorge,
Have posted to you today such Egalités as have so far appeared. More to follow. Marx is in Algiers; had a recurrence of pleurisy but has now almost completely got over it. Will have to take very great care of himself next winter. Trust your letter will arrive soon. What is your son[3] doing? Kindest regards.
Your
F.E.
[On the side reserved for the address]
F.A. Sorge, Esq., Hoboken, JV. Y. U.S. America
134. Marx to Laura Lafargue. 13 and 14 April
134
MARX TO LAURA LAFARGUE [166]
IN LONDON
[Algiers,] Thursday, 13 April 1882
Darling Cacadou,
I reproach myself for not having written to you again until now, not that there's anything special to report from here. How often do I not think of you — at Eastbourne,298 beside my Jenny's" sick-bed, and during your faithful daily visits so cheering to that crosspatch, OLD NICK. But you should know, dear child, that this week and last were Fermé's Easter vacation; he lives in the rue Michelet (as part of the route Mustapha supérieurb is called) at the foot of the hill from which the Hôtel Victoria looks down. It's only a stone's throw away for him, although he has to 'clamber' since there's no proper path leading up to it. And in fact he has latterly been visiting me as-siduously, thus frustrating the best of resolutions in regard to afternoon letter-writing.— Otherwise not an unwelcome guest, MR Fermé, nor devoid of humour. After I had given him some Citoyens and Égalités to read, he arrived chuckling not a little over Guesde's 'terrorism of the future' [which is to go on] until — this anticipated in heavy type — the last bourgeois oppressor has been guillotined out of existence. Fermé is not fond of Algiers whose climate doesn't suit either him or his family (often visited by fever, etc.) although its members are all of them 'des indigènes' à commencer par Madame l'épouse.1 Above all, however, his salary as a judge is hardly sufficient for even the most modest way of life. Living in a colonial capital is always expensive. But one thing he does admit — in no town ELSEWHERE, which is at the same time the seat of the central government, is there such laisser faire, laisser passerA; police reduced to a bare minimum; unprecedented public sans gêne'; the Moorish element is responsible for this. For Mussul-mans there is no such thing as subordination; they are neither 'subjects' nor 'administrés'' '; no authority, save in politica,g something which Europeans have totally failed to understand. Few police in Algiers, and such as there are for the most part indigènes. And yet, with such a medley of national elements and unscrupulous characters, frequent clashes are inevitable, and it is here that the Catalonians live up to their old reputation; the white or red belts they wear, like the Moors, etc., outside their coats and not, like the French, beneath their clothing, often conceal 'bodkins' — long stilettos which these sons of Catalonia are not slow to 'employ' with equal impartiality against Italians, Frenchmen, etc., and natives alike. Incidentally, a few days ago a gang of forgers was apprehended in the province of Oran, amongst them their chief, a former Spanish officer; their European agency, it now transpires, is in the capital of Catalonia — Barcelona! Some of the laddies were not arrested and escaped to Spain. This piece of news, and others of a similar kind, derives from Fermé. The latter has received 2 advantageous offers from the French government; firstly, a transfer to New Caledonia where he would, at the same time, be responsible for introducing a new legal system, salary 10,000 frs (he and family to travel there gratis and, on arrival, be given free official accommodation); or, secondly, to Tunis, where he would likewise occupy a higher magisterial rank than here, and under far more favourable conditions. He has been given a certain period in which to make up his mind; will accept one or the other.
From Mr Fermé to the weather is a natural transition, since he freely heaps imprecations on the same.— Since Easter Monday (inch) I have not missed a single morning stroll, although only yesterday (12th) and today have been spared the caprices of April. Yesterday, bien que nous subissions le léger siroco et, par conséquent, quelques coups de vent, ce fut le maximum du beau temps: à 9 heures le matin (le 12) le tem-pérature à l'ombre fut de 19.5°, et celle au soleil, de 35°." In spite of having gone for a walk in the morning ( 12 April), I visited Algiers in the afternoon in order to take a look at the Russian ironclad, Peter the Great, which had arrived in the harbour there a few days before.
The official meteorological office has forecast intense atmospheric disturbances for 15-16 April (when there'll be orageh), 19, 21, 25, 27, 29 and 30 April; nevertheless, the weather during the remainder of April will on the whole be fine; at the same time it is feared that in May, to make up for the absence of a true Algerian spring (which did 1882
not begin till yesterday), summer will arrive all at once and with it unbearable heat. HOWEVER THAT MAY BE, I do not, as corpus vile," feel inclined to serve as an experimental station for the weather. In view of the altogether abnormal character of the past 4'/2 months, God knows
WHAT ALGERIA MAY HAVE IN STORE. Large numbers of shrewd folk (amongst them l'illustre(1) 'Ranc') departed from the African shore day before yesterday. I shall only stay until Dr Stephann has declared my left side to be in good order again, apart, of course, from the scar well known to the doctissimi' Drs Donkin and Hume, left by an earlier attack of pleurisy. What has been tiresome here so far is the constant recurrence of my cough, even if WITHIN MODERATE LIMITS; withal, much boredom.
Interruption of the most argeeable kind: KNOCKS AT THE DOOR; Entrez!d
M a d a m e Rosalie (ONE OF THE SERVING SPIRITS) brings me a letter from you, dear Cacadou, and, from the good Gascon,' a long letter of which the paper, like the envelope, already bears the official stamp: 'L'Union Nationale'.[299] This time he seems to have pulled it off! Ce n'est pas une de ces entreprises patronées par Mr Ch. Hirsch!f O n the other hand, to be sure, the prospect of my Cacadou's departure looms closer! But not just yet, I trust. Also, I regard it as some compensation that AUNTY Cacadou should represent so great a gain to Jennychen and her children«; anyway, with Paris so close, there's no need to spend the whole year in London.— Apropos. Has Lafargue sent the next instalment of the article to Petersburg? (I don't know what became of the first consignment.) [3 0 0] It's most important not to lose the vantage point of Petersburg; it will gain in importance daily! Also for anyone who sends despatches there.
Second interruption: It is 1 O'CLOCK P.M., and I have promised to visit the 'Jardin du Hamrna' ouh 'Jardin d'Essai' with Madame Casthelaz, son fils,' and one of our other fellow pensionnaires,' M a d a m e Claude (of Neufchâtel). W e have to be back BEFORE DINNER (6 O'CLOCK P.M.), later than which EVERY EFFORT AT WRITING NEVER AS YET DARED UPON BY ME. SO no more till tomorrow. Simply by way of a supplement * to the useful knowledge of Cacadou I allow myself to remark, that on that very Hamma took place the landing of 24,000 soldiers under the commandment of Charles V, emperor, (or Carlos I, according to the Spa-niards) on 23 October 1541 [3 0] '; 8 days later he had to ship the * beaux restes de son armée détruite sur les vaisseaux échappés à la tempête du 26, et ralliés à grana" peine par Doria, à Matifou. Ce dernier lieu où finit la baie d'Alger c. à. d.— le cap Matifoua — OPPOSITE, ON THE EAST, TO ALGIERS, IS TO BE ESPIED, par des bonnes lunettes/ BY MYSELF FROM Hôtel Victorias GALLERY.
Vendredi,' 14 April
*I commence this letter at the moment when I have a few lines to be added to the foregoing, that is to say at about 1 o'clock p. m. The day ended yesterday as fine as that of the 12th. Both the evenings 12 and 13 (about 8 hours p. m.) were warm — quite exceptional this — but cool (relatively) at the same time, hence really delightful. This morning the warmth a little more 'heavy', and just since two hours the wind blows violently, probably the 'orage' predicted yesterday from 14-15.
Yesterday at 1 o'clock p. m. we went down to Inferior Mustapha whence the tram brought us to Jardin Hamma or Jardin d'Essai, the which used for 'Promenade Publique' with occasional military music, as 'pépinière''* for the production and diffusion of the indigenous vege-tables, at last for the purpose of scientific botanical experiments and as a garden of'acclimatation'.— This all encloses a very large ground, part of which is mountainous, the other belonging to the plain. In order to see more minutely, you would want at least a whole day, and beside being somebody with you a connaisseur, f. i. like M. Fermé's friend and old Fourieriste, M. Durando, professor of botanies, who is the leader of a section of the 'Club Alpin Français' on its regular Sunday excursions. (I very much regretted that my bodily circumstances and the Dr. Stephann's strict prohibition till now did not yet allow me to share in these excursions, having 3 times [been] invited there-to.)
Well, before entering the 'Jardin d'Essai' we took coffee, of course in the free air, a Mauresque 'café'. The Maure prepared it excel-lently, we were on a bank. On a rough table, in inclined positions, their legs crossed, half a dozen Maure visitors [...]e were delighted in their small 'cafetières'/ (everyone gets one of his own) and together 1882
playing at cards (a conquest this on them of civilisation). Most striking this spectacle: Some these Maures were dressed pretentiously, even richly, others in, for once I dare call it blouses, sometime of white woollen appearance, now in rags and tatters — but in the eyes of a true Musulman such accidents, good or bad luck, do not distinguish Mahomet's children. Absolute equality in their social intercourse, not affected; on the contrary, only when demoralized, they become aware of it; as to the hatred against Christians and the hope of an ultimate victory over these infidels, their politicians justly consider this same feeling and practice of absolute equality (not of wealth or position but of personality) a guarantee of keeping up the one, of not giving up the latter.* (Nevertheless, they will go to rack and ruin WITHOUT A REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT.)
*In regard to the plain part of the Jardin d'Essai I remark only: It is cut by three great longitudinal 'allées' a of a wonderful beauty; opposite to the principal entry is the 'allée' of the platenes [platanes]b; then the 'allée des palmiers'',c ended by an oasis of immense 72 'palmiers', limited by the railway and the sea; at last the 'allée' of the magnolia and a sort offigues [ficus roxburghi). These three great 'allées' are themselves cut by many others crossing them, such as the long 'allée des bambous' astonishing, the 'allée' of 'palmiers à chanvre',A
the 'dragon[n]iers',c the 'eucalyptus' (blue gum of Tasmania), etc., (the latter are of an extraordinarily quick vegetation).
Of course, these sorts of* allées cannot be reproduced in European 'Jardins d'acclimatation'.' During the afternoon there was a concert of military music in a large open space encircled by plane trees; the conductor, a non-commissioned officer, wore ordinary French uniform, whereas the musicians (common soldiers) wore red, baggy trousers (of oriental cut), white felt boots buttoning up to the bottom of the baggy trousers; on their heads a red fez.
While on the subject of the garden, I did not mention (though some of these were very pleasing to the nose) orange trees, lemon — ditto, almond trees, olive trees, etc.; nor, for that matter, cactuses and aloes which also grow wild (as do wild olives and almonds) in the rough country where we have our abode.
Much though this garden delighted me, I must observe that what is abominable about this and similar excursions is the ubiquitous chalky dust; though I felt well in the afternoon and after coming home and during the night, my cough was nonetheless rather troublesome, thanks to the irritation caused by the dust.
I am expecting Dr Stephann today, but as I cannot put off the despatch of this missive, I will send a report to Fred" later on.
Finally, as Mayer of Swabia used to say, let us take a little look at things from a higher historical perspective. Our nomadic Arabs (who have, in many respects, gone very much to seed while retaining, as a result of their struggle for existence, a number of sterling qualities) have memories of having once produced great philosophers, scholars, etc., which, they think, is why Europeans now despise them for their present ignorance. Hence the following little fable, typical of Arab folklore.
A ferryman is ready and waiting, with his small boat, on the tem-pestuous waters of a river. A philosopher, wishing to get to the other side, climbs aboard. There ensues the following dialogue:
Philosopher: Do you know anything of history, ferryman? Ferryman: No! Philosopher: Then you've wasted half your life! And again: The Philosopher: Have you studied mathematics? Ferryman: No! Philosopher: Then you've wasted more than half your life. Hardly were these words out of the philosopher's mouth when the wind capsized the boat, precipitating both ferryman and philosopher into the water. Whereupon,
Ferryman shouts: Can you swim? Philosopher: No! Ferryman: Then you've wasted your whole life. That will tickle your appetite for things Arabic. With much love and many kisses.
OLD NICK (BEST COMPLIMENTS TO ALL)
135. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 17 April
Dear Mr Bernstein,
As soon as I heard from Lavrov that the preface " had appeared in the JVarodnaya Volya [302] I asked for a copy of the original,c but he had left it in his desk in Paris; however, he said he would write. Then I went to Marx's and searched in vain for the brouillon.'' Finally I got Lavrov to let me have a copy of the Russian translation so that, if the worst came to the worst, I could retranslate it myself; I feared, as indeed happened, that some Russian or other would see to this. Lavrov has just sent me the enclosed copy of the original. However, I have only myself to blame for this. For I had meant to send you a postcard, but have got Schorlemmer and Adolf Beust staying with me, and there's quite a lot of gadding about with Mrs Lafargue (whose husbandd is in Paris) and Tussy Marx, so that the postcard got overlooked. But in order that you may see that good intentions were not wanting, I am belatedly sending you the thing.
Congratulations on your attack upon Geiser's spineless conduct.[303]
Confidential: Marx has been in Algiers since 21 February. On arrival he had a fresh attack of pleurisy as a result of catching cold on the journey; he found wretched weather conditions, but is now pretty well all right again. How long he'll stay there is not yet certain. Has had distinctly bad luck with the weather.
Kindest regards from
Yours,
F. Engels
136. Marx to Engels. 18 April
136
MARX T O ENGELS [7 2]
IN LONDON
[Algiers,] Tuesday, 18 April 1882
DEAR FRED,
Got your letter yesterday,[284] likewise Tussy's, together with the 'imperial' remittance.[3]
In my last letter to Laurachenb I announced the arrival of our '2 finest days'; but even before I had finished the letter, the sirocco (the official weather bulletins, like other French printed matter, spell it sometimes with one c, sometimes with 2) began to blow and the din served me as an overture to the 'mouvements atmosphériques in-tenses' c which had been predicted. I admitted to Laura that I was tired of such things — if not, indeed, tired of Africa, and was determined to turn my back on Algiers the moment Dr Stephann DID NO LONGER
'WANT ME'.
From the 14th April (afternoon) to the 17th April, gusts of wind, storms, heavy downpours, burning sunshine, continual ups and downs, now hot now cold (almost from one hour to the next). First thing this morning gloriously fine, but now, at 10 A.M., the wind is already piping its maddening tune.— In its report — or rather forecast— yesterday, the meteorological office announced an 'intense mouve-ment atmosphérique' for 3-4 May, but more especially for 7-8 May (not having pro nuncà probed any further into the future); in addition, for the first week of this self-same May, it has promised us so CALLED 'seis-miques mouvements'' (apparently the periodicity of these 'seismiques' coincides with latent earth tremors).
Dr Stephann called on the 16th (Sunday), percussed, and declared that there was no longer any trace of 'pleurésie'r (AS FAR AS TO'rechute'S); on the other hand he was, he said, less satisfied with the bronchial condition (also on the left) than when he last examined me. However, he painted away with great vigour (a vigour I damned well had time to appreciate in the course of Sunday afternoon — 16 April — and night, and right into the small hours of Monday — 17 April!).— Incidentally, Dr Stephann shares my view that bronchial trouble is inseparable from this weather and, such being the case, any prolon-gation of my stay here could only have unfavourable consequences. He thinks he will be able to let me leave, with a written diagnosis, at the end of April unless something unforeseen should happen — e. g. the weather here take a distinct turn for the better or, which seems unlikely, my health take a turn for the worse. All things being equal, then, I should leave on 2 May, being delivered back to Marseilles by the selfsame Said under the same Captain Mace (very nice chap) who brought me to Algiers, and from there should go and try my luck at Cannes, Nice or Menton. So don't send me either letters or anything in the way of documents or newspapers from London, unless it be JUST AFTER THE RECEIPT OF THESE ums. But should I change my mind in the meantime, I shall at once notify you from here.
I am afraid that '/«oV may arrive in Algiers after not only I, but also the Casthelaz FAMILY, have evacuated Africa; all the world's pre-paring to take flight. You must excuse the meagreness of this MISSIVE. The night of the 16th to 17th April was sleepless because of the vigour of the painting; no pain from the 17th to the 18th April because the ASSISTANT DOCTOR (1) had already attended to me by 7 o'clock yesterday morning; but the itching due to the formation of new skin banished sleep for the 2nd night running. Since, in addition, I went for a stroll (2 whole hours) very early this morning, iiw begrijpb (I can no longer recall how the Dutch spell it, but I still hear the ü begreipl — what it's got to do with 'concept', God alone knows — as enunciated in the old days at Zalt-Bommel[304] by Pastor RothhausV wife, since divorced and replaced by my cousind), IN ONE WORD, as you can conceive, I have got to lay my head on my pillow and make up for some sleep. Meanwhile:— sleep, what would'st thou more? Only first let me tell you about the rotten trick played by the French authorities on a poor, thieving Arab, a poor, multiple assassin by profession. Only at the last minute — ON THE MOMENT, as the infamous COCKNEYS say, 'TO LAUNCH' the poor sinner 'INTO ETERNITY' did he discover that he wasn't going to be shot but guillotined! This, in defiance of prior arrangements! In defiance of promises! He was guillotined despite what had been agreed. But that wasn't all. The French having always permitted this hitherto, his relatives had expected the head and body to be handed over to them so that they could sew the former to the latter and then bury the 'whole'. Quod non!* Howls, imprecations and gnashing of teeth; the French authorities dug their heels in, the first time they had done so! Now, when the body arrives in paradise, Mohammed will ask, 'Where have you left your head? Or, how did the head come to be parted from its body? You're not fit to enter paradise. Go and join those dogs of Christians in hell!' And that's why his relations were so upset.
Your
OLD Moor
On closer inquiry — I hadn't asked him before — Stephann told me that, although he doesn't speak German, he is the son of a German. His father emigrated to Algiers from the Palatinate (Landau).
1913
137. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 21 April
Dear Mr Bernstein,
I am sending you a piece from the Kölner Leitung on 'Baron Hirsch'.[305] It is significant that bourgeois papers should find it necessary to denounce such a trickster. The whole article is worth reprint-ing if space is available. It would make a splendid feuilleton, particularly as emanating from the Kölnische Reifung. If you can't reprint it in its entirety, perhaps you would return it to me when you have done with it. You might also return me the ms. of the 'Preface'b sometime.
Let me elucidate: Mahmud Nedim Pasha is, like Mahmud Damat
138. Marx to Engels. 28 April
Pasha (the Sultan'sa brother-in-law), Russia's chief paid agent in Constantinople. When the Russian, Poliakov, who was also after the Turkish railway concessions, had failed to get them (for the Russians could not start a war against Turkey and simultaneously con the Turks), it was naturally of the utmost concern to the Russians to see to it that the terms imposed upon the Austrian, Hirsch, who was the sole competitor and, what's more, Austria's protégé, were of such a kind as to make Hirsch, and with him Austria, hated in Turkey and to prevent Turkey from getting a coherent railway network after all. Besides, anything that weakened Turkey financially was advantageous to Russia — relatively speaking. So Nedim does his deal. Hirsch pays him for selling Turkey to him and Russia pays him again just for selling Turkey. The fact is that Russian diplomacy does business in the grand manner, with none of your small shopkeeper's niggardly, envious eye to his competitors and hence, if there's no other way of doing it, it can even permit an adversary like Austria an apparent or momentary advantage and nevertheless turn this to its own account. Kindest regards to you and Kautsky.
Yours,
F. E.
138
MARX TO ENGELS [7 2]
IN LONDON
[Algiers,] Friday, 28 April 1882
Dear FRED,
RECEIVED YOUR LETTER AND THE Kölnische ^eitungs. This note is simply to inform you that I shall be leaving Algiers on 2 May (Tuesday) on the same Said and with the same commandant' MR Mace, 'lieutenant de vaisseau\h as brought me to Algiers. Last Wednesday I paid a visit to a French squadron of 6 ironclads; naturally I inspected the flagship, Le Colbert, where a petty officer, a handsome, intelligent lad, showed me around and demonstrated everything in detail. As I took my leave he told me in typically French fashion that he was sick of his boring duties and hoped to get his discharge bientôt." I and my companions .(3 co-locatairesä from the Hôtel Victoria) were not allowed on board until after 'duties'. So we watched the manoeuvres of the flagship and the 5 other ironclads from our boat, alias skiff, as we rowed to and fro. There is to be a 'ball' on the Colbert tomorrow afternoon. I could have got hold of an invitation card for this, too, through Fermé, but there wasn't time. For on Tuesday (25 Avril) I was given my final examination by Stephann; no more tatouement' with collodion; quo-adf a recurrence of pleurisy ALTOGETHER ABSOLVED; however I'm to see him tomorrow (Saturday) at 3 o'clock to get his written diagnosis and take my leave of him. The weather is now very hot on occasion, but IN FACT a hurri-cane— with sirocco storms coming and going — has persisted (un-interruptedly at night, in repeated gusts during the day) throughout the week (including TO-DAY) . That is the reason why my cough has not responded hitherto; HENCE high time to flee Algiers. Best wishes to all.
Your
OLD Moor
Apropos; because of the sun, I have done away with my prophet's beard and my crowning glory but (in deference to my daughters) had myself photographed before offering up my hair on the altar of an Algerian barber. I shall receive the photographs next Sunday (30 April). Specimina will be sent to you from Marseilles. On inspection you will observe that, CONSIDERING the 8 whole weeks (during which I did not in fact have one day of complete repose) of painting with collodion (after the manner of Ludwig of Bavaria30fi), j'ai fait encore bonne mine à mauvais jeu.g
139. Marx to Jenny Longuet. 28 April
139
MARX TO JENNY LONGUET
IN ARGENTEUIL
[Algiers,] 28 April 1882
Dearest Child,
Only 2 lines: I think only seaside living can help poor Harry. You ought — if possibly — lose no time to get him and his brothers(1) to Normandy. It is childish to fancy that in any case I should return to England without a previous visit to you and my grandsons, whether we meet in Normandy, at Paris, or elsewhere.
As to my health, it proceeds favourably; otherwise Dr Stephann would not allow me to leave 'Africa'. I think, 2 weeks or so, will suffice for the 'transitory' stadium at the Riviera.
My best wishes, dearest child,
Old Nick
140. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 3 May[1 3]
Could you not send me some additional offprints of the article on early Christianityb or further copies of the relevant issue? I should like to have them very much and they would come in useful for propaganda purposes. I should send them to people who don't otherwise see the Sozialdemokrat; 3 or 4 would suffice.
Encl. a note which is of interest in that it gives evidence of the colossal speed with which the concentration of capitals is taking place in America. UNITED STATES BONDS are Staatsschuldscheine der Vereinigten Staa-ten. N.Y.C. and H.R. STOCK are the shares of the NEW YORK CENTRAL and HUDSON RIVER Railroad; REAL ESTATE = Grundbesitz.
A dollar is slightly more than 4 marks = roughly 4 marks = 5 frs. Delighted to see that people everywhere are supporting the Sozialdemokrat against the whines of the milksops.
Darwin's letter was of course addressed to Marx and was an extremely kind one.[307] But beware of the article by Lafargue in the Citoyen of 28 April on 'La sélection darwinienne et les classes régnantes' which he concludes with the discovery of a new Amphioxus; it's too funny for words. Lafargue is in Paris and I have just written to him [2 8 4] pouring frightful scorn on his Amphioxus Lafargii.
Best wishes.
Yours,
F. E.
Don't let the Society here (1) mislead you about the DEMOCRATIC FEDERATION.[158] So far, the latter has been of no importance at all. Its leader is an ambitious parliamentary candidate by the name of Hyndman, a former Conservative; only with the help of the Irish and with specifically Irish aims in view can he succeed in staging a big meeting, and when he does he plays third fiddle; otherwise the Irish would tell him where to get off.
Gladstone has made a dreadful ass of himself— his Irish policy has failed utterly; is having to drop Forster and the LORD LIEUTENANT of Ireland, Cowper Temple (whose father was a Palmerston on his mother's side)," and say pater peccavib; the Irish Members of Parliament have been released, the Coercion Bill has not been extended, part of the farmers' rent arrears are to be cancelled, another part to be taken over by the state against fair amortisation.[308] On the other hand, the TORIES have now got to the stage of wanting to salvage whatever there is to be salvaged; thus, before the farmers take possession of the land,
141. Marx to Laura Lafargue. 6 May
they are to discharge their rents with state assistance on the Prussian mode so that the landlords do actually get something(1). The Irish have really made dawdling John Bull get a move on. That's what comes of shooting![309]
141
MARX TO LAURA LAFARGUE
IN LONDON
Monte Carlo, 6 May 1882 Hôtel de Russie
My dear Cacadou,
Only a few hours since I arrived here at Monte Carlo.[310] I even doubt whether I shall find the time enough to indite a letter announced already to Engels (at all events he will but receive it a day later).
For the present I am obliged to run about on different errands. I enclose one photo for you, another for Fred"; no art can make the man look worse.
Old Nick
Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 35, Moscow, 1964
142. Marx to Engels. 8 May
142
MARX T O ENGELS' [2]
IN LONDON
Monte Carlo, 8 May 1882 Hôtel de Russie
DEAR FRED,
2 or 3 weeks before I left Algiers (at the beginning of May), [3 1 0] the meteorologists had already forecast storms at sea. In fact, during my last days in Africa, the sirocco blew itself out and very hot weather set in, spoilt, however, by gusts of wind, eddies of dust and unexpected, if temporary and often short-lived, drops in temperature. During that same time my bronchial catarrh grew worse and has not yet been properly subdued. The storm at sea (during the night of 4 to 5 May) was such that, even in the cabin, there was an appreciable draught. It was pouring when I arrived in Marseilles (on the morning of 5 May), and continued to rain all the way to Nice. I even imported one wet day (yesterday) into Monte Carlo; glorious weather today. So you see how constant I have remained, for until I arrived it hadn't rained for months in Nice or Monte Carlo. But this time it was just badinage, not real earnest as in Algiers.
In Nice, where I spent the 5th and 6th, I soon discovered that the wind could be very capricious and that a uniform, even temperature was by no means to be expected. Today my brief experience was confirmed by Dr Delachaux, médecin-chirurgien* (lives at Interlaken), who is staying at the same hotel here. He has spent his holiday touring Nice and its environs, and the most famous places on the Riviera * generally, so far with an eye to business as to ascertain which places he might best recommend to sufferers of lung diseases, bronchial catarrh of a chronic character, etc. He declared decidedly against Nice, but preferred Monte Carlo even to Menton.* Dr Delachaux returns to his native Switzerland today.
You will know EVERYTHING about the charm exerted by the beauties of nature here, whether from your own observations,[311] or from paintings and printed descriptions. Many of its features vividly recall those of Africa.
a doctor and surgeon As regards a 'warm, dry atmosphere', it will soon, generally speaking, be available everywhere. The sun-spots indicate that there will be intense activity of the rays, and a drought is feared in France.
FOR CONSCIENCE SAKE I shall consult Kunemann, a German doctor, here tomorrow. I have with me Dr Stephann's written diagnosis (only on looking at his visiting card do I see that Stephann is also Pro-fesseur suppléant à l'Ecole de Médecine" at the faculty of Algiers) which will spare me further talkee-talkee.— As soon as Stephann declared that I was rid of my pleurisy, I at once began, as prescribed by him (Stephann), to embrocate with tincture of iodine all the spots on the upper part (left) of my chest and back. Since the time I boarded the ship until TO-DAY I have discontinued these operations which would in any case be 'difficult' for me to carry out in person on my own back, despite Dr Delachaux's advice that I should attempt it with the help of a mirror. Qui vivra verrai At all events, I shall speak to Dr Kunemann first.I am anxious to get out and about in the open air as much as I can.
Practically all the Parisian and Italian papers and periodicals are to be found in the reading room of the Monte Carlo Casino; a fair selection of German papers, very few English. I read in the Petit Marseillais of today's date about 'l'assassinat de lord Cavendish et de M. Burke'.[312] The public here, e.g. my table-d'hôte companions in the Hôtel de Russie, is, by contrast, more interested in what goes on in the Casino's salles de jeu {tables de roulette et de trente-et-quarante) .c
I was particularly amused by a son of Albion, sulky, ill-tempered and bewildered, AND WHY? Because he had lost a certain number of yellow boys, whereas he had been absolutely intent on 'copping' the same. He couldn't understand that not even British boorishness is able 'TO BULLY' fortune.
These lines must be my last since letters from here have first to be sent to the post office in Monaco by messenger.
Kindest regards to all.
Your
Moor
" Assistant lecturer at the School of Medicine - b Here: We shall see. -c gaming rooms (roulette and trente-et-quarante tables)
143. Marx to Jenny Longuet. 8 May
143
MARX T O JENNY LONGUET [7 2]
IN ARGENTEUIL
Monte Carlo, 8 May 1882 Hôtel de Russie, Monte Carlo
Dear Jennychen,
The said Monte Carlo, whence I send you these lines, is one of the 3 places (adjoining one another) whose trinity constitutes the state of 'Monaco' (i.e. Monaco, Condamine and Monte Carlo). A really beautiful situation. Climate preferable to that of Nice or even Menton.
I need hardly say that with comical consistency I imported into the region the first 2 rainy days (since January) ; it would seem that they were only awaiting my arrival from Algiers for this to happen. Apart from that I struck magnificent weather.
As you will have learnt from my last letter," I am quit of my pleurisy; the bronchial catarrh can only clear up very gradually. Moreover the atmosphere will soon be warm and dry everywhere (which, however, raises fears of a water shortage); the intensity of the sun's action will be all the greater for its being strewn with large spots. So everywhere there will soon be the kind of weather I need.
As I am not sure how long I shall be staying here, I should like you to let me know at once from Paris where I can find you; it would be best if you telegraphed me here, for a telegram will give me sufficient information in 3 or 4 words.
Lots of kisses for the children.
Your
OLD Moor
1899
144. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 10 May[3][3 1 3]
Dear Mr Bernstein,
My afternoon having already been broken into, I shall employ it in writing to you. As regards the Virgin Mary-Isis, that was a point upon which I could not enlarge, if only for reasons of space.[314] Like all hagiolatry, the Marian cult belongs to a much later period than the one I am considering (a time when it was clerical policy to produce in the persons of the saints a new version of the polytheistic peasantry's numerous tutelary gods), and finally it would be necessary to provide historical proof of the derivation, which would demand specialised study. The same applies to the gloria and moonlight. In the imperial days of Rome, by the way, the cult of Isis was part of the state religion.
Bimetallism.[3] The main thing — particularly after many of the 'leaders' have been so frightfully cock-a-hoop about our party's superiority over the bourgeois in matters of economics, a superiority of which those gentlemen are totally innocent — the main thing is that we should beware of inviting censure in this field as is unblush-ingly done by the said gentlemen the moment they think it will serve to flatter a particular kind of worker, win an electoral victory or gain some other advantage. Thus, because silver is mined in Saxony, they think it in order to dabble in the bimetallist nonsense. So to catch a few more votes, our party is to go and make an immortal ass of itself in the very sphere which is supposed to be its forte!
But that's our literary gents all over! Just like the bourgeois literati, they think themselves entitled to the privilege of learning nothing and laying down the law about everything. They have, for our benefit, concocted a hotch-potch of literature which, for ignorance of economics, new-fangled utopianism and arrogance, has yet to find an equal, and Bismarck did us a tremendous favour by banning it.
When we speak of bimetallism today, it is not so much bimetallism generally as the specific case of bimetallism in which the ratio of gold to silver is, say, 15l\i\ 1. A distinction must therefore be drawn here.
Bimetallism is becoming daily more impracticable in that the ratio of the value of silver to that of gold which, at one time, was at least fairly constant and changed only gradually, is[1] now subject to daily and violent fluctuations, the initial tendency being for the value of silver to fall as a result of the colossal increase in production, especially in North America. The exhaustion of gold is an invention of the silver barons. But whatever the cause of the change in value, it remains a fact and that is what concerns us first of all. Silver is becoming daily less capable of serving as a measure of value, whereas gold is not.
The ratio of the value of the two is now about 17 ' J2 : 1. But the silver people want to reimpose upon the world the old ratio of 15 ' \Ï : 1, and that is just as impossible as maintaining the price of mechanically produced yarn and cloth everywhere and for all time at that of man-ually produced yarn and cloth. The die does not determine the value of the coin, it is merely a guarantee, for the recipient, of weight and standard and can never confer on 15 ' /2 lbs of silver the value of 17 ' ji.
All this is dealt with so lucidly and exhaustively in Capital, chapter on money (Chap. Ill, pp. 72-120) [315] that there's nothing more to add. For material relating to more recent fluctuations, cf. Soetbeer: Edelmetall—Produktion und Werthverhältnis etc. (Gotha, Perthes, 1879). Soetbeer is the leading authority in this sphere, and the father of German currency reform — even before 1840 he was advocating a 'mark' equivalent to '/3 taler.
Hence, if silver is minted at 15'/Î lbs = 1 lb. gold, it flows back into the state treasuries, everyone wants to be rid of it. That's what the United States discovered in the case of its silver dollar minted to the old standard and worth only 90 c, as did Bismarck when he tried forcibly to put back into circulation the silver talers that had been with-drawn and replaced by gold.
Mr Dechend, the chairman of the Bank, imagines that bimetallism will enable him to pay off Germany's external debts in bad silver instead of gold at full value, and thus avoid any kind of gold crisis, something that would certainly be most convenient for the Reichs-bank if only it were feasible. But all that is forthcoming is the proof provided by Mr Dechend himself, that he is totally unfitted to preside over a bank and would be more at home at a school desk than a board-room table.
Your Prussian Junker, too, would certainly be happy if the mortga-ges he contracted in silver at 15'/2: 1 could be repaid or serviced in silver at 17l /a : 1. And since this would necessarily occur inside the country, it would be perfectly feasible for debtors to rook their credi-tors by this means — provided only the aristocracy could find people to lend them silver at 17 ' ji : 1 in order that they might make repay-ments at 15l J2 : 1. For their own means certainly do not permit them to make repayments. But they would, of course, be compelled to accept their silver at 15l/t and thus, so far as they were concerned, everything would remain as before.
As regards the German production of silver, its extraction from German ore dwindles yearly in importance as compared with (Rhenish) extraction from South American ore. Total production in Germany in 1876 amounted to about 280,000 lbs, of which 58,000 were from South American ore; since that time this figure has risen considerably.
That the debasing of silver to the status of a fractional currency must depress the value of silver still further is obvious; the use of silver for purposes other than money is minimal, nor is it likely to show a rapid increase because demonetisation throws more silver on to the market.
It is inconceivable that England should ever introduce bimetallism. No country that is on the gold standard could re-introduce bimetallism now and on a permanent basis. In any case, universal bimetallism does not admit of general application; if all men were to agree today that silver was once more to be worth 15 ' /i : 1, they could not alter the fact that it is worth only 17 ' /2: 1, and there's absolutely nothing to be done about it. One might just as well decide that twice two equals five.
During our early days of exile Bamberger did us many a good turn; he was a decent and obliging man, secretary to Karl of Brunswick. We subsequently lost sight of him.[316]
Kindest regards,
Yours,
F.E.
145. Engels to August Bebel. 16 May
Dear Bebel,
I have been long meaning to write to you. Particularly since I don't know whether Marx has answered your last letter.[317] He several times promised me that he would, but you know how it is when one is ill. So today I have at last got round to it.
Marx first went to the Isle of Wight,[234] but the weather there was cold and wet. Then to Algiers via Paris. Caught cold again during the journey, encountering more wet, chilly weather in Algiers, later succeeded by rapid variations in temperature. Once again his cold assumed the form of pleurisy, less severe than his first attack here, but long drawn-out. Now he is thoroughly recovered and, since it has at last got really hot in Africa, has fled to Monte Carlo, the gaming establishment of the Prince of Monaco.[2] As soon as the summer has really begun, he will leave and join Madame Longuet and her children on the Normandy coast; is unlikely to be back before the beginning of July. All he has got to do now is shake off once and for all his obstinate cough, and in this he will probably succeed. He had his photograph taken in Algiers and is looking quite his old self again.
It is a great misfortune that you, of all people, should have suffered defeat in elections which otherwise went off so splendidly.[222] Your presence was doubly necessary in view of the many new, and in some cases unreliable, elements that have got in. Indeed it would seem that, at the start, a number of not very edifying blunders were perpetrated. Now things seem to be going rather better. I was therefore doubly delighted (and Marx no less so) by the courageous attitude of the Sozialdemokrat, which did not hesitate to come out unequivocally against the whining and pusillanimity of Breuel & Co., even when deputies such as Bios and Geiser came out in favour of it.[3] ' [8] We, too, were appealed to, and Viereck wrote me a very pathetic letter about the paper whereat I informed him of my view in altogether amiable if no uncertain terms [2 8 4] and, since that time, have heard nothing more
Charles III of him. Hepner, too, has passed this way, 'sick at heart and poor of purse'" and terribly sorry for himself; he had written a very indifferent little pamphlet [2 6 2] from which I could see how greatly he had de-teriorated morally. The chief plaint in both cases was that the Sozialdemokrat failed to take account of the laws presently in force in Germany, the contents of the paper being such that its distributors were had up by the German courts for lèse majesté, high treason, etc. Yet it is perfectly evident from the paper itself and the reports of the proceedings against our people that, whatever the circumstances, and no matter how the paper was written, those swine on the bench would find some pretext for committing them. To write a paper in such a way as to afford no handle to the said judges is an art that has yet to be discovered. And, what is more, these gentlemen forget that an organ as weak-kneed as they desire would drive our people pretty well en masse into Most's camp. However, I shall none the less advise Bernstein,h to whom we have otherwise lent our moral support whenever possible, to modulate the tone of moral indignation a bit by the use of irony and derision, for such a tone, if it is not to become boring, has to be so stepped up as ultimately to become ridiculous.
Singer came to see me the day before yesterday and from him I learned that the forwarding address is still all right, something I was not quite sure about since we haven't used it for so long. He has another drawback. He belongs to those who regard the nationalisation of anything as a semi-, or at all events pre-, socialist measure and are therefore secret devotees of protective tariffs, tobacco monopoly, nationalised railways, etc. These prevarications are the legacy of the unduly one-sided fight against Manchesterism [176] and, because they facilitate debate in a middle-class and 'eddicated' environment, enjoy a considerable following particularly among those bourgeois and aca-demic elements who have come over to us. You in Berlin, he tells me, recently debated the point, he being luckily outvoted. We cannot, for the sake of such minor considerations, afford to discredit ourselves either politically or economically. I tried to make him see that in our view 1. protective tariffs are quite the wrong thing for Germany (not, however, for America), because our industry has expanded and become a viable exporter under free trade, but for it to be a viable exporter, competition from foreign semi-manufactures on the home market is absolutely essential; that the iron industry, which produces
A paraphrase from Goethe's 'Der Schatzgräber'. - b See this volume, pp. 288-89.
146. Marx to Engels. 20 May
4 times more than is required by the home market, uses the protective tariff only against the home market while selling abroad, as the facts go to show, at give-away prices; 2. that the tobacco monopoly is nationalisation on so minute a scale that it can't even do duty for an example in the debate nor, for that matter, do I give a damn whether or not Bismarck puts it into effect since çfither way it must eventually redound to our benefit; 3. that the nationalisation of railways is of benefit only to the shareholders who sell their shares above value, but of no benefit at all to us because we should be able to deal as summarily with one or two big companies as with the state, once we had the latter; that the joint-stock companies have already provided proof of the extent to which the bourgeois as such is redundant, in as much as the man-agement is wholly in the hands of salaried officials, nor would nationalisation provide any further argument. However, he had got the thing too firmly fixed in his mind and agreed with me only to the extent of admitting that, from a political viewpoint, your dismissive attitude was the only correct one.
Time for the post. Kindest regards to yourself and Liebknecht.
Your
F.E.
146
MARX T O ENGELS [7 2]
IN LONDON
Monte Carlo (Monaco), 20 May 1882 Hôtel de Russie
PRIVATELY
DEAR FRED,
It would be pointless to impart all this to the children, since it would alarm them unnecessarily. But I must tell SOMEBODY AT LEAST about what I have just gone through.
In my last letter (I don't know exactly whether I wrote to you direct, or to Tussy or to Laura), I said I would let you have further details after my encounter with Dr Kunemann." This took place on 8th May; he is an Alsatian, a scientifically (medically) educated man; e. g. he told me about Dr Koch on the bacillus before I got your letter [284]; has a large practice; 52-54 years old at the very least, since he was a student at Strasbourg university in 1848; politically, he has found the paper Le Temps to be the organ that corresponds most closely to his temperament; science, he said, had convinced him that progress could only be 'slow'; no revolutionary upheaval — for otherwise, progress would, in consequence, be forced to 'double back' almost as far as it had come (as in the Echternach procession,(1) ' b p. e.c); first prerequisite, education of the masses and 'non-masses', etc. IN ONE WORD, POLITICALLY, A REPUBLICAN PHILISTINE; I mention this merely to show why I didn't go into such matters with him aside from discussing the 'Machiavellian' politics of Charles III, absolute tyrant of Monaco. He regards me as an 1848 man and, apart from that date, I vouch-safed no further particulars as to the rest of my PUBLIC ACTIVITY. Now to the matter in hand. Originally he concluded from my visiting card, which has Dr on it and which I had had conveyed to him through his maid, that I was a Dr of Med., his view being further confirmed by Dr Stephann's card which I handed to him, ditto those of my new medical acquaintance' from Interlaken, and of Dr Donkin, whom I mentioned as the friend of my friend Prof. Ray Lankester, since he wished to know who had treated me in London, etc. Then I gave him Stephann's consultation écrited to read.
Well, since he regarded me as a medical colleague, EITHER THEORETICALLY OR PRACTICALLY, he freely spoke his mind after having ausculated and percussed me. And to my horror, the pleurisy had returned, even if not in so severe a form, being confined to one spot on the left of my back; bronchitis, on the other hand, pretty well — chronic'. He thought that 1 or 2 vésicatoirese might put paid to the thing (pleurésie); during 9 May (Mardi)r first vésicatoire, on 13 May (Samedi)g only my 2nd visit to Kunemann, second vésicatoire prescribed; could not be applied until 16 May (Mardi) after my skin had dried up; I visited him on 19 May (Friday); ausculation and percussion; found an improvement, the épanchement* in particular being reduced to almost nothing; he suggested (these doctors are always afraid that their patient will grow restive, the whole of this week having been plus ou moinsb ruined and tormented) that to continue with vésicatoires was no longer essential; I need do no more than embrocate with TINCTURE OF iodine (prescribed by Stephann for bronchial trouble), this time the upper as well as the lower places on my left side, chest and back. I thereupon declared that, if the épanchement had not altogether disappeared, I would, on the contrary, prefer another vésicatoire (on 23 May, Mardi); I had, I said, been told by Dr Stephann that in cases of pleurisy tincture of iodine was an ineffectual, uncertain antidote which only served to prolong the trouble. My plumping for the heroic remedy was obviously far more agreeable to Dr Kunemann himself; I now hope that, on 26 or 27 May, he will [tell] me this 2nd rechute' is the FINAL one (pro nunc*).
Indeed, as regards [myself], 'fate' would seem on this occasion to have displayed an alarming consistency — almost, one might say, as in Dr Müllner's tragedies.320 Why does Dr Kunemann declare my bronchial condition (and I already knew I would be told as much) to be thus 'chronic'? Because the weather throughout the Riviera has been so exceptionally bad, has taken such an abnormal turn; but he suggested that this might be normal to the extent that from January to the beginning of May, there had been too little rain — virtually none; the weather had been too warm and fine and a reaction to it must have set in. I explained this to him more simply by pointing out that all this must be blamed on my arrival from Algiers; I had brought rain with me to Marseilles on the 4th May and, with some reluc-tance, the weather in the place of my present abode had — mutatis mutandis' — assumed the character of the 'bad weather' I had recently gone through in Algeria. Much patience is demanded, especially on the part of the recipients of my letters. Such repeti-tiveness is altogether too boring. A pointless, arid, not to say expensive, existence!
Tomorrow I shall write to Tussy/ since her unanswered letter dates back furthest. Today it's awkward for me since the new skin formed after the vésicatoire still tends, when I stoop, to rub painfully against my coat or shirt. Notabene: What I write and tell the children
147. Marx to Eleanor Marx. 21 May
is the truth, but not the whole truth. What's the point of alarming them?
Your
Moor
Dr Kunemann's error about my being a 'medical' colleague was cleared up when, at the end of my first visit, he refused payment; was all the more honeyed when I informed him that, as a layman, I should have to 'shell out'.
1913
147
MARX TO ELEANOR MARX
IN LONDON
[Postcard]
Monte Carlo (Monaco), 21 May 1882 Hôtel de Russie
Dearest Child,
Your being my oldest creditor, I had in fact intended writing today (Sunday) a long letter, but l'homme propose, mais le thermomètre dispose. Il y a aujourd'hui un jour parfaitement beau, mais exceptionnel: donc je veux l'exploiter en air libre, au lieu 'd'écrire', et de ne pas écrire le soir. C'est convenu avec mes conseillers de santé.(1)
Before leaving amib Fermé, I told him: On landing at the Southern coast of France, the weather at once will come out a turn-coat. And indeed — so 'fatal' a man I pride myself upon this my quality — the prophecy has been partially fulfilled. From the beginning of January the Riviera enjoyed a summer weather never so brilliant, some grumblers
148. Marx to Jenny Longuet. 26 May
only complaining of an absolute lack of rain almost. The moment I arrived on the 4th May at Marseille, there set in rain, lasting sometimes a whole, more generally a half day, and mostly during the nights; a general lowering of temperature; then and there cold winds; altogether changeable, variable weather; atmosphere, even if not often, too saturated with aqueous vapours. With all that, here a relatively good warm weather, only not so dry and more constant than I want just now for my lungs. But nowhere in Italy or elsewhere you will find it a better one now: Cannes, Monte Carlo and Mentone are the three most healthsome places, of the most equable and on an average — warmer temperature than Nizza, Rome and Naples.
Yours,
Old Nick
[On the side reserved for the address]
Miss Marx 41 Maitland Park Road Maitland Park London (N.W.) (Angleterre)
148
MARX T O JENNY LONGUET
IN ARGENTEUIL
[Postcard!
Monte Carlo, 26 May 1882 Hôtel de Russie
Dearest Child,
I am always happy to receive a letter from you, though regretting that your Old Nick steals some time of your night's rest.
My health is improving with the weather; possibly I shall perhaps at the beginning of June go to Cannes, and remain there for a week or
149. Marx to Eleanor Marx. 28 May
so. Everything depends of medical advice, and the character of the summer opening in June.
[As to] Lafargue's (I mean the man's of Cuba) paper* has committed great blunders, mostly from ignorance, and the childish aspiration 'to go as far as possible'.
As to the Bataille, I have seen till now not anything brilliant. In fact I do know it only to No. 4; but I will have always the time to see that!
My heart is with you and the children; I yearn for them. However, I shall, after a series of most disagreeable 'medical' experiments, precipitate nothing. With all that, I hope to be soon with them.
Your
Old Nick
[On the side reserved for the address]
Madame Charles Longuet
11, Boulevard Thiers, Argenteuil
près Paris
149
MARX TO ELEANOR M A R X [7 2]
IN LONDON
Monte Carlo, 28 May 1882 Hôtel de Russie
Dear Tussychen,
There was nothing from Bebel either in Engels' letter[321] or your letter which I got yesterday evening. It must have remained in London by mistake. AT ALL EVENTS, I WASH MY HANDS OF IT, Today 24 degrees in the shade, and summer temperatures have generally prevailed here ever since the date of my last postcard to you3 (although the sky isn't as completely cloudless as the cognoscenti of this place demand). In such circumstances, my lengthy report has come to nothing for all my 'good intentions'; not that anything of much value is lost thereby.
As regards the sea-crossing from Algiers, nothing need be said save that it was made in unfavourable weather conditions; during the night of 4 to 5 May, in particular, there was a violent storm that turned my cabin (which, for good measure, I had to share with a philistine businessman from Lyons) into a veritable wind tunnel. It was cold and pouring with rain when we arrived off Marseilles in the early morning (5 May). The STEAMER didn't actually go right in, so the passengers and baggage had to be taken off by boat and, for their further delectation, spend several hours in a cold, draughty douane-purgatorioh until the time came for them to depart for Nice. Those chilling 'moments' détraquaient plus ou moins de nouveau ma machine^ and, in Monte Carlo, once more precipitated me entre les mains d'un EsculapeA; for I have no need of such when it's merely a question of treating the 'bronchial trouble' since all I have to do is follow Dr Stephann's instructions. In a few days' time (next Tuesday, 30 May, perhaps) I expect to be given a clean bill of health by Dr Kunemann. So whatever happens I shan't be leaving this den of thieves before the beginning of June. Whether I stay on or not is for Dr Kunemann to decide. The sensitivity of people suffering from disorders of the respiratory organs (who by the same token are also more liable to a relapse) is greater in what is normally a favourable climate. In the North, for instance, a sudden draught would not instantly evoke the spectre of pleurisy, bronchitis and the like, whereas in Algiers your French philistine must always [be] on his guard against them. A Madame Fleury, here in the Hôtel de Russie, was sent to Cannes from Paris because of her bronchitis. She recovered completely during March and April, enjoyed climbing the hills, etc. By way of an after-cure and distraction, she then left Cannes for Monte Carlo, a quite short 2-hour journey during which she caught cold while in Antibes station — and is now in worse case than previously in Paris. One hears of visitors to this place who haven't come simply to gamble and enjoy themselves, and of whom 9 out of every 10 undoubtedly fall victim to 'rechutes'.*
Goethe, when he applauds a man for 'sloughing' his old snake's skin,[11] does not in all likelihood see the sloughing of artificially produced 'fausses peaux'b as part of the rejuvenation process.
Another time, when it isn't as 'sweltering' as it is today, I must really tell you something about this Principality of Gerolstein (not even Offenbach's music is wanting, or Mademoiselle Schneider,[322] or, indeed, the spruce and dapper carabiniersc— not 100 all told). Nature here magnificent and art has actually improved on it,— I refer to the gardens, conjured out of the barren rock, which cover the steep in-cline from top to bottom, often going right down to the exquisitely blue sea, like the terraces of the hanging gardens of Babylon. But the economic basis of Monaco-Gerolstein is the casino; if it were to close tomorrow it would be all up with Monaco-Gerolstein — the whole of it. I dislike visiting the gaming room; it reminds me that at the table d'hôte,' in the cafés, etc., almost the only topic that is talked or whis-pered about is the tables de roulette et de trente et quarante.d Every now and again something is won, as for instance 100 frs by a young Russian lady (wife of a Russian diplomat-cum-agent) (she is one of the guests at the Hôtel de Russie) who, in return, loses 6,000 frs, while someone else can't keep enough for the journey home; others gamble away the whole of large family fortunes; very few take away a share of the plun-der— few of the gamblers, I mean, and those that do are almost without exception rich. There can be no question of intelligence or calculation here; no one can count with any probability on being favoured by 'chance' unless he can venture a considerable sum. But I can understand the attraction it holds out, particularly for le beau sexef; les mondainesh not less than the demi-mondaines, SCHOOL-GIRLS and bour-geoises alike ALL PUSH ON, a fact to which this place can supply eye-witnesses and to spare. Apart from Monaco-Gerolstein, which would founder along with the casino, I don't believe that Nice — the ren-dez-vous in the winter months of the quality and of fortune-hunters alike — could continue to subsist as a fashionable centre without the casino at Monte Carlo. And withal, how childish is the casino by comparison with the Bourse!
(This pen and this ink need replacing; they elicit from me the out-burst that it requires real artistry to write with them!)
To the right of the casino (where the gambling goes on), almost cheek by jowl with it, is the Café de Paris and next to that a kiosk. This is daily adorned with a placard, not printed, but handwritten and signed with the initials of the quill-pusher; for 600 frs he will provide, in black and white, the secret of the science of winning a million francs with a 1,000 at the tables de roulette et de trente-et-quarante. Nor, or so it is said, is it by any means rare for people to fall victim to this confidence trick. Indeed, most of the gamblers, both male and female, believe there is a science in what are pure games of chance; the ladies and gentlemen sit outside the said Café de Paris, IN FRONT of, or on the seats in, the wonderful garden that belongs to the casino, heads bent over little (printed) tables, scribbling and doing sums, while one of them may earnestly expound to another 'what system' he prefers, whether one should play in 'series', etc., etc. It's like watching a bunch of lunatics. However, Grimaldi of Monaco(1) and his Principality of Gerolstein and the lessees of his casino are thriving and are, AFTER ALL, more 'interesting' in the Offenbachian sense than those whom they fleece.
Should I change my address, / shall send it to you by telegraph. At all events the return journey, initially to Paris, will be made in stages and 'with caution'.
Love to all,
OLD NICK
150. Marx to Engels. 30 May
150
MARX TO ENGELS [7 2]
IN LONDON
[Monte Carlo,] 30 May 1882
DEAR FRED,
After the application (the 3rd in Monte Carlo) of a vésicatoire* on 23 May I did in fact have another appointment with Dr Kunemann before today, but only in connection with my 'bronchial trouble'. Quo-adb my pleurésie, however, he found today, after a lengthy final examination, that the épanchementc was 'gone'; what remains is so-called dry pleurésie; there is no longer any moisture to retard matters; however the sound of one membrane rubbing against the other, to put it in popular if incorrect terms, still remains. He thought it would be beneficial to finish up with one more vésicatoire today and then move on to Cannes for a day or two, after which I would be able to take myself off to Paris.
He thought I had contracted pleurisy quite accidentally; considering my normal, robust physique I might just as well never have got it, or, by the same token, have done so — accidentally! — as much as 40 years ago. Getting rid of it is harder because of the danger of a relapse.
As I was made to parade my naked charms, front and back, he drew my attention to the fact that, previously, as a result of pleurisy, my left side had swollen by comparison with the right; now it was the other way round, for my left side (I refer to the affected spot) had contracted by contrast with the right, this being the result of my trai-tement* So as to rid myself completely of the last mementoes, as it were, of pleurisy, I am to spend some time later on in the mountains where the air is more rarified. My lungs must be 'set to rights' again by gymnastics of this kind, gymnastics imposed upon them by the locality. It was all the more difficult for me to follow the details in that he sought to bring them (the details) home to me in French frequently interspersed with Alsatian German, but also with some
151. Marx to Jenny Longuet. 4 June
YANKEE-English. However one thing was clear, and that was what Dr Stephann had told me on the first day: Your thorax is what it is, so if spurious tissue takes up some of the space that one lung should occupy, that lung must make do with less space. The said tissue disappears in proportion as the lung re-expands. I have only just left Dr Kunemann, i. e. it's now nearly 6 o'clock in the evening which (6 o'clock) is the latest posting time FOR TO-DAY. Tomorrow — because of the final vésicatoire to be applied tonight — writing will be OUT OF THE QUESTION; day after tomorrow I shall have to recuperate and so it's 'unlikely' that you'll get any further news before the 2nd or 3rd of June (as I shall also have to pack). With best wishes.
OLD Moor
1913
151
MARX T O JENNY LONGUET ' (1)
IN ARGENTEUIL
[Postcard]
Cannes, 4 Juin" 1882
Dearest Child,
I'll come at some of the first days of the week beginning on the 6th June. I cannot specify; it will depend on circumstance not to be exactly foreseen. Hence you oblige me greatly by not bothering about the exact day or hour of arrival. Till now, I have always found that nothing has done me more harm than people, at the station, waiting for me. Do not tell anybody else (ci-inclus le Gascon, le Russe et le Hirsch)b that I am expected that week. I'll want some absolute quietness alone with your family, No. 11, Boulevard Thiers.
Yours,
Old Nick
152. Marx to Engels. 5 June
By 'quietness' I mean the 'family life', 'the children's noise', that 'microscopic world' more interesting than the 'macroscopic'.
[On the side reserved for the address] Madame Charles Longuet
11, Boulevard Thiers, Argenteuil
près Paris
1899
152
MARX TO ENGELS [7 2]
IN LONDON
Cannes, 5 Juin" 1882
DEAR FRED,
ON 30TH MAY {pro Monte Carlo) my back last branded; on 31 ST MAY post-operative treatment confined me to the house; on 3rd June I was set free by Kunemann and left the same day. He advised me to stay in Cannes for a couple of days, whatever the circumstances,323 this being essential if only to allow the wounds inflicted on me to 'dry out'.
Thus I have spent an entire month vegetating in this repaireb of aris-tocratic idlers or ADVENTURERS. Nature superb, in other respects a dreary hole; it is 'monumental' because consisting solely of hotels; no plebeian 'masses' here, apart from the garçons d'hôtels, de café, etc., and domestiques,' who belong to the Lumpenproletariat. The old robber's lair on its rocky promontory surrounded on 3 sides by the bay, i. e. Monaco, was at least an ancient, crumbling, medieval sort of Italian townlet; on the other hand, Condamine, built for the most part low down by the sea, between the 'town' of Monaco and the maison de jeu6 (i. e.Monte Carlo), and growing fast. Monaco is, IN THE STRICT SENSE, the 'polity', the 'state', the 'government'; Condamine is common-or-garden 'petty-bourgeois' society; but Monte Carlo is 'THEPLEASURE', AND, THANKS TO THE banque de jeu," THE FINANCIAL BASIS OF THE WHOLE TRINITY. Odd that these Grimaldis should have turned out to be what they have always been; formerly, they lived off piracy and one of them,b
F.I.,C wrote to Lorenzo dei Medici saying their territory was very restricted and, moreover, barren; hence Nature had pointed the way to buccaneering; it would therefore be magnanimous on Lorenzo's part, since they did not 'venture' to hunt down Florentine vessels, if he were to guarantee them an annual 'gratuity'. CONSEQUENTLY Lorenzo paid them a small annual fee.— After the HOLY ALLIANCE'S [266] victory over Napoleon, Talleyrand, who, for his own diversion, had selected from amongst the émigrés that arch-blackguard, the ex-tyrant of Monaco,d to be one of the companions — Talleyrand, then, thought it amusing to 'restore' him, the father of'Florestan',e 'au nom du principe de le légitimité'.' The restoration of these 2 men, this COUPLE — him of Hesse-Casselg and him of Monaco — is worthy of a place in a new edition of Plutarchh; at the same time, what a contrast between the German 'patriarch' and the Genoese (his main preoccupation, financial loot)!
A grievance nursed in private by our Dr Kunemann is that, when already functioning as physician in ordinary to His Most Serene Highness, the present Charles III (blind as a bat), he (Kunemann) became unacceptable as a result of his liberal principles and had to make way for an Englishman (Dr Pickering). THE SURVIVAL OF THE BEST — i. e. as a little duodecimo tyrant's physician in ordinary — *to a Britisher, of course, warranted by the nature of the beast! And that is the worst; this same Dr Pickering, before being called by natural selection, he had dangerously fallen ill at Monaco, was treated and cured by* Dr Kunemann. There are many such piteous dramas of destiny in this world of ours!
Oddly enough, this hot weather has made my bronchial cough worse rather than better. All the greater 'pretext', of course, for catching cold! Kunemann, by the by, (and the fellow's a first-rate doctor, familiar with English, German and French medical literature, a specialist in diseases of the chest and lungs) is not of your opinion regarding my journey back to Paris. I ought not, he says, to make it by easy stages; the weather is now hot and not only during the day, the nights, too, being warm. The most likely place to catch cold now, he avers, is at railway stations and the more often I break the journey, the greater the probability of rechutes*; rather, I ought, while in Cannes, to equip myself for the journey with 2 bottles of good old claret. Like Dr Stephann, he bases his view on the grounds that, in the treatment of pleurisy like that of bronchitis, etc., the stomach should be treated as the basis; eat well and amply even if it goes against the grain, and 'accustom' oneself to so doing; 'drink' 'decent stuff and go for drives, etc., to distract oneself, if not allowed to walk, climb, etc., much; think as little as possible, etc.
So, having followed these 'directions', I am well on the way to 'idiocy', and for all that have not rid myself of the bronchial catarrh.
A consoling thought for me is that it was bronchitis that sent old Garibaldi to his 'eternal rest'.[324] Of course, AT A CERTAIN AGE it becomes completely INDIFFERENT how one may be 'LAUNCHED INTO ETERNITY'.
I have been here since 3 June,b and shall be leaving this evening. In Nice and, on this occasion likewise in Cannes, where it is exceptional, a strong (if warm.) wind and eddies of dust. Nature, too, can evince a certain philistine humour (after the manner, already humorously anticipated in the Old Testament, of the serpent feeding on dust, cf. the dusty diet of Darwin's worms32S). Similarly, there is a vein of natural wit that runs all through the Riviera's local press. On 24 May, for instance, there was a terrible orage,' notably at Menton; lightning struck close auprès de la garec (of Menton) and tore the sole off a passing philistine's shoe while leaving the rest of the philistine intact.
With love to all.
OLD Moor
I shall not [let] friends know about my presence in Paris until I've been there a few days. It is still necessary for me to have as little 'intercourse with people'[326] as possible. I shall have a good doctor to consult in the person of Dr Dourlen.
153. Marx to Engels. 9 June
153
MARX TO ENGELS
IN LONDON
[Postcardl
Argenteuil, 9 June 1882
11 Boulevard Thiers
DEAR FRED,
As you know, everywhere I go I must, like TICKETS OF LEAVE, report to the doctor nearest to the place where I first take up my abode.[327]
Yesterday, therefore, EXAMINATION by Dr Dourlen. *State of health exactly the same I left in which it was at Monte Carlo. As to the bron-chite, I shall for a few weeks try the sulphurous waters of Enghien, about 15 minutes distance from Argenteuil; if this will not work, he wants to send me to the Pyrenees (Cauterets). (The same things had me already told by Dr Kunemann, who, in the last time, commenced to feed me with pastilles de sulphured A specialistb at Enghien is a special friend of Dr Dourlen to whom he will give me a letter. Generally Dr Dourlen found the tone and strength of my body much other than when I left; he was even astonished that I was in so good a condition after two* rechutes et apres 14 vésicatoires.'
* Compliments to all. Old* Moor
*Longuet brings me every evening the Standard, so useless to him. I have not yet written to the Gascond; my cough warns me to be careful before seeing friends.*
[On the side reserved for the address]
Frederick Engels, Esq. 122 Regent's Park Road, London, N. W., Angleterre
154. Marx to Engels. 15 June
154
MARX T O ENGELS
IN LONDON
[Postcard] [Argenteuil,] 15 June 1882
DEAR FRED,
I thought I should be able to report progress over the past week or so. But the temperature fell as soon as I arrived, in fact one day after my arrival. The weather, therefore, according to what I've'been told by Dr Dourlen, as also by his MEDICAL FRIEND(1) in Enghien, won't allow me to begin my sulphur treatment yet. In my former condition, during the happy time when I could smoke, I should have found the weather DELIGHTFUL. True, the sky is overcast more often than not, a bit of rain now and again, gusts of wind, not so much summer as late autumn, but nice weather for all that, if you're in good health!
Yesterday — as a result of a note to St Paul the Gascon[6] — he came to visit me.[328] I WAS GLAD TO SEE HIM. In compliance with my avis' he will keep silent — until further orders — about my presence here.
I go early to bed, get up late, spend a large part of the day with the children and Jennychen and take advantage of every favourable moment to go for a short stroll. All things considered I feel better than AT ANY TIME in Algiers, Monte Carlo or Cannes. It seems likely that the weather too will change for the better here. I shall write you a letter as soon as I've made my first trip to Enghien.
Best wishes to everyone.
Your
Moor
Tussychen has sent Jennychen an interesting eye-witness account of the Hyde Park meeting.[329]
[On the side reserved for the address]
Fr. Engels
122 Regent's Park Road, London, N. W., Angleterre
1913 Published in English for the first time
155. Marx to Laura Lafargue. 17 June
155
MARX TO LAURA LAFARGUE [72]
IN LONDON
[Postcard]
Argenteuil, 17 June 1882 11 Boulevard Thiers
PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL
Dearest Child,
I had previously arranged with Engels — as I since explained ver-bally to Paul" — that, as soon as I was able to leave for Switzerland (probably in the latter half of July), you should accompany me. In fact I could hardly set forth on this hazardous journey ALONE. SO, you see, it's plus ou moins votre devoir d'accompagner le vieux de la montagne*
However, as I shall have to stay here for at least another 3 weeks on account of the sulphur treatment at Enghien, I trust that Helen0 and Tussy will make a SHORT TRIP here during that time. *I have written to Helen and Tussy in that sense.*
Jennychen has invited Lafargue for tomorrow.
Adio.
OLD NICK
[On the side reserved for the address]
Madame Paul Lafargue 37 Tremlett Grove, Junction Road, London, N., Angleterre
156. Engels to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 20 June[3 3 0]
Dear Sorge,
I shall attend to your business affairs within the next few days.[331]
I am sending the money for the Egalité to Lafargue, who is in Paris, and shall extract a receipt from him, however irregular the form it may take. As regards The Labour Standard you'll lose nothing if I only arrange for the subscription to run from 1 July; the paper gets more pitiful all the time.
Marx was in Algiers for approx. 2 months where, as I think I told you,(1) he had a relapse of PLEURISY; having been cured of it, he went to Monte Carlo in Monaco and had another but milder one. He left there for Paris approx. 3 weeks ago and is now staying with his daughter, Madame Longuet, in Argenteuil near Paris whence he travels daily to Enghien to avail himself of the local sulphur springs for his chronic bronchial catarrh and cough. His general state of health is very good; as to his further MOVEMENTS, that depends entirely upon the doctors.
The English translation of the Manifesto we have been sent is quite unpublishable without total revision. But you will realise that anything of the kind is inconceivable under present circumstances.
I have not seen or heard anything of Leob for months. He's a peculiar cove who must be allowed to go his own way. I have not even got his address. Apropos, for some time I have been receiving communications for Leo from Dr Lilienthal in New York, which I can only deal with via Paris. Who is this Lilienthal?
The Lassalleans' thrustfulness after their arrival in America was inevitable. People who carried the one true gospel in their pack could hardly have behaved with less pretentiousness towards those Americans still languishing in spiritual darkness. Moreover it was for them to find new ground in America to replace that which was being increasingly cut from under their feet in Germany. By way of return we are happily rid of them in Germany; in America, where everything proceeds ten times as quickly, they'll soon be bested.
I trust your eyes will improve through being spared. I too had something of the sort once and know what a vile business it is.
In Germany things are going splendidly on the whole. It is true that the literary gentlemen in the party have tried to bring about a change of front, at once reactionary, bourgeois, tame and cultured, but it has proved a resounding failure. The infamies to which socialist workers everywhere have been subjected have everywhere made them much more revolutionary than they were even 3 years ago. You will have seen the details in the Sozialdemokrat. Of the leaders, Bebel is the man who behaved best over the affair. Liebknecht shilly-shallied somewhat, for not only did he himself welcome every 'eddicated' semi-social democrat with open arms while failing to run a careful eye over him, but his son-in-law, that obese sluggard Bruno Geiser, is one of the biggest wallers.[332] Because it makes short work of their literary earnings, these people would like to get rid of the Anti-Socialist Law ' [6] at any cost and to do so ignominiously by means of moderation and meekness, tameness and toadyism. As soon as the law is repealed (not even the bourgeois believe that it will be renewed either by the present or some other eventual Reichstag, since it has proved totally ineffective), the split will probably be brought out into the open, whereupon your Vierecks, Höchbergs, Geisers, Bloses & Co. will form a separate right wing, in which case we shall be able to negotiate with them as occasion arises, until they eventually come to grief for good and all. We said as much* immediately after the promulgation of the Anti-Socialist Law when Höchberg and Schramm published in the Jahrbuch[333] what was, under the circumstances, a quite infamous assessment of the party's activities up till that date, and demanded that the party conduct itself in a more 'eddicated', decorous and presentable manner.(2) My regards to Adolph,» have had no sign of life from him. Kindest regards.
Your
F. Engels
Tell Adolph that Pumps has had a little girl.b
1906 and in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVI, Moscow, 1935
157. Engels to August Bebel. 21 June
Dear Bebel,
I shall have to answer your letter from memory, having given it to Tussy for forwarding to Marxc since when I have not seen it again.
For the past 3 weeks or so Marx has been staying with his daughterd
at Argenteuil near Paris, is said to be looking very well, brown as a real 'Moor' (this being his nickname, as you know), and in very good humour, his only ailment now being a bronchial cough. In order to get rid of this he has at last had to do Vogt the favour of becoming a member of the Brimstone gang.[334] For he is undergoing a sulphur cure at the neighbouring town of Enghien. What further peregrina-tions he makes is for the doctors to decide.
That there will ultimately be a show-down with the bourgeois-minded elements in the party and a parting of the ways between right and left wings is something about which I have long harboured no illusions and, indeed, had already declared desirable in my handwritten commentarya on the Jahrbuch article. That you should have come to take the same view can only be most welcome to us. If I did not expressly mention the point in my last letter,b it was because I saw no immediate necessity for a split of this kind. Were the gentlemen to decide of their own free will to form a separate right wing, everything would soon be in order. But they are hardly likely to do so; they know they would be an army consisting solely of officers without soldiers, like the 'Robert Blum column' which came over to us in the 1849 campaign and insisted on fighting only 'under the command of that brave man Willich'.[335] Upon our asking how many effectives went to make up this heroic column, we were told — and you can imagine our mirth — one colonel, eleven officers, a bugler and two men. On top of which the colonel was at great pains to look like a stalwart Schinderhannes and had a horse he was unable to ride.— Every one of these gentry wants to be a leader, but they can't even act the part of leader except within our party, and so they will take good care not to provoke a schism. On the other hand they know that, subject as we are to the Anti-Socialist Law, ' [6] we too have reasons for avoiding internal splits which we cannot debate in an open forum. Hence we shall have to put up with epistolatory and verbal cabalism and jere-miads from these people until we are again in a position to thrash out inside the country itself and before the workers those points on which we differ as to tactics and principles unless, of course, their antics are such that our hand is forced. Meanwhile the Anti-Socialist Law will, one way or another, shuffle off this mortal coil and, as soon as that's been got rid of, the position, or so it seems to me, must be fairly and squarely stated; what should be done next will automatically emerge from the attitude adopted by these gentry.
Once they have organised a separate right wing we shall be able, as and when occasion arises and in so far as it is admissible, to come to an agreement with them as to common action, or even enter into a compact with them, etc. Although this is unlikely to be necessary: the schism itself will lay bare their impotence. They have neither adherents amongst the masses, nor talent, nor knowledge — all 21
they have is pretensions, and those in plenty. However, we shall have to wait and see. Whatever happens, it will serve to elucidate the situation and we shall be rid of an element that in no way belongs to us.
There is no need to fear that, in such a case, we shall no longer have any presentable candidates for the Reichstag. That is a pure fig-ment. If a working man in the Reichstag now and then says I when he ought to say me, all we need ask is how long the Hohenzollerns, let alone field marshals, have been able to distinguish between I and me. Frederick William III and his adored Louise perpetrated more howlers in the matter of I and me than did even A. Kapell. And if Bismarck isn't afraid of appointing to his economics council workers who speak ungrammatically, but vote grammatically, can we afford to jib? But I know that to many it's an abomination. To us not in the least. And it would put an end to the utterly senseless practice of our deputies, which is supposed to be 'democratic' but isn't, whereby every man must speak in turn. How could any party possess as many good parliamentary speakers as that, and what is supposed to happen when there are, say, 200 of our men in the Reichstag?
But of one thing you may be sure: When it comes to a show-down with these gentry and the party's left wing declares itself, we shall go along with you whatever the circumstances, and do so actively and with our visors up. If I did not contribute to the Sozialdemokrat in my own name before,[336] this was due solely to the influence so long exerted upon the paper by these people and the prolonged absence of any guarantee that they would not regain it.
As you know, there's a split in the workers' party in Paris. The Egalité people (our best, Guesde, Deville, Lafargue, etc.) were uncere-moniously thrown out by those on the Prolétaire (Malon, Brousse, etc.) at the recent congress of the Centre of France. The Sozialdemokrat rightly censured this procedure in a passage which the Égalité translated. Thereupon the Prolétaire replied, saying that its own point of view concerning this matter had been put to the German party leadership with whom it had since been in complete accord.[337]
Do you know anything about this? The Prolétaire people are the most egregious liars; but on the other hand I recall all too many instances of stupendous blunders perpetrated in the Leipzig Volksstaat and
Vorwärts in regard to French affairs and persons. Can you tell me anything about what actually happened? I shall try and let you have the
158. Marx to Engels. 22 June
cutting from the Prolétaire. Malon, Brousse & Co. are finding their labours as workers' candidates unduly tedious and are therefore con-sorting with sundry radical bourgeois and literati, and inviting others of that ilk to join forces with them; they imagine that they will thereby get themselves elected more quickly. They are fighting the Egalité with the same old infamous weapons used by the Bakuninists.
Your
F. E.
158
MARX TO ENGELS
IN LONDON
[Argenteuil,] 22 June 1882
DEAR FRED,
Your letter[284] arrived no more than a minute or two before the post which goes damned early. Hence only a few words.
I have not been able to REPORT PROGRESS until today because the sulphur operations were suspended from Sunday" until yesterday inclu-sive on account of the rainy weather and did not begin again until today. AT PRESENT TIME it's devilish cold at Cauterets and the season there doesn't NORMALLY begin until the middle of JULY. SO in the event Enghien has proved most opportune, although up till now the weather has not been good enough to permit UNINTERRUPTED use of the institution thermale. Other people, who need not be careful about a
11 June
159. Marx to Engels. 24 June
'résidu',a wouldn't have to bother so much. Dr Dourlen says that the whole difficulty lies in avoiding anything that might cause a recurrence of pleurisy.
Let the chaps in New York go ahead with their own 'reprint', though they must take care that there are no unauthorised additions.[338]
We shall, then, expect Helenb on Sunday. It is still too early — for I must fight shy of all lengthy conversations just now — to advise Lavrov of my presence. He's just the man to make me prattle on for hours.
Love to Jennychen.0
Your
K. M.
159
MARX TO ENGELS
IN LONDON
[Postcard]
[Argenteuil,] 24 June 1882
DEAR FRED,
I got the REGISTERED LETTER yesterday; today I realised it in Paris. As a result of the present changeable weather I had an attack of muscular rheumatism in the region of my hips; as a result of this and other things a sleepless night from the 22nd to the 23rd on account of severe pain. No food the next day (though absolved my sulphur inhalation at Enghien yesterday); Dourlen called in the evening and helped by embrocating me with laudanum; ALL RIGHT now as regards this INCIDENT, except that slight twinges of muscular rheumatism still persist.
As regards Enghien the first question to be answered — for this depends upon the individual — is whether the local sulphur spring is strong enough. AT ALL EVENTS Reinhardt got rid of his bronchitis here, like Longuet before him. The latter was also at Cauterets *at an earlier time long before his marriage. Its height above the sea level 1200-1400 mètres about. I should be very glad if I should not want it for the bronchial catarrh; at all events Cauterets was out of the question for this time. Helen(1) will arrive at St Lazare gare où* Longuet there to receive her.*
Salut.
Your
Moor
[On the side reserved for the address]
F. Engels. Esq.
122 Regent's Park Road, London, N. W.
Abt. Ill, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931 t l m e
160. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 26 Juneb
...In Ireland there are two tendencies within the movement, the first and earliest being the agrarian. Out of organised brigandage, backed by the farmers, on the part of the clan chiefs whom the English had dispossessed, and the big Catholic landowners (in the 17th century these brigands were called Tories, a name that has descended by direct line to the Tories of today), there gradually evolved an indigenous resistance, organised according to locality and province, on the part of the farmers against the interloping English landlords. The names — RIBBONMEN, WHITEBOYS, CAPTAIN ROCK, CAPTAIN MOONLIGHT,[340] etc.— have changed, the form the resistance has taken — the shoot-ing, not only of hated LANDLORDS and agents (collectors in the LANDLORDS' service), but also of those farmers who take over a farm from others who have been forcibly evicted,— BOYCOTTING, threatening letters, nocturnal attacks with intimidation, etc.— all this has been going on for as long as the English have owned land in Ireland, i. e. at least since the end of the 17th century. This form of resistance is irre-pressible, cannot be curbed by force and will disappear only with its causes. But by its nature it is local and sporadic, nor can it ever become a general form of political struggle.
The period immediately after the Union (1800) [109] saw the begin-nings of the liberal-national opposition of the urban bourgeoisie who, as in every agrarian country with small towns in process of decay (e.g. Denmark), found their natural leaders in the lawyers. The latter also need the farmers; hence they have to invent slogans to attract the farmers. Thus O'Connell lit, first, upon Catholic emancipation,[3]*[1]
and then upon the Repeal of the Union. Latterly supporters of this trend have been forced by the infamies of the landowners to adopt a different course. Whereas, in the social sphere, the Land League [139]
pursues more revolutionary (and in this instance attainable) aims, namely the total elimination of the interloping LANDLORDS, its political posture is, if anything, rather tame since its only demand is HOME-RULE, i. e. a local Irish parliament alongside and subject to the parliament of the Empire. This, too, is undoubtedly attainable by constitutional means. The frightened landlords are already clamouring for (and the Tories themselves proposing) the speediest possible redemption of farmland in order to save what can still be saved, while Gladstone, for his part, is declaring a greater measure of self-government for Ireland to be altogether admissible.
After the American Civil War these two tendencies were infiltrated by a third — Fenianism.[3] ' [2] The hundreds of thousands of Irish soldiers and officers who fought in that war did so with the ulterior motive of building up an army for the liberation of Ireland. The dissension between England and America after the war became the Fenians' principal lever. Should war supervene, Ireland would, within a few months, be either a member of the United States or a republic under the latter's protection. The sum which England so willingly under-took to pay and did pay during the Alabama negotiations with the Geneva arbitrators[342] was the price at which American intervention in Ireland was bought off.
26
As from that moment, the principal danger was eliminated. The police were enough to keep the Fenians in order. In this they were helped by the betrayals inseparable from any conspiracy, and yet it was only the leaders who betrayed, going on to become downright spies and falsifiers of evidence. The leaders who got away to America indulged in émigré revolutionary politics there and, for the most part, went to seed like O'Donovan Rossa. All of this — if, of course, on an exaggerated American scale — will seem very familiar to anyone who witnessed the European emigration over here between 1849 and 1852.
There can be no doubt that many Fenians have now come home again and have revived the former armed organisation. They provide an important impulse within the movement and compel the liberals to adopt a more resolute posture. But otherwise they achieve nothing unless it be to frighten John Bull. True, the latter is growing percepti-bly weaker on the periphery of his empire, but as close to home as this he is still in a position to suppress with ease any kind of Irish rebellion. For a start there is, in Ireland, a permanent 'CONSTABULARY' 14,000 strong, equipped with rifles and bayonets and having had a military training. Then some 30,000 line troops who could easily be reinforced by an equal number of line and English militia. In addition, the navy. And in suppressing rebellion, John Bull's brutality is without equal. In the absence of a foreign war or the threat thereof, an Irish uprising has not the remotest prospect of success; and here only two powers might constitute a threat — France and, to a far greater degree, the United States. France is out of the question. In America the parties are co-quetting with the Irish vote; they make many promises but abide by none. Nor have they any intention of involving themselves in a war on Ireland's behalf. It even serves their interests that conditions in Ireland should be such as to encourage massive Irish emigration to America. And it is understandable that a country which, in 20 years' time, will be the most populous, wealthy and powerful in the world, should feel small inclination to rush headlong into adventures which could and would upset its gigantic internal development. In 20 years' time it will have completely changed its tune.
But should the danger of a war with America arise, England would give the Irish anything they asked, and with both hands — saving only complete independence which, in view of that country's geo-graphical position, is not at all desirable.
Accordingly the only recourse remaining to the Irish is the constitutional method of gradual conquest, whereby one position is taken after another; and here the lurking presence of armed Fenian conspiracy can still furnish a most effective element. But these very Fenians are being increasingly impelled into a kind of Bakuninism; the only purpose to be served by the assassination of Burke and Cavendish was the frustration of the compromise between the Land League and Gladstone. In the circumstances, however, that compromise would have been the best thing for Ireland. Because of rent arrears the LANDLORDS are evicting the tenants from house and home in their tens of thousands and are doing so under the protection of the military. To check this systematic depopulation of Ireland (those who are evicted either starve to death or have to go to America) is the prime necessity just now. Gladstone is prepared to table a Bill whereby arrears will be paid on lines similar to the redemption of feudal taxes in Austria in 1848 — one-third by the farmer, one-third by the state, one-third written off by the LANDLORDS. That is the Land League's own proposal. Thus the 'heroic deed' of Phoenix Park appears to be, if not " sheer folly, at all events a piece of pure Bakuninist, histrionic, senseless ''propagande par lefait\(1) If its consequences have not been the same as those of the similar follies perpetrated by Hödel and Nobiling, b° this has been due solely to the fact that Ireland does not, as yet, lie within the purlieus of Prussia. Hence it must be left to the Bakuninists and Mostians to place such puerilities on a par with the execution of Alexander II, and to pose the threat of an 'Irish revolution' that never happens.
One more thing that should be noted about Ireland: never praise an Irishman — politician — unconditionally or give him your un-qualified support, until he's dead. Celtic blood and the habitual exploitation of the farmers (after all, in Ireland this constitutes the sole livelihood of all the 'educated' classes, and of the lawyers in particular) make professional Irish politicians exceedingly prone to corruption. In return for his agitation, O'Connell got the farmers to pay him £30,000 a year no less. When England effected the Union at a cost of £1,000,000 in bribes, one of those who had been bribed was re-proached with having sold his country. Says he: 'Aye, and damned glad I was to have a country I could sell.'
The infamies perpetrated against our people by the German gov-ernments, police and judges are gradually assuming a character that makes even the strongest language employed in condemning them look insipid. But since language is not necessarily given added em-phasis by forceful expressions, and the repeated use of the same expressions such as scoundrel, etc., detracts from the effect, so that one has to have recourse to ever more 'forceful' expressions and thus lapse into the style of Most-Schneidt,[343] it would be desirable to adopt a method whereby forcefulness of expression would be assured even in the absence of intemperate language. And that method exists; it consists primarily in the use of irony, derision, sarcasm, which have a more deadly effect on an opponent than the crudest expressions of indignation. I think the Sozialdemokrat would be well advised to adopt the old, predominantly derisive style whenever this is feasible, as indeed was done in the last number. An occasional application of the cudgel would then be all the more effective. Bebel is also in complete agreement with me here. And, besides, your present correspondents already attend pretty adequately to lurid descriptions of events.
In response to the Egalité's translation of the passage in the Sozialdemokrat about the expulsion of their people from the Congrès du Centre, the Prolétaire published a pharisaical article about an échange de lettres courtoises entre le Comité extérieur du parti ouvrier socialiste allemand et le Comité national français.'[344] Can you tell me anything about this? I was quite unaware of the existence of a Comité extérieur, might it perhaps be the much-celebrated Communications Officeb*c?
The Bataille is on its last legs — c'est une défaite, et méritée}' Lissagaray has proved totally unfit to be a journalist and he, like his collabo-rators, Malon and Brousse, appeals to the Parisians' chauvinistic Ger-manophobia vis-à-vis Guesde, etc., Marxistes, nébulosités allemandes," etc. None of which has deterred Lissagaray from informing the Citqyen's proprietord of his desire to join the editorial department! Needless to say the editorial department instantly turned him down (this priva-tim) .
Marx is in Argenteuil with his daughter,' hiding away from Paris and availing himself of the sulphur springs in Enghien for his chronic bronchitis and cough; otherwise he is well and cheerful, but must still take great care of himself.
161. Marx to Engels. 4 July
Did Adolf Beust give you Mirabeau's Secret History of the Court of Berlin which I gave him to pass on to you? T h e book will be very useful to the Sozialdemokrat.
Yours,
F . E .
161
M A R X T O E N G E L S [7 2]
IN LONDON
[Postcard, unsigned]
[Argenteuil,] 4 JULY 1882
DEAR FRED,
Summer did not actually begin until the 1ST of JULY (or RATHER THE SECONDONLY). U p till now I've had 2 sulphur baths with douches, the 3rd will be tomorrow; never before have I encountered anything as magnificent as the shower-bath (alias douche); one climbs out of the bath on to a slightly raised board, and this en 'nature'a; the bath attendant then manipulates the spray (about the size of a fire extinguisher) like a virtuoso his instrument, dictates the movements of the corpus and bombards all PARTS o f t h a t corpus in turn [SAVE THE HEAD, (the cranium)) for 180 seconds (alias 3 MINUTES) now with greater, now with lesser force, even unto the legs and feet incl. in an ever mounting CRESCENDO.
As you will see, there is little inducement here for a man to write. I have to be at the RAILWAY by half past eight in the morning (i. e. THIS
THE TIME OF LEAVING EXACTLY FOR Enghien), back to Argenteuil ABOUT 12 OCLOCK, déjeunerb shortly afterwards; aprèsc a great need for rest, as this sulphur is tiring in whatever form; then out and about, etc. T h e air in the inhalation room is murky with sulphurous vapours; 30-40 MINUTES' spell here; every 5 minutes, at a special table, one inhales steam laden with specially pulverised sulphur (from one of the pipes (zinc) with stopcocks); each man encased in caoutchouc" from head to foot; after which they march in file round the table; innocent scene from Dante's inferno.
Regards to Schorlemmer. I still have a photograph of me for him, taken in Algiers.
Lafargue regards himself as a gros(1) oracle here. Paris is for him THE
ONLY PLACE OF THE WORLD WORTH MANHOOD.
[On the side reserved for the address]
Fr. Engels
122 Regent's Park Road London, N.W., Angleterre
162. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 15 July
Dear Mr Bernstein,
I am replying to your last letter straight away as there would otherwise be a 3 days' gap on account of the Sunday postal arrangements.
I was shown the Mehringiad [346] by an acquaintance here and at once recognised both author and prompter. Ever since the time his plans for the Sozialdemokrat went so completely awry because of the presence of yourself and Bebel, Hirschb has been working himself up into a ludicrous rage against the 'Zurich people'. We have often enough given him the broadest hints to the effect that we were not in accord with him in this respect; rather, anything he did, he did on his own responsibility, but this has helped only to the extent that he doesn't pester us with his lamentations. He has, by the way, been back in Paris (on sufferance) for some considerable time, and last Saturday (8 July) married a certain Miss Lina Haschert.
As for the actual contents of the thing, there is no reason for us to intervene. Mehring has treated the world to so many lies about us that, were we to deny just one of them, it would be tantamount to an admission that all the rest were true. For years we have let all this mendacious tittle-tattle pass unheeded, unless absolute necessity compelled us to reply. Our people have the Volks-^eitung at their disposal, so all that is needed is a communication to the effect that an article of mine, signed by me, appeared in the Sozialdemokrat of ? June. [3] [4 7]
That is the best way to reply. You yourself can, of course, also refer to it in the Sozialdemokrat as you intended, and say that Marx and I always agree beforehand on any public move we make. I'm very glad that the article in the Sozialdemokrat appeared at this precise moment; it will knock all these inanities on the head.
On the other hand I think you would be well advised to leave Höchberg out of it. After all, he simply wants to appear as a private individual and hence will be able to conduct his own defence if he thinks it necessary. I don't know whether it would be doing him a service to rake up the old affair of the Jahrbuch article, etc.(1) — should there be doubts within the party about our position, we might be compelled to revert to it, though I for one think it quite unnecessary.
Since Marx leads a completely secluded existence in Argenteuil and keeps his presence there as secret as possible, he has seen nothing of Hirsch, at least so far as I know, nor is he in any way anxious to do so. Marx needs peace and quiet, and I shall not therefore bother him with all this business before it proves absolutely necessary, i. e. before Hirsch forms any further cabals.
Kautsky has written me one, indeed two, long letters[348] about everything under the sun. However, as I have already told you,b I no longer have the time for such lengthy correspondence and to be able to investigate and reply to this or that I should, what's more, actually have to embark on specialised studies. That is the whole reason for my silence.
I know absolutely nothing of value about Chartism.[159] If I could persuade our old friend Harney in Boston (ex-editor of The Northern Star) to write a history of Chartism, he would be the man.
Kindest regards.
Yours,
F. Engels
I myself have been so much out of touch with Hirsch that I have no occasion whatever to give him my views on this business. If occasion arose, I should of course do so.
163. Engels to Adolf Hepner. 25 July[3 4 9]
Dear Mr Hepner,
My delay in replying has been due to Marx's illness and frequent changes of abode. It was not until recently that I was able to correspond with him about business matters. Our viewsa on your projected undertaking[350] are as follows:
As you are fully entitled in law to reprint anything that appears in Europe, you would, in our opinion, do best to go ahead and exercise that right without asking anybody. If you wish to reprint the Communist Manifesto we can have no objection whatever, nor would it occur to us to protest against it, provided there were no changes or omissions — in any case inadmissible in an historical document — or unless compelled to do so by unwarranted notes. We cannot write a preface, not only because we are not together, but also, and still more, because we should thereby be identifying ourselves to some extent with an undertaking which we are not in a position either to supervise or to control, nor, indeed, might we wish to do so. As it is, you will be entirely at liberty to reprint anything else you wish, without our ever having cause to complain of the company in which our works appear.
The same applies to my Condition of the Working Class. If you reprint it as it stands I can have no objection. Were I, however, to give you my special consent, I should be obliged to provide the addenda and notes needed to bring the book up to date, and that would be 6 months' work. Moreover I should require prior guarantees that the undertaking, once begun, would be brought to a conclusion.
I trust I have convinced you that it would be in your best interests to go ahead on your own. We shall certainly not place any obstacle in the way of the undertaking unless compelled to do so; rather the reverse.
As regards a new abridgement of Capital, Marx has had so many unpleasant experiences with this kind of thing that no further ap-proaches should be made to him about the matter, especially not at the moment. However {this in confidence) Marx has purged the second edition of Most's abridgement[35] ' of its grosser errors and made a few addenda, so that this edition is not without its merits and could be reprinted.
Otherwise there is little that I can recommend for reprinting. The literature produced by Leipzig consists largely in the socialism of the future and doctoral dissertations by parliamentary candidates. Jules Guesde's French stuff is good on the whole, but too closely geared to French conditions. Bracke's Nieder mit den Sozialdemokraten! is perhaps not suitable for America. Bebel's parliamentary speeches are by far the best thing that Germany has produced in our line, but they are, of course, made for the occasion. Lassalle teems with economic howlers and his whole viewpoint was superseded long ago. Bracke's Lassalle'scher Vorschlag is a pretty good piece of criticism, though not exhaustive.
Well, it's for you to choose. Wishing your undertaking the best of luck,
Yours,
F. E.
164. Engels to Pyotr Lavrov. 31 July
My dear Lavrov,
I should have thanked you long since for sending me the Russian Manifesto,[352] but I couldn't very well write to you without giving you news of Marx and he had expressly forbidden me to tell anyone in Paris, no matter whom, that he was in Argenteuil. Unfortunately the prohibition of the doctors, who have given him strict instructions to talk as little as possible, means he is still in solitary confinement.
Kovalevsky called while I was out. He only saw Miss Marx (1) and left no address. He must have departed a few days after his arrival, but I have absolutely no idea what route he took. It would seem that he intended to return to his own country. Miss Marx is at Argenteuil; if you wrote to Longuet, perhaps you might be able to learn more.
Yours ever,
F. E.
[On the side reserved for the address]
Monsieur P. Lavroff 328 rue St Jacques Paris France
165. Marx to Engels. 3 August
165
MARX TO ENGELS
IN LONDON
Argenteuil, jeudi, 3 aoûta 1882 11 Boulevard Thiers
DEAR FRED,
The difficulty over letter-writing is due to the following: at 7.30 a. m. I start off by washing and dressing myself, taking early morning coffee, etc.; at 8.30 a. m. departure for Enghien, not as a rule returning before noon, then déjeuner en famille'' at Argenteuil; from 2-4 p. m., rest, then a walk and pottering about with the children with consequences more detrimental to one's faculties of sight and hearing (let alone thought) than were ever experienced even by the Hegel of the Phänomenologie; finally, at 8 p. m., evening SUPPER, thereby concluding the day's work. So when would one find time for correspondence?
Tussychen is being of enormous help to Jennychen, nor could her stay here really be considered as a rest cure if she were not so fond of the children' and of poor Jennychen and evincing in these particular circumstances qualities which lie dormant in London. Tussy and Laura have not seen one another yet and aren't exactly longing to do so. But for decency's sake they will have to meet at least once while I am here.
Now for a health bulletin. My cure began on 17 June. The weather up till now has been so far below the average for summer (French) that the season which starts in June in Enghien is regarded as a FAILURE by the établissement thermald and something 'better' is looked for in August and September. Constant changes of temperature, the sky often heavily overcast, particularly in the mornings after rain and orages,' violent winds, moisture-laden atmosphere and hence often une chaleur lourde/ alias London's 'CLOSE' STATUS. The French have been at pains to stave off an alliance with England[353]; by contrast, the English climate (I MEAN specifically the London climate) would seem to be making itself increasingly at home here, in Paris and environs. Such is the case this year at any rate. In between times, of course, we have an occasional fine day, or fragments thereof. In these circumstances my cure is having to contend with 'agreeable obstacles'. As Lenchen will recall, there was one particular day when Dr Feugier's examination, and the one undertaken a few hours later by Dr Dourlen, resulted in the same verdict: the râlements* had disappeared and this meant the 'bronchial' character of the catarrh had been eliminated. I didn't pass on 'such matters' to you; I suspected that the said bronchial catarrh had by no means croaked its last, and, indeed, during a brief spell of bad weather, it began to croak anew. That the cough hadn't 'disappeared' (though greatly alleviated, of course), I was aware, but didn't much mind about what remained of the cough once its character had changed.
Indeed, upon auscultating me last Monday (31 July), Dr Feugier found that the râle was still there, although grown fainter; the weather, he said, was especially malign and harmful in the case of these particular complaints. As a rule, patients only continue the sulphur cure for 3 weeks; indeed, many people cannot tolerate it for a longer period without the risk of feverish attacks, etc. In view of my otherwise strong constitution and since I am still troubled by a cough, especially of a morning, he thought it best to continue the cure until the middle of August, with INHALATION, BATHS, DOUCHES and the drinking of sulphurous waters; no purpose would be served by prolonging it beyond that date. I shall, of course, follow the doctor's advice. On the other hand, however, it will by then probably be too late for the Engadine plan [3 5 4]; both Feugier and Dourlen are afraid that I might otherwise expose myself to climatic ADVENTURES which a man, above all one in my condition, would do better not to invite unnecessarily.— I hope you will in any case come and spend a few days here (in which case the Lafargues would easily find you accommodation in Paris), not only so that we may confer about que faire après,b but more especially, you must understand, because I long to see you again after all these DAMNED vésicatoiresc and one or two very close shaves!
Laurachen wrote and told me that Deville is leaving for his home town of Tarbes on the evening of 2 August. But since I had expressed a desire to see him, Mesa proposed we should come to déjeunerA with him on 2 August, when I should meet, besides the Lafargues, also Deville and Guesde. This was the first time that I had agreed to such a meeting. (It is always the livelier talk, and/or chatter which tells on me — after the event.) Went off well. The Citoyen people seem to me to be succeeding with their public MEETINGS on the Egyptian, etc., affaires[355]; however, as far as the performance of their paper is concerned, ils laissent beaucoup à désirer." Incidentally, and aside from the self-styled socialist journals, a large and most influential part of the Paris press is incomparably more independent than that of London. Despite pressure from most of the PROFESSIONAL POLITICIANS, despite collusion between the République Française, the Temps and the Journal des Débats, working hand-in-glove under the immediate direction of Gambetta; despite, what is more, the attempts at bribery by the FINANCIERS (Rothschilds, etc.) who have an immediate interest in joining the English crusade against Egypt, the Paris press has quashed every attempt (even Freycinet's disguised ones[356]) at joint intervention with England or with a Quadruple Alliance[357]; without that press, Clemenceau would not have won his victory in parliament. But where in London is there even a modicum of an 'independent' press?
I cannot in fact remember where Loria's grandesb opusc is to be found in my library; nor would it seem to me worth your while taking the trouble to look for it. As you know, after reading the 'opus' (or RATHER the first half of the book, for I hadn't the patience to do more than skim through the 2nd half containing Mr Loria's fantasies about how his ideal norm, small landed property, i. e. smallholdings, could adequately be constructed), I was far from edified by the sickening covert flattery vis-à-vis myself and the overt assumption of 'superiority' not to mention falsification of certain of my views the better to refute them. Yet, though my first reaction was that I wanted to have no truck with him, I allowed myself to become further involved because he showed talent, because he had done a lot of swotting; because he was a poor devil who had written to me at length about his thirst for knowledge; because he was still very young and his admittedly far from youthful tendencies — they were, if anything, wise beyond his years — seemed understandable in view, partly of conditions in Italy, and partly of the school from which he derived; also because he sought to make his own, in so far as in him lay and not always without success, the methods of research he had found in Capital. I was 'amused' and pleased by his way of openly preening himself on having 'antiquated' Capital with his 'landed property'. For all that, I still harbour serious doubts about the young man's character.
After I had read through these 2 pamphlets,* however, and a couple of days after Tussy's arrival here, I gave her my very categorical and final verdict — in words — I give you three guesses! — in the exactly same terms which the said Tussychen was amazed to find again, word for word, in your letter of 31 July which I showed her! Thus we, you and I, not only came to exactly the same conclusion, but formulated the same in exactly the same way\ Such being the case, we can, in future, only adopt an attitude of ironical aloofness towards him, without in any way becoming further involved in the business! He is far worse than the Kauzkitten,b who at least has the best of intentions.
Apropos Hirsch. If he really has collaborated with Mehring,[346] the party will never forgive him. Should I see him, I shall ask him point-blank. Come to that, as regards the controversy over my status, it would have been better had nothing been said. What are the workers to believe, unless it be that I was, so to speak, shamming sick, and had squandered all that time and money without good reason?
Next week the Lafargues are moving into their proper quarters which are said to be very pleasant, and cheap as local logements' go.
Au revoir, OLD BOY. My love also to Lenchen.
Your
Moor
166. Engels to Johann Philipp Becker. 9 August
Dear Old Man,
I had no opportunity yesterday of taking out a money order for you. But I did so first thing today and you will be paid £5 sterling over there, which, according to the table, equals 126 frs. I was very glad to get another letter from you 35B and hear how you are getting on. I, too, would give I don't know how much if you, Marx and I could foregather once more, but this year it's unlikely I shall have any such luck. There might still be a chance of your seeing Marx this summer, but that depends on where the doctors send him. I shall have to postpone the rest of my reply for a day or two as it's nearly time for the post and I still have to write at some length to Bernstein about this and that.
In the meantime keep yourself hale and hearty as always. Kindest regards.
Your old friend
F. Engels
167. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 9 August[3 5 9]
Dear Mr Bernstein,
Today just a few comments in great haste, as I shall be going to the seaside in a few days' time and my hands are absolutely full.
1. A German edition of Socialisme utopique et socialisme scientifique is something I have long had in mind, particularly now that I have seen what a regular revolution the thing has wrought in the minds of many of the better people in France.[360] I am glad that we see eye to eye here. The only thing is that the German text, because more concentrated, is appreciably more difficult than the French from which quite a lot is omitted. To popularise the work without prejudice to the substance, and in such a way as to make it fit for general use as a propaganda pamphlet is a difficult task; however, I shall do the best I can at the seaside. When shall you be able to start printing and how long will the impression take? I must, of course, be sent the proofs (in duplicate, as in France, which has a number of advantages).
2. Naturally you would have thought that, in view of our old friendship, Liebknecht was really within his rights in asking you to hand over my letter(1) to him, and that you were under an obligation to put it at his disposal. I can find nothing to complain about in that. Nor could you know that, of the many differences I have had with Liebknecht, four-fifths were due to similar high-handed acts on his part, to the public misuse of private letters, to notes, etc., on my articles that were either silly or ran immediately counter to the sense of the passage. On this occasion, too, he has made unjustifiable use of my letter. That letter was written with specific reference to your article.b Liebknecht treated it as though it were 'my' account of the Irish question as a whole. Frightfully easy and all the more so if one trots out in refutation Davitt's speeches which had not as jet been made at all at the time the letter was written and, indeed, have no bearing at all on that letter, Davitt and his state ownership of land having hitherto been no more than a straw in the wind. But Liebknecht always takes this kind of easy way out when trying to come the 'top dog'. Now, I don't begrudge him his fun, but he ought not to misuse my letters for the purpose and in this way he has compelled me to request you in future (let me try to make this sound as formally diplomatic as possible) de lui donner — tout au plus — lecture de mes lettres sans ce-pendant lui abandonner l'original ni lui en laisser copie}'
3. I have passed on to Marx, in as humorous a form as possible, the substance of the Hirsch-Mehringiad [3 4 6] and I fear that, should little Carlc see Marx, he will go through a not altogether agreeable quarter of an hour.
4. I should say that, in the Egyptian affair,[355] you take the so-called National Party rather too much under your wing.[36] ' We don't know much about Arabi, but I'd wager 10 to 1 that he is a run-of-the-mill Pasha who begrudges the financial chaps their tax revenue because he would, in good oriental fashion, sooner pocket it himself. Here we have the same old story as in all agrarian countries. From Ireland to Russia, from Asia Minor to Egypt, the peasant of an agrarian country is there to be exploited. It has been the same since the time of the Assyrian and Persian empires. The satrap, alias pasha, is the eastern prototype of the exploiter, as are the business men and jurists in the west today. REPUDIATION of the Khedive's[362] debts may be all right, but the question is, what then? And we West European socialists ought not to allow ourselves to be so easily duped as the Egyptian fellaheen [363] or as — all Latins. Strange. All Latin revolutionaries lament the fact that their revolutions invariably redound to someone else's advantage — quite simply because they have always been taken in by the word 'revolution'. And yet it's hardly possible for a scrap to break out anywhere without revolutionary Latins rav-ing about it with one voice — and quite uncritically. As I see it, we can perfectly well enter the arena on behalf of the oppressed fellaheen without sharing their current illusions (for a peasant population has to be fleeced for centuries before it learns from experience), and against the brutality of the English without, for all that, espousing the cause of those who are currently their military opponents. The utmost caution should be observed in making use of the politically emo-tional French and Italian party papers in all questions of international politics; we Germans, however, now we have attained superiority where theory is concerned, are duty bound to preserve it in this sphere also by the exercise of criticism.
But now, enough of criticism. Unfortunately I haven't got sufficient time left today to send you a contribution for the feuilleton.[364]
I am particularly keen to prove to our good little Carl in black and white what tremendous piffle it was he fobbed off on Mehring about my relations with the Sozialdemokrat. However, you will get it before long and may then, if you like — it's all the same to me — make some direct allusion to it in a note, without, of course, actually mentioning our little Carl, who must surely by now be panting for cooling streams/
Well, my kindest regards. If at all possible, I shall also send you a letter from the coast for ce braveb Kautsky whose address, or such as I have, is of somewhat ancient date. The last one was that of some las-sie with a French name — a genuine accommodation address, I trust.
Yours,
F. E.
first time
168. Marx to Engels. 10 August
168
MARX TO ENGELS [7 2]
IN LONDON
[Argenteuil,] jeudi," 10 August 1882
DEAR FRED,
Next Tuesday Dr Feugier will be letting me know whether I am to quit Enghien for good or carry on as I have been doing for another day or so.
Unfortunately I must first — supposing I (and Laura) go from here to Switzerland (Vevey or some such place is recommended) — have an additional MONETARY SUBSIDY. For I discovered by chance that Jenny is under severe pressure from her LANDLORD (and it's no laughing matter here) for the rent, and today I had the utmost difficulty in getting her to accept enough money to settle the business.
Furthermore, I am hoping that Johnny will go to London with Tussy (the only opposition comes from Longuet, who doesn't care a damn whether it's a respite for Jennychen or good for Johnny), in which case I shall have to give Tussy some extra money to take the lad for a couple of weeks to the seaside in England. Monsieur Longuet's main objection to letting us have Johnny for six months is that, for reasons of health, Johnny ought to go to the seaside in Normandy whither he would accordingly be accompanied by Longuet to stay with OLD Madame Longuetb at Caen.
In fact, Johnny is running wild here and has, in France, forgotten such rudiments of reading, writing, etc., as he had. He has grown naughty out of boredom (i. e. [for want of] occupation) and gives Jennychen more trouble than the 3 younger ones.' Monsieur Longuet
does 'nothing' for the child, but his 'love' consists in not letting him out of his sight during the brief intervals when he himself is visible, for in Argenteuil he usually spends the morning in bed and leaves for Paris again at 5 in the afternoon.
In view of what lies ahead of Jennychen,[365] it will be absolutely impossible for him to restrain young Johnny. Tussy is AN EXCELLENT DIS-CIPLINARIAN and will bring him to heel again. So at least we can put paid to Longuet's 'objection' that Johnny cannot go to England (where Tussy would also send him to school) because he must go 'to the seaside'; he is to go 'to the seaside', but do so in England.
Aside from the aforementioned expenses, I shall not, after paying the doctorb and buying various necessities, have very much left for the trip from here to Switzerland. I hate squeezing you like this, but am forced to do so if I am not to come straight back to London.
Salut.
Moor
The announcement in the French, i. e. Parisian, newspapers, starting with the Temps, that Liebknecht was on his way to Paris, 'to establish contact with the German workers and visit the socialist, Karl Marx, who is now living at Argenteuil after his return from Algiers'," this note, I say, and the way it was couched, smacked of the 'police' and was too indiscreet even for Liebknecht. If he should still find me here, I shall tell him exactly what I think of his 'indiscretion' (it's all due to his wanting to make himself look important).
169. Engels to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 10 August
Dear Sorge,
Herewith receipt from the Egalité; I haven't been able to obtain a better one for you from that remarkably businesslike office. Since Laura Lafargue moved to Paris, we over here no longer see or hear anything of that paper. The amount paid was 14/-.
170. Engels to Marx. 20 August
The Labour Standard, 1 July-5 August, goes off today in 2 parcels. It would be madness for you to take out a separate subscription to the thing. I shall simply send you my copy instead of throwing it into the waste-paper basket.
Marx still at Argenteuil,[327] undergoing a sulphur cure in Enghien for chronic bronchitis. He still has to take considerable precautions against a recurrence of pleurisy. As for the rest, only the doctors know, or again they may not.
In great haste.
1906 and in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVII, Moscow, 1935
170
ENGELS TO MARX
IN ARGENTEUIL
Great Yarmouth,[366] 20 August 1882 10 Columbia Terrace
Dear Moor,
The money has been paid in so I went straight to the bank today and requested a draft for 1,200 frs. I hope to have it on Tuesday.
How did last Tuesday's* great medical examination gob? Not a word about it so far.
If there is any difficulty about the CHEQUE, just send it back and I shall then send you a draft on Paris instead. It was simply a make-shift arrangement.
171. Engels to Emil Engels Jun. 20 August
Pumps and BABY[3] are very lively; the little thing has already got two teeth. Schorlemmer leaves for Germany tomorrow week. The table is being laid so I've got to stop.
Your
F. E.
171
ENGELS TO EMIL ENGELS Jun.
IN ENGELSKIRCHEN
Great Yarmouth, 20 August 1882 10 Columbia Terrace
Dear Emil,
We have been here for the past 10 days,[366] Schorlemmer, Pumps, BABY[3] and I, and the fact that I haven't got round to replying to you until today can be blamed on the sweet indolence of a seaside resort.
First of all, I have written direct to Sam Moore recommending you to him and asking him to send you the address of his office in town (in the case of BARRISTERS these are called CHAMBERS), for I haven't got it here and during the daytime it is, of course, the only place where he can be found. You will find him an exemplary Englishman, possess-ing all the good qualities of his nation and none of the bad. Needless to say he is also a Social Democrat and also speaks German though it's a bit rusty. He will be happy to oblige you in any way, provided it is in his power to do so, and will be of more use to you than I could be. When one has been out of touch with the business world for nearly 13 years and with Manchester for 12,[367] one no longer has much influence over people for whom it is axiomatic that one hand washes the other. Moore, on the other hand, has only been out of touch with it for 3-4 years and still lives in their midst, so in his case it's more likely that something can be arranged. I, for example, don't even know whether the people I used to be connected with are still alive, whether they still own the same business, or whether they may not have sold up entirely. To introduce you to Ermen & Roby would be far more likely to do harm than good; those chaps certainly wouldn't show you their mill and would end up by telling all their other spinning and manufacturing acquaintances on the Exchange to be on their guard against you.
You won't get inside any mills making knitting or sewing yarns, because to my knowledge there are none in Manchester apart from Ermen & Roby. There is a variety of DOUBLERS of SEWINGS where all you will see are the old doubling machines; they sell the yarn untreated. How best to get inside a mill depends upon each particular case; on the whole I have always found that it works best if you make a clean breast of things to the people you've been otherwise recommended to and tell them who you are. To try and get what you want by trickery, as many German spinners have done, nearly always leads to your being found out and denounced to the others on the Exchange, after which you never get to see anything at all. People here compete with one another on a much grander scale than in Germany and the little dodges that are often appropriate enough over there, don't go down at all over here.
Schorlemmer will also be back there at the beginning of October and he, too, will be able to help you. More useful to you than anything would be a letter of recommendation from Ermen & Engels to a big German commission house who will surely be able to give you further help and also tell you in which particular instances it might be advisable to keep quiet about what you yourself are.
Well, that's enough for today. The table is about to be laid. Otherwise things are going very well here; the fine weather, Pilsener beer, sea air and sea-bathing have quite driven away the gastric catarrh I had on the Monday of your departure. Pumps and Schorlemmer send you their best wishes.
Your
F. Engels
172. Marx to Engels. 21 August
172
MARX TO ENGELS
IN GREAT YARMOUTH
Argenteuil, Monday, 21 August 1882 11 Boulevard Thiers
DEAR FRED,
The 'conversion into silver'a took place the day before yesterday.
The week beginning last Mondayb distinguished itself by abomi-nable weather: rain (at times cold), storms, sultriness; above all wet, while a 'water shortage' was 'officially' announced in Paris. Not even the Flood would have deterred the bureaucrats here from contriving an 'official drought' in respect of water for drinking, washing, domestic and industrial purposes, etc.
Yesterday, my last perambulation in the salle d'inhalationc and the pleasure of a bath and douche at Enghien, where I was also given my valedictory examination by Dr Feugier; result:
1. The bronchial râle much reduced; would have gone completely but for my ill-luck with the weather.
2. The pleuritic frottementd noise remains in status quo; an altogether predictable circumstance. At best, and this is by no means frequent, the after-effects of pleurésie may last for years. They are sending me to Lake Geneva, whence the weather reports have so far been favourable, since both doctores " are of the opinion that the last traces of my bronchial catarrh might well depart of their own accord there. Qui vivra verra.' The season, they say, is too far advanced for respiratory gymnastics in the mountains, and I must, above all, avoid the cold.
On this occasion I have been ordered to travel to Switzerland only by day and shall therefore have to stay overnight in Dijon and not be-take myself to my destination until the morrow. They are absolutely determined, of course, to obviate any pretext for a 'rechute'.B
Tussychen left last Wednesday with Johnny; we have had a letter from her; all went well. She intended to go to Eastbourne with Johnny on 19 August (Saturday). Because her pedagogic purposes demand above all that to begin with THE YOUNG MAN should be solely under her supervision, Tussy has chosen a seaside resort where he won't find any 'friends'.
Jennychen is, alas, poorly. What is more, present 'circumstances' [3 6 5] make rest and recuperation completely impossible for her.
Laura is ALL RIGHT, leaves with me tomorrow. Lissagaray's row with the Brousse gang [368]-has had one good result in that the latter no longer has a daily paper at its disposal. That diplomat Malon is keeping neutral vis-à-vis Brousse in this affair, since he (Malon) could not permit himself, vis-à-vis Rochefort, his editor-en-chef, to express sympathy for Brousse et cie in the Intransigeant (nor does he 'wish' he 'could').
Guesde and his party are gaining the upper hand. Best wishes to Jollymeyer" and Pumps. Salut.
'Moor'
Mr Longuet, with his usual tact, is fetching Roy to meet me at déjeuner^, in the course of 3 months the only day he could hit on for the purpose was today, when I have to pack, etc., etc.; in addition, I must pay a farewell visit to Dr Dourlen and, finally, would like to be on my own with Jennychen.
173. Marx to Engels. 24 August
173
MARX TO ENGELS
IN GREAT YARMOUTH
Lausanne, 24.August 1882 Hôtel du Nord
DEAR [Fred],b
Yesterday, on from Dijon to Lausanne,[369] wet and relatively cold. Nine o'clock at night arrived at Lausanne in the rain. First question I asked the waiter: 'How long has it been raining here?' Reply: 'Only been wet for 2 days' (i.e. since the day I left Paris). C'est drôle! c
Today we shall look round in Vevey, Montreux, etc., for somewhere to stay. In the meantime write to Lausanne, poste restante. I should like to have a timely supply of extra MUNITION so that some may always be available against any and every eventuality. Address letters to Dr Charles Marx, not Karl Marx.
Longuet remained true to his own self till the day of my departure. For during both my previous visits to Argenteuil,[370] Longuet kept promising the translator of Capital, that poor devil Roy, to arrange a meeting with me; on neither occasion was Longuet able to find a suitable time. And on this occasion, when Longuet again started to maunder on about my meeting Roy, I told him he might arrange it at any time during the last 4 weeks. Eh bien!d Not until the day of my departure when I had to pack, pay a farewell call on Dr Dourlen and still had a great deal to discuss with Jennychen, etc., does Longuet go off to Paris without my prior knowledge, pick up Roy and bring him back to déjeunerA (1 o'clock) in Argenteuil. There was a chilly north-east wind and, as a result of my obligatory CONVERSATION with POOR Roy in the garden, I caught cold. THANKS TO Longuet!
Apropos. A German who is Paris correspondent to a lot of bourgeois German newspapers wrote to me as my most humble and obe-dient servant, saying that, while honesty demanded I should know that he was not a Social Democrat, still less correspondent to newspapers ofthat complexion, people in all circles of German 'society' were
174. Engels to Marx. 25 August
anxious to have official news of my health; therefore requested TO INTERVIEW me at Argenteuil, etc.
O F COURSE, I DID NOT REPLY TO THAT SOFTSAWDER PENMAN. Love to all.
Moor
I shall go and see OLD Becker(1) and Wrôblewski in Geneva as soon as my cough has eased up again.
174
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LAUSANNE
Great Yarmouth, 25 August 1882 10 Columbia Terrace
Dear Moor,
Telegram just received [284]; a line or two on business in the utmost haste.
Your letter arrived on Monday evening,b but by then I had sent off to Argenteuil the money order received from A. Kayser & Co. on Hirsch fils ainé,d Paris, 1,200 frs à présentation.'' The very next day I wrote to Jenny,[284] telling her what was in the letter, and asked her to make sure it was forwarded. Paying it in from where you are will present little difficulty.
We shall be staying here for another fortnight — it suits everyone marvellously, save for Jollymeyer who sometimes gets rheumatism as a result of the weather we're having. On Monday' he's off to Ger-
175. Engels to Marx. 26 August
many. I shall accompany him to London and hope to bring Tussy and Johnny back here with me.
I wish you better weather than we have been having for the past 4 days, but as much benefit as we are deriving from sea air. The infanta
is developing a ravenous appetite and visibly gaining weight.
Warmest regards from all to you and Laura.
Your
F. E.
What do you think of De Paepe's firing his revolver at Duver-g e r [3] [7] [1] ? O GREEN EYED MONSTER ! b
C i .. . m i ? J • r H • iAvn A Published in English lor the irrst Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, &
Abt. Ill, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931 t i m e
175
ENGELS TO MARX
IN LAUSANNE
Great Yarmouth, 26 August 1882 10 Columbia Terrace
Dear Moor,
Yourc and Laura's letter arrived from Lausanne this morning, and I am using the lull momentarily prevailing in this room to write to you. This time it wasn't you who brought on the bad weather, but The New York Herald with its forecast of a depression. Whereas Tussy was able to attribute the previous bout of wet weather here to your undue proximity in Paris, we cannot but observe now that the latest change for the worse coincides precisely with your removal farther afield, and that on Wednesday eveningd we here were subjected to the same violent downpour as were you in Lausanne. This morning, too, there has been one shower after another, and there's still no sign of the 'FINER LATER ON' that was predicted.
An anathema upon Longuet and his tactlessness. But then, was it absolutely necessary, in a cold north-easter, to entertain Roy in the garden of all places?
The Egyptian campaign [355] is off to a good start. The Kölnische Leitung goes so far as to maintain that the FORTS of Alexandria were silenced in 2(1)/b hours and that the English had continued the bombardment for the remaining 5 hours simply with a view to destroying the city.— The rapid occupation of the Canal was nicely done, but as soon as I saw that upon embarking Wolseley had ostentatiously proclaimed the bombardment of Abukir to be his intention, the whole thing became clear to me and I was able to give Schorlemmer an exposé of the whole plan of campaign as presently being carried out. Since then I have seen from back numbers of the Kölnische Leitung that the plan to march on Cairo via Ismailia had already been common knowledge in London 10 or 12 days beforehand," so well had the secret been kept! The plan itself is still the most rational that could have been devised in the circumstances. However its execution won't be particularly rapid. Admittedly the clever English have sent field guns there, but not horses or mules for the teams. They are presently buying up mules in southern Europe and Africa. Ballons captifs* essential for reconnaissance in a flat, treeless country, were rejected, but are now being sent out belatedly. Reconnaissances in force were carried out against the fortified Egyptian position before Alexandria — senseless since no one is so stupid as to deploy in strength before a fortified position. The heroism at Shafuir is ludicrous — a five-hour engagement and 2 English wounded! Wolseley, who already has 30,000 men, is now calling for his third division, but this is still in process of mobilisation. And when it does arrive he will have barely enough in hand, once he has occupied Cairo and Alexandria, to clear the Delta and occupy the coastal towns. If Arabi is clever enough to parry each main blow and withdraw to Central and/or Upper Egypt, the affair could become extremely protracted. Apart from the fact that, given a somewhat early rise in the level of the Nile, a breaching of the dams can turn everything to water for the English. However, it is more than probable that the affair will be brought to a conclusion, not by military action, but by diplomatic collusion behind the scenes.
A nice little item: the merits of RED TAPE have been brought to light by C. W. Siemens in his capacity as president of the BRITISH ASSOCIATION.[372] The metric system was, after all, legalised in England alongside the existing one some years ago. Moreover authentic copies of the original metre and original kilogram were sent for from Paris. But if anyone wants to obtain an authentic, standard copy of these units from the appropriate authority, the latter informs him that the relevant Act of Parliament neither entitles nor obliges it to provide one. If, however, you sell by metres or kgs that have not been authorised by the aforementioned authority, that is FRAUDULENT and criminal. So this prudent little omission nullifies the whole Act and basta, you're back where you started. Moreover, Siemens maintains that, since the introduction of the metric system on the Continent generally, the damage done to English industry by its adherence to the old system has been enormous; a great deal of machinery, etc., he says, is no longer exportable, because built in conformity with units other than metres and kgs.
I hope that your cough has abated and that you, too, may get some better weather at last. Watch out when travelling by steamer. In the evenings it is often cold and misty on the water. You'll probably have to continue to take care of yourself until the spring and then, when you have finally got rid of your bronchitis, some respiratory gymnastics in the mountains will see us round the corner.
In Vaud there is a splendid wine called Ivorne which I highly recommend, especially when it's old. Then they drink Cortaillod, a red from Neuchâtel, which has a slight sparkle; the froth forms a star in the centre of the glass; also pretty good. Lastly Veltliner (Valtellina), the best wine in Switzerland. Besides these the petit" Burgundy, Macon and Beaujolais were pretty good in my day [3 7 3] and not dear. Take heroic draughts of all these varieties and, when bored for long spells by your peregrinations, reflect that this is, after all, the only way to restore your former verve; though it may lie dormant for a little while, the day will come when it will be only too necessary to us. My regards to Beckerb and Wröblewski if you see them.
176. Engels to Jenny Longuet. 27 August
Warmest regards from everyone here to you and Laura, who will be the recipient of my next letter.[2] [8] [4]
Your
F. E.
176
ENGELS TO JENNY LONGUET
IN ARGENTEUIL
Great Yarmouth, 27 August 1882 10 Columbia Terrace
My dear Jenny,
Many thanks for your letter. I should have been satisfied with a postcard. I am glad you opened my letter to Mohr and so took care of the contents."
I had a letter from Lausanne(1) and a telegram from Vevey[3] [7] [4] with theirc new address, Hôtel du Léman, where they seem to be inclined to settle down. As to Mohr's health I was really glad to have a cool and impartial report from you, Laura who saw him only a few hours, reported rather over favorably and Tussy on the other hand, on seeing him again at Argenteuil, was rather disappointed that no more progress had been made. I am quite of your opinion that we have every reason to be content with what progress he has made under the very unfavorable weather that has persecuted him so tenaciously, and after three pleurisies, two of which were so severe. I never expected that he would be able to pass next winter in England, and said so before he went to Algiers to Helen(2) and other discreet people. So that is no surprise to me; I am only disappointed that he will scarcely be able to come over before for a few weeks. Anyhow I am glad that the doctors are so unanimous upon this point, that will make him submit all the easier. A little more Enghien or Cauterets for his remnant of bronchitis and then a climatic cure on high ground in the Alps or Pyrenees will then set him completely up again ready for work. But as you say, all this would be upset by a relapse, which, however, is now unlikely especially with the experience he has gained.
My dear Jenny, I know all the fearful troubles you have had to go through and are going through even now. My thoughts have been often with you and I was sorry I could not find any way in which to make myself useful to you. You and Mohr were almost the constant subjects of our almost daily conversation when I called in the morning at Nim'sa for my Pilsener beer. But I know my brave Jenny will not lose heart and when you are over the next trial,b I hope and expect you will be able to arrange your household in a way that will give you some rest and peace.
You have no idea what a change has come over Pumps since she is here. She occupies herself with nothing but her baby,c dress, amuse-ments, pleasure trips, everything seems to have gone out of her head. And she treats the little one well, with excellent temper and patience, but then it is really a very good child, and even now while cutting two teeth, almost always laughing. Let us hope mother and child will continue in the same way.
Schorlemmer who sends his kindest regards leaves tomorrow for Germany, and I shall go to London with him for a day or two to look after business. We shall stay here for another fortnight unless driven away by the weather which has been exceedingly changeable since last Tuesday.d Poor Percy" who came last Wednesday seems to be destined to have a wet holiday, a bad lookout for a rheumatic subject. As for myself the sea air and bathing is bracing me up famously and I expect this winter I shall do some real work. .
Kind regards from all to Longuet and yourself and childrenr and best love from your affectionately
F. Engels
177. Marx to Engels. 4 September
177
MARX TO ENGELS ' (1)
IN LONDON
[Postcard, unsigned]
Vevey, 4 September 1882 Hôtel du Léman
DEAR FRED,
Laura will be writing to you at length about events, or rather the uneventfulness here, since we are living in the Land of Cockaigne.[374]
Like others, we have been for TRIPS on the LAKE.
On 3 1ST August I got Jennychen's letter enclosing your letter[284]
and the CHEQJJE which last I handed in at the local bank of Genton et Co. for encaissement* in Paris.
On 31 August, 1ST, 2ND and 3RD SEPTEMBER marvellous weather (too hot yesterday). Today wet and stormy; hope it won't degenerate into general rain. Odd that I should still be coughing; I think I'm the only person in Vevey who coughs; at all events I haven't met anyone else who does. My GENERAL STATE, however, is most satisfactory; with Laura I climbed not only to the top of the local vineyard, but also to the top of the much higher vineyard at Montreux, without feeling the slightest discomfort.
I was called on at our hotel by a M R Songeon, président du conseil municipal de Parisb; is one of the réfugiésc whom I knew in London in 1849-1850. He presented me with the official report made to the conseil municipal of Paris by the deputation (amongst whom Mr Songeon) it had sent to Rome for Garibaldi's apotheosis[375]; the thing is mainly concerned with 'Songeon's' own apotheosis, since he always acted as spokesman for the other French delegates. Also showed me a copy of Capital which is to accompany him to the sylvan retreat not far removed from here, whither he was wending his way.
So far the English haven't made such rapid progress in Egypt[3] [5 5] as Wolseley 'prognosticated'.
Mr Virchow, or so I see from the supplément to yesterday's Journal de Genève, has again demonstrated that he is far and away above
178. Engels to Marx. 12 September
Darwin, he alone, in fact, being scientific and hence also 'contemp-tuous' of organic chemistry.
[On the side reserved for the address]
Fr. Engels,, Esq.
122 Regent's Park Road, London, N. W., Angleterre
1913
178
ENGELS TO MARX
IN VEVEY
London, 12 September 1882
Dear Moor,
Postcard(1) and Laura's letter received. Am glad to hear you are having good weather at last and hope at will continue. We have been back here since Saturday; Tussy and Johnny spent a week at Yarmouth with us.
I remember Songeon very well; I often used to wonder what destiny might lie in store for that patronising, bonhomous countenance, until I eventually found it in the paper — chairman of the municipal council! That, in fact, was what was already written all over his face in 1850.
Many a bill on London from Genton & Co. has passed through my hands!
If you are planning to see something more of Switzerland, you could hardly take a better or more convenient route than that from Geneva via Berne to Interlaken and Brienz, thence over the Brünig Pass (only 3,150 feet up) to Lake Lucerne and, if you feel like it, from there to Zurich. It's an easy trip for a convalescent and would take you to some of the loveliest spots in Switzerland. You could make a longish halt at Interlaken and Lucerne or some other place on the shores ofthat lake. Morges, on Lake Geneva, is also a pretty spot and from it you get the finest view of Mont Blanc.
It is becoming increasingly evident that the Egyptian affair[355] was contrived by Russian diplomacy. Now that Gladstone has been sufficiently soft-sawdered by sweet 01ga,(2) he is to be entrusted to a wilier mentor for treatment of a more drastic kind. England has got to occupy Egypt in the midst of peace so that, in self-defence, poor old Russia may thereby be compelled to occupy Armenia, likewise in the midst of peace. The Caucasian army has already moved up to the border, and there are 48 battalions at Kars alone — a constantly mobile army, this. And in order to prove that Gladstone assents to the liberation of yet another 'Christian' country from the yoke of the UNSPEAK-ABLE TURK, this particular moment has been chosen for the ostentatious recall of the English commissions despatched to Asia Minor after the Congress of Berlin [3 7 6] to supervise the reforms, and for the publication of their reports which show that they have been fooled by the Turks and that everything remains as before, official corruption being ineradicable. Palmerston est mort, vive Gladstone! Vive Gambetta,b who would also have gladly put his seal to the Russian alliance in Egypt. Alas, the good old times are a thing of the past, and Russia no longer backs Russian diplomacy, but confronts it.
I'd be damned glad if I could come over and see you, but were anything to happen to me, even temporarily, all our financial arrangements would be thrown out of gear. There's not a soul here to whom I could give power of attorney or entrust what are really rather complicated cash transactions. Sam Moore would have been the only possible man, but he is away and these matters can only be attended to on the spot. Besides I had been hoping that you might come over, at any rate this summer, if only for a brief spell. It was obvious to me even before you left England and suffered your relapses that you wouldn't be able to spend next winter here, and I said as much to Lenchen. Now, having had relapses, it is absolutely essential for you to spend a winter that takes the form of spring, and I was glad when I heard that Dourlen and Feugier had said so unequivocally, and with one voice. Lonely though it is here without you, there's nowt as we can do about it, and everything must be subordinated to your making a complete recovery. But this also demands that finances be kept on an even keel, and I therefore consider it my bounden duty not to run any risks so long as this remains the case.
Hartmann" has invented and patented an electric lamp and has sold it for £3,000 to a stingy fellow under a no less stingy contract, so that it is exceedingly doubtful when and whether he will get his money. Meanwhile he has got himself another post — but for how long? It's difficult to make head or tail of his perpetual UPS AND DOWNS.
Best thanks for the Algerian presents brought back by Tussy. The dagger is genuinely oriental — no grass will grow where it's stuck into the ground. I shall have to obtain a stem for the pipe before I can try it out. Pumps is very proud of her Arabian bracelets. She is busy fur-nishing her new house which will probably take her another week. Her little girlb came on remarkably at Yarmouth. Johnny has been going to infant school since yesterday (in Grafton Terrace, opposite your old home).
Love from all to yourself and Laura.
Your
F. E.
179. Engels to Karl Kautsky. 12 September[7]
Dear Mr Kautsky,
You really must forgive me for having kept you waiting so long for an answer. I have had so many interruptions of every kind that finally, in order to get any work done at all, I had to give short shrift to everything of lesser importance and put aside all such correspondence as was not absolutely necessary. And since, with your colonial question,[377] you had set me a task that was by no means easy to tackle, your letters met with the same fate, and in the process the good Walter got overlooked.
Should Walter and Dr Braun come over here, I shall be glad to see them and whatever can be done for them I will gladly do. As for the rest, it will no doubt turn out all right. But what is Walter actually expected to study over here? That's what needs clearing up first of all. Socialism as such? No need for him to come over here for that, since it's to be had everywhere save in Austria and Germany; moreover, he will quickly exhaust that field, i. e. such literature as is worth reading. Economics? History? Of these he will find an embarras de richesses (1) at the British Museum — so much so, indeed, that a newcomer runs the risk of instantly losing his bearings. Natural science? That would mean lectures which are wildly expensive here. It seems to me that, before the chap is sent over here, a definite curriculum should be laid down for his studies — at least in outline — and if this were sent to me, it would be easier to judge whether it could best be carried out in this country or somewhere else. Without at least some knowledge of English, he would be completely at a loss here. It would, I think, be a good idea to get him to study French and English for 6 months beforehand, so that he could at least read a modicum of both before he went abroad. He should, besides, have some previous knowledge of history, geography and, if possible, also mathematics and natural science if he wants to study profitably. What the situation is in this respect I cannot know; but if it's at all unsatisfactory, it would certainly be better if you first got him to come to Vienna, so that he might acquire these things under the guidance of his friends and generally learn exactly how one sets about learning something thoroughly off one's own bat. Otherwise, here in London, it would, for the most part, be money down the drain. These are simply thoughts that have passed through my mind when pondering on the case and which may be completely irrelevant, but after all I know little or nothing about the young man's level of education, and that is why I considered it necessary to raise these points. If you let me know more about this, you will not be kept waiting for an answer. All things being equal I am, as you know, always in favour of getting ambitious young peo-pie to come abroad so that they may extend their horizons and rid themselves of the parochial prejudices which they must needs acquire at home.
You should not, by the way, count too much on Marx so far as Walter is concerned. He is unlikely to come home before next May, and even then he will probably have to take great care of himself if he is to get his work completed. In particular he is now strictly forbidden to talk overmuch, on top of which he has to spend his evenings quietly if he is not to have bad nights. In the daytime, however, he will, of course, be working. If one is trying to get rid of chronic bronchitis of many years' standing and ensure, after three serious bouts of pleurisy, not only that it disappears without trace, but also that it doesn't recur, and to do all this in one's sixty-fifth year, one has enough to contend with on that account alone.
You ask me what the English workers think of colonial policy. Well, exactly what they think of any policy — the same as what the middle classes think. There is, after all, no labour party here, only conservatives and liberal radicals, and the workers cheerfully go snacks in England's monopoly of the world market and colonies. As I see it, the actual colonies, i. e. the countries occupied by European settlers, such as Canada, the Cape, Australia, will all become independent; on the other hand, countries that are merely ruled and are inhabited by natives, such as India, Algeria and the Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish possessions, will have to be temporarily taken over by the proletariat and guided as rapidly as possible towards independence. How this process will develop is difficult to say. India may, indeed very probably will, start a revolution and, since a proletariat that is effecting its own emancipation cannot wage a colonial war, it would have to be given its head, which would obviously entail a great deal of destruc-tion, but after all that sort ofthing is inseparable from any revolution. The same thing could also happen elsewhere, say in Algeria or Egypt, and would certainly suit us best. We shall have enough on our hands at home. Once Europe has been reorganised, and North America, the resulting power will be so colossal and the example set will be such that the semi-civilised countries will follow suit quite of their own accord; their economic needs alone will see to that. What social and political phases those countries will then have to traverse before they likewise acquire a socialist organisation is something about which I do not believe we can profitably speculate at present. Only one thing is certain, namely that a victorious proletariat cannot forcibly confer any boon whatever on another country without undermining its own victory in the process. Which does not, of course, in any way preclude defensive wars of various kinds.
This business in Egypt[3] [5 5] has been contrived by Russian diplomacy. Gladstone is to take Egypt (which he is far from having or from holding, even if he had it), so that Russia may take Armenia; which would, according to Gladstone, be the liberation of another Christian country from the Mohammedan yoke. Everything else to do with the affair is pretence, humbug, prevarication. Whether the little scheme will succeed will soon become apparent.
With kindest regards.
Yours,
F. E.
Dr Sax has just sent me his book on Thuringia." Would you thank him for it on my behalf and tell him I shall reply as soon as I have read it.
My forwarding address is: Mrs P. W. Rosher, 122 Regent's Park Road; no inner envelope. It's Pumps who, incidentally, has already got a baby girl.b She doesn't actually live with me any more, but that doesn't matter.
180. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 13 September
Dear Mr Bernstein,
Nothing came of working at the seaside resort of Yarmouth —
E. Sax, Die Hausindustrie in Thüringen. - b Lilian Rosher 5 people in one room, including my niece(1) and her 4-month-old baby,b made it impossible to do anything, and work was dissipated in pleasure and the consumption of excellent Pilsener beer. But tomorrow I go into action, and there'll be no respite until the pamphlet is finished. [3] ' [8]
Your suggestion re a preface on Bismarckian socialism is quite all right so far as it goes, and up to a point accords with what I myself want. But this stuff could not be dealt with in a preface; it would make it far too long. Besides, I could do with more material on accident insurance, etc., especially the proposed legislation, without which I cannot manage.
I have been turning the matter over in my mind for a long time, and I can well see that something ought to be written about it. I now propose to write (for the Sozialdemokrat) a series of articles (each of which would constitute an independent whole) on the kind of bogus socialism now proliferating in Germany — a series which could subsequently be published in pamphlet form.[379] First part: Bismarckian socialism. 1. Protective tariffs. 2. Nationalisation of railways. 3. Tobacco monopoly. 4. Workmen's insurance. But for this I should have to have:
adc 2, a stock-exchange list giving the prices of the recently nationalised railways (Berg. Mark., Berlin-Görlitz, Berlin-Stettin, Märkisch-Posen) shortly before nationalisation and, wherever possible, the price paid by the state for these railways;
ad 4, the Bill as submitted to the Reichstag by Bismarck. If you can procure these things for me, I shall have sufficient material.
To this, I would, however, append a second part in which I would criticise a number of woolly ideas enfranchised by Lassalle and still echoed now and again by our people — e. g. the 'iron law of wages',[289]
'the full return to the labourer' (not labourers) 'for work performed', [3 8 0]
etc. To make a clean sweep here is even more necessary than it would be in respect of the first part, and if this annoys some of those Lassallean 'leaders' who have unfortunately come to be accepted,[381]
so much the better. Hence I do in fact regard the second part as the more important one.
On the other hand, there's no knowing whether it mightn't just suit the book of certain persons if St Ferdinanda were to be subjected to this kind of unbiassed criticism. It might be said, should anything of the sort appear in the party organ, that it was an attempt to provoke a split in the party and a breach of the long-standing compact with the Lassalleans. In which case the whole thing might be brought out in pamphlet form as soon as it was finished, without prior publication in the Sozialdemokrat.
So either the whole thing appears in the Sozialdemokrat, and subsequently as a pamphlet,
or it appears straight away as a pamphlet, or, for the time being, does not get written at all.
Voilà mon cas.b Well, you choose what you would prefer and, if necessary, consult one or two others. But once something has been settled, there must be no going back on it. I cannot expose myself to another dose of the unpleasantness occasioned by Most's protests against the Diihring.[382]
Incidentally, some very nice preparatory work relating to Bis-marckery and attendant phenomena has already been done in two articles in the Sozialdemokrat on the possible repeal of the Anti-Socialist Law. [3 8 3] I assume they are by Bebel; if not, the party can congratulate itself upon possessing another chap who is so splendidly capable of getting to the root of the matter and disregarding all considerations of a secondary nature, and this in a style at once so straightforward and lucid. The articles are first-rate.
What you say by way of an excuse for the flabbiness of various people in Germany is something I have already told myself on more than one occasion. Yet again and again we find the same old German want of character and backbone, coupled with the urge to play the role — vis-à-vis the philistine, not the worker — of a worthy, respectable citizen who is a very far cry from the dangerous ogre he is made out to be. These always turn out to be people who consider their modicum of education absolutely essential if the worker is not to emancipate himself but rather be liberated by them. In their eyes, the emancipation of the working class is attainable only through your eddicated mediocrity; how could the poor, helpless, uneddicated workers hope to achieve it on their own account?
I wrote to Kautsky yesterday. ' He tells me he has found some quite
181. Marx to Engels. 16 September
passable doctores philosophiae* there. If they really are passable, they would be most welcome.
Adolf Beust will be able to sing you the tune of 'The Vicar of Bray'.[384]
Kindest regards.
Yours,
F.E.
181
MARX TO ENGELS
IN LONDON
Vevey, 16 September 1882 Hôtel du Léman
DEAR FRED,
Just as I was about to write to you, the garçonb brought me the Journal de Genève with the news of Bebel's death.c It's frightful — the greatest misfortune for our party! He was a unique phenomenon in the German (one might say in the 'European') working class.
Your altruistic concern for me is unbelievable, and I am often secretly ashamed — but I won't pursue this theme any further for the present.
My plan, before I left Paris, was AT ALL EVENTS to spend at least October in London and to be together with you. Feugier and Dourlen also thought there could be no objection to this, should October prove passable. It might yet be so, despite September being wet. The ba-rometer rose here on the 8th, reached the top of the scale on the 9th, gradually fell right down to the bottom on the 12th, rose again on the 13th (having reached about the same level as on the 11th), then fell and has, since last night, been slowly rising again. Although GENERALLY throughout Switzerland there has been heavy rain and storms (many landslides and 'ACCIDENTS' resulting therefrom), the weather round about Vevey in particular has been relatively good (cold only by way of an exception in the mornings and early hours of the evening). This is why we have continued to stay here. The air is invigorating. Despite perpetual changes of temperature and humidity in the course of the same day, my sense of well-being is steadily mounting. My catarrh is, I think, no longer bronchial but has turned into the ordinary kind; but I shall not know this for certain until I get to Geneva where I shall consult a good German doctor, i. e. get him to auscul-tate me. But the trip you suggest,a delightful though it would be, is unlikely to be feasible in present Swiss weather conditions. This year's vintage would seem to be a 'flop'. Indeed, snow can already be seen to be falling — earlier than usual — on the montagnes de lab Dent du Midi; it's 'REGULAR' on the Jura.
The Bernese Bund has declared that as a military commander Wolseley almost surpasses the old Napoleon.
There's one snag about the goings-on with the Russiansc; it's quite possible that Bismarck would allow them — the last-mentioned — to commit themselves, but what we should see next would be 'consolation prizes' for Austria and COMPENSATION for the Prussian imperium. Thus Russian intervention in Armenia might lead to general war, and that is probably what Bismarck wants.
Apropos! The dagger, as you can no doubt see from the crudeness of the workmanship, is of Kabyle [3 8 5] origin. As regards the stem for the pipe, I brought 3 such — bamboo stems — with me (at the jardin d'acclimatation6 the pipes were provided with only one); I didn't want to burden Helen ' and Tussy with these stems which were too long for their malles, ' but was planning to bring them to London myself.
From Jennychen's letter — just received by Laura — I see that Longuet has gone to Aubin with Wolfg and Harry. Unfortunately Jennychen's health gives cause for concern, as I had already been told by the doctors (Feugier and Dourlen) in Paris. Jennychen anxiously awaits news of Johnny from London; she has had NO NEWS since Tus-
182. Engels to Marx. 18 September
sychen's trip to Yarmouth with Johnny. Indeed Laurachen is writing to Jennychen today and telling her that John is ALL RIGHT and has already started going to infant school, as we saw from your letter.a
Love to Tussychen, Lenchen and Pumps, AND NOT TO FORGET, MY
GRANDSON. b
We shall in any case write and tell you if we leave Vevey.
Your
Moor
Have not the Prussian scoundrels, by imprisonment, etc., been party to Bebel's death?
182
ENGELS TO MARX
IN VEVEY
London, 18 September 1882
Dear Moor,
Yourc and Laura's letter arrived at 9 o'clock in the evening; I at once went to impart what was necessary to Tussy and Lenchen.
We over here were also exceedingly perturbed by the false news of Bebel's death. [3 8 6] Since Saturday night there had been many indica-tions that it was false, and in the Justice, just received, there's a telegram from Liebknecht saying that, while Bebel had been dangerously ill, he was now on the mend.
At the same time I turned up most opportunely, the news having
183. Engels to Laura Lafargue. 20 September
just been received that Jenny had had a baby girl [3 6 5] and that everything was going as well as could be expected.
When you go away from Vevey, leave an address (poste restante or something of the sort) for letters. Will write at greater length tomorrow or the day after.
Your
F. E.
Love to Laura.
iqiQ Published in English for the first time
183
ENGELS T O LAURA LAFARGUE
IN VEVEY
London, 20 September 1882
My dear Laura,
I hope Mohr got my short note of the 18th.a Today, though under difficulties, I must fulfil my word to you. Have worked all day till six, then dined, now it's just nine, and so I am still a little under the influence of digestion, and besides Percyb is sitting in the room but fortunately has got hold of Joseph Andrews.c
Do I know Vevey? Why I was quartered there in September 1849 [3 7 3] for about a fortnight and know all the Swiss shore of the lake from Villeneuve to Geneva, the Dent du Midi and the Mont Blanc and all the rest. If I am not much mistaken we officers were quartered in your Hotel on the Quay. On the square under the trees, facing the lake, Willich used to exercise his two horses.
I am only sorry you cannot even partially follow the route I made out for you,a the Bernese Oberland in many respects beats the lake of Geneva hollow. But if Mohr is to try for a visit to England in October, it will soon be time for you to leave the Alps. I do hope there will be no risk to him in trying to come. Otherwise it would be folly. But let the doctors decide, as also about his winter-resort. Only if he is to come he ought not to drive it too late. We have had fine but rather cold weather, especially night and morning; yesterday rain all day, today dry but mostly dull. By the way, Mohr's statistics of the baro-meter[11] tally exactly with our experiences at the time at Yarmouth, only that we had a very wet day with the highest barometer, Tussy praying all the time for the stupid thing to fall again!
As to the star-foaming wine, that quality is the exclusive property of Cortaillod— the other Neuchâtel wines do not possess it as far as I know, nor are they so good.
I wonder who got up that foolish story about Bebel.c The Cologne Gazetted up to Friday last week0 (date of the Paris papers that reported it) knows or at least tells nothing about it. The thing looks as if it was a canard concocted by Mehring and worked at Paris by Hirsch. I may be on the wrong scent, but I should not be at all astonished if it was so. Who else should have so quickly put in the Bataille and in the Citoyen a necrology, in which (in the Bataille at least) an old speech of Bebel's was quoted that he was for lawful means exclusively? The fright we got was something awful. On Friday night two members of the Working Men's Society Tottenham St. [297] came and asked me, was it true? That was the first I heard. Tussy had the Bataille with the article mentioned above same night; the silence of the Justice might be explained by Longuet's absence. Hunting up German papers in the cafés was useless; the nos that could contain anything would no longer lie on the tables on Saturday. At last, Tussy (not I) got her Sozialdemokrat on Saturday night, and that was not only silent, but stated that Bebel was fit to go out again. To lose Bebel would have been irreparable. Where to find such another head not only in Germany but anywhere else? Where such theoretical clearness, such practical tact, such quiet determina-tion among the younger generation? Well, it's not true and the relief I felt when all doubt had disappeared, I cannot describe.
I am also extremely glad that Jenny has got over her crisis and that the result is the fulfilment of a wish long felt by many. [3 6 5] I believe she had a very hard time of it. No doubt Dourlen has provided her with someone to look after her, the people at 41 Maitland Park" make no doubt he has, and in that case the absence of the 'creator'b
might perhaps be a blessing.
Little Pumpsiac has the chicken-pox and is very restless and takes at last to crying. The whole affair will be over in a few days and would not upset her so but for two pimples having come out on her tongue which, together with the coming of two teeth, make her mouth feel rather painful. Otherwise everything all well.
Love from all to yourself and Mohr and from yours affectionately,
F. Engels
Bernstein writes that 'The Vicar of Bray' [3 8 4] has created a tremendous sensation.
Tussy had written three times to Jenny, since her return here, up to last Sundayl
184. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 22 September
Dear Mr Bernstein,
Herewith preface, chapters I and II. No. Ill has also been completed, as has a concluding note of some 7 pages on early German common ownership of land ('The Mark'). [3 7 8] But I want to revise it thoroughly once again and shall keep it here for a while.
The puff at the beginning is something I cannot allow. Because Lafargue was the editor of the French edition and Malon sent in a highly inadequate affair, Marx wrote this introduction[20] with Lafargue, which may have been suitable on that occasion. In a German edition edited by myself, that sort of thing simply wouldn't do. However, once Marx is back here I might at some time write a little pamphlet for you on the theme of German socialism from 1840 to '52. [3 8 7] It's got to be done some day. But Marx has got more than half the material, and God knows where he's tucked it away.
I would, of course, have to have both drafts of the Accident Insurance Act, ditto all the new bills of a social nature submitted to the Reichstag in the autumn.
The wholesale condemnation of indirect taxation had been mooted by us as far back as 1849 and '50, [3 8 8] and that's where Lassalle got it from. I have noted the other things you say about Lassalle. Certain points are open to objection, but that's neither here nor there. Lassalle as a.person simply doesn't come into it, but I cannot do otherwise than demolish the illusion that Lassalle was an original thinker in the economic (or indeed any other) field.(1)
I am glad to hear that the articles were written by Vollmar[383]; it shows how much he has come on. I quite agree with what you say about the Anti-Socialist Law. ' [6] We shall benefit only if the law is pure-ment et simplementb abrogated. And that will happen only if new life can somehow be injected into the German political puppet-show, and if something should happen immediately conducive to a revolution, a new era, [2 7 7] Russian constitution or something of the sort. In which case there can be no doubt that we shall obtain majorities everywhere where there are now strong minorities and, besides Saxony, win over all the larger towns.
As for the French, your plaint is the eternal one which everybody voices. They are governed by the moment, and by personalities. I don't read the Citoyen and do not get the Égalité at all regularly, nor do I know whether it still exists, so cannot have any real idea of what the chaps have been up to of late. But of one thing you may be sure — there can be no peace with Brousse. The latter is, and will remain, a consummate anarchist, his only concession being the admissibility of participating in elections; moreover he and Malon, by throwing the others out of the Fédération du Centre, [2 6 5] have intensified the struggle in the conduct of which Brousse is employing wholly Bakuninist tactics — slander, lies and every imaginable dirty trick. The tactics the others employ may on occasion be silly and childish, may fail in their objective and make it impossible for us foreigners to intervene on their behalf (as, indeed, we have regularly refused to do), but the fact remains that it has become impossible, once and for all, to do anything whatever in concert with Brousse. He will not rest content until his clique, 'Alliance'-fashion,[67] has gained control of the entire movement. Come to that, the whole of the 'workers' party', both factions included, constitutes only a small and dwindling portion of the Parisian working-class masses. The latter still continue to follow men like Clemenceau, against whom Guesde has conducted his polemic in a way that is far too personal and also quite wrong in other respects. Besides, Clemenceau is perfectly capable of development and might, given the chance, go much further than at present, especially once he has realised that what is entailed is a class struggle; true, he won't realise this until he has to. Now, Guesde has got it firmly into his head that Gambetta's république athénienne* is far less of a threat to socialists than Clemenceau's république Spartiate,(2) and hence wishes to prevent the latter, as though we or any party in the world could prevent a country from passing through its historically necessary stages of development; nor has he stopped to think that it would be difficult to attain socialism in the France of a republic à la Gambetta without having first passed through a republic à la Clemenceau. But in the absence of such an insight into the necessary historical context of things and hence into the probable course of their development, party politics cannot be pursued with success. However, I have thrown up the sponge and am leaving the chaps to their own devices. Nor will the Belgians get anywhere with their admonitions.
John Stuart Mill's niece and adoptive daughter, who contributed to the election fund, is called Helen Taylor and is not therefore the same as Ellen M. Taylor. Although both these Christian names mean Helena, they are two quite distinct persons.
I know absolutely nothing about Garcia.b From time to time someone from the club [8] comes to see me, and I shall ask about him when the occasion arises.
Apropos. How did the rumour about Bebel's death get into the Citoyen and the Bataille? It came as a tremendous shock to us over here — as it did to Marx in Vevey, where he spent 3 weeks,[374] and we had no means of verifying it until we got the Justice on Monday evening, containing a telegram with Liebknecht's démenti; for the information, or lack of it, in the Sozialdemokrat could not reas-sure us completely because of its having been published on the Thursday.— By now Marx will probably be on his way back to Argenteuil, though he might spend a few days in Geneva. He is better but the poor summer has undone most of the good work effected by the cure.
I would ask you to briefly acknowledge receipt of the ms., and also to send me the ms. with the proofs,— in a wrapper, of course. How long can I keep the remainder" here without causing inconvenience?
Kindest regards,
Yours,
F. E.
185. Engels to August Bebel. 23 September
Dear Bebel,
We have had a fine old fright on your account. A week ago yesterday, on Friday the 15 th " inst., 2 people from the Society8 came to see me at 10 o'clock at night in order to ascertain the truth of the report, which had already appeared (with obituary) in 2 issues of the Citoyen, that you were dead. I told them that it was highly unlikely but could say nothing definite. As I had a boring visitor sitting with me, who wouldn't go although I had ceased to utter a word, it was not until after 11 that I was able to hurry round to Tussy Marx and found her still up. She had the Bataille, likewise with an obituary, but with no details as to the source of the news which was, however, considered to be beyond doubt. Hence general consternation. The greatest misfortune that could befall the German party was at least a strong probability. That there should have been no mention of it in the English papers, exulting as they were over Egypt, [3 5 5] was only too understandable. Well, on Satu.day evening my Sozialdemokrat failed to arrive, which sometimes happens, but on Sunday morning I was lucky enough to discover that Tussy had got hers and, to judge by its contents, the news seemed highly improbable. To have consulted German newspapers in cafés would have been hopeless from the start, since they replace them each day. And so we remained in a state of the most excruciating uncertainty until finally, on Monday evening, the Justice arrived with an official denial.
Marx had just the same experience. He was at Vevey on Lake Geneva[3] [7] [4] and read the story in the reactionary Journal de Genève which naturally retailed it as being beyond doubt. He wrote to me the same day absolutely aghast.a His letter arrived that same Monday evening and so I was able to co /ey to him by the early post the happy news that the whole thing was an invention.b
No, old fellow, you won't be allowed to peg out on us at such a tender age. You're 20 years younger than I am, we have many a jolly battle ahead of us and, when we have fought them side by side, it will be your duty to stay in the firing line, even though I may have cut my last caoer. And, since people alleged to be dead are supposed to live longer, you, like Marx, [3 8 9] have now doubtless been condemned to a good long life.
But who in heaven's name brought this nonsense up — is that liar Mehring at the back of it again[390]?
Did you get my last letter — written some 2-3 months ago? The one in which I replied about the tamer elements in the party?c
Meanwhile you will have seen that your wish that I should contribute openly to the Sozialdemokrat has been met on several occasions. Moreover I yesterday sent off to Bernstein the first two of the three Dühring chapters which are to come out in German after the French edition[360] and which I have extensively revised and popularised. The rest is finished but I shall keep it here, provided it does not upset the printing arrangements, so that this, the most difficult section, can be thoroughly gone over again. An appendix will follow in the shape of a lengthy note on early German common ownership of land. When you go to quod I would advise you to procure from one library or another:
G. L. v. Maurer, Einleitung in die Geschichte der Marken-, Hof-, Dorf und Städteverfassung in Deutschland,
also his Geschichte der Markenverfassung in Deutschland. It is very necessary that someone in Germany should familiarise himself to some extent with the subject — a person capable of reading these things with an open mind and without ready-made 'cultivated' preconceptions. These are the chief works and a knowledge of them would mean that you would have extremely solid foundations to go on in any debate about landownership or agrarian questions.
Judging by the few articles he has written in the Sozialdemokrat (on the possible repeal of the Anti-Socialist Law), [3 8 3] Vollmar would appear to have turned out very well. I should be glad if this also proved to be the case elsewhere; we could damned well do with some efficient chaps.
Marx is slowly recovering from his three attacks of pleurisy. For his long-standing, highly troublesome, sleep-inhibiting bronchial cough he had recourse while in Argenteuil to the nearby sulphur springs at Enghien, but in view of the bad weather did not, out of consideration for his general condition, effect the complete recovery that would otherwise have been virtually certain. After that he went to Vevey for three weeks with Madame Lafargue, intending to leave there the day before yesterday, first for Geneva, then Paris and then, given passable weather, to come over here for a few weeks in October. Under no circumstances ought he to spend the winter in London, but whether in the south of England or elsewhere is for the doctors to decide. However I can tell from his letters that there has been a steady improvement, albeit hampered by the bad summer.
Where exactly are you chaps at this moment? It seems as though you have all been turned by the 'Lesser' [198] into a lot of Flying Dutchmen, just as Marx has been by his illness.
Give Liebknecht my kindest regards when you see him.
186. Marx to Engels. 28 September
The whole Egyptian affair is an act of vengeance by the Jews (Rothschild, Erlanger, etc.) for their erstwhile expulsion from Egypt under Pharaoh. [3 9 1]
Your
F. E.
Vorwärts, Nr. 44, 22 February 1910 and in full, in Russian, in Marx-Engels Archives, Vol. I (VI), Moscow, 1932
186
MARX T O ENGELS
IN LONDON
Paris,[392] 28 September 1882
DEAR FRED,
A letter from Laura in which I had enclosed a note [284] was accidentally left lying on the writing-desk at Laura's and so cannot be sent off before the post goes.[393] But in order that no time may be lost, I would again ask you to send me some bank notes from London as soon as possible {address as before to Argenteuil), in case Dr Dourlen, as I hope, allows me TO CROSS THE CHANNEL.
Today rain is pelting down from the so-called heavens, despite the fact that Alphand continues to fear a famine d'eau. *
At the same time, drop me a couple of LINES AS TO THE state of the weather in London.
Moor
1913
187. Marx to Engels. 30 September
187
MARX TO ENGELS [7 2]
IN LONDON
Paris, 30 September 1882
Dear FRED,
Just as I was on the point of leaving Argenteuil for here (i. e. la Gare" St Lazare), to wait for Laura, dine with her in Paris and return with her to Argenteuil, I was caught by the facteur-h with your letter [2 8 4] and enclosure. Laura will be arriving in ABOUT A quarter of an hour, PROBABLY with your letter to her.
Today I was examined by Dr Dourlen in Jennychen's PRESENCE. The r element muqueux' has disappeared; SOME whistling remains but I am well on the way to ridding myself of this persistent catarrh, the character of which has already changed considerably. My GENERAL habitusd
has, it appears, improved enormously in addition to which I have grown 'fatter'.
Under no circumstances does he wish me to spend more than a fortnight — 3 weeks if the weather is really fine — in London. He is less afraid of moderate cold than of a moist atmosphere. Nor, under any circumstances, am I to travel via Calais by the special night train, but go to Calais by day and not leave there till the day after, by the morning STEAMER.
For the rest, la campagne de l'hiver,c as he called it, should start early, in the Isle of Wight, Jersey, Morlaix (Brittany) or Pau. Otherwise he would sooner I didn't stay anywhere too far south except I.K CASE oh WEED, which is also why he had considered Vevey a better place for me than Montreux which is warmer. He assumes that normal temperatures, etc., will not suddenly rebel again in consequence of my arrival. Finally, he will not give me definite 'permission' to leave for London until his mind has been set at rest by the meteorological bulletins for the next few days. (French doctors are strongly prejudiced against the London climate.) He is now certain the cure will be complete, provided no mistakes are made. Hence I shall not get away before Tuesdayr at the earliest.
188. Marx to Laura Lafargue. 9 October
If the French government — AS REPRESENTED BY THE SWINDLING FINANCIER Duclerc — knew of my presence here (particularly in view of the absence of the Chamber), it might, even without Dr Dourlen's permission, send me packing, the 'Marxistes' and 'Anti-Marxistes' having, at their respective socialist congresses at Roanne and St-Etienne, [394] both done their damnedest to ruin my stay in France. Nevertheless, I regard it as some compensation that the selfsame Alliance gang — the Malons, Brousses, etc.— should have seen their hopes so sadly dashed in as much as (to use our Bruno'sa favourite turn of speech) the 'unspoken' innuendo, 'Marx is a "German", alias "Prussian", hence French "Marxistes[1]" too are traitors', could no longer cut any ice with anyone, nor yet dare make itself 'heard', even for a moment. C'est un progrès.b
Clemenceau has been seriously ill and has not quite recovered yet. He, too, took Capital with him from Paris to read while he was ill. It would now seem to be the fashion for FRENCH REAL OR WOULD BE'ADVANCED'
LEADERS —IF 'THE DEVIL BE SICK'. 3 9 5
Love to all, not forgetting Jollymeyer.
Moor
I shall write or telegraph before I leave France.
188
MARX TO LAURA LAFARGUE [72]
IN PARIS
[London,] 9 October 1882 41 Maitland Park Road, N. W.
Dear Cacadou,
The weather over here isn't bad, i. e. there are a few reasonably fine hours when the sun is shining brightly; for the rest a cloudy sky and occasional showers of rain; not cold generally speaking and the old, familiar fog only in the mornings and evenings.
Schorlemmer came up to London on Saturday,(1) just for a friendly reunion; he has got to return to Manchester this evening, since he has to 'perpetrate' a lecture there tomorrow. He sends you his kindest regards.
Engels is most annoyed at not having been sent the Egalité for many months past, nor is my copy of that paper now being despatched to London. How much is the subscription to the Citoyen, incl. postage to London? I forgot about it when I left Paris and shall send a MONEY ORDER immediately on hearing from you.
Yesterday we dined with Engels; Pumps was there too, OF COURSE, with her BABYb and Percy.c The BABY is very cheerful and her conversation livelier than that of her maman — at all events.
Yesterday evening Donkin came to see me, but won't be giving me a medical examination until later this week; he thought I was looking better. He considers the ISLE OF Wight to be the best place for me to stay during the approaching FOG TIME OF England.
Johnny is cheerful and, on the whole, 'HAPPY', although it's touching how often he speaks of his mamand and Harry. Under Tussy's guid-ance he has once again acquired the habit of washing himself from head to foot in 'cold water' every morning. His 'well-being' leaves nothing to be desired; going to bed regularly at an early hour (8 p. m.) also suits him. His learning has progressed as far as 'capital letters', likewise to deciphering the large Roman numerals on clocks.
I am most anxious that you should send me news of Jenny's STATE, personal and domestic. Is the Longuet FAMILY r back yet?
The great agitator, St Paul,'will, OF COURSE, again be enthroned on the heights of the Boulevard de Port-Royal.g Write and tell me about his ADVENTURES, but above all about yourself — how you are and how things are going.
My cough is still tiresome, but more as a MEMENTO that I have got to throw it off completely if I am to become ALTOGETHER fit for action again.
Lenchen and Johnny send their love.
Farewell, Cacadou, my trusty and beloved travelling companion,
OLD NICK
1958
189. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 20 October[3]
Dear Mr Bernstein,
I have long been intending to write to you i about French affairs, but have only just got round to it. Just as well, since it means that I can kill two birds with one stone.
1. St-Etienne.— Despite the well-meant advice of the Belgians, the inevitable has happened; the incompatible elements have taken themselves off.[394] And that is a good thing. In the beginning, when the parti ouvrier* was formed, it was necessary to admit all elements who accepted the programme; if they did so with mental reservations this would be bound to emerge later on. We over here have never been under any illusion about Malon and Brousse. Both were educated in the Bakuninist school of intrigue; Malon was actually one of those responsible for the foundation of Bakunin's secret 'Alliance' [67]
(one of the 17 founders). But enfin,(1) they had to be given a chance to show whether, along with Bakunin's theory, they had also sloughed off his practice. Developments have shown that, if they accepted the programme (and adulterated it, Malon having introduced sundry changes for the worse), it was with the mental reservation that they would subvert it. What was begun at Rheims [3 2 3] and Paris[337] has been completed at St-Etienne. The programme's proletarian class character has been eliminated. The communist considérants* of 1880[68]
have now been replaced with the Rules of the International of 1866b
which had to be couched in such elastic terms precisely because the French Proudhonists had lagged so far behind, yet could not be left out. The positive demands of the programme have been neutralised in that every locality may, whenever it wishes, formulate an individual programme for each individual occasion. Not only is the so-called party of St-Etienne not a workers' party — it isn't a party at all because it hasn't in fact got a programme: at most it is a Malon-Brousse party. The worst these two can reproach the old programme with is that it repelled more people than it attracted. That has now been put right: neither Proudhonists nor Radicals[396] can now have any grounds for remaining aloof and, if Malon and Co. were to have their way, the 'revolutionary pap' of which Vollmar complains[397]
would be the official expression of the French proletariat.
In all Latin countries (and elsewhere too, perhaps), the practice as regards congressional mandates has always been exceedingly lax. Many of these could not stand close scrutiny. So long as it wasn't taken too far, and so long as only matters of little consequence were involved, small harm was done. But the Bakuninists were the first to introduce this (initially in the Jura) as a regular thing, going in for expert mandate-rigging and attempting by this means to make their way to the top. Similarly now at St-Étienne. The preliminaries to the congress have been generally dominated by all the old Bakuninist tactics which stop at nothing — lies, slander, covert cliquism. That's the only thing Brousse is master of. These chaps forget that subter-fuges and the like, which may succeed in the case of small sections and in a small territory such as the Jura, will necessarily bring about the downfall of those who try them on in the case of a genuine workers' party in a large country. The apparent victory scored at St-Etienne will not be a lasting one and Malon-Brousse will soon be done for once and for all.
It would seem that any workers' party in a large country can develop only through internal struggle, as indeed has been generally established in the dialectical laws of development. The German party has come to be what it is through the struggle between the Eisenachers and Lassalleans,[269] in which, after all, the actual scuffles played a leading role. Unification only became possible when the gang of scoundrels deliberately cultivated as a tool by Lassalle had lost its efficacity and even then we were in far too great a hurry to effect that unification. [381] In France, those people who have admittedly relin-quished Bakuninist theory but continue to make use of Bakuninist weapons and at the same time seek to sacrifice the class character of the movement to their own particular ends, will likewise have to lose their efficacity before unification again becomes feasible. Such being the case, it would be sheer folly to advocate unification. Moral homi-lies are of no avail against teething troubles which, circumstances being what they are today, are something that has got to be gone through.
Come to that, the Roanne people stand in great need of constant and searching criticism. Revolutionary hot air and futile impetuosity are things they are all too often prepared to tolerate.
2. Citoyen-Bataille. As long ago as last summer, at a time when things were going badly for the Bataille, when its funds had been frittered away on advertising, etc., the capitalists had pulled out and Lissagaray had broken with Malon-Brousse, Lissagaray proposed to Guesde that the two papers be amalgamated, that they should both be editors-in-chief and each have the right to sling out three of the other paper's editors. Thus did Lissagaray think to rid himself of the hated Lafargue. This was unanimously rejected by the editors of the Citoyen. The Bataille continued to founder. Thereupon Lissagaray approached the proprietor (a Dutch FINANCIER") of the Citoyen, and negotiated the amalgamation behind its editors' backs in the hope that this coup de main would place them at his mercy. The reverse happened. The editors of the Citoyen continued to publish the paper without a day's interruption, and sued the proprietor for breach of contract. Lissagaray's coup was thereby foiled and he himself utterly put to shame, as he has himself admitted by having recourse to the extreme measure of challenging the 'lâcheb Lafargue', as he describes him in the Bataille, to a duel which, it is to be hoped, the latter will not accept under any circumstances.— That Lissagaray has ruined himself for good and all by this Bonapartist coup can be pretty well assumed. To go and risk the very existence of a paper at a moment when it is more necessary than ever to the party in their struggle against the St-Étienne faction and to do so in order to save one's own paper from
190. Engels to Laura Lafargue. 21 October
foundering, to change (had this coup succeeded) the character of that paper, no matter what the cost, and to change it, what's more, in alliance with the bourgeois proprietor and in the teeth of the editors, the representatives of the party,— that really is a bit too thick!
Should the enclosed be unduly strong, you must tone it down. [3 9 8]
What's the position as regards printing the pamphlet?[378] Marx is here (but secretly!) and will, I hope, be able to spend the winter on the English coast.
Yours,
F. E.
Since this letter is being sent off at 5 p. m. on 20 October, it should be in your hands by tomorrow evening or Sunday[8] morning.
190
ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE
IN PARIS
London, 21 October 1882
My dear Laura,
The day before yesterday we received from Paulb the two first nos of the transplanted Citoyen.c From the Justice we had already seen what a Coup de Jarnac [3 9 9] the noble-hearted Prospèred had tried to give the Parti ouvrierr; from the above two Citoyens we saw that le coup avait manqué et' from the stupid shot in the Citoyen et Bataille against He lâcheg Paul Lafargue' we saw that Prospère le sa-vait parfaitment,a and was reduced to unmask himself as what he really is, a Cassagnacquian spadassin. [40]° Of course Paul will not have been such a fool as to donner dans ce panneau.b
Now for two days there have not arrived either Citoyen, or Citoyen et Bataille, and today even La Justice is not to hand. We are therefore quite at sea. Has the Citoyen been stopped for want of funds after two nos, or has it merely been owing to the génie éminemment organisateur des françaisc that we have not received it? You know, in a crisis like this we ought to be regularly supplied with that information which we cannot obtain here. I have written a long letter to Bernstein yesterdayd about both Malon-Brousse and this last affair; but every day something may happen in Paris about which it would be important to communicate at once to Bernstein the correct version. How-can I do so without materials? Is it really impossible for the Parisian friends to do those things which are the most important to their own interests?
I heard from Mohr today that you have written to him and that Jenny is better. Mohr is very well on the whole, Donkin who examined him was almost surprised at the great improvement he found (barring the unavoidable remnants of the two later pleurisies); he thinks he can pass the winter on the English South Coast. He will have to go soon, we have a perfectly beastly wet day to-day — but warm — and when other people have fine weather we begin to have fogs.
I wish you could first pop in some Sunday evening and see the change. Mohr of course cannot go out at nights, so there is nobody but the Pumpses and now and then Helen.c The 'crimm' has entirely disappeared. The other day the great Loria called again. That evening Jollymeier happened to be here, and as we were all a little bit on, poor Loria had to undergo some chaffing, he asked Helen had she also studied political economy and told us he had tasted Moselle wine in Berlin but it tasted like sugar and water. Well, you can imagine the explosions. I appreciate, the poor pedant has enough of our 'sarcastic' company. Imagine he would not believe that you and Tussy were sis-ters and stared when he heard who your father was.
Today Signor Alessandro Oldrini called at Mohr's while I was there, but with a consistency of which I was very glad, he was not received. If Mohr had seen him, God knows how many Zanardellis would have followed.
The Pumpses are getting on very well, they have been a fortnight or so in their new house, but it is not yet quite furnished — for want of cash. The babya has had an abscess on the chest but is getting better. Charleyb and Miss Bevan have been married three weeks, I have not yet seen them since the happy despatch.
Now it is getting on fast for post-time and as I want you to have this letter tomorrow morning I must conclude. Kind regards to Paul and if you see them, Guesde and Mesa.
Yours affectionately,
F. E.
191. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 27 October[4 0 1]
Dear Mr Bernstein,
In great haste the finale of the Paris affair,0 for I can hardly suppose the Parisians send you these things — even we over here have to extract them from the chaps by force.
Well, the Citoyen continued to appear under its old editors, while Lissagaray edited Le Citoyen et la Bataille with the aid of two anarchists, Mais and Crié. On Friday evening Citoyen et Bataille made an attempt to have the Citoyen confiscated (by the police) on account of a Wanda Kryloff feuilleton, whereupon the proprietor of the old Citoyen, Blommestein, a Dutch financier and now Lissagaray's associé/ asserted his proprietorial rights. Having been warned in good time, they removed the feuilleton, and the police inspector who came to confiscate it had to go away discomfited. On Sunday, the editors of the Citojen et Bataille declared that, should further attempts be made to confiscate the Citoyen, they would resign en masse (all 3 of them). That same evening, Sunday, the Citoyen des deux mondes, as it had been called on legal advice, was confiscated for bearing an unauthorised title, again at Blommestein's behest. On Monday, i. e. Tuesday morning, it reappeared as the Citoyen international and called upon the editors of the Citoyen et Bataille to stand by their word and resign. Not them! Mais and Crié declared secretly that they at any rate would resign, but did not; Crié was arrested for alleged complicity at Montceau-les-Mines[402] and is now in quod.
In the meantime, since the editors of the Citoyen would have gone in daily fear of its being confiscated unless they changed its name, the paper has, for the past 4 days, been calling itself L'Egalité, alongside which the weekly Egalité is to continue appearing. Where they are getting the money from I don't know; it's 3 weeks since we had any news of the chaps. Nor did we get an Egalité today. But since your Frenchman's génie éminemment organisateur* manifests itself, especially in our friends' case, in organising the most tremendous disorder, one cannot draw any conclusions from that.
The attempt to kill the Citoyen with the help of the judiciary and police has stripped Lissagaray of the last remnants of his disguise. He has combined stupidity and baseness in rare measure.
Marx asks whether you could procure for him a copy of the Swiss Factory Act. [4 0 3] We should be greatly obliged if you could let us know in which year the Factory Act now in force in Germany was passed and whether it is a separate Act or part of the Imperial Trade Regulations. We should then be able to get hold of it. Marx needs it for the 3rd edition of Volume Ib and promises in return to send you something every now and again for the Sozialdemokrat. In a few days he will be leaving for the Isle of Wight where, provided nothing unto-ward happens, he will spend the whole winter (5 or 6 hours' journey from here).
Your MISTER Garcia is one of the many little democrats who scurry about London, and have a finger in every association. Their new central boss — or, as Stieber puts it, ringleader,[404] is a BARRISTER called Hyndman, a strongly democratic and ambitious man who unsuccess-fully stood for parliament in the recent elections. All these little folk have no one behind them but each other. They split up into all manner of sects and into a befuddled non-sectarian tail consisting of those who hail democracy in whatever guise. They are intent on impressing the world with their own importance. Hence the catalogues of unknown celebrities in Garcia's articles. In most of them there are good intentions and to spare, but likewise the intention to cut a figure. Hence I would advise you to treat the chap's letters with considerable reserve; after all, his principal aim is to elevate to the position of an important party a small clique which has, for twenty years, remained one and the same nonentity, if under various names and in a variety of guises. But, or so it seems to me, the Sozialdemokrat is not there in order to create a continental reputation for these busy nobodies. Herewith the card of one of the little associations of which Garcia is secretary and to which he recently invited me to lecture; I, of course, refused.
I anxiously await the material on Bismarck.a If Marx goes away now, I shall set to work in earnest and, should I become engrossed in a lengthier piece of workb which ought to have been finished long ago, I shall not be able to extricate myself at all quickly, and I should warn you in advance that in that case you will have to wait. If I had got the stuff.here, I could start in on it straight away and polish off this business first of all. Bebel promised but didn't send anything and now is actually bound for prison where Liebknecht already is, [4 0 5]
and there's absolutely no hope of getting anything from the others.
Encl. for Kautsky. Kindest regards,
Yours,
F.E.
192. Engels to August Bebel. 28 October[7]
Dear Bebel,
I have at last got round to writing — Marx has been back here for about 3 weeks and leaves the day after tomorrow for the Isle of Wight, so I have had no respite in which to do anything.
As regards Vollmar's articles,[383] I was particularly taken with the first one on account of its rightful dismissal of the wails emitted by those 'right wing' gentlemen who are clamouring for the repeal of the Anti-Socialist Law, ' [6] even upon conditions that would be worse for the party than the Anti-Socialist Law itself, provided this would enable them to go back to founding newspapers à la Gerichts-Leitung and hence to the old literary fleshpots of Egypt. [406] In my view it would be perfectly in order to point out to these people — and it was exclusively against them that the article was levelled — that a voluntary repeal of the Anti-Socialist Law might very easily be accompanied by conditions that aggravated the position of the party; to emphasise that the last way we shall rid ourselves of the Anti-Socialist Law is by begging and cringing.
Otherwise the question is an academic one so far as I am concerned. I believe that the Law will receive its quietus from the events which will usher in the revolution and which cannot be long in coming.
I read the second article pretty cursorily as there were 2 or 3 people with me who kept chatting all the time. Otherwise I should have detected, from the way he visualises revolution, the French influence and hence also, no doubt, my Vollmar. Your handling of this aspect has been absolutely right. [407] It is the longed-for, ultimate realisation of the phrase 'single reactionary mass'. [408] Here all the official parties combined in a lump, there we socialists in column; a great decisive battle, victory at one stroke all along the line. Things aren't that easy in reality. In reality, as you indeed point out, a revolution begins the other way round, in that the great majority of the people, as also of the official parties, band together against the government thus isolated and overthrow it and only after such of the official parties as still remain viable have reciprocally, collectively and successively brought about their own ruin, only then will Vollmar's great parting of the ways come about and with it our opportunity to rule. If, like Vollmar, we were to try and begin the revolution straight off with the last act, we should have a pretty rotten time of it.
I paid little attention at the time to the final passage on the new tactics — there's certainly a great deal of indictable stuff there if looked at in conjunction with the Penal Code. However no great harm can be done if someone occasionally goes a bit too far in this direction; as it is, they err all too often in the other. So if I have made too light of this passage you, or so it seems to me, have taken it too seriously; you will have seen from Viereck's jubilations in the Süddeutsche Post how the right wing is seeking to make capital out of your reply.[409] I don't believe our people in Germany would have accepted Vollmar's way of talking simply on the strength of his articles, though the proclamation he has called for, 'We are organising in secret', certainly deserves to be rejected.
I am eagerly awaiting the material on Bismarck,(1) but as you're both in jug, [4 0 5] no doubt I shall now have to wait some time. But if by then I have got my teeth into a different, longer work, which has also long been pending,b I shan't be able to break off, and Bismarck will have to wait.
In France the long-expected split has occurred.[394] The original association of Guesde and Lafargue with Malon and Brousse was probably inevitable when the party was founded, but Marx and I were never under any illusion that it could last. The point at issue is purely one of principle: ought the struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie to be waged as a class struggle, or ought it to be conceded that, in good opportunist (or Possibilist, as the socialist translation has it) fashion, the programme and the movement's class character be dropped wherever this would enable more votes or more 'supporters' to be won? Malon and Brousse have come out in favour of the latter, thereby sacrificing the proletarian class character of the movement and making a division inevitable. Well and good. The development of the proletariat takes place everywhere to the accompaniment of internal struggles, and France, which is presently forming a work-
193. Engels to Paul Lafargue. 30 October
ers' party for the first time, is no exception. We in Germany have passed beyond the first phase of the internal struggle (with the Lassalleans) and others still lie ahead of us. Unification is perfectly all right provided it works, but there are things which take precedence over unification. And when, like Marx and me, one has spent a life-time fighting harder against the self-styled socialists than against anyone else (for we regarded the bourgeoisie simply as a class and hardly ever took issue with individual bourgeois), one cannot feel unduly perturbed just because the inevitable struggle has broken out. I hope this will reach you before you go to quod. Marx and Tussy send their love. Marx is recuperating in fine style and, if there's no recurrence of his pleurisy, he'll be stronger next autumn than he has been for years. When you see Liebknecht in the 'Käfigturm',* as they call it in Berne, give him regards from us all.
Your
F.E.
193
ENGELS T O PAUL LAFARGUE (1)
IN PARIS
London, 30 October 1882
My dear Lafargue,
I should be glad if you would send the daily Egalité regularly to the
Editors of the Sozialdemokrat
Zurich, Switzerland.
In return, they will send you the Sozialdemokrat. The exchange — a daily for a weekly paper — may not be fair, but all the same it is you who will benefit. The idea is to keep the editors of the Sozialdemokrat in touch with what is going on in Paris and, as you yourself will realise, it is impossible for a + proletarian editorial board to subscribe to all the sheets that keep springing up and disappearing in Paris.
Up till now, the Sozialdemokrat''% chief source of Parisian news has been Vollmar, a German Reichstag deputy and ex-officer who was paralysed as a result of a wound. He is a friend of Malon's, so you can imagine the extent to which the latter has turned him against your party. To that end he has not only made use of the many mistakes with which you have unfailingly supplied him (an example being Léon Picard's absurd article about the Germans in Paris last September [4] ' °) but, as is his wont, has also told him one lie after another.
For all that, Vollmar is a good chap; in Germany he issued a pamphlet so impossibilist[383] that he will no longer be able to remain a Possibilist in France. It would be worth finding an opportunity to talk to him and get him to see the other side of the coin. I haven't got his Paris address, but it shouldn't be difficult to find.
In Zurich I am bringing out a German edition of Socialism: Utopian and Scientific with a great many addenda. [378] I shall send you some copies as soon as they arrive. The thing will be about twice as long as your translation.[20] Would there be any chance of publishing a new French edition based on this German one?
Again I repeat that, for you, it is of the utmost importance to keep the Sozialdemokrat informed; Bernstein could not be more willing, but from over here we cannot keep him in touch with things of which we ourselves are so often left in ignorance. You would do well to seek occasion to write to him, asking for information of some sort, etc. It is by such innocent means that Malon succeeds in ingratiating himself with others, means which you persist in ignoring. You should remember from time to time that Paris is no longer the capital of the world (which no longer has a capital) and less still the world itself.
Love to Laura. Yesterday Marx dined with me and in the evening we all had supper at his house, after which we sat together drinking rum until one o'clock, and today he has left for Ventnor.
Yours ever,
F.E.
194. Engels to Marx. / November
Dear Moor,
I trust all has gone well with you so far.[4] ' ' Two Egalités have gone off and 2 old Kölnische ^eitungs yesterday. This evening it's raining and blowing like fun here. Yesterday's brief debate about Maceo's extradition from Gibraltar discreditable to Gladstone & Co.[4] ' [2] Johnny had 2 teeth pulled out today with a totally unexpected heroism that surprised even Dr Shyman. No other news.
Wednesday evening.
Your
F.E.
195. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 2 and 3 November[4 1 3]
Dear Mr Bernstein,
Have still received no proofs[378] (just arrived 3/11). On the other hand, have had from Bebel the Accident and Health Insurance Bill of 1882, but not the earlier one [144] which represents genuine Bismarckian socialism, unclouded by parliamentary divisions. This I would much like to have, along, perhaps, with other matter relating to the Accident Insurance Bank; without it I can do nothing.[414] Many thanks for Marquis Posener.a I do not need all the details in respect of the remaining railways. The early or mid-1879 prices (before anything was known about nationalisation) would suffice. The difference between then and now would be proof enough of the way the state has bought up the bourgeoisie.
In many respects Lassalle was a good jurist and, moreover, had studied his Roman law of inheritance sufficiently to impress jurists by the extent of his knowledge. (Impress was a favourite expression of his; while contemplating the Rosetta Stone [4] ' [5] in the British Museum, he said to Marx: 'Should I, do you think, set aside six months in order that I may impress the Egyptologists?') In Germany all one has to do is elaborate some point in accordance with a particular theory, and the jurists of today have forgotten that the theory elabo-rated by Lassalle was lifted word for word from Hegel's Philosophy of Law and Historyh and, moreover, does not hold water if applied to the Roman law of inheritance; this did not evolve out of what Hegel called 'the will'; rather, it evolved out of the history of the Roman gens, the tribal kinship group about which, indeed, few jurists know very much. I only said, by the way, that I should be obliged to demolish the legend of Lassalle as an original thinker,c and that is absolutely essential.
I had not seen Lafargue's letter in the Prolétaired and shall certainly ask for it to be sent me from Paris, though I am unlikely to get it. If you still have it, I should be glad if you could send it me; you shall have it back. Incidentally, Malon had better be on his guard; Lafargue has a whole pile of compromising letters from him.
Picard's absurd article[4] ' ° has certainly been disclaimed in the Citoyen, as Marx saw with his own eyes. Come to that, the man who sent it to you, marked in blue, does not know French; he has under-lined as a chauvinistic remark of the Citoyen's a passage which Picard attributes to the exploiteurs bourgeois ... ligue des patriotes ... dont Gambetta est la tête'\ I have marked it in red. Picard enjoys pitting himself against Guesde and, by way of playing a nasty prank on the latter, smuggled the article into the paper; if a proper editorial department were a possibility over there, this nonsense wouldn't have occurred.
Now for the 'nothing short of creditable performance put up by the editors of the Citoyen in the affaire Godard'. [4 1 6] We happen to know all about this, Marx having often heard the tale when in Paris, both from those who had taken part and those who had had nothing whatever to do with it. Following an incident at a meeting Godard went to the editorial office of the Citoyen where he was accorded an amiable reception by Guesde who still has something of a soft spot — of B. personal nature — for his erstwhile anarchist brothers. In the middle of a quiet conversation Godard, with no excuse whatsoever, suddenly dealt Guesde a violent blow in the face. The others sprang to their feet, whereupon Godard, like the cowardly anarchist he is, took refuge in a corner — surely they would not ill-treat him, a.prisonnier*? And, instead of beating him into pulp, the childlike Citoyen chaps conferred together and decided qu'en effet il fallait le lâcher parce qu'il — était prisonnierb!! Godard left in a hurry, sad to say, unchas-tised. But the following evening, when most of the editors were known to be absent, a dozen armed (with cudgels, etc.) anarchists forced their way into the office and, with threats, demanded satisfaction of some kind or other. Massard, however, stood firm, and they had to retire empty-handed. But now the fédération du centre[265] was informed; for several evenings they placed working men on guard, and messieurs les anarchistes did not return.
But now I would ask you to give me some idea of the sort of thing the 'nothing short of creditable', etc., is supposed to have consisted in.
The whole gist of your letter points to the conclusion that you are not getting the Citoyen regularly and hence, apart from the Egalité and the Prolétaire, have to depend on the accounts provided by com-rades in Paris who, in turn, exclusively rely on the services of Malon and Co., in regard to whom their credulity would seem to have assumed no mean proportions. In my view, however, the party organ ought in no circumstances to allow its judgment of a workers' movement in a foreign country to be unduly influenced by comrades in that country's capital who are, after all, a shifting population. German associations abroad are unquestionably the worst sources of information on the movement abroad; they seldom command a bird's eye view and generally have their own particular connections to the exclusion of any others, which means that they are unable to participate in the daily life and development of the movement around them; finally, they persist in the belief that, even today, they are still of more than passing significance to the masses actually inside Germany. What would have become of our freedom to form an opinion of the English movement or non-movement, had we paid the slightest heed to the changing majority in the London Society 8? And are not the German associations in New York equally uncritical in their attitude towards the American labour movement? Every association desires above all else to be thought important, and will therefore — in the absence of a very energetic and intelligent leadership — fall an easy prey to any foreigner who knows the ropes.
Nor have you any other source, i. e. other than Malon at second hand, for your reiterated assertion that in France 'Marxism' suffers from a marked lack of esteem. Now what is known as 'Marxism' in France is, indeed, an altogether peculiar product — so much so that Marx once said to Lafargue: 'Ce qu'il y a de certain c'est que moi, je ne suis pas Marxiste.'a But if, last summer, the Citoyen was able to sell 25,000 copies and attain a standing such that Lissagaray hazarded his reputation in order to gain control of it,b would not this seem somewhat incompatible with the lack of esteem you insist upon? Even more incompatible, however, is the fact that the said lack of esteem does not prevent these chaps from enjoying an esteem so great as to enable them, after being chucked out of the Citoyen, to start up an important new daily paper the selfsame dayc and, supported almost exclusively by workers and petty bourgeois {ouvriers et petits industrielsA as Lafargue puts it), to keep it going for almost a fortnight despite harassment by the proprietor" of the old Citoyen, and find a capitalist with whom they will be negotiating the paper's1 fate — oui ou nons — tomorrow. The facts speak so clearly for themselves that Malon will doubtless have to swallow his 'lack of esteem'. However, so great is the 'esteem' in which Mr Malon himself is held that, upon his apply-ing to Rochefort for an increase in the fee he is paid for his Intransigeant articles, he received the reply: Je vous paierai plus si vous écri-vez moins.'h One of these days Malon ought to have a go at founding a daily paper in Paris without so much as a farthing in his pocket, and then he could show us just what the esteem he enjoys is capable of doing.
But enough. I have asked Lafargue to send the Egalité to the Sozialdemokrat by way of exchange," and today he writes to say he will do so, in return for which kindly send the Sozialdemokrat to the Egalité. Should the Egalité not arrive regularly, you need only drop a line on a postcard to P. Lafargue, 66 boulevard de Port-Royal, Paris.
As regards Vollmar's articles,[383] the first in particular, levelled as it was directly against those people who, cost what it may, are clamouring for the repeal of the Anti-Socialist Law,[16] was very good and hit the nail on the head. The second I read rather cursorily before a journey, with 3 or 4 people chattering around me. Otherwise I would not have taken the lenient view I in fact did of the excessively fervent language which, in conclusion, he advocates for use by the party. Bebel is right about this point [4 0 7] which, however, I think he takes rather too seriously. The real weakness of the 2nd article (which I did note, but attached little importance to) lies in its childish idea of the coming revolution which is to begin by the whole world splitting itself 'A Guelph! A Waibling!',[4] ' [7] into 2 armies — on one side ourselves, on the other the whole of the 'single reactionary mass'.[408] I.e. the revolution is to start with the fifth act, not with the first, in which the masses of the opposition parties stand shoulder to shoulder against the government and its blunders and thus win through, whereupon one after the other of the individual parties amongst the victors loses its efficacity and puts itself out of the running, until finally the mass of the people are thereby forced onto our side, at which juncture the decisive battle so much vaunted by Vollmar can take place. However, in this context the point was a subsidiary one; what mat-tered was the demonstration that, if the gentlemen of the 'right wing' were to have their way, we should indeed be able to rid ourselves of the Anti-Socialist Law on conditions which, while more detrimental to the party than the Anti-Socialist Law itself, would permit these gentlemen to publish sheets like the Hamburg Gerichts-Zeitung, etc., and pass them off as party organs. In this I agree entirely with Vollmar and have, indeed, written and told Bebel as much.b
Yesterday I took out in your name, 137 alte Landstrasse, Riesbach,
196. Engels to Marx. 3 November
a money order for 12/- = 15.10 frs in payment of Marx's and my subscription. Kindly remind me when this again falls due. Congratulations on entering your seventh thousand.[2]
Yours,
F. E.
In view of your amendment in the preface,(1) there is no longer any call for an allusion to the Wyden Conference,[4] ' [8] and I shall therefore delete it. Kindly send me.? fair proofs.[378] Proof will go off today or tomorrow.
196
ENGELS TO MARX
IN VENTNOR
[London,] 3 November [1882]
Dear Moor,
Postcard received[284] — we were somewhat anxious, not having heard how you felt on the day after your journey.— ALL RIGHT! Encl. letter from Lafargue — so Brissac, Picard and Bouis did after all waver for a moment! [4] ' h
You will have seen that Andrea Costa has been elected in Ravenna and that there was a republican majority in Norway.[420]
Herewith the Egalité and the latest DOINGS of two 'locals' in whom you have always taken an interest.
Your
F. E.
197. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 4 November
Dear Mr Bernstein,
T beg to confirm mine of yesterday's date. I also have pleasure in acknowledging receipt of your favour of the 1st inst. and make haste to reply to same.' As you can see, the old counting-house style is not yet quite defunct.— In fact I am writing straight away in order to save you a great deal of unnecessary trouble. It is most kind of you to hunt out and send all those books for us but 'as of now we have no real use for them'. For in the 3rd editiona Marx merely intends to bring the state of factory legislation up to date by making emenda-tions and additions; to that end he needs the text of the original Acts and nothing more. Secondary matters such as the protection of labour, lia-bility, etc., are not of importance for this purpose. And I wrote and told you yesterday what I still need for Bismarck[414]: the early or mid-1879 stock market prices of the last 6 railways to be nationalised, and the first reading of Bismarck's Accident, etc., Insurance Bills. If I need the latest edition of Salingb due to come out in the meantime (it was kind of you to advise me of this), I can get hold of it within 4-5 days.
I was quite glad to have your information about Garcia; after all, one never knows when one may not run into the man. What he says about agitation on the part of certain TRADES UNION chiefs in regard to the channel tunnel is quite true. They are the very ones who were always open to purchase by the radical bourgeois (under Morley) and on this occasion they have been joined by G. Shipton, the editor of The Labour Standard. There is absolutely no doubt that these people are in the pay of the Channel Company; they are not running up travelling expenses, etc., out of sheer enthusiasm. Admittedly it is a pretty innocuous business at present, but Shipton himself has now had a taste of bourgeois money, of course, and in view of his utter spinelessness and unbounded craving for popularity, this may lead to something more. He has lost his virginity and the other 'REPRESENTATIVE WORKING MEN', those who have grown grey in the hurly-burly, will doubtless take him completely in tow before long.
That you are being bombarded from Paris with pro-Malon anti-Guesde letters I willingly believe. But after all, the correspondent you cite pronounces himself an incompetent judge in as much as he admits writing under the impression of the current anti-German campaign and reproaches you for doing your duty as editor of the party organ, namely 'taking a bird's eye view', critical and all-embracing, of the affair and, unlike himself, refusing to be swayed by transitory and local events. And if, 2 months later, the man is still harping on this one unfortunate article[4] ' ° and permits his view of a significant faction of the workers to be determined by this one incident alone, does that mean that the party organ ought to proceed in an equally blinkered fashion? If there exists in Paris a whole lot of non-socialist and semi-socialist workers who vent their chauvinism on the hated Germans, is the Citoyen at fault? Certainly no more at fault than the German socialists in Paris if, when things come to a head, a whole lot of non-socialist German workers in Paris, London, New York or any other big American city accept a lower wage, thereby depressing the wages of the natives (in America even those of the Irish!) and bringing the German workers en masse into not altogether undeserved disre-pute? And, finally, if he found the article so hard to stomach, why didn't he object? A disclaimer did appear and admittedly it made pretty light of the matter, but Marx tells me that, according to the ten-ets of the Paris press, it was as adequate as any that is customarily issued in respect of an editor who has blundered, always assuming that no pressure has been brought to bear on the paper. But such pressure could have been brought to bear, and very simply at that. Had a letter of protest been drawn up and delivered to the office either by a single individual or a deputation, the editors would have had to take the matter seriously. Had the editor in attendance (it might even have been Picard himself) made difficulties, all that would have been required was the threat, that, if the letter failed to appear in the Citoyen on the following day, it would be sent forthwith to the Sozialdemokrat, in Zurich. If your correspondent did not know enough French, Vollmar was there; had the latter been absent, Hirscha would have gladly taken the thing on. If the chaps had acted in this way they
a Carl Hirsch would have earned themselves respect, taught the Citoyen a useful les-son and I should have been heartily glad. But to submit to it all like so many sheep and then give vent to cries of woe is typically German and has earned the Germans the contempt they deserve. If we had put up with that sort of thing from the French and English, if our people had behaved so spinelessly in Germany, where should we be today? Before the German socialists in Paris demand it is their view of the French movement that should prevail in the party organ, they must demonstrate, firstly, that they are at all capable of free and impartial criticism and, secondly, that they are able to stand their ground vis-à-vis the French. Neither of these things has happened.
As to the undesirability of a daily paper in Paris, I am unable to share your view. In Paris the influence of a weekly is confined to small circles; if one wants to influence the masses one must have a daily. We too were opposed to a daily when there was no prospect of getting hold of one and the childish emigration to Lyons took place in connection with the Emancipation.[208] Things are different now. The Citoyen and its editors have made a name for themselves in Paris, bourgeois papers of all complexions have been compelled to engage in dis-putations with it and been triumphantly dismasted and, were we now to lose the daily, it would be a signal defeat. The fact that it cannot be an ideal, perfect paper, that a spuriously democratic system of editing by comité often ends up with there being no editing at all, as in the case of Picard's article, in no way alters the case. Not long ago, however, Lafargue sent me the issues, some 20 of them, dealing with the split,[394] and it seemed to me that the paper was by no means so bad — apart from those aspects we have long criticised and which would be no different in a weekly. But in the view of anyone familiar with conditions in the Paris press a paper appearing twice weekly would be impracticable from the start; it would come still-born into the world. Either a weekly or a daily. And with the latter the former editors of the Citoyen undoubtedly now have a very considerable chance of succeeding, as is evident from their rapid transition to the daily Egalité which is already selling more than 5,000 copies in Paris.
Now for the Clemenceau MEETING. To assess this, like other things in Paris, by German standards, is quite impossible. When Gambetta was unable to make himself heard in his own constituency,[179] there were shouts of triumph from the entire radical and socialist press. The same thing has now happened to Clemenceau.[421] Clemenceau is a cool, calculating man, quite prepared to go further, when he sees the need for it, and even become a communist, provided he can be convinced: convainquez-moi donc!" And the workers in his constituency are employing a highly effective means of persuasion by demonstrat-ing to him that his seat is in danger. That may give a shove to his somewhat slothful study of socialism.
But who were the people who did it? Guesde & Co. on their own perhaps? No, the chairman was in fact Joffrin, Malon's friend and Clemenceau's future rival candidate in Montmartre! So our people were decent enough, as always hitherto in the struggle against the bourgeoisie, to vote for Malon's chairman and side with Malon's people. If we are to censure the attitude of the workers, Malon's people are far more deserving of censure than Guesde's.
The passage in the Citoyen simply says that these tactics should continue to be employed against Clemenceau; if they have been successful once, why not again? It remains to be seen whether the Prolétaire would be able to pay the Egalité in the same coin at meetings. Nothing I have witnessed so far has given me cause to believe that this would be so. But even were it momentarily to be the case, it wouldn't matter, and would be unlikely to continue for long.
And now a quick word or two before the post goes — otherwise this letter won't leave until Monday morning — on the campaign you have in mind with regard to the programme.[422] I consider it most untimely. The programme is a bad one, but no one discusses it any more. An amended programme requires that it should not be open to dispute. So long as delegates are not elected in public, therefore, so long as every mandate can be disputed, it would be better not to interfere with the programme unless absolutely necessary. An amended programme would give the right wing an excuse to set themselves up as the true faithful who have complete confidence in the old well-tried programme, etc. So think twice about it before sowing these seeds of discord among a party that is bound hand and foot.
The greatest danger to any political émigrés lies in the urge to be up and doing; something has really got to happen; something has really got to be done! And so things happen whose import one fails to appreciate and which, as one later realises oneself, had far better
198. Engels to Marx. 6 November
never happened at all. Might you and Vollmar be suffering from the urge to be up and doing? If so beware — of yourselves. With kindest regards.
Yours,
F. E.
Marx is in Ventnor, ISLE OF Wight[4] ' ' ; getting on well.
198
ENGELS T O MARX
IN VENTNOR
London, 6 November 1882
Dear Moor,
Today I got a note from Laura in which she tells me that the fate of the Egalité will not be decided until tomorrow[423]; prospects, however, are most favourable.
Have you seen today's Standard? Telegram from Frankfurt(1) to the effect that, since Ignatiev's arrival in Paris, there have been renewed attempts — initially, it would seem, of a fairly lukewarm kind — at a Russo-French compromise: if France were to do something more about the extradition of dynamiters,[424] Russia for its part would vigorously back up France in Tunis, Egypt, etc. So that explains the police campaign in France! We shall see if anything of a relevant nature is submitted to the Chambers.
Lafargue has sent me the Prolétaire containing the indictment of himself, Guesde, etc., which was read out at St-Etienne.[425] A truly Bakuninist concoction, but otherwise weak: its strongest props are mutually contradictory letters, written on the spur of the moment by Lafargue to Malon, and calmly reproduced by the latter without, it would seem, any fear of the same being done to his letters by
199. Marx to Engels. 8 November
Lafargue. Nor is he wrong; these gentlemen have made opportune use of their material and were Lafargue then to come out with Malon's letters, it would be moutarde après diner.* I shall send you the thing tomorrow. But you must let me have it back for the sake of Bernstein, against whom I may well make use of it. In place of what I asked for, or along with it, the latter has proposed to send a small library of books about factory legislation, something which I can only hope I have nipped in the bud in good timeb; I expect to get the Swiss Factory Act [4 0 3] any day now and shall order for you the latest German trade regulations which contain the provisions for factories. No other news here.
Your
F. E.
199
MARX TO ENGELS [7 2]
IN LONDON
[Ventnor,] 8 November 1882
DEAR FRED,
What do you think of Deprez' experiment at the Munich Electricity Exhibition?[426] It was almost a year ago that Longuet promised to procure Deprez' works for me (notably his demonstration that electricity makes it possible to convey energy over considerable distances by means of a simple telegraph wire).[427] For a close friend of Deprez', Dr D'Arsonval, is a contributor to the Justice and has published this and that about Deprez' investigations. Longuet, as is his wont, is always forgetting.
I greatly enjoyed looking at the 'PAPER' you sent in which Sherbrooke and Rivers Wilson parade as 'TRUSTEES IN LONDON FOR THE BOND-HOLDERS'.[428] In yesterday's Standard, HOUSE OF COMMONS DEBATES, Gladstone was severely rapped over the knuckles on account of the said TRUSTEES,* since the above-named Rivers Wilson also occupies a senior (i. e. well-paid) position in the English PUBLIC DEBTS administration. Gladstone, clearly much embarrassed, at first attempted TO POOH-POOH [the matter] but, upon notice being given of a MOTION of censure over Rivers Wilson, Gladstone mendaciously denied all knowledge of the Galveston and Eagle etc. Railway Co. OUR SAINTLY GRAND OLD MAN b is playing a role no less glorious over the 'extradition' from Gibraltar.412 It was not for nothing, one recalls, that this same Gladstone, together with one Graham, etc., underwent his apprenticeship in the captious official oligarchy under Sir Robert Peel.
No one could be better suited for the clumsy, lying, stupid equivo-cation and lame excuses that characterise the Egyptian affair than Sir Charles Dilke.[429] He has neither the pietistic casuistry of Gladstone, nor the quizzical levity of the quondam' Palmerston. Dilke is simply an ill-mannered parvenu who imagines himself great by reason of his boorishness.
Since I take The Standard here, I too discovered therein the telegram from Frankfurt to which you allude."
Apropos. I should be glad if Bernstein could send me the Jahrbuch containing the article by Oldenburg (at least I think that's what the author is called) on my theory of value.' Although I don't actually need it, it would nevertheless be better if I had before my eyes what was argued at the time. When I wrote to the little Dutch parsonr the whole thing was quite fresh in my mind. Since then there has been all the business of my illness and also the loss of my wife — a long period of intellectual twilight.
A violent wind rages ceaselessly here, particularly of an evening and at night; first thing in the morning it's usually wet, or at any rate GLOOMY; during the day there are always fine intervals which have to be snatched; at the same time the weather is unsettled, capricious. Last Sunday,6 for instance, at 4 o'clock, I went up onto the Downs where I walked along the cart-track past Bonchurch, the topmost of whose houses, ascending in terraces, are almost on a level with the track (the lowest are right down by the sea); the track goes meander-ing on, sometimes up, sometimes down, between the hilly part of the Downs and where they dip down to the sea. (When I was here last time with Tussy [234] I didn't venture up as far as the track.) Here one can spend hours sauntering along, enjoying hill and sea air at one and the same time. It was as warm as summer; the sky pure blue, with only small, translucent white clouds; all at once a cold shower, SKY SUDDENLY OVERCAST. To this, no doubt, I owe the muscular rheumatism (af-flicting the left side of my chest, close to the old corpus delicti") which on Monday night became so severe that on Tuesday, overcoming my reluctance, I sent for a doctor. In reply to my questions, my OLD SPIN-STER MacLean told me that there were 2 doctors who called at her house. *The greatest, the most fashionable man-was 'J. G. Sinclair Coghill, Physician to the Royal Hospital for Consumption'.* I asked * whether he be the old fogey whose coach I had had the displeasure of meeting almost daily before the door of her house. Indeed,* he was the man. For he comes to see a permanent lodger here, an *old lady 'with whom nothing serious it was the matter', but 'she liked to see the doctor at least 3 times in the course of a week'.* This johnny I de-clined. However, the 2nd doctor who was consulted by her other lodgers was, she said, a young man called Dr James M. Williamson. It was him I called in; * indeed he is a nice young fellow, nothing priestly about him.* In fact, he could prescribe nothing save a LINI-MENT for me to rub in. (So long as this muscular rheumatism persists it will hamper me, inducing as it does a feeling of discomfort, especially when I cough.) For the rest, he is apologetic about the bad weather. As regards the cough which has, particularly of late and also while I was in London, assumed an increasingly irksome, spasmodic character, I am my own health officer and hope I shall soon rid myself of it without the aid of a DOCTOR of medicine.
In order not to be too dependent on capricious variations in wind and temperature when loitering out of doors, I am again forced to carry a RESPIRATOR with me, in CASE OF NEED.
A great commotion has been caused here by a letter that appeared in The Standard* and the Globe TO THAT EFFECT that Ventnor is a CENTRAL HEAD OF TYPHOID FEVER and that a number of persons have fallen victim to it of late. Official and unofficial replies to this 'LIBEL' have now appeared in the local press. But the funniest thing of all is that the Ventnor municipal panjandrum wants to start a LIBEL-CASE against the writer of the letter!
Salut.
Moor
200. Marx to Philipp Stephen King. 9 November[3 3]
1 St Boniface Gardens
Dear Sir,
I enclose Post Office Order for £4,10,10 (cf. your Fol. L. 83), your note having been sent over to me after my return from the continent. Please forward me the Reports etc. (see the other page) to my present residence at Ventnor. Please also send to the same address your monthly parliam. lists until my return to London. I do not know the title, nor the time of the publication, of a recent Report on the London Bakehouses the which, at all events, has been published in the spring or the summer of this year. You would oblige me by getting it for me.
Yours truly,
Karl Marx
P. S. King, Esq.
1) Reports of the Inspectors of Factories for the years 1877-1882. 2) Agricultural Returns of Great Britain etc. for 1881 and 1882. 3) Agricultural Statistics, Ireland, General abstracts for the year 1880-1881 and the year 1881-1882.
4) Statistical Abstract for the United Kingdom. The numbers: 28 and 29. 5) Reports of the Commissioners of Her M's Inland Revenue for the years 1874-1882. 6) The last edition of:
Alexander Redgrave: Factory and Workshop Act, 1878, with Introduction etc. (published by Shaw and Sons). [43]°
201. Engels to Friedrich Adolph Sorge. 9 November
Dear Sorge,
I have paid for The Labour Standard up till 3 December, 4/5d., and advised Shipton to send all future accounts to me.[431] Should you wish to cancel the subscription, perhaps you would let me have prompt notification.
Marx was here for 3 weeks, very much better; all he needs now is decent air and careful treatment. His minor ailments have been van-quished to the extent that he will certainly be rid of them next summer. The main thing is to get him through the winter without a recurrence of PLEURISY, and for that reason he has gone to Ventnor in the ISLE OF Wight[4] ' ' whence I have just received a line or two from him.a
So far as circumstances permit, the 3rd editionb will now be taken vig-orously in hand there and won't, I trust, occupy too much time. For the rest he was very cheerful and sprightly and, if all goes well until next autumn, he will be stronger than he has been for years.
My thanks with regard to Lilienthal. I now know the man as well as if we had been at school together.
I'm glad to hear that your Adolph0 is getting on well; I trust he will soon find a LINE that will give him the opportunity he wants of getting on quickly. His letters have arrived but, like many others, unfortunately still remain unanswered.
Hepner is a proper Schlemihl [432]; moreover his campaigns, like the one he is waging against Schewitsch, are too much concerned with hair-splitting. Who, after all, is going to wax so enthusiastic about 'German culture'! He really ought to familiarise himself with American culture first. But that is typically German. Here we have someone arriving from a small town in the depths of Germany who cannot wait to enlighten America. However America will BREAK him IN all right and, since he has talent, and at one time also possessed a great deal of gumption, he may yet prove very useful.
16 November
That shows you what things are like here. Having had to break off a week ago I have only today got round to continuing this and, I trust, finishing it off.
Lafargue has been in Paris ever since the spring; his wifell followed later, during the summer; she spent a month with Marx in Vevey.[374]
For Marx had first been in Algiers,[278] then in Monte Carlo (Monaco) [31]° and in both places had suffered a recurrence of PLEURISY. After that he stayed with the Longuets in Argenteuil[327] where he availed himself of the sulphur springs at nearby Enghien for his chronic bronchitis. Then to Vevey and finally back here.
You might like to know that Lafargue (with a great deal of assistance from me, since he had absolutely no intention of learning German from his wife) has published in French 3 chapters from my Anti-Dilhring (introduction and the two first chapters of Part III 'Socialism') under the title Socialisme utopique et socialisme scientifique.[20] It made a tremendous impression in France. Most people are too lazy to read stout tomes such as Capital and hence a slim little pamphlet like this has a much more rapid effect. I shall now publish the thing in German — with insertions calculated to give it a strong popular appeal; the ms. is already in Zurich and the first sheet has been printed.[378] I shall send it to you as soon as it is ready. Meanwhile you have, of course, in Dr Stiebeling a purveyor of popular knowledge to America in utraque lingua.* He is a well-meaning man but no theorist and accordingly he is somewhat muddle-headed.
The Egalité is now appearing daily and weekly. Whether the daily edition (in place of the Citoyen which our people were chucked out of thanks to a financial coupb) can keep going depends upon negotiations with a man of means. The Sozialdemokrat is being much too weak-kneed in regard to the split between our people and Malon, but the smooth, cunning, rascally Malon (one of the 17 founders ofBakunin's secret 'Alliance'[67]) has so ingratiated himself with the Germans in Paris and our people have made a number of such colossal blunders that the Paris people are doing their utmost to bring pressure to bear on Zurich. What's more, Liebknecht also intrigued with Malon when passing through Paris on his way home from here. If, however, Lafargue and Guesde commit some altogether too extravagant follies, I shall talk the Sozialdemokrat round, never fear.
Your
F. E.
Regards to Adolph.
1906 and in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVII, Moscow, 1935
202. Marx to Eleanor Marx. 10 November
202
MARX T O ELEANOR MARX [7 2]
IN LONDON
[Ventnor,] 10 Novembera 1882 1 St Boniface Gardens
* My dear Tussychen,
On the whole, I cannot at all complain of Ventnor. The weather was unsettled, tempestuous, alternately rainy, dry, sunny, chilly, etc., but with all that very seldom foggy, a good deal of pure air and, except [for] a few days, generally always a few hours fit for longer promenades. Yesterday and today the air rather cold, but from 11 to 2 o'clock on the sea shore (where children are playing, and reminding me of poor Harryb) and on our Undercliff walk,[234] and up to the railway station, and even to the down, no want of sunshine! *
You should not forget, dear child, that I was by no means quite ALL RIGHT when I arrived here. On the contrary: a spasmodic cough pretty well all the time, a great deal of sputum, increasingly unsatisfactory nights during the previous 2 weeks, no sense of well-being whatever. That couldn't change all in one day; rather a progressive change for the better.
Au fond* I was in fact glad to have had recourse to Dr Williamson for my muscular rheumatism before Donkin's PRESCRIPTION arrived from London (today). The rheumatism is really very close to the former seat of my ITERATED PLEURISY, but Dr Williamson was able to convince me by percussion and auscultation that ALL WAS STILL RIGHT — and had been since Donkin's last examination. The cough has abat-ed, but when he called today (his second visit) Williamson persuaded me to take yet another medicine; it would, he said, shorten the transitional period leading to the stage at which all I shall need to complete my recovery will be fresh air and plenty of outdoor exercise.
Under the circumstances I have not yet got down to any real work, though I have been occupying myself with one thing and another by way of preparation.
Do you have William Langland's Complaint of Piers the Ploughman?
203. Engels to Marx. 11 November
If not, you may be able to borrow it from Furnivall for me, or alter-natively, as it isn't dear, I could also buy it in the EARLY etc. series.[433]
Also would you see if you could find among the (old-style) Egalités (I mean the old weekly Égalité) on the table by my bed an article, or rather a report, on the encomiums of official economists in Paris with regard to cheap Chinese labour in Europe? I don't know whether this same matter of the Chinese was discussed in the copy of Malon's former Revue[43]* (the copy is behind the sofa on one of the shelves of my book-case). If so you might send it to me if you cannot lay your hands on the Egalité.
How is my Johnny faring? Cough gone? My love to him and Lenchen. And how is your health?
Finally, I must write to poor Jennychen. It distresses me; I fear that this burden is more than she can bear.[365]
Salut.
OLD NICK
203
ENGELS TO MARX
IN VENTNOR
London, 11 November 1882
Dear Moor,
I was able to show Tussy your letter[1] on the evening it arrived, for in the morning Lenchen and Johnny had gone to Percy's(1) OFFICE to watch the LORD MAYORS SHOW and in the evening we all foregathered at Pumps's for DINNER. Johnny was very charming and Pumps's gos-ling very well-behaved.
I am very glad you should have found a pleasant doctorb; it is always better if a convalescent has someone like that at hand, and what good can it do if every trifle must first be referred back here? I trust the rheumatism and cough are now on the mend.
Today I am sending you 2 Egalités and one weekly ditto. The manifesto of the (Lyons) Conseil national[4] [3 5] will convince you that the Lyonnais are still the typical louts they have always been. No further news about the progress of the negotiations with the Parisian capitalist,[423] so nothing would appear to have been settled yet.
The rudeness with which Dilke replies to awkward questions[4] [3 6] is indeed striking, but seems very much to the taste of the bunch of liberal parvenus who sit behind him. Well, they'll feel the cloture"*[37]
soon enough. The business in Gibraltar[4] ' (2) stinks more every day; the extradition was ordered, not only by the police, but also by a magistrate, i. e. a. judge, and the Governor reads about it in the paper and doesn't lift a finger! Meanwhile the Russians are encroaching more and more on Persia and Afghanistan and building roads to Meshed in Persia and from Samarkand via Bukhara to Balkh (the Bactria of the Ancients) in Afghanistan, while their intrigues in Turkey are such that not even Aleko Pasha, their protégé in East Rumelia, can swallow them. But neither big Gladstone nor little Dilke have any eyes for this. The Russians certainly have something in mind for next spring. But the kind of credit they enjoy will be evident to you from the announcement of the Poti-Baku Railway's Preference Loan. They have to use a company as a cloak and, moreover, on what terms!
Vollmar has opened his pro-Malon campaign in the Sozialdemokrat— Malon's promptings being instantly recognisable in the sac-charine tone of the apologia with which the article concludes.[438]
But what do you think of Wilhelm'sb panegyric of Bennigsen in the Justice? It's really laid on a bit thick, even for the worthy Wilhelm.
The Swiss Factory Act [4 0 3] also goes off in today's parcel. I shall ask Bernstein for Oldenburg's articlec at the earliest opportunity. Bernstein will probably think twice before writing to me; I made such good use of his own arguments to refute his conclusions concerning the French business that he is unlikely to find very much more to say.d
Now, with the closure of the debate, the House of Commons has sunk wholly to the level of a continental Chamber which, in view of its present composition, is the position best suited to it.
204. Marx to Engels. 11 November
I am very curious to hear more about the experiment made by Deprez at Munich.[426] However, I completely fail to understand how, in that case, laws for estimating resistance in wires hitherto regarded as valid and still applied in practice by engineers (in their calculations) can continue in force. Hitherto it has heen calculated that, given the same conductive material, resistance increases in pro-portion as the diameter of the conducting wire decreases. I wish Longuet could be induced to cough up those things. For this means that the vast and hitherto untapped sources of hydraulic power have suddenly become exploitable.
But now I must pack up the papers. All well here.
Your
F.E.
C i „ , ,„,„ , • (1) H • »./EVI A rubnshed in hnsrhsn lor the hrst Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, . [5]
Abt. III, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931 t l m e
204
MARX T O ENGELS [1 6 6]
IN LONDON
[Ventnor,] 11 November 1882
DEAR FRED,
I return the Prolétaire.' Difficult to say who is the greater — Lafargue, who pours out his oracular inspiration upon the bosoms of Malon and Brousse, or these two heroes, heavenly twins who not only tell deliberate lies, but deceive themselves into thinking that the outside world has nothing better to do than to 'intrigue' against them and, indeed, that everyone has the same cranial structure as the magnanimous twain.
Lafargue has the blemish customarily found in the negro tribe — no sense of shame, by which I mean shame about making a fool of oneself.
But it is time, if the journalb is not to be wilfully ruined and if they do not intend (which I can't believe) to let it go under as a result of proceedings taken by the government — it is time, I say, for Lafargue to put a stop to his childish bragging about the grisly deeds of his revolution of the future. But on this occasion he has been properly hoist with his own petard. Naturally alarmed because some denunciatory sheet or other, in defiance of police regulations, has reprinted hair-raising anarchist excerpts from the suppressed Étendard, thus making the latter seem 'more progressive' than Paul Lafargue, the licensed oracle of socialisme scientifique—alarmed at such revolutionary competition, Lafargue quotes himself (and he has, of late, acquired a pretty habit, not only of unloosing his oracles on the world, but of 'perpetuating' them by self-quotation) as proof that the Etendard, i. e. that anarchism, has merely aped the wisdom of Lafargue and Co., though merely with the intention of realising it prematurely, before the time is ripe. That's what sometimes happens to oracles; what they believe to be their own inspiration is, on the contrary and more often than not, merely a recollection that has remained stuck in their minds. And what Lafargue has written and 'quoted' from himself is, in fact, no more than the recollection of a Bakunian precept. Lafargue is, indeed, the last remaining disciple of Bakunin seriously to believe in him. He should reread the pamphlet he and you wrote about the 'Alliance',a and then he would realise whence he has derived this, his most recent ammunition. Indeed, much time has had to pass before he HAD UNDERSTOOD Bakunin AND, INTO THE BARGAIN, HAS MISUNDERSTOOD HIM.
Longuet as the last Proudhonist and Lafargue as the last Bakuninist! Que le diable les emporte!^
It's a fine day today, and I must go out of doors (it's only half past ten in the morning).
In my last letter, I told you I intended to get rid of my cough without the help of MEDICAL MEN. But Dr Williamson gave me to understand d'une manière autoritaire' that I must for all that be so good as to swallow my medicine. In fact, the brew has done me good; its main ingre-dient is quinine disulphuricum; the others — morphia, chloroform, etc., have invariably formed part of the brews I have previously had to swallow.
What's the position in regard to Hartmann's pangs qua inventora? Salut.
Moor
You'll have seen from the PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES in yesterday's Standardh that the 'worthy' Rivers Wilson has obliged to the extent of sorrowfully offering up on the altar of country his project, the TRUSTEE-SHIP he assumed in company with the magnanimous Lowe alias Sherbrooke.[428] A bitter pill for Rivers Wilson.
Abt. Ill, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931 r s t t l m e
205. Engels to Karl Kautsky. 15November
Dear Mr Kautsky,
I got your telegram at 3 p. m. today and at once replied by telegraph: 'Impossible'. Not having your home address to hand and necessarily assuming from the 'Reply paid' that the office of origin would know where to send the reply, I addressed the telegram simply 'Kautsky, Vienna'. Well, I have this moment, 9.30 p. m., received the enclosed slip. There is no possibility of tracing the letter with your home address, so all I can do is write to you at once in order not to miss the morning post.
If I am not to dissipate every bit of my energy again, and I have been doing this for years, I shall have to draw a very strict line so far as my journalistic activity is concerned — confining myself to the Sozialdemokrat and even then writing only when practical need arises
206. Marx to Engels. 20 November
or when, as in the recent case of Mehring's inanities,[346] it has to be shown that there is no hostility between the Sozialdemokrat and us over here. As a result of Marx's absence and illness, party correspondence with diverse countries has devolved exclusively upon myself, and that is a heavy enough burden anyway. So if I am to devote my ad-vancing years to the completion of my more weighty works,[439] it will be utterly impossible for me to contribute to your periodical," though I wish it every success.
The Darwin article in particular is an impossibility just now. I wrote to Bernstein saying he should have it as soon as I lit upon this subject in the course of my studies, and that might be months ahead; not that he is entirely blameless for he has encouraged me to work in a quite different field — one that I, too, consider to be more necessary. b So until I have slogged my way through that, returned to natural science and then progressed to zoology, there can be no question of it. To dash off a few commonplaces on Darwin would serve neither you nor me. For the rest I must confine myself, in view of the late hour, to thanking you for the various interesting reports on the situation over there and in conclusion sending you my heartiest congratulations on your engagement.c
Yours very sincerely,
F.E.
time
206
MARX TO ENGELS
IN LONDON
[Ventnor,] 20 November 1882
DEAR FRED,
By the end of this week (i. e. next Monday, 27 November) I shall be on my uppers. As I am supposed to advise you a week beforehand,
207. Engels to Marx. 21 November
I am now doing so. Before leaving London I paid ABOUT £ 5 to the
PARLIAMENTARY BOOKSELLER St. King and ABOUT £2 to Kolkmann (bookseller), but also spent £ 3 on sundry items.
Tussy and Johnny left me at ABOUT 3 O'CLOCK today in passable weather.
I am perturbed over the news from Paris; it's unpardonable that Lafargue, Guesde, etc., should permit themselves to be caught up in legal proceedings [4 4 0]; it could have been foreseen; the whole thing was simply occasioned by 'anxiety' over competition from the 'anarchists'! Puerile!
Salut.
Your
K . M .
1913
207
E N G E L S T O M A R X
IN VENTNOR
London, 21 November 1882
Dear Moor,
I was on the point of asking you how your reserves stood when your letter * arrived today. Encl. CHEQUE for £ 3 0 which you will be able to cash in the usual way. That being so, you will get the money on Monday, possibly even on Saturday or, if you're prepared to lay out 1/-on a telegram, as early as Friday.
Encl. 1. a mathematical experiment by Moore. [4 4 1] His conclusion, namely that THE ALGEBRAIC METHOD IS ONLY THE DIFFERENTIAL METHOD DISGUISED, relates, of course, solely to his own method of geometrical con-struction and to that extent is fairly correct. I have written to tell him [284] that you attach no importance whatever to the way in which one symbolises things in a geometrical construction, the application of the curves to the equations being, after all, sufficient. What's more, I went on, the basic difference between your method and the old one consists in your transforming x into x', i. e., making it a true variable, whereas the others proceed from x + h which simply represents the sum of two quantities but never the variation of a quantity. Which is why your x, even though it has passed through x' and reverted to the first x, is nevertheless different from what it was before, whereas if one simply adds h to x and then subtracts it again, x remains constant throughout. But then any graphic depiction of variations must necessarily be the depiction of a. past process, of the result, i. e. of a quantity that has become constant; the line x, the portion added to that constant, is depicted as x + h, two portions of one line. From this it clearly follows that a graphic depiction of how x becomes x' and then x again is impossible.
Further, 2., a letter from Bernstein which has just arrived and which I should like to have back.[442]
(I was interrupted by Pumps and the baby" so shall have to get a move on with this letter as I have persuaded myself that it must go off at 5.30.)
I don't know whether I ought not to fire a broadside or two at Vollmar for his doctoring of history à la Malon.[438] His suppression of the Marseilles Congress[443] is carrying the falsification of history a bit too far. If Bernstein fails to raise this in the notes on the final article, it will have to be put right.
I shall send you the Egalité as soon as I have read it. As usual, a letter Lafargue promised to write has not yet arrived. His public reply to the examining magistrate, in which he came the professor, was a childish affair.[444] These people are acting as though they were absolutely intent on being arrested. Fortunately the government is pretty rocky, so it's possible that they will still get away with it.
Tussy and Johnny arrived ALL RIGHT yesterday.
Your
F.E. First published abridged in Der Briefwech-Printed according to the original sei zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, _ . , . , , . „ ,. , ,. , „ c. ^ . inio J • r ii • ttt?r^ A Published in knehsh tor the hrst Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, . &
Abt. III, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931
time
208. Marx to Engels. 22 November
208
MARX TO ENGELS
IN LONDON
Ventnor, 22 November 1882 1 St Boniface Gardens
DEAR FRED,
CHEOJJE most gratefully received. Sam,a as you, too, immediately saw, criticises the analytic method as applied by me [44] ' in as much as he quietly sets it aside and instead turns his attention to the geometrical application, about which I said nothing at all.
I might similarly dismiss the development of the actual differential method as it is called — beginning with the mystical method of Newton and Leibniz, then going on to the rationalist method of d'Alembert and Euler and concluding with Lagrange's strictly al-gebraic method (still, however, emanating from the selfsame original premisses of Newton and Leibniz) — I might dismiss the whole of this historical development of analysis by saying that, in practice, no essential change has been brought about in the geometrical application of differential calculus, i. e. in geometrical symbolisation.
Since the sun is just coming out and this, therefore, is the moment to go for a walk, I shall not, pro nunc,h enlarge further on the subject of mathematics but shall, on some later occasion, return to a detailed discussion of the various methods.
Bernstein's information about the 'nationalisation' of the railways in Prussia is interesting.[442]
I do not share his views about the great size of Malon's and Brousse's organisation[445]; the analysis provided at the time by Guesde of the 'numerous' (!) delegation attending the congress of St-Etienne has not been refuted, but this would be straining at gnats/ The first decision to organise a genuine workers' party in France dates back to the Marseilles Congress[443]; at the time Malon was in Switzerland; Brousse WAS NOWHERE, and the Prolétaire — along with its trade unions — held aloof.
a Samuel Moore-b for the time being-c Matthew 23:24
209. Engels to Marx. 22 November
That jackass Amos — the mouthpiece of English officialdom in Egypt — has enormously impaired his clients' case by affording Keay, author of the pamphlet Spoiling the Egyptians, the opportunity for 'A REJOINDER' in The Contemporary Review.*[46] Prominent among those whom Keay has ground ever more deeply into the MUD are Rivers Wilson, Rowsell and Goschen, and with them the British Ministry.
Salut.
Moor
1913
209
ENGELS TO MARX447
IN VENTNOR
London, 22 November 1882
Dear Moor,
You will have received my letter of yesterday's date, with CHEQUE for £30.
Hartmann a was here on Sunday evening in a state of intense inventor's euphoria. His cell has been in action since Friday, operating a galvanometer with high resistance which at first registered more than 50° and is now steady at 46°. It would, he said, continue to run smooth-ly without further attention not just for three, but actually for six months or even a year. However, he had no intention of showing it to buyers because of as yet unpatented improvements. So my intervention was again required. I firmly refused and arranged for the matter — a perfectly simple one that presents no real difficulty— to be settled by Percyb (which it has), advising him [Hartmann] in future to supply his
Lev Hartmann - b Rosher English buyers with the article he had sold them and not something else, either better or worse. Whether it will do any good is another question. The chap's a fanatical worker; work and fanaticism are wearing him out; the only sleep he gets is between 3 and 5 in the morning, and he looks ghastly but is correspondingly well turned out and every time he comes here he is wearing a different suit. One of his new patent improvements is as follows: To protect the cell's caustic potash, KOH, against the carbonic acid in the air, and to prevent it turning into potassium carbonate, he poured oil onto the solution and, according to Percy, simply couldn't understand why this failed to do the trick, the combination of fat and alkali forming instead something that looked like soap and, indeed, was soap!
I have recently obtained SECONDHAND what I have long been looking for — a complete bound edition of Geschichtschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit, and guess from the sale of whose library it had come? — Dr Strousberg's! I found therein a passage in Plutarch's Marius which, seen in conjunction with Caesar and Tacitus," explains the entire agrarian structure.
The Cimbri 'had migrated, but not, as it were, all at one go, or in a regular stream; rather, they had always pushed on, year after year, during the good season and in this way had, over a long period, fought and battled their way across the Continent'.b
This passage, seen in conjunction with the Suebi's annual move to new lands, as described 70 years later by Caesar, reveals the manner in which the Germanic migrations took place. Where they spent the winter, there they would sow in the spring and, having reaped, would move on until winter brought them to a halt again. That they regularly tilled the land in summer (if they did not engage in rapine insteed) can be assumed with some certainty in the case of peoples who had brought agriculture with them from Asia. In the case of the Cim-bri, the process of migration is still in evidence; in Caesar it comes to an end, the Rhine forming an impassable frontier. Together, these two manifestations explain why, in Caesar, 'privati ac separati agri apud eos nihil estu': migration means that collective cultivation was only possible by kinship community, and to pace out individual fields
210. Engels to Marx. 23 November
would have been absurd. In Tacitus, the step forward — or, perhaps, back — to individual cultivation within the framework of common ownership has been made.
Tussy has sent me by hand various newspapers for onward transmission to you; with them, I enclose an Egalité. The Egalité's impertinence would really seem to have made an impression on the Parquet"; the addresses are still written in Lafargue's hand.
Kindest regards.
Your
F.E.
Abt. Ill, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931 l l r s t t i m e
210
ENGELS TO MARX
IN VENTNOR
London, 23 November 1882
Dear Moor,
Encl. letter from Lafargue which you might let me have back as I only got it this morning. So he will doubtless have to wend his way to the cachoth within the next few days. What incurable fools they are. If Guesde and Lafargue are locked up in Montluçon, the paperc will be pretty well done for. The government dare not bring them before a court in Paris, but may well take the liberty of quietly neutralising one after the other in the provinces. Until the paper had been firmly established, they ought not to have provided any pretexts for intervention; instead of that we have these Bakuninist antics.
I had asked Lafargue for information about the relative strength of the two parties and also about the Maret-Godard affair.[416] You see what he says. Obviously it was to please the Chambres Syndicales" and none other than Malon & Co. sacrificed the programme and the movement's entire past since the time of the Marseilles Congress.[448] His apparent strength is his real weakness. If you debase your programme to the level of the most ordinary TRADES UNIONS, you will clearly have no difficulty in obtaining a 'large public'.
Electricity has enabled me to score a minor triumph. You may perhaps remember my discussing the Cartesian-Leibnizian point of dis-pute in regard to mv and mv[2] as measures of motion.[449] What it boils down to is that mv is the measure of mechanical motion when transmitted by mechanical motion as such, whereas is the measure of motion when it changes its form, i. e. the measure in conformity with which it turns into heat, electricity, etc. Now, so long as the chaps in the physical laboratories had the sole say in electrical matters, the measure of electromotive force, the force regarded as representative of electrical energy, was the volt (E), the product of the intensity of the current (ampère, C) and resistance (ohm, R).
E = C x R.
And that is correct so long as electrical energy does not change on transmission into another form of motion. Now, however, in his presi-dential address at the last meeting of the British Association,[372] we have Siemens proposing an additional unit, the watt (hereafter W) which is intended to express the true energy of an electric current (i.e. as distinct from other forms of motion, vulgo energy) and whose value is volt x ampère, W = E x C.
B u t W = E x C = C x R x C = C(1)R. Resistance in electricity represents the same as mass in mechanical motion. Hence it would appear that in electrical as in mechanical motion the quantitatively measurable manifestation of this motion — on the one hand velocity, on the other intensity of current — functions, in the case of simple transmission without change of form, as a simple factor of the first power, while in the case of transmission with change of form, as a factor squared. Thus what I have formulated for the first time is a universal natural law of motion. Now, however, I must really go ahead and finish my dialectics of nature.
211. Marx to Engels. 27 November
All is well at your house, but the beer everywhere is rotten; only the German stuff in the West End is any good.
Your
F.E.
Abt. Ill, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931
211
MARX T O ENGELS
IN LONDON
[Ventnor,] 27 November 1882
DEAR FRED,
Enclosed Lafargue's letter. In my note to youa I had already given vent in advance to my vexation over Lafargue's and Guesde's foolish-ness, and thus discounted it. Inconceivable that anyone at the head of a movement could place everything at risk in so frivolous, to put it bluntly, in so inane a way—pour le roi de Prusseh\ Lafargue's article on the spellbound Ministry of Finance was very well done.[450]
As regards the Paris 'syndicates', I know from impartial reports I received from Paris (while staying at Argenteuil[4] [5] ' ) that the said syndicates are a great deal worse, if such a thing be possible, than the London TRADES UNIONS.
Your verification of the role of the second power when energy is transmitted with change of form is very pretty and I congratulate you on it.c
Salut.
Moor
212. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 28 November
Dear Mr Bernstein,
To begin with, my best thanks for the information about the nationalised railways. It is amply sufficient.[452] I have received from Bebel the Accident and Health Insurance Bills of 1882, but must, of course, also have those of 1881, the original wording [144] being precisely the one in which Bismarck's soul, filled with ardour for the poor, has ample space to flap its wings; in the second wording, in which the said wings have already been substantially clipped as a result of bourgeois divisions, we no longer find Bismarck in his entirety.
Marx used to get the Arbeiterstimme, but as he has probably failed to renew his subscription it no longer arrives.
Aside from a few minor points, Vollmar's article[4] [3 8] is pure Malon at one remove. In it the history of the French workers' movement since 1871 is completely falsified, and that sort ofthing simply should not happen. For instance, in the 2nd article Guesde is blamed for not having joined up with the few small cliques (later the progenitors of the Prolétaire or, in other words, the out and out coopérateurs against whom he was just then conducting a campaign)! As though the chaps who were subsequently to bring out the Prolétaire would have even considered admitting a 'non-worker'! But more falsified than anything else is what Deville has correctly depicted in the Egalité of 19 November {'Il y a cinq ans',* history of the Egalité), namely, the fight for the 'collectivist' programme[68] at the congresses and the victory of that programme in 1879 at the Marseilles Congress.* *[3]
This is completely suppressed in Vollmar's article. I cannot assume that Vollmar deliberately perpetrated this falsification, but nor is it any easier to explain his ignorance of the subject and the fact that he appears to know nothing at all about the French workers' movement save what Malon thought fit to tell him.
Hence, by omitting the Marseilles Congress, he suppresses the vital fact that the French workers' party had accepted the collectivist
'Five Years Ago'.
programme 3 years ago, so that Malon's abandonment of it was a def-initely retrograde step. Since it is now essential that our people in Germany should be told the story of the French movement, not as it ought to have happened to fit in with Malon's present requirements, but as it really did happen, this is something which must unquestionably be put right. In my view, the simplest way of doing so would be to relate it to the above-mentioned article by Deville, precisely because this is so utterly unpolemical. Should you no longer have it, I can send it you forthwith on a postcard.
Malon, by the way, had better watch out. Should we at any time wish to portray his faits et gestes3 more accurately if as minutely as he got Vollmar to depict those of Guesde, he would have a rough time of it. We still have all the documents in which, on 18 March '71, he dis-avowed the rising, only to join it after the event, when things were doing better than he had expected.
Now as regards the strength of the two factions, I have obtained a report on the subject from Lafargue.[453] In Paris the Roanne people have 15 groups with whose help they have kept the Egalité going for a whole month now, which does at any rate say something for the quality of these chaps. In the provinces they are, so Lafargue says, very strong. The Fédération du Nord [4 5 4] is, in essence, on their side; they do not wish to prendre part aux querelles des Parisiensh but they uphold the old collectivist programme which also features prominent-ly in their Forçat; the Roanne people are holding their next congress at Roubaix, to which all the delegates of the North will be going, and are constantly in the closest touch with the Federation du Nord. The other provincial workers' paper, L'Exploité de Mantes, has similarly printed the old programme together with the considérants'[455] in a prominent position. It reprints articles from the Égalité, and Deville is a contributor. This means that the only two workers' organs in the provinces are both on their side. 'En province',d aside from the North, 'partout où il y a un groupement ouvrier, à Reims, Epinay, Lyon, dans tout le bassin houillier de l'Allier, à Bordeaux, Angoulême, Rochefort, nous battons les Possibilistes qui n'ont de force qu'en Bretagne at à Mar-seille— et encore.' ' That Malon should obtain a wide hearing for the empty verbiage of his considérants without a programme is not surprising. But if one founds a party without a programme in which everyone can have a say, it cannot properly be called a party. The impotence of the old sectarians, for whom Malon and Vollmar show such tender regard, has been in evidence for years and it would be best to let them wither quietly away. As for the Chambres Syndicales " — well, if one is going to account a member of the workers' party every STRIKE association which, like the English TRADES UNIONS, fights solely for high wages and short working hours but doesn't otherwise give a damn for the movement,— then the only party one will actually form is one for the preservation of wage labour rather than its abolition. And, or so Marx tells me,b these Parisian Chambres Syndicales are for the most part even more colourless than the English TRADES UNIONS. TO abolish a party programme just to please these people is no way to spur them on. And has the like ever been seen before — a party without a programme, a party whose wishy-washy considérants (written wholly in the spirit of the communist Miquel, who likewise believed communism to be feasible in 500 years' time [456]) lead up to the conclusion that each group should concoct its own private programme?
Well, now, what benefit does Malon derive from the Chambres Syndicales? They pay no contributions, they send no delegates to the Federal Council, they were nominal members of the Union federative [265] before the split and have nominally remained so — they are, as Lafargue puts it, 'complètement platoniques''. They are there for show. As for Malon's other groups, Lafargue writes:
'Dans le XVII arrondissement nos amis ont organisé, après le congrès, un groupe qui immédiate-ment s'est trouvé composé de 29 membres. Pour nous faire pièce, les possibilistes ont subdivisé leur groupe qui, à ce que l'on me dit, ne se composait que d'une vingtaine de membres, en cinq sous-groupes réunis par un comité fédéral du quartier. Le tour est joli, mais ne trompe que les indifférents et ceux qui sont éloignés.''
That's just what the Bakuninists used to do. On the other hand, so Lafargue says, the Possibilists are really strong only in Montmartre, where they are also well-organised.
To be momentarily in the minority — quoad" organisation — and have the right programme is at least better than having no programme and a large, though almost entirely nominal and bogus, following. We have been in the minority all our lives and have thrived on it. And the comparative weakness (supposing it exists, which I am very much inclined to doubt — the Possibilists did not dare attend the Roanne people's conférence contradictoire^ on the two congresses[457]), the comparative weakness where organisations in Paris are concerned would be outweighed two or three times over by journalistic influence.
So how your Paris correspondents are able to regard the St-Etienne folk as the 'genuine workers' party' is beyond me. In the first place they are not a party at all, let alone a workers' party, any more than are the workers over here. But they are in embryo what those over here have become in full maturity, namely the tail of the radical bourgeois party. The only thing that keeps them together is bourgeois radicalism, for they have no labour programme. And as for those labour leaders who descend to manufacturing a docile labour vote for the radicals, they are, in my view, downright traitors.
Your remarks also led me, just for fun, to ask about Godard.[416]
The said Godard, 'qui se dit anarchiste comme son maître Maret, écrit dans un journal opportuniste de Toulouse'.' To refuse a chap of this kind what is known as a rectification is quite in keeping with the customs of the Paris, as of any other, press.
On the other hand our friends have again perpetrated a really colossal bloomer in as much as they have, by their rrrevolutionary brag-ging, exposed themselves to prosecution before the paperd had found its feet. Guesde has been arrested, as you know, and Lafargue will probably soon follow in his wake. When both are in jug, the most active— not only writing, but fighting — men will have been got out of the way. Deville is lazy, Massard quite good for his post aï secrétaire de la rédaction, ' but they are hardly the people to keep a paper going in difficult circumstances. I won't mention the other 3 — Brissac and Bouis, old Communards, are so much ballast, and Picard is a common-or-garden journalist.
Whatever you do, by the way, don't allow anyone to persuade you that Guesde and Lafargue intended, 'by hook or by crook, to make
213. Engels to Marx. 30 November
all organisations subject to their own directives'. It is a constantly recurring catchword in Bakuninist tactics, and in other contexts in France it may always be resorted to in lieu of other arguments.
Treatment of other countries in the Egalitê\ If only you knew what disorder reigns and what the standard of German is like in that office! Should Lafargue remain at large, you would do best always to address yourself to him; he does at least forward the things. Otherwise I have no advice to offer.
If you want to use the resume of the pamphlet,[378] I am quite agreeable. The concluding note will follow shortly. The affaire Schmidt[458] is very nice. Pollaky has been running a private detec-tive's office in London for some time. In the directory, under the heading INQUIRY OFFICER (of whom 18 are listed), there is an entry: 'Pollaky, Ignatius Paul, 13 Paddington Green, W. (not at all far from where I live), Correspondent to the Foreign Police Gazette."
I trust my congratulations on your attaining your 7th thousand[3]
will again prove outdated. I, for my part, am 62 years old today.
Kindest regards.
Yours,
F.E.
213
ENGELS TO MARX
IN VENTNOR
London, 30 November 1882
Dear Moor,
Encl. a letter from Bebel[459] received today. The 'mystery' which he is unable to understand all of a sudden and which may release them from the Anti-Socialist Law, ' [6] is, of course, the outbreak of the crisis in Russia.b Curious that none of these people can get used to the idea that the impulse might come from that quarter. And it is not as though I haven't explained this to him more than once. I regard his hopes for a new major crisis as premature — there could be an interim crisis as in 1842, and Germany, the most backward country indus-trially, which must content itself with the crumbs that fall to it from the demand of the world market, would certainly suffer worse than any other.
Guesde was released in Montluçon immediately after the first hearing, and neither Bazin nor Lafargue was arrested; on the contrary, Bazin published in the Egalité a letter to the chief of police of his arrondissement, objecting to the mouchards* that sniffed round his house and advising him of the times at which he could be arrested at home.(1) Those chaps have more luck than sense. I shan't be able to read the Egalité until after the 5.30 post has gone; so it will reach you tomorrow by the 2nd post (2 nos).
I have obtained, second-hand, Vom Entstehen und Untergange der polnischen Konstitution vom 3. Mai 1791, 1793, place of publication not given. This is the book you have mentioned so often[460] in which the infamies perpetrated upon Poland by Frederick William II are described at length. Cost one whole mark!
Hartmann's battery for lighting 6 Swan incandescent lamps is expected to be ready tomorrow. If the thing proves a success, i. e. provides a steady light over an extended period, hence actual proof of the constant intensity of the current, it will at once.be exhibited in public and a company 'founded' to exploit it. Hartmann will also be showing sundry items at the Crystal Palace*[61] where a new electrical exhibition is shortly to be held. He and his backer, whom Percyc found for him, are highly enthusiastic about the invention.
All well here.
Your
F.E.
214. Marx to Engels. 4 December
214
MARX TO ENGELS [7 2]
IN LONDON
[Ventnor,] 4 December 1882
DEAR FRED,
Herewith Bebel's letter[459] which I found most interesting. I do not believe an industrial crisis will supervene as soon as all that.
The weather in November was good on the whole, though very changeable. The first days of December alternated between bitter cold and a nasty, damp mugginess. Today it is fine, but I am nevertheless condemned to remain in my room. In the last few days I have suffered from hoarseness (certainly not due to talking) and an unpleasant sensation in my gullet; I have also been coughing more and not sleeping very well, despite my long, regular and constant walks. Hence I have again called in the doctor.(1) These gentlemen cannot be shaken off so easily! It is only a tracheal catarrh, but all the same he thought I ought to keep within doors until the inflammation has gone. Besides giving me some soothing medicine to take, he has ordered me to inhale vapour of benzoin (with something else added— seems to me something like chloroform). Today he again auscultated and percussed me — for the 3rd time since my arrival— and found that everything was otherwise in order. He will drop in again in a few days' time to see if I can be released from my confinement.
What is remarkable about the stuff in the Plebe concerning my theory of value is the rubbish talked by all 3, Laveleye, Cafiero and Candelari,[462] in mutual opposition l'un contre l'autre.b In the quotation concerning my aforementioned theory of value which Candelari adduced from Malon's Histoire critique de l'économie politique, Malon's superficiality is such that it actually surpasses that of all 3 smatterers.
* I hope that all right in 41, Maitland Park Road. *c I was ex-
215. Marx to Engels. 8 December
pecting a line or two from there, but I know that POOR Tussy OVER-WORKED.
Salut.
Moor
1913
215
MARX TO ENGELS
IN LONDON
[Postcard]
[Postmarked Ventnor, 8 December 1882]
Returned herewith Prolétaire received today, containing account of Shipton & Co. [4 6 3] (whom, incidentally, Lafargue praised to the skies in the selfsame Egalité because of a collection made for a FRENCH'STRIKE'. That's what happens when every momentary STIMU-LUS immediately causes him to turn in some 'predestined' direction).
In your last postcard [284] delivered today, on the other hand, you mention a Prolétaire, sent me by mistake and to be returned to you, which never arrived here." It should have come yesterday or today, or at least within the past week, but quod nonb—perhaps it has got lost in the post?
The Sozialdemokrat ought to procure some material (detailed) on the treatment of workers in Prussian state mines, etc., to help define the nature of Wagener-Bismarckian state socialism.
Salut.
Moor
216. Engels to Marx. 8 December
[On the side reserved for the address]
F. Engels, Esq.
122 Regent's Park Road, London, N. W.
216
ENGELS TO MARX (1)
IN VENTNOR
London, 8 December 1882
Dear Moor,
What happened about the Prolétaire was this: when I recently sent you a parcel oi Egalités and Kölnische ^eitungs, I also meant to send you the TRADES UNION Prolétaire[463] and supposed I had included it. Somebody was in the room while I was packing up the parcel and I did this rather hurriedly. Finding next day that the TRADES UNION Prolétaire was still here, but not the other containing the Saint-Etienne skulduggery,[425] I thought I must have sent it you twice over. Now, looking around by the light of day, I have found it — still in the original wrapper in which you returned it, this being undoubtedly the reason why I couldn't find the same.
From your postcard to Tussy,[284] I see that you are still confined to the house — which is all to the good considering the snow we're getting and the wet slush on the ground; but no doubt we shall soon have better weather (not the very best, but better than at present). During your first winter in the north since your attack of pleurisy you will have to resign yourself to tracheal affections of a milder kind; only next summer's cure will be able to scotch those.
In order to get the parallel between Tacitus' Germans" and the American Redskins sorted out at last, I have gently been making excerpts from the first volume of your Bancroft.h' The similarity is, I must say, all the more surprising in that the modes of production are so utterly different — on the one hand fishermen and hunters and no stock-breeding or crop farming, on the other migratory stock-breeding overlapping with crop farming. It just goes to show how, at this stage, the method of production is less crucial than is the degree to which old blood ties and the ancient mutual community of the sexes within the tribe are being dissolved. Otherwise the Tlingits in what was once Russian America could not be the exact counterpart of the Germans — probably even to a greater extent than your Iro-quois.[464] Another puzzle which is solved here is how placing the main burden of work on women is perfectly compatible with great respect for those women. In addition, I have found confirmation of my assumption that the jus primae noctis," originally found in Europe among the Celts and Slavs, is a survival of the ancient sexual community: in two tribes, widely separated and not of the same race, it is still exercised by the shamans as representatives of the tribe. I have learned a great deal from the book — enough for the present as regards the Germans. I shall have to save up Mexico and Peru until later. For I have returned the Bancroft and, in exchange, taken the remaining things by Maurer,[465] all of which are therefore now at my house. I had to look through them because of my concluding note on the Mark,[378] which is growing rather long and is still not to my liking although I have rewritten it 2 or 3 times. But to sum up in 8 to 10 pages what happened after rise, flowering and decline is no joke. If I have the time, I shall send it you so that you can give me your opinion. As for myself, I should be glad to be quit of the stuff and to have another go at the natural sciences.[449]
It's odd, the way one can see how the concept of holiness arose among the so-called aboriginal peoples. What was holy, originally, is what we took over from the animal kingdom — the bestial; as compared with that, 'human institutions' were as much of an abomina-tion as they are in the gospels by comparison with divine law.
Hartmann's installation of his battery for lighting 6 Swan lamps (incandescent bulbs à 6 candle-power) was supposed to have been ready yesterday, but I don't know whether it succeeded or not.(2)
I shall draw Bernstein's attention to Saarbrücken, as I have already done before. But the Anti-Socialist Law ' b will make material
217. Engels to Marx. 13 December
hard to come by there. Even prior to that, every effort was made to keep this area undefiled.
Egalité by the second post. Lafargue is still at liberty since it was he who addressed it to me.
Apropos TRADES UNION DEPUTATION[463]: When, at the meeting of the Possibilists, the French had sung the Marseillaise in their honour, the virtuous Shipton and his mates thought fit to retort by singing in unison 'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN/' This according to the Kölnische Leitung which I sent to Laura.
Well, I wish your throat, no less than the weather, a good recovery.
Your
F.E.
217
ENGELS TO MARX [4 6 6]
IN VENTNOR
[London, 13 December 1882]
Just received this, 9.20 p.m. After appearing at Montluçon Paul[3]
will, of course, be released at once. In the meantime I shall send Laura THE NEEDFUL tomorrow without fail. At 41 Maitland Parkb ALL
RIGHT.
218. Engels to Laura Lafargue. 14 December
218
ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE
IN PARIS
London, 14 December 1882
My dear Laura,
I received your letter last night at half past nine, too late even to send a line by this morning's post, as foreign letters posted up here after nine are not forwarded until next evening.
I had scarcely any money in the house, and had given Percy[3]
a cheque to cash for me today in town. But he will not be here before six at best, also too late to send you a banknote by 5.30 mail. However as soon as I get the money I shall forward one so as to help you over the first few days. No doubt Paulb will fare as Guesde and Bazin did and be at liberty if not to-day, at least to-morrow, as soon as the comedy of an examination before the austere Piquand shall have been gone through.[440] I forwarded both Paul's and your letter to Mohr, and told Nimc about the affair this morning.
More anon, when I shall be able to send substantial comfort.
Yours affectionately,
F. Engels
219. Marx to Laura Lafargue. 14 December
219
MARX TO LAURA LAFARGUE [7 2]
IN PARIS
Ventnor, Isle of Wight, 14 December 1882 1 St Boniface Gardens
Darling Cacadou,
All your letters have arrived on time and yet, miserable sinner that I am, it is only now that I write to you, having learned from the General's letter(1) just received that Paul(2) has been arrested. The General enclosed Paul's letter and yours, so that I am au fait. No doubt Paul will be released within a few days.
Why haven't I written before? Because I had nothing particularly cheerful to report, for you will anyhow have learned from your correspondence with the General that I myself am not at all in bad shape and have only been confined to the house for the past fortnight because of a TRACHEAL CATARRH, nor have I again succumbed either to pleurisy or to bronchitis. This, then, is most encouraging, CONSIDERING
THAT MOST OF MY CONTEMPORARIES, I MEAN FELLOWS OF THE SAME AGE, JUST NOW KICK THE BUCKET in gratifying numbers. There are too many young donkeys for the old ones to be kept alive.
Paul has latterly been writing his best stuff' with humour, impu-dence, and solidity combined with verve, whereas before that I had been troubled by certain ultra-revolutionary turns of phrase, having always regarded these as 'hot air' — a speciality our people would be well-advised to leave to the so-called anarchists who are, in fact, props of the existing order, not creators of disorder, and are, by their nature, poor, childish creatures — ce n'est pas leur faute, le chaos.d Just now they have, as 'péril social'/ come to the aid of the 'affaires véreuses cabinet'.[46]'' The worst of it is that, even if there were in existence a purely impartial 'examining magistrate', he would be compelled publicly to pronounce them wholly and utterly 'innocuous'! One could forgive these anarchists anything if only they weren't too 'inno-
220. Engels to Marx. 15 December
cent' for words! Not that that means they are 'saints'. A good joke was made by a Popea upon his being asked by Henry VII (Richard Ill's victorious antagonist) to translate Henry VI to the community of saints; the Pope replied that an 'innocens'b (alias 'IDIOT') was not, as such, eligible to be nominated a 'sanctus'.0*[63]
Here, my child, you would at any rate find better weather than in most other districts including, I need hardly say, France and Italy. I live the life of a hermit here, consorting with no one, SAVE when Dr Williamson's visits, costing SUCH PER MINUTE,[11] bring me in contact with the latter.
Well, child, as soon as your devoirs' permit (for Paul's GALLANT FIGHT
WITH THE POWERS THAT BE MAKE THE MAN SYMPATHIC [SIC], TO USE THIS, A FRENCH
PENNY-A-LINER'S PHRASE) come over here and stay with me\
* Some recent Russian publications, printed in Holy Russia, not abroad, show the great run of my theories in that country.[469] Nowhere my success is to me more delightful; it gives me the satisfaction that I damage a power, which, besides England, is the true bulwark of the old society.
Yours,
Nick*
220
ENGELS T O MARX [4 7 0]
IN VENTNOR
London, 15 December 1882
Dear Moor,
Herewith the appendix on the Mark/ Be so kind as to return it on Sunday so that I can revise it on Monday — I didn't get the final revision done today.
I consider that the view here put forward concerning rural conditions in the Middle Ages and the second phase of serfdom from the middle of the 15th century onwards is, on the whole, incontrovertible. I have read all the passages in Maurer [4] [6 5] that relate to this, finding therein almost all my propositions — and, what's more, substantiated; also, precisely the opposite, but either unsubstantiated or drawn from a period which happens not to be the one under discussion. This applies in particular to Fronhöfe, Vol. 4, conclusion. These contradictions are due in Maurer's case 1. to the habit of adducing, indiscrimi-nately and side by side, documentary proof and examples from any and every period, 2. to a residue of legalistic prejudice which invariably trips him up when it comes to understanding a process of development, 3. to his gross underestimation of'force and the role it plays, 4. to the enlightened presupposition that, since the dark Middle Ages, things must have changed steadily for the better; this prevents him from perceiving, not only the antagonistic nature of true progress, but likewise individual setbacks.
As you will see, the thing isn't all of one piece, but is a proper paste-and-scissors job. The first draft was all of one piece, but unfortunately it was wrong. Only by slow degrees have I mastered the material, which is why there's so much patchwork.
Incidentally, the general reintroduction of serfdom is one of the reasons why no kind of industry could develop in Germany in the 17th and 18th centuries. First, there was the division of labour in the guilds which was the reverse of that in manufacturing; instead of being divided within the workshop, labour is divided among the guilds. Here in England, there was migration to those parts of the country where there were no guilds. This was prevented in Germany by the transformation of country folk and the inhabitants of agricultural market towns into serfs. But it was also this which eventually proved the undoing of the guilds the moment they encountered competition from foreign manufactures. I shall not mention here the other reasons that contributed to the suppression of German manufactures.
Today has again been all fog and gaslight. Hartmann's battery probably a FAILURE where lighting is concerned, being useful at most for telegraphy, etc." More about this as soon as anything definite has been established.
a See this volume, pp. 381-82, 391.
221. Engels to Laura Lafargue. 15 December
Look after yourself, and let's hope the weather will soon be such that you will be allowed out.
Your
F.E.
1913
221
ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE
IN PARIS
London, 15 December 1882
My dear Laura,
Only after 7 last night Percy(1) came with the needful so there was nothing to be done before today, so now I enclose a five-pound Bank of England note the number of which I have kept here, and will run the risk to send it whole for once.
No doubt you will by this time be quite assured about Paul'sb fate, at least for the present.[440] I have no doubt he is free again now, if not already back in Paris. But I am afraid the Bonapartist and other conservative judges of Montluçon will give themd a couple of months each of retired life. The government evidently wishes to create a few precedents in the provinces before it dares to try repression in Paris. And thus the parquetc at Montluçon engaged the business, which, once engaged, must be carried out by the judges to the desired end, were it only to save the credit of the magistrature. And as the case will no doubt come before the police correctionnelle,' there can be not even that shadow of a doubt which a jury might still have rendered possible.
The change to a short prison life would not in itself have anything very dreadful, indeed I think it would do Paul more good than harm.
But very likely their time will come at a moment when they, Paul and Guesde, are both most wanted for the Egalité. And the paper had so much improved lately. Whether it is the cumulative effect of Parisian life and journalistic activity, Paul's articles lately have been very much better, since he dropped the dogmatism of the scientific oracle and took up the ligne spirituelle. ' That on the candidature [of] Bontoux was charming,[47] ' but I think I discover a little female hand in that here and there. So was that on the behexte ministerium[1]'*[50]
(I forgot the French title) which also pleased Mohr specially.b Now if Paul and Guesde are locked up, the soul of the paper is gone. Deville is witty and amusing only at intervals, generally he is clear but dull and doctrinaire, Massard is the reverse of a good Christian, for that with him the flesh is willing but the spirit (esprit) is weak. And I must conclude, from what information I possess, that Paul and Guesde are also the two who will be most wanted in a financially critical moment. Thus it will be a great pity that just at this time dynamitic brag and competition with the rrrrevolutionarism of the anarchists should have brought them in this predicament.
Anyhow I hope you look down upon these petites misères du haut de votre troisièmed with the same calmness as the quarante sièclesh of General Bonaparte du kaut de leurs pyramides' on the French army and Bonaparte himself.
How is Jenny [8] getting on? is she better? I do not hear much about her at Maitland Park,[1]' indeed they' do not know much themselves.
Very affectionately yours,
F. E.
222. Engels to Marx. 16 December
222
ENGELS TO MARX (1)
IN VENTNOR
London, 16 December 1882
Dear Moor,
Having been interrupted yesterday," I shall continue today. You will have noticed how hurriedly my letter was dashed off— I was being perpetually disturbed by Pumps and BABY, b first while revising the ms.,d then while writing the letter. The point by which I set most store — because of the dissentient view you once expressed — is the almost total recession — de jure or de facto — of serfdom in the 13th and 14th centuries. So far as the country east of the Elbe is concerned, the freedom of German peasants is an established fact by reason of coloni-sation; as regards Schleswig-Holstein, Maurer admits(2) that at the time (somewhat later, perhaps, than the 14th century) 'all' peasants had regained their freedom. Again, as regards the South of Germany, he admits that it was in this particular period that the bondsmen were treated best. The same thing applies to a greater or lesser extent in Lower Saxony (e. g. the new 'tenant farmers', virtually copyholders). He does not, however, share Kindlinger's viewr that serfdom did not come into being until the 16th century. That it subsequently reap-peared, however, in a 2nd refurbished edition, seems to me indubitable. Meitzen ' specifies the years in which allusions to serfs first recur in East Prussia, Brandenburg and Silesia: mid-16th century, ditto Hanssen in respect of Schleswig-Holstein.g When Maurer calls this a miti-gated form of serfdom he is right, if one compares it with the period between the 9th and 11th centuries which, in fact, saw the continuation of ancient Germanic slavery; right, too, if one compares it with the legal rights still exercised, as the statute books of the 13th century confirm, both then and later, by the lord over his serfs. But as compared with the de facto position of the peasants in the 13th and 14th — and in North Germany also the 15th— centuries, the new serfdom was ANYTHING BUT a mitigation. Let alone after the Thirty Years' War [4 7 2]! It is also significant that, whereas in the Middle Ages there were innumerable degrees of bondage and serfdom, so that the Sachsenspiegel[41]'[1]' gives up the attempt to 'make a tally', this becomes remarkably easy after the Thirty Years' War. Enfin,a I look forward to hearing your opinion.
It was also Pumps' fault if, at the place where I mention Russian common ownership, I failed to paste on a note saying that this information came from you.
The enclosed is from old Becker[474]; luckily I was able to respond to his gentle nudging straight away and send him £ 5 , as I had just sold some SHARES and the money had been paid on the same day.
Herewith 2 Egalités — hope they'll be delivered tomorrow — from which you will see that Lafargue was immediately releasedb and was expected back in Paris yesterday evening. [440]
Hartmann's battery ': so long as he only plugged in the galvanome-ter, in which the resistance is represented by a very long wire so that there is only a gradual consumption of electro-mechanical power, all went well. But as soon as he plugged in the lamp in which the resistance is concentrated at one point, namely the thin, short, incandescent wire, that was that; the hydrogen immediately polarised the silver electrode, and the weak current produced only a faint red glow in the wire. Now his head is again full of all manner of innovations, each of which proves that he is looking for the difficulty in the wrong place. But whether the gents who are advancing the money will agree to any further experiments is a moot point.
Do you think you might be able to book a couple of beds down there for Schorlemmer and myself in the first week of January? We would not be at all averse to nipping down for a day or two, if nothing intervenes. But that something will intervene is all too probable in view of Schorlemmer's rheumatism, etc. However, if we knew that you could arrange for us to stay either with you or close by, and exactly how much notice we should have to give you, we could make our arrangements accordingly.
Your
F. E.
1913 Published in English in full for the first time
223. Engels to Johann Philipp Becker. 16 December
Dear Old Man,
I have been waiting for some time for some money to come in so that I could send you another fiver. It eventually came in yesterday, followed that very evening by your postcard.a I therefore immediately took out a money order for the said fiver = 126 frs, and hope the money will reach you without delay.
I was very glad to hear that you have extricated yourself from the cantonal and communal mire; it's a sheer waste of time and productive of nothing but tittle-tattle and pointless vexation. Incidentally, that jackass Solari is still sending me 2 copies of the Précurseur. It must be a fine despatch department!
Every year the anarchists commit suicide and every year rise anew from their ashes, and so it will go on until such time as anarchism is subjected to serious persecution. It is the only socialist sect that really can be destroyed by means of persecution. For its perpetual rebirth depends on a steady supply of would-be bigwigs who wish to play a role on the cheap. Anarchism is as if tailor-made for that. But run a risk? Not on your life! Hence the present harassment of anarchists in France will damage that gang only if it isn't sheer make-believe or hanky-panky on the part of the police. But either way its victims will be those poor devils, the miners of Montceau.[402] Incidentally, I have grown so used to the anarchist buffoons that it seems to me quite natural to have that clownish caricature tagging along like this beside the movement proper. They are dangerous only in such countries as Austria and Spain, and then only for the time being. Again the Jura, where watch-making is carried on in houses scattered all over the place, would seem a foreordained hotbed of this ballyhoo, and here your blows could prove quite beneficial.
Marx has been given permission by the doctors to spend the winter on the south coast of England and has been in the Isle of Wight for 6 weeks or so.[4] ' ' Hitherto, all has been well as regards the two main counts: no sign of any recurrence of pleurisy or bronchitis. The rotten weather we have been having here (for a week the fog has scarcely lifted at all) means that convalescents are inevitably subject to colds of all sorts and, for one in Marx's condition, these are lingering and troublesome. But if it remains at that, no matter. However, he might well be sent out to Switzerland again next summer, in which case you will certainly see one another.
Madame Lafargue's address is 66 Boulevard de Port-Royal, Paris. Not long ago her husband was arrested, but has already been set free. The point at issue was certain speeches he had made in the provinces and, upon their being summoned by the examining magistrate of Montluçon, he and Guesde, instead of obeying, poured vile scorn upon him in the Egalité. Whereupon he naturally issued a warrant for their arrest but, although Lafargue went daily to the newspaper office and was at so little pains to conceal his whereabouts that he actually announced he was going to speak, and did speak, at meetings, it took the clever Parisian police three weeks to seek him out. Like Guesde before him, he was immediately released after the first hearing at Montluçon. They might still get a couple of months apiece. [44]°
As you know, the workers' party in France has split.[394] Malon and Brousse can hardly wait for the day when they become deputies, which means that a herd of voters has to be quickly rounded up. In other words a party created without a programme (literally — for a long series of 'considérants*a is followed by the conclusion that every local-
preambles ity must draw up its own programme), in which every Tom, Dick and Harry is welcome and, to carry this through, people are being admitted into the party before the congress who accept the old programme with the reservation that, come the congress, they will subvert it. Guesde, Lafargue, etc., were outvoted and those who stood by the programme went to Roanne. Our people are no tacticians and have committed hopeless blunders, but nevertheless they will win through and the 'Possibilists' won't have it all their own way for long. Our chaps have a very considerable lever in the shape of the daily Egalité and, moreover, are all of them devoted to the cause, something which cannot be said of those intriguers, Malon and Brousse.
Well, good-bye, old man, and keep your pecker up. You're unlikely to decline as fast as all that and, as you know, we're all heading the same way!
Your
F. E.
224. Engels to Eduard Bernstein. 16 December
Dear Mr Bernstein,
Schorlemmer complains that he has not received the Sozialdemokrat for some little while; his subscription expired and he sent me the encl. CHEQUE (which I forgot about) no less than a month ago with the request that his annual subscription be renewed and 'the balance be used for party purposes'.
The ms. of the Mark has had to be completely rewritten 3 times; on top ofthat I again had to go through about 5 or 6 of Maurer's 10 fat volumes,[465] besides which there were other sources to compare. I have now sent it to Marx who has slogged away at the subject much more thoroughly and for much longer than I have [4 7 5]; I expect it back on Monday.
Malon se moque de' Vollmar. Otherwise he would certainly have corrected the latter's howler to the effect that the 'Alliancists' attacked by the Egalité were understood in the sense of the Bakuninist Alliance.[67] Far from it. The Possibilists were thus described because they are now wholly indistinguishable from the people in the Alliance socialiste [4] [7 6] which was founded some 4 years ago by Jourde, the ex-Communard for finance, with the help of past and present Proudhonists (e.g. Longuet) and which constitutes La Justice's socialist reserve. You must certainly have seen this Alliance mentioned in connection with elections; it put up candidates for the recent general election to the Chamber and obtained nearly as many votes — in some arrondissements at any rate — as the Parti ouvrier.b If Vollmar knew nothing of this, despite his year and a half in Paris, it was because Malon deliberately kept it from him like much else. That's what happens when you give a gang your uncritical support.
I have to chuckle when Vollmar praises Malon as the party disci-plinarian and accuses the others of a breach of discipline.[438]
Who, I ask, is guilty of indiscipline — he who carries the old flag high or he who recruits people with the express aim of deserting the colours and exchanging the old flag for a new one? Where, I ask, would Malon have got his majority at St-Etienne from[394] if he hadn't first recruited people whose intention from the start, and this was precisely why they had been recruited, was to subvert the old programme?
That was a choice row between Malon and his Clovis Hugues over Louis Blanc. And they call themselves a party!
You will have seen that the Fédération du Nord [4 5 4] has declared outright for Roanne.
Some of Lafargue's articles in the more recent issues of the Egalité have been truly delightful, e.g. on Bontoux's candidature.[471]
Witticisms are better suited to them than doctrinaire pontifica-tions.
" is making fun of- b Workers' Party
225. Marx to Engels. 18 December
Would you please be good enough to see that the issues are sent on to Schorlemmer.
Yours very sincerely,
F. E.
225
MARX TO ENGELS [7 2]
IN LONDON
[Ventnor,] 18 December 1882
DEAR FRED,
I return the ms.a; very goodl The doctorb has just left; I can't say that I notice any PROGRESS, rather the reverse. Though not cold out of doors, it is damp and rainy and the doctor says he cannot allow me to go out until the next fine day; otherwise he' wouldn't accept the responsibility.
Au diable! il faut patienter!c
Salut.
Moor
1913
226. Engels to Marx. 19 December
226
ENGELS TO MARX [7]
IN VENTNOR
London, 19 December 1882
Dear Moor,
Your letter arrived at 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon and this morning I got back the ms.a Your opinion is most flattering though it is one I cannot share, at any rate so far as form is concerned. As it was fine and warm at midday you will doubtless be released at last for an hour or two from your confinement indoors. Here, though, the fog has grown worse again since 1 o'clock and at times it is like night.
This is how I see the Podolinski business.[477] His real discovery is that human labour is capable of retaining solar energy on the earth's surface and harnessing it for a longer period than would otherwise have been the case. All the economic conclusions he draws from this are wrong. I have not got the thing to hand but read it in Italian not long ago in the Plebe. The point in question, namely how the amount of energy contained in a specific amount of foodstuffs can, through labour, yield a greater amount of energy than itself, I resolve as follows: Let us assume that the amount of food a person needs each day represents an amount of energy expressed as 10,000 cal (units of heat). These 10,000 cal will, ad infinitum, = 10,000 cal and are known in practice to lose on conversion into other forms of energy as a result of friction, etc., a portion that cannot be put to use. Significantly so in the case of the human body. Hence the physical labour performed in economic labour can never = 10,000 cal; it is invariably less.
But this is by no means to imply that physical labour is economic labour. The economic labour performed by 10,000 cal in no way consists in the reproduction, complete or partial, of these same 10,000 cal in any form whatever. On the contrary, they are for the most part lost in the increased heat given off by the body, etc., and such useful residue as remains lies in the fertilising property of excretions. The economic labour performed by an individual through the expenditure of these 10,000 cal consists rather in the stabilisation over a longer or shorter
" F. Engels, 'The Mark'.
period of the fresh cal he absorbs from the radiation of the sun, and this is the only connection the latter have, so far as labour is concerned, with the first 10,000 cal. Now whether the fresh cal stabilised by the expenditure of 10,000 cal of daily nourishment amount to 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 or a million is dependent solely upon the level of development of the means of production.
To demonstrate this in the form of calculations is possible only in the case of the most primitive branches of production: hunting, fishing, stock farming, agriculture. In hunting and fishing fresh solar energy is not even stabilised; rather, use is simply made of what has been stabilised already. At the same time it is clear that, assuming the individual concerned takes normal nourishment, the amount of pro-tein and fat he obtains by hunting or fishing is independent of the amount of these substances he consumes.
In stock farming energy is stabilised in as much as the vegetation, that would otherwise rapidly wither, die and decompose, is systemati-cally converted into animal protein, fat, skin, bone, etc., hence stabilised over a longer period. Here calculations already become complicated.
Even more so in agriculture where the energy value of auxiliary materials, fertilisers, etc., must also be taken into consideration.
In industry all calculations come to a fujl stop; for the most part the labour added to a product simply does not permit of being expressed in terms of cal. This might be done at a pinch in the case of a pound of yarn by laboriously reproducing its durability and tensile strength in yet another mechanical formula, but even then it would smack of quite useless pedantry and, in the case of a piece of grey cloth, let alone one that has been bleached, dyed or printed, would actually become absurd. The energy value conforming to the production costs of a hammer, a screw, a sewing needle, is an impossible quantity.
To express economic conditions in terms of physical measures is, in my view, a sheer impossibility.
What Podolinski has completely forgotten is that the working individual is not only a stabiliser oi present but also, and to a far greater extent, a squanderer of past, solar heat. As to what we have done in the way of squandering our reserves of energy, our coal, ore, forests, etc., you are better informed than I am. From this point of view, hunting and fishing may also be seen not as stabilisers of fresh solar heat but as exhausters and even incipient squanderers of the solar energy that has accumulated from the past.
227. Engels to Marx. 22 December
Further: Man, by his labour, does deliberately what plants do unconsciously. Plants — and there is nothing new in this of course — are the great absorbers and repositories of solar heat in modified form. Thus man, by his labour, in so far as it stabilises solar energy (which in industry and elsewhere is by no means always the case), succeeds in combining the natural functions of the energy-consuming animal with those of the energy-gathering plant.
Podolinski went astray after his very valuable discovery, because he sought to find in the field of natural science fresh evidence of the rightness of socialism and hence has confused the physical with the economic.
Encl. CHEQUE for £ 4 0 so that you can cash it when you want and will have something to fall back on.
As regards Tussy's coming, I shall speak to her this evening. So far as we ourselves are concerned Jollymeier at once agreed, of course; the details can only be arranged if he does come.[1] More tomorrow.
Your
F. E.
227
ENGELS TO MARX (1)
IN VENTNOR
London, 22 December 1882
Dear Moor,
To come back to Podolinski again,b I stand corrected: storage of energy by means of labour takes place strictly speaking only in arable farming. In stock farming the energy stored in plants is, in general, merely transferred to the animal, hence we can only speak of storage in so far as nutritive plants are put to use which would, in the absence of stock farming, go to waste. In all branches of industry, on the other hand, energy is merely expended. The most one can say is that vegetable products such as wood, straw, flax, etc., and animal products in which plant energy is stored, are made available by processing, i. e. are preserved for a longer space of time than if they had been allowed to decay naturally. Hence the time-honoured economic fact that all industrial producers are dependent for their subsistence on the products of agriculture, stock farming, hunting and fishing can, if desired, also be translated into physical terms, though this is not particularly rewarding.
Herewith letter from Laura [4 7 8]; Jenny's case would not, in fact, appear to be too bad, always providing she obtains proper and regular treatment — this being necessary not because of any immediate danger, but because of the extremely unpleasant consequences that might result from neglect.
Hartmann has thrown up the sponge here and tomorrow is crossing the ocean again. It's just as well. His contracts over here have involved him in such a mass of legal obligations (some of them unful-filled) that he himself no longer knows where he stands. I shall tell you all about it when I see you and am glad he is going away. It has now transpired that, all the while he was touching me for loans, he was pocketing anything from five to six pounds a week.
You are right when you say that Bernstein doesn't always allow himself adequate time for reflection. But he's not alone in that. Take a look at Lafargue's recent discoveries in 'Prêtres et commerçants' (Egalité, 20 December) and, ibid., Deville's latest reconstruction(2)
of Weitlingianism [4] [7] [9]—by no means an improvement.
I am glad that 'we concur', as they say in business, on the subject of serfdom.b Certainly, serfdom and bondage are not a form peculiar to the Middle Ages and feudalism; we find them everywhere, or almost everywhere where conquerors have the land tilled for them by the original inhabitants — e. g. at a very early date in Thessaly. Indeed, this fact has clouded my view, like that of many others, of medieval servitude; we were all too eager to see it as being simply based upon conquest; it rounded things off so neatly and tidily. Cf. Thierry, among others.[3]
Again, the position of the Christians in Turkey during the heyday of ancient Turkish semi-feudalism was not dissimilar.
But here is Pumps arriving for dinner, it being now 5 o'clock, and thus I am the victim offorce majeure(3) I hope that this glorious weather has pulled you round again.
Your
Fred
228. Engels to August Bebel. 22 December
Dear Bebel,
I hope you will be set free the day after tomorrow for 24 hours[4] [8] ° and thus have no difficulty in getting hold of this note.
All that was meant by the bit you found mystifying in my last letterb was that I expected the repeal of the ExceptionalLaw [16] to be brought about by events either of a revolutionary nature themselves (e. g. a fresh coup or the convocation of a national assembly in Russia, whose repercussions on Germany would at once become apparent), or those which at any rate would give impetus to the movement and pave the way for revolution (change of monarch in Berlin, death or resignation of Bismarck), either of which would almost inevitably usher in a 'new era'.[277]
The crisis in America would seem to me, like the one over here and like the pressure on German industry that has not yet lifted everywhere, to be not a crisis proper, but the after-effect of overproduction dating back to the previous crisis. On the last occasion the crash in Germany came prematurely because of the milliard racket, whereas here and in America it came at the proper time, in 1877. But never, during a period of prosperity, had the productive forces been so ex-panded as in the years between 1871 and 1877, hence, as in 1837-42, the chronic pressure herea and in Germany on the main branches of industry, especially cotton and iron; the markets are still not able to absorb all those products. Since American industry is, in the main, still working for the protected home market, a local interim crisis may very easily arise there, in consequence of the rapid increase in production, but ultimately it will only serve to hasten the time when America becomes capable of exporting and of entering the world market as England's most dangerous competitor. Hence I do not believe — and Marx shares my viewb — that the real crisis will come very much before it is due.
I would consider a European war to be a disaster; this time it would prove frightfully serious and inflame chauvinism everywhere for years to come, since all peoples would be fighting for their own existence. All the work done by the Russian revolutionaries, who are on the eve of victory, would be ruined and set at nought; our party in Germany, temporarily overwhelmed by the tide of chauvinism, would be dispersed, while exactly the same would happen in France. The only good thing that might come of it would be the setting-up of a Little Poland — which would also and automatically ensue from revolution; a Russian constitution resulting from a disastrous war would have an import, probably of a conservative nature, quite different from one forcibly imposed by revolutionary means. Such a war would, I believe, retard the revolution by 10 years, at the end of which, however, the upheaval would doubtless be all the more drastic. Incidentally, there has again been a prospect of war. Bismarck has been flaunting the Austrian alliance just as he did the South German alliances at the time of the Luxembourg affair in 1867.[481]
Whether anything will come of this in the spring remains to be seen.
We found your reports on the state of German industry most interesting, in particular the express confirmation that the cartel agreement between the ironmasters had collapsed. It could not possibly last, least of all between German industrialists for whom the pettiest fraudulence is the very breath of life.
We haven't as yet seen the things by Meyer[482] and what you say is therefore news to us. That Marx would figure alongside his cardinals was only to be expected; Meyer always derived quite exceptional pleasure from proceeding direct from Cardinal Manning to Marx, nor did he ever fait to mention the fact.
In his Sociale Briefe Rodbertus was hot on the scent of surplus value, but that was as close as he got. Otherwise it would have put paid to his thoughts and endeavours as to how best to help the debt-ridden country Junkers, something the good man surely could not have wished. But as you say, he is worth infinitely more than the majority of German vulgar economists, including the armchair socialists[82] who after all live solely off our leavings.
The story of Carlchen's" wooing was also new to us. The wedding, or so I have been told by eye-witnesses, was a most mournful affair, so much so that someone who was present at the civil ceremony ex-claimed: 'C'est l'enterrement de AP (1)
Yesterday I sent off to Zurich the final ms. for the pamphlet, namely an appendix on the constitution of the Mark and a short history of the German peasantry generally.[378] Since Maurer [4 6 5]
writes very badly and confuses many things, it is difficult to track down what you want at the first reading. As soon as I get the proofs I shall send you the thing, which contains, not simply abstracts from Maurer, but indirect criticism of him, as also much else that is new. These are the first-fruits of long years of study devoted to German history, and I am delighted at being able to present it first of all to the workers rather than to schoolmasters and other 'eddicated' gents.
Now I must stop, for otherwise I shall not be able to register the letter in time to catch the evening post. The Prussians would not as yet seem to have reached the stage of Stiebering[1] registered letters, all of which have so far arrived in proper condition. I have by long practice acquired a pretty shrewd eye for such things.
229. Marx to Eleanor Marx. 23 December
I should be glad if your wifea would kindly accept the enclosed Christmas card and the compliments of the season.
Your
F. E.
Vol. I (VI), Moscow, 1932 t l m e
229
MARX T O ELEANOR M A R X [7 2]
IN LONDON
[Postcard, unsigned]
[Ventnor, 23 December 1882]
Dear Child,
From Laura's letter (which Engels sent me for information todayb) I see that Jennychen is again afflicted by that beastly inflammation.[478] Should it be neglected, I can only fear the worst. We must really consider (and you should talk this over with Lenchen before coming to join me here) whether we ought not to relieve Jennychen at any rate of Harry, even if it should necessitate his coming here. How can Jennychen find time for the treatment of her illness WITH ALL THESE BABIES TOGETHER? And again, how neglected (as regards health) our Johnny will be should one of the others not be displaced in his stead?
Harry makes a difficult position doubly difficult for poor Jennychen.
All I want you to bring is Physiologie by Rank (or Ranke—I'm not sure). Also Freeman's rotten little book (History of Europe), since it serves me in lieu of a chronological table; it is in my bedroom on the shelves where the newspapers, etc., are.
[On the side reserved for the address]
Miss Marx 41 Maitland Park Road, Maitland Park, London, N. W.
1883
230
Endnotes
[235] The Lafargue family had property in New Orleans.—170
[236] The reference is to the traditional annual voters' meeting in Birmingham convened by the Birmingham Liberal Association on 3 January 1882. John Bright, leader of the British bourgeois radicals and M.P. for Birmingham, and Joseph Chamberlain, a public figure in the city, who spoke at the meeting, fully supported the Irish policies of Gladstone's Liberal government. Specifically, they vindicated his actions aimed at implementing the so-called Land Act of 1881 for Ireland (see Note 124).—171
[237] Probably an ironic reference to Jacob Bright, John Bright's younger brother.—
[238] A reference to the meeting held on 3 January 1882. The official pretext for it was a discussion of the functions of the assistant commissioners, appointed to carry out the Land Act of 1881 for Ireland (see Note 124). It was stated at the meeting that their decision to introduce a rent reduction was not objective. The landlords demanded that the government immediately consider their complaints and promul-gate the law on compensation for losses they could sustain should the government sanction the rent reduction.— 172
[123] '2 3 The Coercion Bills were passed by the British Parliament several times throughout the 19th century in order to suppress the revolutionary and national liberation movement in Ireland. In early 1881, the House of Commons passed two bills introducing exceptional laws in Ireland. They declared a state of emergency there and assigned troops to evict tenants refusing to pay rent.— 75, 84, 172
[239] Joseph Dietzgen wrote to Marx on 3 January 1882 that he was studying Hegel's works, in particular, his Phänomenologie des Geistes.— 172
[223] The Rheims Congress of the French Workers' Party took place between 30 October and 6 November 1881. It was attended by 44 delegates. The Congress endorsed the National Committee (Comité national) of the French Workers' Party, set up on Malon's and Brousse's initiative in mid-October 1881 (see Note 250). At the Rheims Congress, Malon and Brousse managed to get a decision passed recognising that the minimum programme (see Note 68) did 'not quite' live up to 'the working people's aspirations'. The Congress resolved to leave the programme in force until a new one had been adopted. This decision was spearheaded against the Marxist groups that united around L'Egalité edited by Jules Guesde.— 154,
[12] The real date of the letter, erroneously indicated by Bebel as 27 March 1880 in his letter to Engels of 22 September 1880, has been ascertained by the event mentioned in it, the Hamburg Reichstag elections on 27 April. In the second Russian edition of Marx's and Engels' Works and in Werke, the letter is dated early May 1880.— 10
[242] Nihilists—Russian intellectuals of humble origin (the 1860s). They flatly refused to accept the ruling ideology, morality and way of life. Nihilism was not a compre-hensive philosophy; the only thing its proponents shared was their rejection of things as they stood. The term 'nihilism' was later applied by the reactionary press to all revolutionaries at the moments when the class struggle began to mount.—
[243] Demagogues in Germany were members of the opposition movement after the liberation of the country from Napoleonic rule. The name became current after the Karlsbad Conference of Ministers of the German States in August 1819, which adopted a special decision on the persecution of the demagogues.— 175
[244] In June and September 1881 Count Nikolai Ignatiev, the Russian Minister of the Interior, assembled 'knowledgeable' Zemstvo representatives of his own choosing to discuss some of the practical issues of domestic policy: resettlement, consumption of alcohol, etc. In this connection, 12 Zemstvo assemblies requested that Zemstvo representatives be involved in the legislative activities not on isolated occasions but on a permanent basis, and that they be selected not by the government but by the Zemstvos themselves.— 175
[245] Sorge wrote to Marx on 27 December 1881: 'Come over to us, old friend, and become one of us! We will offer you as good a home as we can, and new surroundings and old work will in time alleviate your sorrow and sustain you.'—177
[246] An ironic allusion to William I's flight to England at the time of the March 1848 revolution in Germany (up to 1861, William was heir to the Prussian throne and held the title of Prince of Prussia). In England, he maintained close contacts with the country's leading politicians.— 178
[247] 2 4' Marx is referring to Theodor Mommsen's, Eugen Richter's and Albert Hänel's as-surances of their loyalty to the crown voiced at the German Reichstag sessions in November-December 1881.— 178
[248] Engels first came to England in the latter half of November 1842 to study commerce at a cotton mill in Manchester belonging to the firm of Ermen & Engels. Engels' visit lasted until 26 August 1844.—178
[233] On 31 December 1881, Marx replied to the letters from Amalia and Roland Daniels Jun. of 11 December 1881, in which they offered him their condolences on the death of his wife Jenny on 2 December. Marx's letters have not been found and probably did not reach their addressees.— 167, 180
[249] Marx sent a photograph of himself to Cologne for the second time probably in late January 1882, having received Amalia Daniels' letter of 19 January. On 5 February, Roland Daniels Jun. acknowledged receipt of the photograph and explained the confusion with the post by the fact that several persons of the same name resided in Cologne.— 180
[25] In a letter of 19 June 1880, the Dutch socialist Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis requested Marx to look through a popular outline of Volume One of Capital he had written in Dutch. Nieuwenhuis' work, entitled Karl Marx. Kapilaal en Arbeid, appeared in The Hague in 1881.— 16
[251] On the minimum programme, see Note 68. Jules Joffrin, nominated as the party candidate at the elections to the Paris City Council, set forth his election programme in a speech made in the Monmartre district of Paris. In it, he totally ignored the theoretical part of the programme drawn up by Marx and replaced a number of important and quite concrete points (the issue of the 8-hour day, collective property, etc.) in its practical part by vague phrases. On 8 January 1882, using its advantage in the National Committee (see Note 250), Malon's and Brousse's group managed to get Joffrin's opportunistic election programme approved.—181
[252] This may refer to the note 'Russland' carried by the Kölnische Zeitung on 25 July 1881. The note refuted the opinion of certain European newspapers that General Mikhail Skobelev, who visited Paris in the summer of 1881, had been instructed by the Russian government to pave the way for a Franco-Russian alliance, open negotiations on the abolition of political émigrés' right of asylum, etc. The Kölnische Leitung stated that Skobelev's visit was a private one.— 182
[253] The Sonvillier Circular (Circulaire à toutes les fédérations de l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs. Sonvillier, 1871 ) was passed by the Bakuninistjura Federation at the congress in Sonvillier on 12 November 1871. It was spearheaded against the decisions of the London Conference of the International (1871) and attacked the activities of its General Council. It demanded the immediate convocation of a general congress to revise the Rules of the International along anarchist lines. The General Council responded by issuing a private circular 'Fictitious Splits in the International' written by Marx and Engels, which exposed the Bakuninists' efforts to split the organisation (see present edition, Vol. 23).—182
[254] The mounting peasant movement in Russia in the 1860s-70s caused by the peasants' desperate condition forced the tsarist government to agree to slightly reduce the redemption payments. The law of 28 December 1881 reduced peasants' redemption payments by one ruble for a plot per person in Russia, and by 16 per cent in the Ukraine.— 182
[2 5 5] The phrase 'to go to Canossa' goes back to the humiliating pilgrimage undertaken to Pope Gregory VII at Canossa Castle (Northern Italy) in 1077 by the German Emperor Henry IV in the course of the protracted struggle between the emperors and the popes for the investiture. In May 1872, Bismarck, who had launched a campaign against the Catholic Church that supported the separatist and anti-Prussian sentiments in Germany, stated: 'We shall not go to Canossa.' During the campaign (the Kulturkampf), a law was promulgated on 4 May 1874 which restricted the powers of the consis-tory (ecclesiastical court). However, in the late 1870s, when Bismarck needed the support of the Catholic Party of the Centre to combat the workers' movement and the growing influence of the German Social-Democratic Party, he abrogated nearly all the laws passed during the Kulturkampf campaign, had the principal advocates of the anti-Catholic policy resign, and made his peace with the new Pope Leo XIII. By 'the pilgrimage to Canossa' Engels is ironically referring to the abrogation of the law of 4 May 1874 effected by 233 votes to 115 in the Reichstag on 12 January 1882.—182
[256] By referring to ultramontanes Engels meant the Centre (see Note 225). Particularists— members of a political movement in Germany which emerged after the establishment of the German Empire and opposed the policies of the Prussian government. The movement spread among the ruling classes of the petty and medium-sized South-Western German states. The top Catholic clergy, landowners and the bourgeoisie of these states resented Germany's unification under Prussian supremacy believing it to be an encroachment on their rights. As a result they cher-ished separatist aspirations, expressed their discontent with Bismarck's policy of Prussianisation of Germany, demanded autonomy from central power and im-mutability of local private rights and privileges. In the Reichstag the Particularists, who represented the states with a predominantly Roman Catholic population, supported the Party of the Centre. The Poles, Danes and Alsatians formed independent groups in the Reichstag. They also supported the Catholic Party of the Centre. Their presence in the Reichstag was accounted for by the existence in the German Empire of national minorities discontented with the policy of enforced Germanisation. It was pursued with particular ruthlessness by Bismarck in the Polish provinces annexed by Germany in 1814-15 and in Alsace and Lorraine, which Germany received as a result of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. The Danish deputies in the Reichstag represented Schleswig and Holstein, annexed by Prussia in 1867. The Poles and the Alsatians were the most powerful among the national parliamentary groups. The men of Progress were members of a Prussian bourgeois party founded in June 1861. The Party of Progress demanded Germany's unification under Prussian supremacy, the convocation of an all-Germany parliament and the establishment of a strong liberal ministry accountable to the Chamber of Deputies. In 1866, a Right wing split off from the Party of Progress, a section that capitulated before Bismarck and set up a National Liberal Party (see Note 15). The vacillations in the policies pursued by the Party of Progress mirrored the instability of the merchant bourgeoisie, small industrialists, and a section of the craftsmen, on whom it relied. In 1884, the Party of Progress united with the Left wing of the National Liberal Party that had split off from it to form the German Party of Free Thinkers (Deutsche Freisinnige Partei).—182
[257] At the Reichstag meeting of 9 January 1852, Bismarck was forced to admit that the working masses were distrustful of the government's attempts to improve their condition.—183
[258] This refers to the letters Leo Frankel (18 December 1881) and Walery Wrôblewski (7 December 1881) sent to Marx on the occasion of his wife's death. At the time, Frankel was detained in the prison in Vâc (Austria-Hungary), where he was placed in June 1881 on the charge of breach of the press law. By Wrôblewski's 'Polish party' in Geneva Marx had in mind a group of Polish Marxist refugees with whom Wrôblewski became close in the late 1870s.—183
[259] In July 1878, George Howell, a former member of the General Council of the International, published a libellous article, 'The History of the International Association', in The Nineteenth Century monthly review. The author calumniated the history of the First International and Marx's role in it. In August of the same year, Marx published an article called 'Mr. George Howell's History of the International Working-Men's Association' in The Secular Chronicle, and Record of Free-thought Progress, Vol. X, No. 5 (see present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 234-39). In 1881, Howell stood for election to the House of Commons in Stafford but was voted down at the elections.— 185
[160] Between late June and around 20 July 1881, Marx and his ailing wife rested in Eastbourne.—104, 110, 185
[164] Between 26 July and 16 August 1881, Marx and his wife stayed with their daughter Jenny Longuet in Argenteuil not far from Paris.—107, 115, 185
[260] Engels wrote this letter at two sittings, on 25 and 31 January 1882. Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Correspondence, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1955.—186
[261] An allusion to the introduction of the Anti-Socialist Law (see Note 16).—187
[263] The new imperial judicial code came into force on 1 October 1879. Engels described it in his work The Role of Force in History (see present edition, Vol. 26, pp. 506-08).—188
[264] Code Napoléon — a system of bourgeois law incorporating five codes (civil, civil procedural, commercial, criminal, and criminal procedural) adopted under Napoleon in 1804-10.— 188
[267] The national liberation movement for the unification of Italy ended in 1861 with the establishment of a single Italian state (only Rome, which was incorporated into the Italian state after the abolition of the Pope's secular authority in 1870, remained outside it at the time). The event paved the way for the expansion of the independent workers' movement.— 191
[268] Little Germany — a plan for the unification of Germany under the Prussian aegis minus Austria. Engels is referring here to the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, which gave birth to the North German Confederation (Norddeutscher Bund), a federative state formed in 1867 to replace the disintegrated German Confederation. The establishment of the North German Confederation was a major step towards the national unification of Germany. The Confederation ceased to exist in January 1871, when the German Empire was founded.—191
[69] From 1874, Charles Longuet taught French at King's College, and Jenny Longuet, German at the Clement Dun school.— 45, 61
[27] The reference is to one of the notes to Chapter V of Volume One of Capital (see present edition, Vol. 35). In it, Marx replaced the term 'price of production' with its synonym, 'average price'.—16
[271] A reference to the constitution of 1860 (the so-called October diploma — Oktoberdiplom). It gave Hungary, which formed part of the Austrian monarchy, certain rights (the convocation of a Hungarian parliament, the use of the Hungarian language in administration, etc.) The crisis of the Austrian Empire and mounting popular discontent led to its transformation in 1867 into the dual Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Hungary was recognised as a sovereign part of the state. Political consolidation promoted the development of capitalism there. In 1868, the first workers' organisations emerged in the country, the Budapest Workers' Union and the General Workers' Union (subsequently the latter became the leading organisation of the socialist workers' movement).— 191
[272] A reference to the events of 1873-75, when the Bismarck government tried to provoke a war with France. The Russian government resolutely sided with France. Thanks to the pressure being put on the German government by Russia, Austria and Britain, Bismarck's attempt failed.— 192
[273] In January 1882, Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had been occupied by Austria in 1878 under the terms of the Berlin Congress, witnessed an uprising provoked by the Austro-Hungarian government's law of 1881 on military conscription to be introduced in the occupied territories. The uprising reached its peak in the first half of February 1882. The Tsarist government tried to use it to promote its own ends.—192
[274] This refers to the national liberation insurrection of 1863-64 in the Polish territo-ries belonging to Tsarist Russia. The insurrection was suppressed by the Russian government. The anonymous book, Berlin und St. Petersburg. Preussische Beiträge zur Geschichte der Russisch-deutschen Beziehungen, Leipzig, 1880, was the work of the German political writer Julius Eckardt. Appendix 2, to which Engels refers here, deals with the Polish insurrection of 1863-64.—193
[275] This refers, above all, to Walery Wroblewski and Jarosiaw Dombrowski. Wrôblewski, appointed general, commanded one of the Commune's three armies. General Dombrowski, who first headed the defence operations at one of the key sectors of the front, later commanded the 1st Army of the Commune and in early May 1871 was appointed commander-in-chief of its armed forces.— 193
[276] The reference is to the programme advanced in the days of the Cracow uprising (February 1846) by Dembowski, who voiced the interests of the peasantry and the urban poor (to give land to those who had none, radically to improve the workers' condition by setting up national, or 'social', workshops). The National Government formed in Cracow on 22 February issued a manifesto announcing the abolition of feudal duties and taxes. The Cracow uprising was suppressed early in March 1846. In November, Austria, Prussia and Russia signed a treaty on the annexation of the city to the Austrian empire.—193
[79] A fragment of this letter was published in English for the first time in: K. Marx, F. Engels, On Malthus, People's Publishing House, Delhi, 1956.— 56
[280] Under the law proposed by the Minister of Justice Dufaure, and passed by the French National Assembly on 14 March 1872, membership of the International was punished by imprisonment.— 196
[24] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Letters on 'Capital', New Park Publications, London, 1983.—16,
[118] 1 ' 8 An allusion to the indecision displayed in tactical issues by the Social-Democratic leaders in Germany after the introduction of the Anti-Socialist Law (see Note 16). Their wavering was reflected in Liebknecht's speech in the Reichstag on 17 March 1879 on the introduction of the so-called local state of siege in Berlin and its environs (see Note 65), and that in the Saxon Landtag on 17 February 1880 on the elections in Chemnitz's No. 1 constituency. Liebknecht stated in the Reichstag that the Social-Democratic Party would abide by the Anti-Socialist Law, being a party of reform in the proper sense of the word, and opposed a 'violent' revolution as nonsense. In the Provincial Diet, he said that since the Social-Democratic Party of Germany was taking part in the elections to the legislative bodies, it was not a party advocating the overthrow of the government.— 75, 203
[281] The reference is to the situation that emerged after the assassination of Emperor Alexander II on 1 March 1881, when Alexander III sat it out in Gatchina (the Tsar's summer residence near St Petersburg) fearing fresh terrorist acts by the secret Executive Committee of the Narodnaya Volya (People's Will) organisation.—
[282] In the course of his visit to France in the winter of 1882, General Skobelev had a meeting with Serbian students in Paris (17 February) at which he talked about the need to emancipate the Slav peoples of Europe. As in his subsequent statements, which gave rise to a great deal of anxiety and commotion in Europe, Skobelev lashed out at Germany, describing a war with it as inevitable and urging a Russo-French alliance.— 209
[283] See present edition, Vol. 35, Chapter Three, 'Money, or the Circulation of Com-modities'.— 210
[286] This letter was first published in Russian among Marx's 16 letters from the Longuet family archive by the magazine Nachalo (Beginning), No. 5, 1899. Its translation into German was printed by the Neue Deutsche Rundschau, Vol. 2 (October 1899). The Editors are not in possession of the original letter. It was published in English for the first time in an abridged form in: The Letters of Karl Marx, selected and translated with explanatory notes and an introduction by Saul K. Padover, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1979.—220
[28] As Marx's principal economic work advanced, the plan and structure of Capital repeatedly changed. As of 1867, when Volume One appeared in print, Marx proposed to publish the work in three volumes of four books, with the second and third books making up the second volume (see present edition, Vol. 35). After Marx's death, Engels prepared for the press and published the manuscripts of the second and third books as volumes Two and Three. He died before he was able to publish the fourth and last book, Theories of Surplus Value (Volume Four of Capital).— 16
[287] This refers to Carl Hirsch's article 'Le Socialisme en Allemagne' in Volume 15 of La Nouvelle Revue (founded by Juliette Adam), March-April 1882, and signed 'Un socialiste allemand'.—225, 230
[290] In the extant English original, the last paragraph is missing. In this edition, it is re-translated from the Russian publication in Nachalo, No. 5, 1899.— 233
[291] On Marx's relations with Hyndman see Marx's letter to Hyndman of 2 July 1881 (this volume, pp. 102-03).—234
[292] An ironic reference to the sycophantic statements by the German poets Friedrich Bodenstedt and Friedrich Theodor Vischer, a Hegelian, author of a four-volume work on aesthetics. Comparing them to Horace and Virgil, Marx is alluding to the fact that those Roman poets wrote panegyrics and odes to Emperor Augustus (Octavianus).— 235
[2 9 3] The reference is to the proofs of the Russian translation of Marx's and Engels' preface to the second Russian edition of the Manifesto of the Communist Party, a project initiated by Georgi Plekhanov, who had also done the translation. The request for the preface was made through Pyotr Lavrov. Marx and Engels wrote it on 21 January 1882, and despatched it to Lavrov on 23 January. It appeared for the first time in the magazine JVarodnaya Volya on 5 February. The Manifesto of the Communist Party with this preface appeared in print in 1882 in Geneva in the Russian Socio-Revolutionary Library series. Engels failed to obtain the German original of the preface from Lavrov, as the latter had left it among his papers in Paris (at the time, Lavrov was expelled from Paris on the insistence of the Russian government, and moved to London). Lavrov did not send Engels a copy of the German original until about 17 April, but earlier, on 13 April, Der Sozialdemokrat, No. 16, featured the preface in translation from the Russian text printed by JVarodnaya Volya. Engels did not like the translation (see this volume, p. 244). The German original of the preface was published in MEGA 1/25, pp. 295-96.-235
[294] Engels replies to Berthold Sparr's letter of 12 April 1882.—236
[2 9 5 6] 6 Rose Street, Soho Square, London, W. was the address of the Social-Democratic Workers' Club, which in the 1880s had a German and an English section. The German section was the first branch of the German Workers' Educational Society in London (see Note 8) and had close contacts with Die Freiheit, Most's newspaper.—236
[296] Engels is referring to Die Freiheit's propaganda campaign against the policies and tactics of the Social-Democratic Party of Germany and the stand taken by the Social-Democratic deputies in the German Reichstag. On the eve of the Reichstag elections of 1881, Most urged his followers in Germany to do their best to prevent Bebel's and Liebknecht's election to the Reichstag (for criticism of Most's and Die Freiheit's position, see this volume, p. 7).— 236
[299] L'Union Nationale, a French insurance company where Paul Lafargue was employed at the time.— 240
[300] This refers to the sequel to Paul Lafargue's article '/bmaceHie no3eiueAi>HOÜ COÖCT-BeHHOCTH BO OpaHtjiii' ('The Movement of Land Property in France'). It was published in full in Russian in the Ustoi (Principles) magazine, Nos. 3-4 and 6, 1882.—240
[30] Between mid-August and 18 September 1880, Engels was on holiday in Ramsgate and Bridlington Quay.— 17, 23, 34, 35, 39
[302] Engels learned about this from Lavrov's note of 6 April 1882.— 244
[3 0 3] In early April 1882, the Social-Democratic deputy Bruno Geiser received a pro-vocative anonymous letter from New York about preparations for an insurrection in Germany. Geiser informed the police about the letter and made a statement to the effect that the German Social-Democrats had never aimed at a revolution. The leader 'Bekennt Farbe!' in Der Sozialdemokral, No. 16, 13 April 1882, sharply criticised Geiser's statement and contained a reminder that the party was indeed trying to bring forward a revolution in Germany.— 244
[304] Probably a reference to one of Marx's visits to his uncle Lion Philips in Zalt-Bommel (Holland). Marx visited him between 28 February and 16 March 1861, late August-early September 1862, 21 December 1863-19 February 1864 and 19 March-8 April 1865.—246
[305] On 20 April 1882, the Kölnische Teilung, No. 109, carried a report marked 'Kon-stantinopel' which exposed the machinations of Baron Moritz Hirsch, a notorious Austrian railway speculator to whom Turkey had granted a railway concession.—
[13] In March-May 1880, the Reichstag debated the extension of the Anti-Socialist Law (see Note 16) until 1886. At the third reading of the Bill on 4 May, an ultra-'revolutionary' speech was made by the Social-Democratic deputy and former Lassallean Wilhelm Hasselmann, who sided with the Russian terrorists and the French anarchists and openly opposed the Social-Democrats' line. Der Sozialdemokrat (No. 20, 16 May 1880) declared that Hasselmann had placed himself outside the party. By Bebel's 'speech on the persecutions', Engels means the latter's speech in the Reichstag on 6 March, which was carried, in a slightly abridged form, by Der Sozialdemokrat, No. 11, 14 March 1880, under the heading 'Polizei-Orgien in Berlin unter dem Belagerungszustand'.— 10
[307] 3<" The Editors do not have Darwin's letter to Marx; Longuet mentioned it in Darwin's obituary carried by La Justice and reprinted by Der Sozialdemokrat, No. 18, 27 April 1882 (the note 'Darwin').—251
[158] The reference is to the Democratic Federation, an English socialist association set up in June 1881 and headed by Henry Mayers Hyndman. Its programme closely resembled that of the Chartists (see Note 159). At the inaugural conference of the Democratic Federation, each participant received a copy of Hyndman's pamphlet England for All in which (Chapter II — 'Labour' and Chapter III — 'Capital') the author presented whole sections of Volume One of Capital as the programme of the Federation, distorting many of Marx's ideas and making no reference to either the work or its author. In 1884, the Democratic Federation was transformed into the Social Democratic Federation.—102, 162, 251
[308] The mounting discontent of the Irish people forced Gladstone's government to make certain concessions, notably to repeal the emergency measures introduced in 1881 (see Note 123). On 2 May 1882, the leaders of the Irish national movement were released from prison. The Viceroy of Ireland Francis Thomas Cowper and Secretary for Ireland William Forster, both advocates of emergency measures, resigned.— 251
[309] Engels alludes to the numerous terrorist acts in Ireland in 1882 provoked by the intolerable position of the tenants there: twice as many landlords, their agents, British government officials, and others were assassinated as compared with the previous years.— 252
[311] 3 ' ' Engels stopped over in Genoa on 5-6 October 1849 on his way from Switzerland (he had emigrated there after the defeat of the Baden-Palatinate uprising) to England. He had to travel via Italy since he was liable to be arrested if he entered Germany or France.— 253
[312] The newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland, Lord Cavendish, and the deputy of the previous secretary, Thomas Henry Burke, were assassinated on 6 May 1882 in Phoenix Park, Dublin, by members of the terrorist organisation called The Invincible, which included former Fenians (the Fenians were a secret Irish revolutionary, or republican, brotherhood, which fought for Irish independence and the establishment of an Irish republic in the 1850s-60s). Marx and Engels dis-approved of the terrorist and anarchist tactics of the Fenians' epigones (see this volume, p. 247).—254, 286
[313] 3 ' 3 In the manuscript the letter is dated 10 March. This is a slip of the pen, since Engels is replying here to the question Eduard Bernstein asked about Mary-Isis in his letter of 4 May.— 256
[314] 3 ' 4 The reference is to the exchange of opinions between Engels and Bernstein concerning Engels' article 'Bruno Bauer and Early Christianity' written in the second half of April 1882. It was published in Der Sozialdemokrat, 4 and 11 May.— 256
[3 1 5] See present edition, Vol. 35, Chapter III.—257
[316] In his letter to Engels of 4 October 1882, Bernstein made inquiries about the Zurich businessman Louis Bamberger, who had claimed he knew Marx, Engels and Frei-ligrath.—258
[317] 3 ' ' Engels is referring to Bebel's letter to Marx of 12 December 1881 in which he offered Marx his condolences on the death of his wife, Jenny. He also wrote about the difficulties being encountered by Der Sozialdemokrat and the results of the Reichstag elections of 1881, in which the Social-Democrats had done quite well.— 259
[176] The Manchester School — a trend in economic thinking which reflected the interests of the industrial bourgeoisie. Its supporters, known as Free Traders (the centre of their agitation was Manchester), advocated free trade and non-interference by the government in the economy. In the 1840s and 1850s, the Free Traders formed a separate political group, which later constituted the Left wing of the Liberal Party.—122, 260
[3 2 1] Presumably this refers to Engels' letter received by Marx before 20 May 1882.—
[322] Here and below, Marx ironically alludes to Offenbach's comic opera The Duchess of Gerolstein; in the latter half of the 19th century, the leading part in it was played by the famous French actress and singer Hortense Schneider.— 268
[324] Garibaldi died on 2 June 1882 of bronchial catarrh.—274
[326] An ironic allusion to Adolph von Knigge's work Ueber den Umgang mit Menschen (Hanover, 1804) laying down the rules of human behaviour in contacts with other people. Knigge's opus abounded in superficial discourse and truisms.— 274
[328] After more than nine years of emigration in London Paul Lafargue returned to Paris in early April 1882.—275, 276
[329] This meeting held by the Democratic Federation (see Note 158) on 11 June 1882, in which about 40,000 people took part, was in protest at the introduction of new Coercion Bills in Ireland (see Note 123).— 276
[3 3 0] The letter was published in English for the first time in the magazine Science and Society, Vol. II, No. 2, New York, 1938 (the first paragraph of the letter was omitted).—278
[331] In a letter of 5 May 1882, Sorge asked Engels to pay for his subscription to several newspapers (promising to send him the money later) and to look through the English translation of the Manifesto of the Communist Party which Engels had received previously and which Sorge intended to publish in the United States. He also asked Engels for a preface or an afterword for this publication.— 278
[332] Engels ironically compares the opportunist-minded Social-Democratic deputies in the Reichstag with the bourgeois constitutionalists at the time of the 1848-49 revolution in Germany, whom democratic republicans had nicknamed 'wailers' ('Heu-ler').—279
[3 3 3] This article outlined the programme of the opportunist trend in the German Social-Democratic Party after the promulgation of the Anti-Socialist Law in Germany in October 1878. Marx and Engels subjected the article to a detailed analysis and crushing critique in their 'Circular Letter to August Bebel, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Wilhelm Bracke and Others', III. The Manifesto of the Zurich Trio (see present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 262-69).—280
[334] The Brimstone Gang (Schwefelbande)—the name of a students' association at Jena University in the 1770s, whose members were notorious for their brawls. Subsequently, the phrase became widespread. In 1849-50, a group of German petty-bourgeois refugees in Geneva were known by this name. In 1859, the Bonapartist agent Karl Vogt slanderously linked the activities of this 'Brimstone gang' with Marx and his followers. Marx dealt with the matter in his pamphlet Herr Vogt (present edition, Vol. 17, pp. 28-37).—281
[335] The event described by Engels took place during the Baden-Palatinate uprising in May-July 1849, in which he was involved (see his work 'The Campaign for the German Imperial Constitution', present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 149-239).— 281
[336] The first article which appeared in Der Sozialdemokrat under Engels' name was the obituary 'Jenny Marx, née von Westphalen' (No. 50, 8 December 1881; see present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 422-24). But he considered his first official contribution to the newspaper to be the article 'Bruno Bauer and Early Christianity' (No. 19, 4 May 1882).—283
[3 3 8] Adolf Hepner, a German Social-Democrat who had emigrated to the United States, wrote to Engels on 3 May 1882 asking for permission to reprint Marx's and Engels' works in the USA. (For Engels' reply to Hepner on his own and Marx's behalf, see this volume, pp. 294-95).— 284
[340] Ribbonmen—participants in the peasant movement that arose in Northern Ireland in the late 18th century. They were united in secret groups, whose emblem was a strip of green cloth. Whiteboys—participants in the Irish peasant movement, which in the 1760s grew into a large-scale rebellion against the rule of English landlords. To make themselves unrecognisable, these men, who usually acted at night, painted their faces black and wore white shirts. In the 19th century, many of their societies merged with those of the Ribbonmen, but some continued to operate under their old name up to the end of the century. Captain Rock—the name of the members of the various secret peasant societies that emerged and operated in Ireland between the second half of the 18th and the mid-19th century. Captain Moonlight—the usual signature under warnings sent by the Ribbonmen's secret society to landlords.— 285
[109] The Anglo-Irish Union came into force on 1 January 1801 and deprived Ireland of the last remnants of parliamentary autonomy (the Irish Parliament was disbanded and Irish M.P.s received a number of seats in the British Parliament, where they were in the minority).— 69, 286
[139] The Irish Land League — a mass organisation set up in October 1879 by the revolutionary democrat Michael Davitt. It embraced mostly peasants and urban poor and enjoyed the support of the progressive elements of the Irish bourgeoisie. The League's agrarian programme expressed the spontaneous protest of the Irish people against the landlords' rule and national oppression. However, some of its leaders attempted to reduce its activities to the campaign for Home Rule, that is, limited autonomy of Ireland within the framework of the British Empire, and did not go so far as to demand the abolition of the English landlords' rule. In 1881, the Land League was banned by the British government but, to all practical purposes, continued to exist up to the late 1880s.— 84, 286
[342] A reference to the conflict between the USA and Great Britain caused by the latter's aid to the Southern states during the American Civil War of 1861-65. The British government built and equipped warships for the Southerners, which greatly undermined the Northerners' trade by their actions. Among the vessels was the Alabama, a privateering ship that sank 70 Northerners' vessels. After the war, the US government demanded that the British government make full reparations for the damage inflicted by the Alabama and other privateering vessels to the property of American citizens. Under the decision of an arbitration court passed in Geneva on 14 September 1872, Britain was to pay $15.5 mln to the United States, which it indeed did.— 287
[3 4 3] An allusion to the weekly newspaper Die Freiheit published in London by Johann Most, a German anarchist refugee, and edited by Karl Schneidt. The newspaper was obsessed with ultra-revolutionary rhetoric and notorious for its rude attacks against the policies and tactics of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany and its activists.— 289
[344] The reference is to the events that occurred at the congress of the Federative Union of the Centre held on 14-21 May 1882 (see Note 337). On the National Committee, see Note 250.— 289
[348] In a letter of 11 May 1882, Kautsky asked for Engels' opinion on the future of the colonies, notably those in Asia, after the victory of the European proletariat. Kautsky's second letter on this subject is dated 31 May 1882.— 292
[159] Chartism — a political movement of British workers in the 1830s-50s advocating the People's Charter, which contained the demand for universal suffrage and specified the terms that would guarantee this right to the workers. Arising from the consequences of the industrial revolution, Chartism was a revolutionary form of workers' protest against capitalist exploitation, their lack of political rights and the landlords' and big bourgeoisie's monopoly of power. The Chartist movement was a major stage in the working-class struggle at the time preceding the emergence of Marxism.—102, 293
[349] This letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Letters to Americans. 1848-1895. A Selection, International Publishers, New York, 1953.—293, 466
[350] In his letter of 3 May 1882, Adolf Hepner, a German Social-Democrat who had emigrated to the United States, asked Engels for permission to publish his and Marx's works in the Arbeiter-Library series.— 293
[352] A reference to the second Russian edition of Marx's and Engels' Manifesto of the Communist Party (see Note 293).— 295
[3 5 3] The growth of the Egyptian national movement in the early 1880s (see Note 355) led to a provisional alliance between Britain and France. On the eve of the conflict with Egypt provoked by Britain in July 1882, there were differences of opinion among French politicians: the former Prime Minister Gambetta and Freycinet, who replaced him in January 1882 (see Note 356), favoured intervention. The radical leader Clemenceau, who sought revenge on Germany, opposed the idea of an invasion, insisting that it would further aggravate the Anglo-French contradictions and thus consolidate the position of Germany.— 296
[354] Engadine — a Swiss mountain watering place famous for its extremely healthy climate.—297
[356] Freycinet agreed to cooperation with Britain only in the Suez Canal zone. His proposal was turned down by the Chamber of Deputies on 29 July 1882, and his cabinet resigned.— 298
[357] 35 ' Marx is referring to the Quadruple Alliance, the convention 'of the four powers, Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia, signed on 15 July 1840 in London. Its objective was to render military aid to the Sultan of Turkey against the Egyptian ruler Mohammed Ali to settle the Egyptian crisis of 1839-41, which arose from the ri-valry of the European powers over hegemony in Egypt and the Middle East.— 298
[359] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Marx and Engels, On Colonialism, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1959.— 300
[362] Khedive — the title (1867-1914) of the viceroy of Egypt.—302
[3 6 3] Fellah — a peasant or agricultural labourer in Egypt. The fellaheen constituted the lowest exploited class of the rural population.— 302
[364] The contribution Engels had promised for the feuilleton was the old English folk song 'The Vicar of Bray', which he translated into German in early September 1882; the translation, with Engels' comments on the political significance it had for Germany, was published under his name by Der Sozialdemokrat, No. 37, 7 September 1882 (see present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 436-38).—302
[367] Engels terminated his employment at the Manchester trade firm on 1 July 1869 and moved to London on 20 September 1870.— 306
[368] On 2 August 1882 Paul Brousse, S. Deynaud, Victor Marouck and Louis Mouttet resigned from the Bataille editorial board. The reason they gave for their split with its editor-in-chief Prosper Lissagaray was secretary J. Labusquière's announcement that he was resigning from the paper because Lissagaray was restrict-ing his initiative, controlling his actions and keeping a check on the contributions of the above-mentioned editors, Labusquière's friends.— 309
[3 6 9] Marx and his daughter Laura stayed in Lausanne from 23 to 27 August 1882.—
[370] Marx stayed in Argenteuil between 26 July and 16 August 1881 and 9 and 16 February 1882.—310
[3 7 5] A reference to the ceremonies held in Rome and throughout Italy on 11 June 1882 to commemorate Giuseppe Garibaldi, who died on 2 June.— 317
[376] The international congress attended by representatives of Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Great Britain, Italy and Turkey and chaired by Bismarck was held in Berlin between 13 June and 13 July 1878. The congress ended with the signing of the Berlin Treaty revising the terms of the San Stefano preliminary treaty of 1878 that terminated the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 to the detriment of Russia and the Slav peoples of the Balkans. The territory of self-governing Bulgaria defined by the San Stefano Treaty was more than halved; the Bulgarian districts south of the Balkans were to form an autonomous province called Eastern Rumelia and remain under the Sultan; and the territory of Montenegro was significantly curtailed. The Berlin Treaty confirmed the article of the San Stefano Treaty that returned to Russia the part of Bessarabia lost in 1856 but it also sanc-tioned the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary.— 319,
[377] In a letter of 11 May 1882 Kautsky asked Engels to give his opinion of the future of the colonies in Asia after the victory of the European proletariat. As for Kautsky himself, he asserted that the British proletariat and India would both benefit if India remained under Britain.— 321
[379] The plan for a series of articles or a pamphlet about Bismarck and Lassalle was not carried out by Engels.— 324
[380] Engels touches here on the Lassallean tenet about 'a fair distribution of the proceeds of labour', which found expression in the Gotha Programme. Marx analysed it in his work Critique of the Gotha Programme (present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 83-88).— 324
[382] At the 29 May meeting of the Gotha Congress of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (27-29 May 1877), Johann Most proposed that the party's central printed organ should no longer feature articles like Engels' pieces criticising Dühring. He was supported by Carl Julius Vahlteich. August Bebel suggested a compromise: Vorwärts was to terminate publication of Engels' articles against Dühring, which were to appear as a separate pamphlet put out by Vorwärts publishers. Wilhelm Liebknecht resolutely opposed Most's and Vahlteich's proposal, reminding the audience that the decision to have Engels' works published had been passed by the previous congress, that, in significance, they were second only to Marx's Capital, and that they were essential to promote the interests of the party. Liebknecht made an amendment to Bebel's proposal: to publish such articles in the Vorwärts theoretical supplement or in Die Zukunft magazine, or as separate pamphlets. The congress approved Bebel's proposal with Liebknecht's amendment. Parts II and III of Anti-Duhring were published in the supplement to the Vorwärts.— 325
[385] Kabyles, a branch of the great Berber people living in Northern Algeria.— 327
[386] On 15 September 1882, La Bataille and Le Citoyen carried notices of Bebel's death. On 16 September, the Journal de Genève reported that Bebel died in Zwickau.— 328
[387] Engels did not carry this plan through.— 332
[388] Marx and Engels repeatedly wrote about taxation in the Neue Rheinische Teilung in 1848-49 (see, e. g., 'No More Taxes!!!', 'Appeal', 'The Trial of the Rhenish District Committee of Democrats', present edition, Vol. 8, pp. 36, 41 and 323-39). In 1850, Marx took up the issue of taxes in his work The Class Struggles in France. 1848 to 1850; it was also dealt with in Marx's and Engels' 'Address of the Central Authority to the League, March 1850' and some other works (see present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 45-145, 277-87).—332
[389] An allusion to the notices of Marx's death printed by some German bourgeois papers in late 1881.—335
[390] See also Note 346.-335
[198] After a 'local state of siege' (see Note 65) was introduced in Leipzig in June 1881, many active socialists, Bebel and Liebknecht among them, were deported from the city. On 2 July 1881, they left Leipzig and settled down in Borsdorf close by.— 137,
[391] An allusion to the Biblical legend about the Jews' flight from Egyptian captivity. In 1875, assisted by the Rothschild banking house in Britain and in France (Erlanger was the Rothschilds' representative in Egypt), the British Prime Minister Disraeli bought for the British government the Suez Canal shares belonging to the Egyptian Khedive.— 337
[392] On his way back from Switzerland to London, from 28 September to the first days of October Marx stayed with his daughter Jenny Longuet in Argenteuil, whence he made several trips to Paris.— 337
[393] In a letter to Engels of 28 September 1882, Laura Lafargue wrote that on 26 September, on their way from Vevey to France, she and Marx had met Johann Philipp Becker in Geneva. Bad weather drove them away the next day.— 337
[323] On his way from Monte Carlo to Argenteuil Marx stopped over in Cannes between 3 and 5 June 1882.—272
[396] Radicals (the 1880s and 1890s) — a French parliamentary group that had split off from the bourgeois party of moderate republicans ('opportunists'). Their leader was Clemenceau. The radicals put forward a bourgeois-democratic programme virtually abandoned by the 'parent' party: abolition of the Senate, separation of the Church from the state, introduction of progressive income taxes. In order to win voters over to its side, the group also demanded shorter working hours, disabil-ity pensions, and some other social and economic steps.— 342
[397] An allusion to Vollmar's second article, 'Aufhebung des Ausnahmegesetzes?' (see Note 383).—342
[269] By the Lassallean party Engels implies the General Association of German Workers, the first national German workers' organisation founded on 23 May 1863 at the congress of workers' associations in Leipzig. The main organisational documents and the programme were drawn up by Ferdinand Lassalle, who became the organisation's first president. The errors in Lassalle's propaganda strategy and in his tactics, as well as the anti-democratic structure of the Association gave rise to a strong opposition, the bulk of which joined the Eisenachers. The Eisenach Party — the Social-Democratic Workers' Party of Germany set up at the General Congress of German, Swiss and Austrian Social-Democrats held in Eisenach on 7-9 August 1869. The party programme declared support for the principles of the First International, although Lassallean ideas still wielded a considerable influence in it. At the Congress in Gotha in 1875, the Eisenachers and the Lassalleans formed a single party of the working class, which called itself the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany up to 1890.—191, 342
[398] It has not been established just what material Engels enclosed with the letter. It may be the article 'Aus Frankreich' featured by Der Sozialdemokrat, No. 45, 2 November 1882.—344
[399] Coup de Jarnac — a treacherous blow. The expression originated with the name of one of the fighters in a duel that took place on 10 July 1547, Guy Chabot de Jarnac, who dealt his adversary a cunningly aimed surprise blow, which proved lethal.— 344
[40] Obshchina (Commune) — a pre-capitalist spontaneously evolved social group of agricultural producers, who own or control their means of production.— 22
[401] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in The Labour Monthly, London, 1933, Vol. 15, No. 9 . - 3 4 6
[404] Ringleader (Haupt-Chef) — at the Cologne Communist trial in 1852, a Prussian police official, Stieber, thus called agent provocateur Cherval, seeking to ascribe to him the leading role in the Communist League and create an impression that he had contacts with Marx and the accused in the trial (see Marx's pamphlet Revela-tions Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne, present edition, Vol. 11, pp. 407-19).—347
[406] According to the Bible, during the Jews' flight from Egyptian captivity, the weak-spirited among them, driven by hunger and privation, began to yearn for the days spent in captivity, when they were at least well fed.— 349
[409] After Bebel's critique of Vollmar's articles published as a separate pamphlet under the pen-name 'Surtur' (see Note 383), the Right-wing Social Democrat Louis Viereck stated in his newspaper Süddeutsche Post that the pamphlet did not express the opinion of the party. Der Sozialdemokrat (No. 44, 26 October 1882) protested at Viereck's statement, stressing that the articles comprising the pamphlet were written by a party member and originally published by the party's printed organ.—
[413] 4 ' 3 Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: K. Marx, F. Engels, V.l. Lenin, On Scientific Communism, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1967.— 353
[4 2 0] At the general elections in Italy in October 1882, socialist Andrea Costa was elected to parliament from the city of Ravenna thus becoming the first socialist deputy in the country's history. The elections to the Norwegian parliament (Storting), in which the republicans scored an impressive victory, were held in September-November 1882.— 358,
[208] In October 1880, Malon, Guesde and Brousse started the newspaper L'Emancipation in Lyons and, on Brousse's suggestion, made a written commitment not to stand for election. In November 1880, L'Emancipation ceased to exist, and the editors' commitment was no longer valid. This enabled Guesde to stand at the elections of 21 August 1881 to the French Chamber of Deputies from the town of Roubaix, for which Malon and Brousse fiercely attacked him.—142, 145, 361
[179] On 16 August 1881, Gambetta was to speak in Charonne (a Paris district) at the meeting of his constituents, but the assembly refused to let him take the floor.—
[421] At the meeting held on 29 October 1882 in Constituency No. 18 in Montmartre, where Clemenceau was deputy, the working-class voters shouted him down.— 361
[422] In late 1882, Eduard Bernstein and Georg Heinrich von Vollmar planned to open a discussion in Der Sozialdemokrat with a view to introducing changes into the party programme. The Editors followed Engels' advice and confined themselves to indirect criticism of the opportunist demands contained in the Gotha programme.— 362
[424] The term 'dynamiters' gained wide currency in European conservative quarters in the 1870s-80s and was applied to the revolutionary terrorists and persons who manufactured and stored explosives. L'Egalité, 4th series, No. 19, 11 November 1882, which reprinted the telegram from The Standard of6 November, explained the recent political reprisals in France by the negotiations about the extradition of the 'dynamiters' (Russian political refugees).— 363
[427] Marcel Deprez published the results of his research into electricity mostly in the journal La Lumière Electrique for 1881 and 1882. His works on electric power transmission appeared in the journal Electricité for 1881.— 364
[429] Marx alludes to the debate on events in Egypt (see Note 355) in the House of Commons on 6 and 7 November 1882.— 365
[33] The London-based book trading firm of Philip Stephen King specialised in the sale of government and parliamentary publications, statistical material, etc. Marx used its services between 1867 and 1882. He probably needed the book ordered in this letter for his work on Volume Two of Capital.—19, 367
[431] In a letter of 22 August 1882, Sorge asked Engels to deal with the matter of subscription fees for The Labour Standard.— 368
[432] Peter Schlemihl—a character in Chamisso's story Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte, who exchanged his shadow for a magic purse.— 369
[31] The reference is to the World Exhibition of 1878 in Paris.— 17
[433] Marx probably referred to William Langland's allegoric poem The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman, together with Vita de Do-wel, Do-bet, et Do-best, sec-undum Wit et Resoun. There arc three versions of the poem. A volume containing them all was published by the Early English Text Society in 1867-85. (The Society was founded by Frederick James Furnivall in 1864.)—372
[4 3 9] Engels is referring, above all, to Dialectics of Nature (see Note 449).— 377
[4 4 1] Samuel Moore's mathematical research mentioned here made up a few pages of notes concerning the method of substantiating the differential calculus indepen-dently worked out by Marx (see also Engels' letter to Marx of 18 August 1881, this volume, pp. 130-32). Marx commented on Moore's notes in his letter to Engels of 22 November 1882 (see this volume, p. 380). See also Note 192.—378, 380
[4 4 4] A reference to Paul Lafargue's open letter to Edouard Piquand, the Montluçon examining magistrate, entitled 'L'affaire de Montluçon' (L'Egalité, 4th series, No. 26, 18 November 1882) written as a reply to the summons of 15 November to appear before the jury on 21 November (see Note 440). In it, Lafargue refused to stand for trial.— 379
[4 4 5] Marx is referring to the Possibilists' party established at the St-Etienne Congress and headed by Brousse and Malon (Fédération française des travailleurs socialistes révolutionnaires) (see Note 394).— 380
[4 4 8] The reference is to the split in the French workers' movement at the St-Etienne Congress in September 1882 (see Note 394). On the Marseilles Congress, see Note 443.-384
[450] Lafargue's article 'Le Ministère enchanté' was printed by L'Egalité, 4th series, No. 32, 24 November 1882; it sharply criticised the activities of former Finance Minister Jean Batiste Léon Say.— 385, 402
[4 5 2] Engels intended to use these materials for a pamphlet about Bismarck and Lassalle (this volume, pp. 324-25). He did not carry out his plan.— 386
[38] Marx and his family were on holiday in Ramsgate from early August to 13 September 1880.—21, 24, 35, 46, 60
[4 5 3] The information and quotations concerning the balance of power between the Possibilists and the Guesdists after the split in the French Workers' Party (see Note 394) were contained in Lafargue's letter to Engels of 24 November 1882.— 387
[4 5 5] The reference is to the Preamble to the Programme of the French Workers' Party drawn up by Marx (see present edition, Vol. 24, p. 340).— 387
[4 5 6] Engels alludes to the stand taken by Johannes Miquel, a former member of the Communist League and later a National Liberal and minister in the Prussian government. Miquel's departure from the revolutionary stand was apparent even in his letters to Marx of 6 April and 15 August 1856. Miquel maintained that a revolution in Germany was not 'all that near' and that during it the proletariat should form a firm alliance not only with the petty but with the liberal bourgeoisie as well, and after its victory adopt tactics that would not alienate the bourgeoisie.— 388, 449
[457] 4 5' This refers to the St-Etienne and Roanne congresses (see Note 394).— 389
[458] A reference to the exposure of the German agent provocateur Johann Karl Friedrich Elias Schmidt in Zurich. The Sozialdemokrat editors brought forth a pamphlet Die deutsche Geheimpolizei im Kampfe mit der Sozialdemokratie. Aktenstücke und Enthül-lungen auf Grund authentischen Materials dargestellt (Hottingen-Zurich, 1882) that described the machinations of Schmidt and his superiors. It was reprinted there in the same year with the same subtitle under the heading Deutsche Polizeischufte-reien.— 390, 436
[460] Engels is referring, above all, to Marx's unfinished work on Polish history which he was writing in 1863 and which involved the use of the book Vom Entstehen und Untergange der polnischen Konstitution vom 3-ten May 1791, Parts I-II, 1793 (it was published anonymously in Leipzig; its authors were J. Potocki, H. Kollantaj and F. K. Dmochowski). The extant sketches for the work, which Marx planned to entitle Deutschland und Polen. Politisch-militärische Betrachtungen bei Gelegenheit des Polnischen Aufstands von 1863, and the notes he had made for it were published in: K. Marx, Manuskripte über die polnische Frage (1863-1864), Amsterdam, 1961, and, in Russian and German, in: Marx-Engels Archives, Vol. XIV, Moscow, 1973. The mistakes that occurred in the original publication when deciphering the manuscripts were corrected in the latter.— 391
[61] 6 ' This is a reply to an undated letter of Dr Ferdinand Fleckles who had enclosed a medical form to be filled in by Jenny Marx. Marx wrote it on the front of the form. Jenny's description of her illness is on the back.— 36
[462] The polemic around Marx's theory of value was launched in La Plebe, No. 13, 8 October 1882, by Romeo Candelari's article 'La critica dell'economia radicale moderna'. Candelari had several more polemical articles printed by the newspaper, among them 'De Laveleye e Rodbertus' (No. 14, 15 October 1882), which contained Laveleye's pronouncements concerning Marx's theory of value. Candelari's articles also appeared in Nos. 15, 16, 17 and 18 of La Plebe of 22 and 29 October and 5 and 12 November 1882. Issue No. 17 also carried Carlo Cafiero's letter to the editors called 'Polemica'.— 392
[464] Tlingits — a group of Indian tribes inhabiting south-eastern Alaska. By 'once Russian America' Engels is referring to Russia's possessions in North America (Alaska), which, under the treaty of 30 March 1867, the Russian government sold to the United States for $7.2 mln. In 1880-81, Marx wrote down a detailed synopsis of Lewis H. Morgan's book Ancient Society or Researches in the Lines of Human Progress from Savagery, through Barba-rism into Civilization, London, 1877. It was published as 'Marx's Excerpts from Lewis Henry Morgan's Ancient History', in The Ethnological Notebooks of Karl Marx, Assen, 1972, pp. 95-241. Morgan built his research of primitive society on studies into the gentile com-munities of North American Indians, including the Iroquois, a group of tribes living in the north-east of the USA.— 395
[466] E ng e] s Wrote these lines to Marx on Laura Lafargue's letter of 12 December 1882. Laura informed him that Paul Lafargue had just been arrested by the Paris police and, under its orders, was to be sent to Montluçon to stand for trial there.— 396
[63] The French translation of Volume One of Capital was prepared by Joseph Roy. Marx made substantial changes in and additions to the manuscript. For this reason, he maintained that, like the German original, the French edition had a scientific significance of its own. In conformity with the French edition, changes were introduced into the subsequent editions of Capital in German, Russian and other languages. The publication was undertaken by Maurice Lachâtre, a French journalist and publisher. The book was printed b"y the Lahure press in Paris. Under the contract signed by Marx and Lachâtre, Capital was to come out in instalments, 44 in all, 16 printed pages each. The work was printed in two instalments at a time, but was sold in series of five instalments each, which made nine series in all. Publication was begun in September 1872 and completed in November 1875. Having received a copy of Capital from Marx, Swinton wrote to him on 7 December 1880: 'A thousand thanks for the great work Capital which I shall have bound handsomely, and keep as a treasure through life.'—40, 42
[469] Marx probably arrived at this conclusion after reading the book by V. V. (V. P. Vorontsov) Sudby kapitalizma v Rossii (The Destiny of Capitalism in Russia), St Petersburg, 1882. In the preface to the book, the author, a noted Russian writer and economist, leader of Liberal Narodism (Populism), mentioned Russian 'socialists of the Marxian school' who maintained that Russia was to follow the route of capitalist development.— 399
[4 7 0] This letter was published in English for the first time in part in: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London, [1934J and in full in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Selected Correspondence, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1955.—399
[6 5] A reference to the so-called local state of siege declared by Bismarck in Berlin and its environs on 28 November 1878 on the strength of Para. 28 of the Anti-Socialist Law (see Note 16) and extended to Hamburg, its environs and the adjacent Prussian ter-ritories (see also Note 198) on 29 October 1880. Under it, meetings could be held only with police permission, distribution of printed matter in public places was pro-hibited, persons considered politically unreliable were deported, and the right to own, carry, import and pass on arms was withdrawn or restricted.— 41, 43, 152
[50] Engels wrote this letter on the same sheet of paper as one to Laura Lafargue of the same date. This letter was published in English for the first time in: Frederick Engels, Paul and Laura Lafargue, Correspondence, Vol. I: 1868-1886, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1959.— 26
[472] The Thirty Years' War (1618-48) — a European war in which the Pope, the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and the German Catholic princes rallied under the banner of Catholicism and fought against the Protestant countries, Bohemia, Denmark, Sweden, the Republic of the Netherlands and a number of German states. The rulers of Catholic France — rivals of the Habsburgs — supported the Protestant camp. Germany was the principal battleground and the chief object of plunder and the belligerents' aggressive claims. The war ended with the signing of the Westphalian Peace Treaty, which fixed Germany's political fragmentat-ion.—404, 448
[41] Artel — an association of small producers in pre-revolutionary Russia engaged in joint economic activity (carpentry, fishing, masonry, wood-cutting, agriculture, etc.).—22
[474] A reference to a postcard from Johann Philipp Becker to Engels of 13 December 1882. For Engels' reply, see this volume, pp. 405-07.— 404
[4 7 5] Engels is referring to Marx's lengthy studies of writings on the commune and forms of communal property, and the Russian village commune in particular, as part of his research into land rent and agrarian relations in general. Specifically, somewhat earlier Marx had made a thorough study,of Kovalevsky's book Communal Land Ownership: the Causes, Course and Consequences of Its Disintegration (1879), from which he copied out passages on the character of the commune and its place and socio-economic role at different times and among different peoples.— 408
[76] The controversy between the General Council and the bourgeois radical Charles Bradlaugh arose after the latter's attacks on Marx in a public lecture in London on 11 December 1871, and in his letter to The Eastern Post (16 December). At the General Council meeting of 19 December, Marx drew attention to the close connection between Bradlaugh's statements and the campaign of persecution unleashed against the International by the ruling quarters and the bourgeois press, which became especially fierce after the International issued the address 'The Civil War in France' in June 1871. Marx replied to Bradlaugh in a series of statements featured by The Eastern Post (see present edition, Vol. 23, pp. 71-73).— 52
[471] A reference to Lafargue's article 'Notre candidat' in L'Egalité, 4th series, No. 47, 9 December 1882.— 402, 408
[477] The reference is to Sergei Podolinski's article Tl socialismo e l'unità délie forze fi-siche', which was first published in 1881 in La Plebe, Anno XIV, Nuova série, No. 3, pp. 13-16, and No. 4, pp. 5-15, and then reprinted by the German journal Die Neue Ze^i%-1> 1 8 ^ 3 , pp. 413-24, and 449-57, under the heading 'Menschliche Arbeit und Einheit der Kraft'.— 410
[9] At the Reichstag elections on 30 July 1878, shortly before the promulgation of the Anti-Socialist Law (see Note 16), the Social-Democrats won 437,158 votes.— 8
[481] On the eve of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Bismarck made it understood to Napoleon III that, in exchange for France's neutrality, he would not hinder expansion of its territory at the expense of Belgium, Luxembourg and the German lands lying between the Rhine and the Moselle. On 6 August 1866, the French government demanded that Bismarck pay the promised compensation, insisting that the frontiers be changed back to those of 1814, the Prussian garrison with-drawn from Luxembourg, and the latter's annexation by France be ensured. But Bismarck resolutely rejected these demands and responded to them on 19 March 1867 by making public the Prussian secret alliance with the South German states of Baden and Bavaria concluded back in 1866. Referring to Bismarck's behaviour at that time, Engels implies his negotiations of 19 November 1882 with the Russian Foreign Minister Girs, who was asking for Germany's assistance for Russian policies in the East. After the negotiations, the German press featured notes and official articles on the alliance concluded by Germany and Austria-Hungary back in 1879.— 415
[482] Xhis refers to Rodbertus' Briefe und Socialpolitische Aufsätze, published by Dr. Rudolf Meyer (vols I-II, Berlin [1882]). In a letter to Engels of 14 November 1882, Bebel jokingly noted that Meyer was full of praise for Marx and Engels, flattered probably by his 'good reception' in London in 1879-80, but that they had to share the 'glory' with 'the five cardinals who had honoured him in the same manner'.—
[82] Armchair socialists {Kathedersozialisten) — followers of a trend in bourgeois socialism that emerged in Germany in the 1860s-70s. In 1873, its champions (Gustav Schmoller, Adolph Wagner and Lujo Brentano) set up a society called Verein für Sozialpolitik which had its own printed organ, Schriften des Vereins für Sozialpolitik. Armchair socialists supported Bismarck's social policy, advocated class harmony and opposed the workers' revolutionary action.— 56, 65, 416, 449,
[72] This letter was published in English for the first time in: The Letters of Karl Marx, selected and translated with explanatory notes and an introduction by Saul K. Padover, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1979.—48, 107,
[234] Marx was taking a cure in Ventnor, on the Isle of Wight (the south of England), between 29 December 1881 and 16 January 1882. He was accompanied by his youngest daughter Eleanor.—169, 171, 202, 214, 218, 224, 259, 366, 371
[140] MO p a r t 0f this letter was published in English for the first time in: Marx and Engels, Ireland and the Irish Question, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1971.— 85, 156, 171,
[3] Bimetallism, the practice of using both gold and silver as a monetary standard by specifying that both constitute legal tender at a fixed ratio to each other. This practice existed in a number of countries in the 18th and 19th centuries but did not meet the needs of developed commodity economy and went against the very nature of money as the only commodity which was to be a universal equivalent. Liebknecht quoted from this letter by Engels in his speech in the Saxon Landtag on 16 January 1880, opposing a return to bimetallism. Engels analysed the issue of bimetallism in some detail also in his letter to Eduard Bernstein of 10 May 1882 (see this volume, pp. 256-58).—3, 256
[240] when t n e Reichstag debated the observance of the Anti-Socialist Law in December 1881, deputies Wilhelm Bios and Wilhelm Hasenclever adopted a conciliatory stand. In its leader, Der Sozialdemokral, No. 51,15 December 1881 strongly protested that the Social-Democratic deputies in the Reichstag 'should neither wail nor complain, but brand and expose ... not enter into negotiations, but protest'. The protest was supported by the party majority outside the Reichstag and by the Social-Democratic group within it. At a special meeting at which Bebel was also present, although he was not a Reichstag deputy at the time, the members of the parliamentary group unanimously issued a declaration endorsing the general line of Der Sozialdemokral as the party's printed organ. The declaration was printed by the newspaper on 16 February 1882. Both Bios and Hasenclever had signed it.—
[241] This refers to William I's rescript signed by him and Bismarck (Erlass vom 4. Januar 1882. Deutscher Reichs-Anzeiger und Königlich Preussischer Staats-Anzeiger, 7 January 1882). William demanded that, in future, all government acts be regarded as a constitutional expression of the King's own opinion. Referring to Art. 49 of the Prussian Constitution, which granted the King of Prussia the right to personally direct government policies, William laid down that his ministers and officials should curb any 'doubt' about the Prussian King's 'constitutional right'.— 175,
[37] 3' Jfymstvos—locak-self-government bodies set up in a number of gubernias (gouverne-ments in the text) of European Russia under the Zemstvo Reform of 1864. It was an attempt to adapt the Russian autocratic system to the needs of capitalist development.— 20, 175
[166] p a r t 0f this letter was published in English for the first time in: The Letters of Karl Marx, selected and translated with explanatory notes and an introduction by Saul K. Padover, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1979.—110, 176,
[2] The reference is to two trade unionists, Alexander Macdonald and Thomas Burt, who were elected to the House of Commons in 1874.— 3
[222] The following Social-Democrats won seats in the Reichstag at the elections of 27 October 1881: Wilhelm Bios, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Dietz, Karl Frohme, Bruno Geiser, Karl Grillenberger, Wilhelm Hasenclever, Max Kayser, Julius Kräcker, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Moritz Rittinghausen, Karl Wilhelm Stolle and Georg Heinrich von Vollmar. August Bebel was not elected in either of the three constituencies where he had been nominated. Neither did he win at the second bal-lot in the Mainz constituency on 15 December.—154, 188, 259, 454
[262] It has not been established which pamphlet of Hepner's is meant.— 188, 260
[265] The Federative Union (full name, Union federative du Centre, the Federative Union of the Centre), one of the six associations constituting the French Workers' Party, had been formed by April 1880. An association of the party's organisations in Paris, it consisted of 80 groups. The Union's leadership was in the hands of the party's Right opportunist wing, the Possibilists — Brousse, Malon and Joffrin (editors of the Prolétaire). At the meetings of the Federative Union of the Centre on 17 and 24 January 1882, the Egalité editorial board and all party groups siding with the Guesdists were expelled from the Federative Union. Only 28 groups voted in favour, that is, slightly more than one-third of the groups making up the Federative Union (48 groups out of the 80 were present at the meetings mentioned above). After their expulsion from the Federative Union of the Centre, the Guesdists founded a revolutionary federation and called it the Federation of the Centre (Fédération du Centre).—190, 332, 355, 388
[67] The Alliance of Socialist Democracy was founded by Mikhail Bakunin in Geneva in October 1868 as an international anarchist organisation. In 1869 the Alliance approached the General Council of the International Working Men's Association with a request to be admitted to the International. The General Council agreed to admit individual sections of the Alliance provided the latter dissolved as an independent organisation. On entering the International, Bakunin did not actually comply with this decision and incorporated the Alliance into it under the guise of a section (called 'the Alliance of Socialist Democracy. Central Section'). Marx, Engels and the General Council fought the Alliance, exposing it as a sect hostile to the working-class movement (for details, see present edition, Vol. 23). The Hague Congress of the International (1872) dealt a severe blow at the anarchists and expelled the Alliance's leaders Mikhail Bakunin and James Guillaume from the International.—43, 181, 190, 333, 341, 370, 408
[224] At the International Socialist Congress held in Chur (see Note 100), serious differences surfaced between the Polish socialist groups. Kautsky, who wrote to Engels about the matter on 8 November 1881, asked for his opinion concerning the stand Der Sozialdemokrat ought to take in this affair. Engels set forth his views in a letter to Kautsky of 7 February 1882 (see this volume, pp. 191-95).— 155, 166, 190, 191,
[266] The Holy Alliance — an association of European monarchs founded in September 1815 on the initiative of the Russian Tsar Alexander I and the Austrian Chancellor Metternich to suppress the revolutionary movement.—191, 273
[6] This letter is printed according to a handwritten copy made by an unknown person. Failing to decipher Marx's handwriting, he put 'Kranz?' in square brackets after the addressee's name, Kraus. Also in square brackets and with a question mark is the word 'proceeded'. The copy contains further notes made by the same person.— 6
[2 7 8] In early February 1882, following medical advice, Marx took a trip to Algiers, where he stayed from 20 February to 2 May. On the way there, he stopped over in Argenteuil (a Paris suburb) to visit his daughter Jenny Longuet (9-16 February).—196, 199, 202, 203, 210, 369
[1] On 18 August 1879, in Ramsgate, Marx's daughter Jenny Longuet gave birth to a son, Edgar.— 3
[277] Engels is referring to the 'liberal course' proclaimed by William, Prince (King from 1861) of Prussia, in October 1858, when he assumed the regency. In actual fact, not one of the reforms expected by the bourgeoisie was carried out. William's policy aimed at consolidating the Prussian monarchy and Junkerdom.— 194, 208,
[20] A reference to the introduction to the French edition of Engels' work Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, which appeared in Paris in 1880 in Paul Lafargue's translation under the title Socialisme utopique et socialisme scientifique. Engels produced the pamphlet at Lafargue's request, having rewritten three chapters of Anti-Diihring (Chapter I of the Introduction and chapters I and II of Part III) to form a popular work in its own right. It was first printed by the French socialist magazine La Revue socialiste, Nos. 3, 4 and 5, 1880, and then published, also in 1880, as a pamphlet. The French socialist Benoît Malon embarked on an introduction to it, but his effort was deemed unacceptable, and the introduction as it appeared was written by Marx, who had first consulted Engels (see present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 335-39). In the pamphlet, the introduction carried the signature of Lafargue, whom Marx requested to 'polish the phrases, leaving the gist intact' (see this volume, p. 16).— 12, 332,
[284] The Editors are not in possession of this letter (telegram, note).— 212, 213, 216,
[288] On 25 March 1882, Engels' niece Mary Ellen Rosher gave birth to a daughter, Lilian —228, 234
[289] Marx has in mind the 'iron law of wages', which Lassalle tried to substantiate by reference to scientific authorities in his pamphlet Offnes Antwortschreiben an das Central-Comité zur Berufung eines Allgemeinen Deutschen Arbeitercongresses zu Leipzig, Zurich, 1863, pp. 15-16. For Marx's and Engels' criticism of the Lassallean law, see present edition, Vol. 24, p. 69. By Ricardo's and Turgot's statements on the law of minimum wages, Marx means Ricardo's On the Principles of Political Economy, and Taxation, 3rd ed., London, 1821, pp. 73-499, and Turgot's Réflexions sur la formation et la distribution des richesses (1766) in Œuvres de Turgot, new ed., by E. Daire, Vol. 1, Paris, 1844, p. 10. Marx's critique of Ricardo's and Turgot's ideas on this issue is contained, in particular, in Theories of Surplus Value (Volume Four ofCapital) (see present edition, Vol. 30, pp. 362-67, and Vol. 32, pp. 35-54).—230, 324
[297] The reference is to the German Workers' Educational Society in London (see Note 8), which in the 1880s had its offices at 49 Tottenham Street, Tottenham Court Road, London, W.— 236, 330
[310] 3 , 0 Having left Algiers on 2 May 1882 on his doctor's advice, Marx travelled to Monte Carlo via Marseilles and Nice, and lived there for a month, up to 3 June.—
[8] A reference to the German Workers' Educational Society in London, which was founded in February 1840 by Karl Schapper, Joseph Moll and other leaders of the League of the Just. In 1847 and 1849-50 Marx and Engels took an active part in the Society's work, but on 17 September 1850 they and a number of their followers withdrew from it because the Willich-Schapper sectarian and adventurist faction had temporarily increased its influence in the Society. The subsequent weakening of the sectarians' influence made it possible for Marx and Engels to resume their work in the Educational Society late in 1850. When the International Working Men's Association was set up, the Society, with Friedrich Lessner as one of its leaders, became the German Section of the International in London. This letter deals with the differences of opinion associated with the need to work out a new tactics for the German Social-Democrats after the introduction of the Anti-Socialist Law in October 1878 (see Note 16).—7, 72, 252, 333, 334, 356
[11] On behalf of the German Workers' Educational Society in London (see Note 8), H. Meyer invited Engels to its meeting of 27 March 1880, which was to discuss the Society's reorganisation.— 9
[327] Between 6 June and 22 August, Marx stayed with his daughter Jenny Longuet in Argenteuil.—275, 305, 369
[337] The reference is to the Congress of the Federative Union of the Centre held on 14-21 May 1882 in Paris, which confirmed the decisions to expel the editors of L'Egalité passed by the meetings of the Federative Union of the Centre held on 17 and 24 January (see Note 265). The note entitled 'Frankreich' in Der Sozialdemokrat, No. 23, 1 June 1882 denounced the congress decision on the expulsion of the Egalité group. The passage mentioned in this letter appeared, in translation, in L'Egalité, No. 27, 3rd series, 11 June 1882. The Editors do not have the issue of the Prolétaire with the reply to this.— 283, 341
[346] This refers to Franz Mehring's article in the bourgeois newspaper Weser-Leitung of 2 July 1882. An opponent of the Social-Democratic movement at the time, Mehring lashed out against Der Sozialdemokrat. He referred to Marx's and Engels' dis-agreement with the editorial board and stressed the paper's 'lack of tact', for which, he alleged, German workers were being constantly persecuted. By way of conclusion, Mehring promised further exposures of the newspaper. He also wrote about Marx's poor health and predicted he might be unable to complete his work on Capital. The Sozialdemokrat^ editors used the advice by Engels given here in an article against Mehring written in quite harsh terms and printed under the heading 'In eigener Sache' in No. 31, 27 July 1882 — 291, 299, 301, 377
[47] The reference is to the piece on Marx's activities and works written by Hazeltine, a staff member on The Sun.— 24
[35] In her letter to Engels of 25 July 1880, Minna Gorbunova mentioned the Acts of Parliament on primary education of 1870, 1873 and 1876, as well as the Report of the Committee of the Council on Education 1878-1879.— 20
[355] In 1879-82, Egypt witnessed an upsurge of the national liberation movement against British and French capital which had established direct financial control over the country (in 1878, representatives of Britain and France were made ministers of the Egyptian government and given the right of veto). The insurrection of the Cairo garrison forced the Khedive of Egypt (see Note 362) to issue a constitution in September 1881. In December, Egypt acquired a parliament led by the National Party which had been founded that same year and represented a bloc of liberal landowners and merchants with the patriotically minded officers and intellectuals supported by the peasantry and petty bourgeoisie. The National Party set the country's independence as its target ('Egypt for Egyptians'). However, in the summer of 1882, having provoked a conflict with Egypt, Britain opened hostilities, which, despite the resistance of the Egyptian troops headed by Colonel Arabi, ended in a British victory. In September, they captured Cairo, and Egypt became their colony to all intents and purposes. The public meetings of protest against the British aggression and the bombard-ment of Alexandria mentioned by Marx were organised in Paris by the Federation of the Centre (see Note 230) in late July 1882 with the participation of the Citoyen editors Henri Brissac, Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue. The Guesdists' resolution on Egypt hailed Arabi Pasha and the National Party as worthy of the great mission they had assumed.—298, 301, 313, 317, 319, 323, 335
[360] The reference is to the French edition of Engels' work Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (see Note 20) and the plans for a German edition. Bernstein wrote to Engels about the need for such an edition on 7 July 1882 (see Note 378) and asked for a short afterword on Bismarck's state socialism.— 300, 336
[36] In her letter of 25 July 1880, Gorbunova wrote that she was shortly to return to Moscow and gave Engels her address: Toporov's House, Bolshaya Molchanovka St., Moscow.— 20
[3 6 5] On 16 September 1882, Jenny Longuet gave birth to a daughter named Jenny after her grandmother.—303, 309, 329, 331, 372
[366] Engels spent his holiday in Great Yarmouth on the east coast of England from 11 August to 8 September 1882.— 305, 306
[7] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London [1934].—7, 60, 320, 349, 394, 403, 410,
[372] This refers to the speech made on 23 August 1882 by Carl Wilhelm Siemens, President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at the Association's 52nd congress in Southampton. It was published in Mature, No. 669, 24 August 1882. The British Association for the Advancement of Science was founded in 1831 and still exists; the materials of its annual meetings are published as reports.— 314, 384
[3 7 3] Engels lived in Switzerland (Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel and Berne) from the second half of October 1848 to mid-January 1849 and from 12 July to early October 1849. In 1849, he also visited Vevey (Canton Vaud), where he stayed from 24 July to about 20 August.—314, 329
[4] A reference to Bismarck's visit to Austria in September 1879 and the Austro-German alliance concluded in Vienna on 7 October of that year. Art. 1 of the treaty stipulated that, should one of the contracting parties be attacked by Russia, the other was obliged to come to its aid. Art. 2 stated that, should one of the signa-tories be attacked by any other country, the other was to maintain benevolent neutrality. Should the aggressor have Russian support, Art. 1 was to apply. Concluded for a term of five years and later repeatedly extended, this treaty was the first in a series of agreements that ultimately led to the establishment of a military bloc headed by Germany and to a division of the European countries into two hostile camps that subsequently clashed in the First World War.— 4
[374] Marx and his daughter Laura Lafargue stayed in Vevey (Canton Vaud, Switzerland) from 27 August to 25 September 1882.—315, 317, 334, 335, 369
[55] On 21 August (2 September) 1880, Danielson requested Marx to write an article on Russia's post-reform economy for a Russian magazine.— 30
[381] This refers to the merger of the two German workers' parties, the Eisenachers and the Lassalleans (see Note 269), which took place at the Gotha Unity Congress held between 22 and 27 May 1875.—324, 343
[38 3] j ^ reference to two articles by Georg Heinrich Vollmar published anonymously in Der Sozialdemokrat, Nos. 34 and 35, 17 and 24 August 1882 under the heading 'Aufhebung des Ausnahmegesetzes?'. In the same year, they appeared in Hottingen-Zurich as a separate pamphlet entitled Aufhebung des Sozialistengesetzes? Ein Wort zur Taktik der deutschen Sozialdemokratie (signed 'Surtur').— 325, 332, 336, 349, 352,
[384] Engels is referring to his translation of the English song 'The Vicar of Bray' (see Note 364), sung to a folk tune.^326, 331
[378] A reference to the preparation of the German edition of Engels' work Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (see Note 360). As he had promised, Engels prepared the German text by making additions to and changes in it, and wrote a preface (present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 457-59). He also supplemented it by his essay 'The Mark' (ibid., pp. 439-56) on the emergence and development of landed property in Germany. The work was finished in September 1882, and the pamphlet was printed in Hottingen-Zurich at the end of the year and was on sale in early 1883 under the title Die Entwicklung des Sozialismus von der Utopie zur Wissenschaft.— 324, 331, 344,
[394] The reference is to the two congresses of French socialists held simultaneously in the autumn of 1882: that of the Possibilists in St-Étienne and that of the Guesdists (Marxists) in Roanne. At the regular Congress of the French Workers' Party convened in St-Etienne on 25 September 1882, a split took place. The Marxist (Guesdist) deputies left the Congress and assembled in Roanne on 26 September, declaring themselves the Sixth Congress of the French Workers' Party. The Possibilists, who stayed in St-Etienne, rejected, both formally and essentially, the programme drawn up with Marx's participation and approved at the Congress in Le Havre in November 1880 (see Note 68), and granted the districts the right to produce their own election manifestos. In Engels' words, in the programme, approved by the St-Etienne Congress after a revision of its preamble, its 'proletarian class character has been eliminated' (see this volume, pp. 341-42). The congress expelled from the party the leaders and activists of its Marxist wing: Jules Guesde, Paul Lafargue, Emile Massard, Gabriel Deville, Fréjac and Gustave Bazin, and approved a new name for the party, Federation française des travailleurs socialistes révolutionnaires. The Marxist congress in Roanne, which sat up to 1 October, confirmed its commitment to the Marxist programme and retained the old name, the French Workers' Party. It had its stronghold among workers in the major industrial centres and certain groups of the Paris proletariat, mainly at big factories. The Possibilists were followed by Parisian artisans, as well as by workers in the south (Marseilles) and west (Brittany), who were still under the influence of petty-bourgeois ideas.—339, 341, 350, 361, 406, 408
[68] A reference to the Programme électoral des travailleurs socialistes, the preamble to which was dictated by Marx to Jules Guesde (see present edition, Vol. 24, p. 340). The theoretical part was followed by a minimum programme in-corporating an economic and a political section. The election programme was widely discussed at workers' meetings and adopted as the official programme of the French Workers' Party (see Note 195) at its national congress in Le Havre in November 1880.—43, 148, 342, 386, 447, 474
[402] In August 1882, during a miners' strike at Montceau-les-Mines the anarchists staged a number of provocations, laying the blame on the strikers. The arrested men were brought to court in October.— 347, 406
[403] A reference to the first Factory Act passed by the Swiss government on 23 March 1877, which came into force on 1 March 1878 as the Union Law on the Labour Conditions at Factories (das Bundesgesetz betreffend die Arbeit in den Fabri-ken).—347, 364, 373
[405] Liebknecht was in prison from 15 October 1882; Bebel received a jail sentence to begin on 1 November 1882 and served it in the Leipzig prison until 9 March 1883.—348, 350, 453
[407] Engels is referring to August Bebel's article 'Aufhebung des Sozialistengesetzes?' in Der Sozialdemokrat, No. 42, 12 October 1882, directed against two Vollmar's articles printed in Der Sozialdemokrat and as a separate pamphlet (see Note 383). Bebel's critique was spearheaded mostly against Vollmar's second article, in which the author advocated putsch tactics and a secret organisation of the party. Bebel denounced these tactics as unacceptable and even fatal for the party. In a letter to Engels of 1 October 1882, he explained that the imprudent language and tone of the articles like those by Vollmar could well entail unnecessary losses in the party.—349, 357
[408] Lassalle's tenet that, with respect to the proletariat, all the other classes were 'one reactionary mass' was incorporated in the programme of the Social-Democratic Party of Germany approved at the Gotha Congress (see Note 381). For a criticism of this tenet, see Marx's work 'Critique of the Gotha Programme' (present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 88-89). In this letter, Engels uses the phrase 'single reactionary mass'.—349, 357
[144] The reference is to the Stenographische Berichte über die Verhandlungen des Reichstags. 4. Legislaturperiode. IV. Session 1881, Vol. I, Berlin, 1881 (see Note 141). The Workers' Accident Insurance Bill was part of Bismarck's so-called labour legislation. It provided for the establishment of an Imperial Accident Insurance Bank. Two-thirds of the insurance expenses were to be incurred by the employers, and one-third, by the workers; those who earned 750 marks a year or less were to have their contributions paid by the Treasury. Bebel subjected the Bill to well-substantiated and sharp criticism and demanded that the workers' accident insurance be wholly financed by the employers. The Bill was passed by the Reichstag on 27 June 1884. Bebel's speeches were also printed by Der Sozialdemokrat, Nos. 16-22, 17 April-29 May 1881. On the state of siege, see Note 65.— 87, 353, 386
[414] 4 ' 4 Engels planned to write a pamphlet about Bismarck and Lassalle (see this volume, pp. 324-25, 433).—353, 359
[5] The originals of this letter and that of 13 December 1879 (present edition, Vol. 45, p. 427) are kept in the family archive of Lord Walstone, who presented photocopies of them to the Institute of Marxism-Leninism in 1968. The addressee was Lord Walstone's father, the English archaeologist Charles Walstone, who held his father's surname, Waldstein, at the time.— 5
[416] 4 , 6 The reference is to the conflict between Guesde's followers and anarchist Godard, whom they accused of taking a bribe from the French gas company. In a letter to Engels that has not survived, Bernstein probably voiced his disapproval of the Guesdists' stand in the Godard affair. On the comparative prestige of the parties that were formed after the split of the French Workers' Party at the St-Etienne Congress, see Engels' letter to Bernstein of 28 November 1882 (this volume, pp. 386-90) in which Engels used the information contained in Lafargue's letter of 24 November.— 355, 383, 389
[16] The Exceptional Law against the Socialists (Gesetz gegen die gemeingefährlichen Bestrebungen der Sozialdemokratie — the Law against the Harmful and Dangerous Aspirations of Social-Democracy) was introduced by the Bismarck government, supported by the majority in the Reichstag, on 21 October 1878 to counter the socialist and workers' movement. Better known as the Anti-Socialist Law, it made the Social-Democratic Party of Germany illegal, banned all party and mass workers' organisations and suppressed the socialist and workers' press. Socialist literature was confiscated and the Social-Democrats subjected to reprisals. However, during its operation, the Social-Democratic Party assisted by Marx and Engels up-rooted both opportunist and 'ultra-Left' elements and substantially strengthened its influence among the people. Under pressure from the mass workers' movement, the Anti-Socialist Law was abrogated on 1 October 1890. For Engels' assessment of the Law, see his article 'Bismarck and the German Working Men's Party' (present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 407-09).—11, 38, 40, 50, 127, 152, 153', 192, 209, 279, 281, 332, 349, 390, 395, 414, 430, 448
[4 2 3] A reference to the negotiations between the Egalité editorial board and the Banque populaire in Paris concerning the financing of L'Egalité, 4th series (it appeared between 24 October and 28 December 1882).—363, 373
[4 2 5] This probably refers to the account of the National Committee report at the St-Etienne Congress (see Note 394) printed in Le Prolétaire. The report was spearheaded, almost in toto, against Guesde, Lafargue and other leaders of the revolutionary section of the Workers' Party of France and included a one-sided selection of fragments from Lafargue's letters to Benoît Malon. The Editors are not in possession of a copy of the issue of Le Prolétaire mentioned here.— 363, 394
[4 2 6] At an Electricity Exhibition in Munich (1882), the French physicist Marcel Deprez demonstrated the first experimental electric transmission line he had installed between Miesbach and Munich.— 364, 374, 449
[4 2 8] Marx is referring to the sensational news concerning the participation of Rivers Wilson, managing director of the English Public Debts Administration, and of Lord Sherbrooke as proxies and trustees of the Texas Galveston and Eagle railway joint-stock company. As a result of the M.P.s' interpellations in the House of Commons on 6 November 1882 pertaining to the incompatibility of British officials holding responsible jobs in the finances with their participation as trustees in specu-lative ventures, Rivers Wilson and Lord Sherbrooke were forced to divest themselves of the powers of company trustees.— 365, 376
[43] Marx met John Swinton, then responsible editor of the New York Sun, in Ramsgate in August 1880. Swinton published an account of the interview Marx granted him in The Sun on 6 September 1880 (see Vol. 24, pp. 583-85), and in the collection Current Views and Notes of Forty Days in France and England, New York, 1880.— 23, 40, 77
[4 3 8] The reference is to the first of the three articles by the German Social-Democratic refugee Georg Heinrich von Vollmar carried by Der Sozialdemokrat, Nos. 46, 47 and 49 on 9, 16 and 30 November 1882 under the heading 'Zur Spaltung der fran-zösischen Arbeiterpartei' and signed 'V.'. The articles were a response to the piece called 'St. Etienne oder Roanne?', which appeared in Der Sozialdemokrat, Nos. 41, 42 and 44 on 5, 12 and 26 October 1882. The last one was signed 'Leo' (Bernstein's pen-name).—373, 379, 386, 408
[440] The reference is to the legal proceedings instituted against Guesde, Lafargue and other activists of the French Workers' Party for the speeches they had made in Lyons, Roanne, Montluçon, Bézenet, and Saint-Chamond, among other places, after the Roanne Congress (see Note 394). Guesde and Bazin were summoned by the examining magistrate Edouard Piquand to the court of the first instance in Montluçon for 14 November, and Lafargue, for 21 November on the charge of in-stigation to civil war, assassination, burglary and arson (see Note 444), but the sus-pects publicly refused to appear before the jury. Lafargue, who had been staying in Paris since 7 October, was arrested by the Paris police on 12 December. In late April 1883, the jury of the town of Moulins sentenced Lafargue, Guesde and Dor-moy to six months' imprisonment and a fine. Guesde and Lafargue served their sen-tences in the Ste Pélagie prison in Paris from 21 May 1883.— 378, 397, 401,
[442] Replying on 17 November 1882 to Engels' letters of 2-3 and 4 November, Bernstein listed the market value of the shares of the principal state-owned Prussian railways.—379, 380
[4 4 3] The Marseilles Congress, the first congress of the French Workers' Party, was held between 20 and 31 October 1879. In the sharp controversy that arose between the Marxists (collectivists), on the one hand, and the petty-bourgeois anarchists and Proudhonists, on the other, the Marxists headed by Jules Guesde got the upper hand. The congress passed a number of decisions of fundamental significance: on the nationalisation of the industries and landed property; on the seizure of political power by the workers, on the establishment of a party that assumed the official name Fédération de parti des travailleurs socialistes en France (in practice called the Workers' Party). The congress approved party rules and set the task of drawing up a programme.— 379, 380, 386
[44] Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: K. Marx, F. Engels, V.I.Lenin, The Communist View on Morality, Novosti Press Agency Publishing House, Moscow, 1974.—23
[46] The reference is to the suspension, in August 1880, owing to the shortage of funds, of the publication of the French newspaper L'Egalité, to which Paul Lafargue had been contributing.— 24, 27
[449] Engels is referring to his manuscript Dialectics of Nature, specifically the article entitled 'The Measure of Motion.— Work'. Dialectics of Nature (present edition, Vol. 25, pp. 313-588) was the culmination of profound studies carried out by Engels over a number of years. Engels wrote the items included in Dialectics of Nature from 1873 to 1882 with intervals, during which time he studied a vast amount of source material on major problems of the natural sciences and more or less completed ten articles and chapters and many notes and fragments, all in all, almost 200 sketches. After Marx's death, he became engrossed in work to complete and publish Capital and in the affairs of the international working-class movement, and had no choice but to stop work on Dialectics of Nature, which remained unfinished and unpublished in his lifetime (for more details about the work on and publication of the book, see present edition, Vol. 25, pp. XIX-XXV and 660-63).—384, 395
[454] Fédération du Nord (Northern Federation), which was formed in the spring of 1880, was one of the six federations into which the French Workers' Party had been organisationally divided prior to its split (see Note 394). The Northern Federation united the party branches in Lille and Roubaix. After the split at the St-Etienne Congress, it sided with the Marxists.— 387, 408
[4 5 9] Engels is referring to Bebel's letter of 14 November 1882 written in the Leipzig prison in reply to Engels' letter of 28 October 1882 (see this volume, pp. 349-51).—390, 392
[4 6 3] The reference is to the British trade union delegation headed by the editor of The Labour Standard George Shipton which visited France in late 1882. (On the purpose of the visit, see this volume, pp. 359-60.) —393, 394, 396
[4 6 5] Georg Ludwig von Maurer's works on the agrarian, urban and state system in medieval Germany are: Einleitung zur Geschichte der Mark-, Hof-, Dorf- und Stadt-Verfassung und der öffentlichen Gewalt, Munich, 1854; Geschichte der Markenverfassung in Deutschland, Erlangen, 1856; Geschichte der Fronhöfe, der Bauernhöfe und der Hofver-fassung in Deutschland, vols I-IV, Erlangen, 1862-63; Geschichte der Dorfverfassung in Deutschland, vols I-II, Erlangen, 1865-66; Geschichte der Städteverfassung in Deutschland, vols I-IV, Erlangen, 1869-71.—395, 400, 408, 416, 455
[478] In a letter to Engels of 21 December 1882 Laura Lafargue wrote that she was un-easy about Jenny Longuet's health and that the latter should consult a doctor.—