1895
Dear Mrs Adler,
I am most grateful for your kind good wishes as also for those of your husband and children which I wholeheartedly reciprocate. I trust that the New Year will be a thoroughly enjoyable one for you in every way. Today a new and promising field of activity has opened up for you and Victor and no doubt we shall frequently be able to detect your own hand in it. All of us over here wish this new enterprise, the daily Arbeiter-Zeitung, [337] the very best of success in the practical field.
Please tell Victor that I will answer his last letter within the next few daysa and that I have sent him today, by ‘registered’ post, a copy of the 3rd volume of Marx’s Das Kapital. [452] No doubt it will have already arrived by the time this reaches you; like this letter it is addressed to Windmühlgasse 30A.
Once again my best wishes and cordial regards to you all from
Yours,
F. Engels
in English for the first time
a See this volume, pp. 408-11 1895
239. Engels to Ludwig Kugelmann 1 January
Dear Kugelmann,
I am most grateful to you, your wife and your daughter for your kind good wishes which I sincerely reciprocate. But now we had better get down to business straight away, as I am overwhelmed with correspondence, etc. [453]
If I understood you aright, the collection in America was mainly to do with Marx’s articles in the Tribune. I have two collections of these over here, of which one at any rate is incomplete and probably both, since the Tribune also published Marx’s articles as unsigned leaders. A third collection could therefore only be of use to me for the purpose of completing the set and that was why I suggested at the time that it should be temporarily housed in the archives where I could always have access to it when necessary.
But you now speak of earlier things, i.e. stuff from the period up till 1851, and that, of course, is quite a different matter and not what I had understood you to say in Berlin. [454] These things are in fact of the utmost value and it is only the lack of them that has prevented me from bringing out a complete edition of these lesser works as well as of the articles by Marx and myself that appeared between 1842 and 1852. It has long been my wish to publish these things, once I am in some sort of a position to do so and if, therefore, you can place as many of them as possible at my disposal, you will be making your own contribution towards that end. In which case I shall resume my search for a copy of the Rheinische Zeitung of 1842, chiefly with regard to Marx’s articles.
Please tell me again where the collection originated and, if you cannot at once get hold of the things themselves, kindly procure for me, if possible, a list of the books, periodicals, etc., contained therein, but excluding the Tribune articles. [455]
Since the beginning of last year Mrs Kautsky has not been Mrs Kautsky 1895
but Mrs Freyberger. Her husband is an extremely able young Viennese doctor, formerly Nothnagel’s assistant, who fell out with the faculty over there because he gave lectures on practical anatomy to working men and explained to them the social causes of their ailments. He is now addressing himself to the higher realms of applied medicine in this country and will, I do not doubt, soon make a success of it, for he is far more knowledgeable than most Englishmen. In order that my domestic arrangements should not be revolutionised more than necessary, we have taken a larger house in the same road where all three’ or rather four, of us (there having been the addition of a little girl seven weeks ago) live together.
So once again a Happy New Year and kindest regards to you all from Louise and myself.
Yours,
F. Engels As regards the misprint, which is itself a misprint, I shall look into the matter. [456]
240. Engels to Hermann Schluter 1 January
Your letter of 11 August still remains unanswered, nor have I yet thanked you for the Census Compendiuma which arrived safely. I have, however, been overwhelmed with all manner of work, while urgent party
a Department of the Interior. Census Office. Compendium of the Eleventh Census: 1890.
1895
and business correspondence has virtually precluded my attending to my private correspondence, something from which Sorge has also had to suffer. You will have heard from him that Louise Kautsky is now Mrs Freyberger and the mother of a strong and healthy little girl and that we have all moved to 41, Regent’s Park Road.
As Sorge will have told you, I have sent you a copy of Volume II I of Capital addressed to the Volkszeitung, as I didn’t know whether your Hoboken address still held good. At all events the Volkszeitung seemed safer to me. I could not, however, pass on your commission to Ede, he having long since been engaged for the same purpose by the Neue Zeit. [457] I ought really to have advised you of this — please accept my apologies.
Over here things are much the same as with you. Amongst the masses the socialist instinct is becoming ever stronger, but whenever it behoves them to translate their instinctive impulses into clear ideas and demands, the chaps at once go their several ways, some to the Social Democratic Federation, [44] others to the Independent Labor Party, [114] while the rest stay put in the Independent Labour Party, Trades Unions Organization etc., etc. In short, not a party but so many sects. The leaders are nearly all of them pretty unreliable fellows, while the candidates for the supreme leadership, though thick on the ground, are by no means eminently fitted for the post. At the same time we have the two big bourgeois parties who are standing by, purse in hand, to see whom they can buy. Moreover, what is known as ‘democracy’ over here is much restricted by indirect barriers. Periodicals are shockingly expensive, ditto candidatures for Parliament, ditto life as a Member of Parliament — if only on account of the vast correspondence this entails. To revise the deplorably kept registers of electors also costs a great deal of money and hitherto none but the two official parties have been able to defray that cost. Hence it is unlikely that anyone who does not support either of those parties will appear on the register. People over here are far behind the Continent in all these matters and, what’s more, they are beginning to notice it; again, there is no second ballot, a relative majority or, as you Americans would say,
PLURALITY, being enough. It is a situation in which everything is organised on the basis of only two parties and, until a third party is strong enough to be a match for them, the most it will be able to do is turn the scales. In the same way there is little likelihood of the Trades Unions over here bringing off something on the lines of the Berlin beer boycott [458]—a court of arbitration such as was secured over there is something that is still unattainable in this country.
On the other hand — as in the case of America — once the workers over here know what they want, the state, the land, industry and everything else will be theirs. This is intended for you alone, not for the Volkszeitung. Louise sends her kindest regards and both of us wish you a very Happy New Year.
Yours,
F. Engels
241. Engels to Karl Kautsky 3 January
Dear Baron,
Firstly, a very Happy New Year from one household to the other, and, secondly, my thanks for the amusing report of the MARE’S NEST discovered by Liebknecht. Hardly had I read the first couple of lines of your account than I realised that it could only refer to the old business with Schweitzer and for me that gave twice the savour to the humour of the situation. [459]
Incidentally it will be sufficient if you make a note in your own copy of the variations of the original from the printed text and let me have them some time or other for insertion in mine. I would rather not enter into correspondence with Liebknecht about the copyright of the original ms., for it is improbable that it would get us anywhere.
Parts of Fireman’s articlea are, I agree, rendered so complex by his mis-
a P. Fireman, Kritik der Marx’schen Werttheorie. In Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik. 3. Folge, Bd. 3, 1892 1895
guided incursions into other aspects of Marx’s theory and by all manner of metaphysical, i.e. anti-dialectical divagations, as virtually to conceal the fact that, by a happy chance, he has been able to get closer than anyone else to the crux of the problem. Hence the total ineffectuality of the article. Only someone who gives his undivided attention to the specific problem under discussion will make the discovery that here is something which, if pursued, will lead to the solution of the whole problem.
It would seem that you will be having a thoroughly lively year in Germany. If Mr von Köller carries on in this way, [460] no thing is impossible — conflict, dissolution, granting concessions, coup d’état. Obviously he would also be content with less. The Junkers would be happy enough with more generous douceurs, but to obtain these he will have to appeal to certain cravings for personal domination and pander to them to the point at which elements of resistance are also brought into play, and it is here that chance— i.e. what is involuntary, incalculable — comes into play. And to secure those douceurs he will have to raise the spectre of conflict — if he goes a step further, the original aim, the douceur, will become of secondary importance and then it will be a case of Crown versus Reichstag, of bend or break, and that’s when the fun may begin. At the moment I am reading Gardiner’s Personal Government of Charlesa in which the parallels with present-day Germany are so close as to be almost absurd. As, for instance, the arguments over immunity from the consequences of actions performed in Parliament. Were Germany a Latin country, a revolutionary conflict would be inevitable, but as it is, you can’t be certain about nowt, as Jollymeiera used to say.
Meanwhile the business of the peasants has quietly fizzled out, though August’s attack was most meritorious nevertheless and made good much of which had been omitted at Frankfurt. [425]
The worthy Bavarian socialists who favour reserved rights will be in no hurry to burn their fingers again.
Amongst the various small factions over here things are, for the moment, jogging along in the usual dilatory way. Though their mutual squabbles are no longer so heated, the intrigues behind the scenes are being conducted with proportionately greater zeal. The masses, on the other hand, who are being instinctively drawn towards socialism, are experiencing a growing urge for conscious and unified action. Though less
aCarl Schorlemmer 1895
clear-sighted than individual leaders, the masses are certainly far better than the leaders as a whole, yet the process of acquiring consciousness is slower than elsewhere, since pretty well all the old leaders also have an interest in diverting this burgeoning consciousness into one specific channel or another, or, to put it crudely, in vitiating it. Well, one must just be patient.
So once again a Happy New Year and many regards.
Yours,
F. Engels
242. Engels to Ludwig Schorlemmer 3 January
Dear Schorlemmer,
I have not yet thanked you for your kind good wishes on my birthday and for your New Year’s card, my response in each case being a resounding Happy New Year.
Here, too, all manner of changes have since taken place. At the beginning of last year Mrs Kautsky married Dr Freyberger, a young Viennese physician resident in this country, and we decided that, as we all wanted to remain together, we should take a larger house, one such being available close by. Hardly had we moved in and got things in order than Mrs Freyberger was delivered of a baby girl; mother and child are fit and well. Last summer Pumps and family also returned to London. Her husband’sa
a Perry White Roscher business in the Isle of Wight was not doing particularly well and he therefore wants to try his luck again here.
Carl’s book Rise and Progress [313] was also sent to me not long ago. Volume I (re-edited by two young chemistsa) of the big text-book published in collaboration with Roscoe has come out. [311] In view of the usual terms governing payment for such works, it is unlikely that Carl’s heirs will receive much, if anything at all.
Even though the Party Conference in Frankfurt [418] proved a somewhat feeble affair by comparison with its predecessors, mainly because Vollmar and the Bavarians literally caught the other deputies napping with their Bavarian ultimatum,b while the latter, fearing the possibility of a split, failed to reach a decision on the most important issues, the stupidity of our opponents will nevertheless help us overcome all these little tribulations. Not content with the Subversion Bill, [428] those men of genius must needs institute proceedings against Liebknecht on account of a spot of bother in the Reichstag, [436] i.e. actually make us the champions of the constitutional rights of the Reichstag! And it was precisely this new conflict that provided us with the opportunity of bringing the Berlin beer boycott to a victorious conclusion,
[458] a victory which has made a great impression abroad and especially here in England, For despite their seventy years of publicly organised trade clubs and considerable freedom of association, the workers over here are very far from securing the kind of court of arbitration that was successfully fought for in Berlin. In the words of one paper:
‘Kaiser William would do well to reflect on the fact that the men who have got the better of a beer barrel will also get the better of a sceptre.’
And that was our doing. In Germany there are now only two people whose speeches command general attention — the Kaiser William and August Bebel. His last speech was brilliant, but it must be read in the original transcript. [461]
Though I am again in good health, I realise, of course, that 74 isn’t 47 and that I can no longer make so free with food, drink, etc. Nor am I as hardy as in the past. But I am nevertheless still perfectly robust for my age and trust I shall live to see this and that, especially if, as seems distinctly probable, the gentlemen in Berlin decide to engage in a slight tussle with the Constitution.
[462] The Prussian Junkers are quite capable of bringing
a Edvard Hjelt and Ossian Aschan - b See this volume, pp. 357, 374-75 1895
about a situation in which the Social Democrats will be compelled to act as the defenders of the Imperial Constitution against a body of Junkers who not only infringe that Constitution but are intent on staging a coup d’état. That will suit us admirably. Let’s have at ‘em. Many regards from
Yours
F. Engels
243. Engels to Paul Stumpf 3 January
Dear Old Man,
As you see, I reciprocate your congratulations on the completion of my 74th year (you were kind enough to make me a year younger (than I am) with a resounding Happy New Year. Let us hope that, come the next one, we shall both of us still be hale and hearty; for I have a great desire just to take one peek into the new century, though by the first of January 1901 or thereabouts, I shall be a complete wreck, and then let happen what may.
I was not unduly disturbed about the row in the party. [463] It is much better that things of this kind should crop up from time to time and be properly thrashed out than that people should don their nightcaps. For the very fact that the party has steadily and inexorably grown and expanded has meant that the new elements are more difficult to absorb than their predecessors. The working men of the big cities, i.e. the most intelligent and wideawake, are already ours and what we are now getting are either the working men of the small towns and rural areas, or students, salesmen, etc., or again, those struggling to keep their heads above water, 1895
the petty bourgeois and such independent craftsmen as still own or rent a parcel of land, and now, into the bargain, the small peasant proper. And since our party is in fact the only really progressive party and, what is more, the only one strong enough to ensure that advances are made, it is obviously tempting to bring a little socialism to bear on the debt-ridden and near-rebellious middle and big peasants as well, particularly in districts where such people predominate on the land. That might well involve going beyond the limits of what is allowed on principle by our party, in which case there will be a bit of a fracas, but so sound is our party’s constitution that no harm will have been done. No one is so stupid as seriously to envisage a break with the great majority of the party, nor is anyone so conceited as to believe himself able to set up, alongside our big party, a small private one, like the Swabian People’s Party [464] which has actually succeeded in swelling its numbers from seven to eleven Swabians. All this quarrelling has served only to disappoint the bourgeois who, for twenty years now, have been regularly counting on there being a split, while at the same time ensuring that there should not be the slightest risk of one. Take, for instance, the present Subversion Bill [428] and Liebknecht’s elevation to the status of representative of the rights of the Reichstag and of the Imperial Constitution, [436] likewise the threatened coup d’état and infringement of the law by the powers that be. Of course stupidities are committed on our side also, but to render it possible for opponents such as these to get the better of us, we should have to be of a stupidity so abysmal as to be without rival anywhere else in the world today. Otherwise your idea of giving the younger generation a chance to take the helm in the party and thus get itself into a fix would not be at all bad; but I believe that they will acquire experience and common sense even without an experiment of that kind.
As you can see from my address, I have, as we used to say, moved a few doors along. This house is much better and more convenient and is very close to the park entrance.
I hope that the ‘Heilig Geist’ where we downed a good few glasses in our time, is still flourishing. [465] I should like to cool off on some hot summer’s day in its Gothic vaults. But who knows what may not happen? One should never say die.
Well, once again a Happy New Year and warm regards from
Yours
F. Engels 1895
244. Engels to Pasquale Martignetti 8 January
Dear Friend,
I have had your various letters of 6 Sep., 16 Dec. and the 1st of this month and have passed on your message to Aveling. [466]
Many thanks for the trouble you have been to over the preface to the third volume of Capital. It in quite a good thing that it should come out in the Rassegna [467] since it will enable people in Italy to see that abroad Loria’s spurious greatness is viewed in a very different light from what it is at home. On the other hand I can understand that at present Turati should consider it better tactics not to attack the man as vehemently as I do.a When we had the exceptional laws [15] to contend with in Germany, our tactics were different in many respects, and individual opponents whom we have since mercilessly attacked were temporarily spared for one reason or another. In cases such as these I must rely to a very large extent on the judgement of men who, like Turati, are in the thick of the fray; those men may not always do what I, from my standpoint over here, would consider best or most important, but nevertheless they are doing something, are doing their duty to the best of their knowledge, and are prepared to take the consequences. If the government didn’t find Turati and his Milan friends exceedingly objectionable, it would not have put them under domicilio coattob for three months or five.
a See present edition, Vol. 37, pp. 876-82 - b house arrest 1895
Admittedly neither of the two chapters of the third volume of Capital solves the kind of question relating to the theory of value that might be raised by any old bourgeois economist. There is nothing of the sort in one chapter or the other of the book. But those aspects of the subject that could not be developed in Volume I are elucidated in Parts 1-4 of Volume II I.
Two or three copies of your translation of the preface will amply suffice me.
I most sincerely reciprocate your good wishes for the New Year and remain
Yours,
F. Engels
the first time
245. Engels to Victor Adler 9 January
Dear Victor,
My only real reason for writing to you today is to advise you that on Sunday eveninga Louise sent off in a wrapper a ms. containing three items addressed to the Editor, Arbeiter-Zeitung, 10 Schwarzspanierstrasse; these contain:
1. Something about the cotton industry.
a6 January 1895
First published abridged, in the language of the original (German), in: Critica Sociale, No. 10, 16 May 1895 and in full in La Corrispondenza di Marx e Engels con Italiani. 1848-1895, Milan, 1964 1895
2. Something about the activities of the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress [28] (already to some extent anticipated in the A rbeiter-Zeitu ng)
3. An extract from Mrs Crawford’s Paris Correspondence. [469] As you have previously had trouble over manuscripts sent in a wrapper, I believe this notification to be pertinent.
Should another attempt be made to charge you excess postage after the event on the pretext that the package has been handled as a letter, it will be high time to lodge a complaint. According to the official excerpt (cited in inverted commas) in the English Post Office Guide, ‘MANUSCRIPT OF BOOKS
OR OTHER LITERARY PRODUCTIONS’ may be sent in a wrapper at a cost of a ha’penny for two ounces anywhere within the area covered by the International Postal Union. It must surely be possible to get this enforced in Austria too, or is the Arbeiter-Zeitung prepared of its own free will to pay a surcharge at twenty times the proper rate 2 [1]/[2] for a [1]/[2] oz)?
Another thing. From Russia we hear that the December issue of the European Messenger (Vestnik Yevropy)a contained an article on Alexander II I of extreme and, indeed — censorship in that country being what it is— unprecedented acerbity. Since your wifeb has a perfect command of Russian, might it not be worth your while to have a look at and, perhaps, make use of it? It really would be a capital joke if the Arbeiter-Zeitung were also to steal a march on the bourgeois press in this particular field.
Up till now, Nos 1 and 3-8 of the Arbeiter-Zeitung have arrived here, all of them addressed to Ludwig Freyberger, as well as a copy of No. 1 addressed in your hand to myself. So far as the arrangement of the material is concerned, the change-over from a twice-weekly to a daily paper [377] is not yet quite complete, but one can see that it is under way and that the Thursday evening and Sunday numbers are distinct from the others in that each has its own particular character to suit a particular reading public. That you should not at present have time to spare for leading articles is understandable; Marx fared likewise with the Neue Rheinische Zeitung—in the entire first month only two were by him, and throughout the whole of the first quarter five, if that. At the outset the editor-in-chief is kept busy enough organising the thing, than which nothing is
a [name in Russian], Vol. VI, Book 12, December 1894, section [in Russian] (Internal Review). - b Emma Adler - c Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Organ der Demokratie.
1895
more important, All in all, the paper has turned out very well considering this is its first week; such shortcomings as it has will all be overcome in the end.
We gave your message to Vandervelde on 1.1., when he called in here for a moment. [470]
I have passed on to Laura as much as was necessary of your lettera but have heard nothing about this since. Perhaps Lafargue has written to you direct.
I cannot supply you with very much material on ‘Marx in Vienna in 1848’. Some time I shall search through the Neue Rheinische Zeitung for facts and also see if I can find anything more about Becher. [471] Our Vienna correspondent was one Müller-Tellering from Koblenz, like all Koblenzers, fanatical and an inveterate trouble-maker. After returning to Germany at the end of 1849, he first came to Cologne and picked a quarrel with red Becker.b His next port of call was London where he promptly fell out with us over a trifling personal matter (which, with a little less contrariness on his part, could have been settled in a few minutes’ conversation) and instantly produced a pamphlet, Vergeschmack der Diktatur von Marx und Engels.c Next he went to America and tried to stir up trouble against us, but very soon disappeared from the scene. His reports from Vienna before the advent of Windischgrätz showed an undue bias towards violent revolution which, at a time when reaction was everywhere gathering strength, was not unwelcome to us. In those days we could not, from a distance, assess the value of his pronouncements on personalities, but he was doubtless strongly influenced by personal inclination. In such turbulent times we had to allow our correspondents a great deal of responsibility and a corresponding amount of latitude.
And now for another piece of political news which might be of use to you should such matters crop up again: On the evening before last we heard political rumours of a ministerial crisis here, according to which Harcourt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was proposing to resign. At the same time, however, he denied this, saying that the allegation, AS MADE, was completely unfounded. It was improbable that the Chancellor of the Exchequer alone should resign at a moment when he had a surplus of three million pounds and was thus in a position to present a first class
a See this volume, p. 395 - b Hermann Becker - c A Foretaste of the Dictatorship of Marx and Engels.
1895
budget. But the real facts of the case are as follows: Harcourt favours the introduction of salaries for M.P.s before the dissolution and is encountering strong opposition in the Cabinet — and probably also from the Queen.a He had apparently threatened to resign, thus obtaining concessions in regard to the afore-said question. At all events everything has returned to normal for the time being. You can see how unstable things are in official circles over here.
All the necessary steps have been taken as regards the money. You will, I think, be hearing more about this in a few days’ time when, I trust, you will also get the cash.b
Louise wishes to append a line or two. She and Ludwig send their regards, as do I, to you and your wife
Yours
F. Engels
On the 5th of this month we sent you three copies of the English Socialist papers, Clarion, Justice and Labour Leader (Keir Hardie) and shall be sending sundry other issues thereof from time to time to enable you to decide which you like best. Please take a look at them.
(Postscript from Louise Frey berger)
Dear Victor,
Now that the matter of finance is all but settled, the money should shortly arrive in Vienna. I have one further request to make, namely that you get a certificate of identification made out for Ludwig and myself. Ludwig is applying for temporary membership of the National Liberal Club, the leading club of its kind over here, close to the Houses of Parliament, and frequented by all the Liberal and Radical M.P.s and by journalists of all shades of political opinion. In this country, credentials have to be produced for everything, and it couldn’t do you any harm. Much love from the three L.L.L.s.c
Queen Victoria - b See this volume, p. 384 - c Louise, Ludwig and Lulu.
1895
246. Engels to Nikolai Danielson 9 January
My dear Sir,
I have duly received yours of the 1st December. What Mr. von Struve means by saying that Marx, completes but not disproves Malthus’ theory of population I do not understand.a I think the note on Malthus in Vol. I, Note 75, to Chapter XXII I, Ib ought to have been explicit enough for anybody. Moreover, I do not see, how anybody can speak of completing Malthus’ theory today, when that theory rests upon the assumption, that population presses on the means of subsistence, while corn in London is at 20/- the quarter, or less than half the average price from 1848 to 1870, and when it is universally acknowledged that the means of subsistence now press upon the population which is not large enough to consume them! As to Russia, if the peasant is compelled to sell the corn which he ought to eat, surely it is not pressure of [excess] population which compels him to do so, but pressure from the tax-gatherer, the landlord, the kulak* etc. etc. As far as I know, the low price of Argentinian wheat has more to do with agrarian distress all ever Europe, Russia included, than anything else.
We have just learned that a savant of your city has been informed that he can have Vol. II P passed free to him on applying specially for it at the office of the Censorship. I think it as well to communicate this fact to you because it may lead you to give me instructions how to forward to you the remaining sheets which I hold at your disposal,
Yours very truly
L. K.d
Please note change of house number.
a P. von Struve, Critical Notes on the Development of Capitalism in Russia, St. Petersburg, [in Russian], 1894(footnote 1 to p. 183). - b See present edition, Vol. 35, Chapter XXV, Section 1, pp. 611-13 c of Capital-d Engels’ pen-name consisting of Louise Kautsky’s initials — * word in Russian 1895
247. Engels to Ludwig Kugelmann 9 January
Dear Kugelmann,
Please write at once to Livingston in Pittsburg and ask him for Meyer’s list of earlier stuff; [435] to judge by your last letter there’s unlikely to be very much, but there are also sundry items, some of them anonymous, in old newspapers and compendiums of the 1843-47 period. Ask him, too, if the collection of Tribunea articles is still in existence. At the same time I shall get other friends in America to search for such ancient tomes as may still be in existence there, so that the matter can be put in hand.
Many regards to your wife and daughter,
Yours
F.E.
Could you possibly supply me with a few of your red brass locks?
a New-York Daily Tribune 1895
248. Engels to Victor Adler 12 January
Dear Victor,
My last letter was sent to you at Schwarzspaniera on the 9th of this month. Today, simply as a precaution, I am again notifying you that yesterday Louise addressed a registered letter to you at Ferstelgasse 6,b containing a
CHEQUE for 3,500 gulden drawn on the tenth of this month by the Anglo-Foreign Banking Company Ltd. on the Union Bank of Vienna to the order of Dr Victor Adler, payable dans les huit jours.c
If you have received this safely, would you please drop a line to Louise informing her of the fact so that she may pass on the information to the chaps over here and thus set their minds at rest. Then the formal document with its various signatures can follow.d
But if you have not received the CHEQUE, then hasten at once to the Union Bank and STOP PAYMENT. Unfortunately the international postal services do not admit of a declaration of value or insurance, hence a certain amount of anxiety prevails over here.
As regards Marx, I have searched through the Neue Rheinische Zeitung and all I have found is this: The issue of 25 Aug. 1848 states that ‘yesterday K. M. left for Vienna where he will be spending a few days’. (Not from Cologne, mind you; he had already gone away and it was, I think, from Hamburg that he arranged for the insertion of this notice.) And then there is a later piece of news, 31 August from Vienna, to the effect that Marx gave a lecture yesterday at the Vienna Workers’ Association in Josefstadt on social conditions in Western Europe {Stifft spoke after him, at the same Association) {Neue Rheinische Zeitung, 6 Sept.) and, according to the issue of 8 Sept., Marx spoke on 2 Sept. ‘at a meeting of the first Vienna Workers’ Association on the subject of socio-economic conditions’.—That is all. Meanwhile in Berlin, on 7 September, a crucial vote
a See this volume, pp. 408-11 - b residence of the Arbeiter-Zeitung Editorial Office - c payable within eight days - d See this volume, p. 411 — e Ibid., p. 410 1895
had been taken on Stein’s motion, [474] Hansemann’s Ministry had fallen and, conflict being inevitable, Marx returned hot-foot. On 12 Sept. he wrote another leading articlea for the issue, which came out that same afternoon, of 12 Sept. 1848.
Yesterday evening Louise sent you two more items in a wrapper.
Yours,
F. E.
Clarion and Labour Leader have today gone off as before to the editorial office.
Very many thanks to you and your wife for the magnificent calendar.
249. Engels to Karl Kautsky 12 January
Dear Baron,
Just now I received a registered letter from Mr Stiebeling containing a curious reply to my prefaceb and the even more curious request that I should arrange for it to be published in the Neue Zeit. [475] All I can tell the man is that the columns of the Neue Zeit are not at my disposal, but that I should be very glad if the editors were to disseminate this, his reply, as widely as possible. And with that I bid Mr Stiebeling a fond farewell and leave him to his fate.
a K. Marx, The Crisis and the Counter-revolution. — b to the third volume of Capital 1895
As regards the subversion debate, Nazia appears to have done a very good job. [476] Incidentally, we can thank our lucky stars that there should still be jackasses in Berlin!
Yours
F.E.
250. Engels to Hermann Engels 12 January
Dear Hermann,
At long last! But I haven’t got the time to make excuses. First of all, my thanks for your news which has put me pretty well au fait again. I shall now repay the debt by telling you all manner of things in return. To begin with, you will see above a change of address. This came about as follows:
About a year ago Mrs Kautsky, my fellow-lodger, became engaged to a compatriot of hers, Dr Freyberger, a young and extremely able Viennese physician who settled in this country two years ago. Before long a desire manifested itself to clinch the engagement with a marriage but, since I had no desire to put myself at the mercy of strangers in my old age, it was arranged that we should all three set up house together, and thus the need arose for a larger place. In the meantime the young couple had got married early in February while we were still living at 122, but we soon found and took a very nice, large and exceptionally cheap house in a far better part of the same road. We moved in at the beginning of October and, at
a Ignaz Auer 1895
the beginning of November, Louise, with — for her — unusual punctuality, presented her spouse with a baby girl.
The house is situated some five hundred paces closer to town, a hundred paces from Primrose Hill and rather less from the entrance to Regent’s Park. Below stairs, in the BASEMENT, there is a cosy breakfast room in addition to the kitchen, etc., on the ground floor a drawing room and dining room which could seat twenty-four people in comfort, on the first floor at the front my study, with three windows facing the street and very easy to keep warm — at the back my bedroom, also large; 2nd floor: four rooms occupied by the Freyberger family; 3rd floor, likewise four rooms for maid servants, visitors, box rooms, etc. A small front garden and a larger and, for these parts, really quite pleasant one at the back. All this at a cost of £85 a year, as compared with the £60 I used to pay! The secret lies in the fact that the LANDLORD lives in Lancashire and doesn’t want to spend money, but merely to take it. So I advanced round about £200 for repairs, in return for which I shall pay no rent for two and a half years and live on the advance. The last tenant, a doctor, used to pay £130, from which you will see how much the value of houses fluctuates here.
This rehousing business happened during the summer and, since I took the place on a seven year lease with the option to renew for another seven years, this and obtaining a guarantee for my advance have necessitated prolonged legal negotiations which have prevented me from going any distance away from London. Hence I only spent five weeks or so at Eastbourne on the south coast. [393] It is one of the nicest seaside places I know and is, in fact, already becoming a seaside suburb of London for people who don’t have to come up to town more than a couple of times a week.
Please will you again convey my belated congratulations to Elsbetha on her engagement, and to Walterb on having, or so I hope, successfully passed his examinations, Actually, I still owe Walter a letter but must, alas, continue in his debt, thus also owing him, no less than yourself, an apology. I trust he won’t take it amiss.
Well, now for the sherry. Less jours se suivent et ne se ressemblent pas,c and the same thing applies to vintage years; getting hold of more of the old
a His niece, Elsbeth Engels - b His nephew, Walter Engels - c Though the days follow one another, they are not alike.
1895
sherry is beyond our powers, What I had been waiting for was a visit from Brett, my supplier, but he came much later than usual. I have now asked him to let me have three sample bottles of sherry, as similar as possible to the first that was sent to you, and of three qualities. The little case has just arrived. On Monday I shall take it to the CONTINENTAL PARCELS EXPRESS and it will probably come to you by carrier; the weight exceeds the 7 lb. limit laid down by international postal regulations, Now, when you try them out, I would advise you to decant half a bottle of the variety you prefer and keep it there. The bottles are numbered 1, 2, 3 and, when you order, only the number need be given. The price of all three is 42/- a dozen, or 3/6d a bottle, carriage paid from London. Unless otherwise instructed, I shall arrange for them to be brought by steamer direct to Cologne or Düsseldorf.
One more thing. Since fewer payments now have to be debited to my account over there, the balance you hold for me is continually mounting. The removal has involved other expenses, aside from the advance to my
LANDLORD, and I should be glad if, in the course of this month, you could let me have, say, £40.
Finally, I have a pleasant piece of news to impart, namely that I have at last become an old man. Last spring I had an attack of bronchitis which, though not at all severe, refused to budge for six weeks or more; and on top of that I suffered a great deal last year from stomach-ache, constipation, etc. So in the end I had perforce to believe Freyberger when he said I must no longer indulge in my former Sparjitzen.a And when the looking glass reflects an ever more abject image of encroaching baldness, I can no longer conceal from myself the realisation that there is very little in common between 74 and 47. Eating and drinking have both been considerably curtailed and I also have to submit to all kinds of unwonted protective measures against catching cold. Well, I shall have to put up with it, and at least it hasn’t cost me my sense of humour.
So that’s that, and my debt, I trust, is now repaid. My best love to Emmab and your children and grandchildren, also to Rudolphc and Hedwigd and their families.
Now, as always, your old
Friedrich
a antics - b His sister-in-law, Emma Engels - c His younger brother Rudolph Engels -d His sister, Hedwig Boelling 1895
251. Engels to Paul Lafargue 13- 14 January
My dear Lafargue,
I am glad to see that you have already arranged matters with Adler and have at last found a translator who does you justice. [477]
Things are going well. If the year ‘95 finishes as it has begun we may see some strange happenings. In Germany, young Williama has fallen into the hands of the ‘agrarians’ (the big aristocratic landowners of the Eastern provinces, the Junkern)b who want to make sure of their control over this young ninny and who can only do so by compromising William to the point of no return. Thus they are hinting at a dissolution of the Reichstag, which will emerge from fresh elections more refractory than ever and then, his throne and his honour being at stake, there will be nothing for it but a coup d’ état to give William the means of obtaining new soldiers and ships, and the Junkers new import duties on agricultural produce and subsidies on the export of sugar, spirits, etc. That seems to be these gentlemen’s idea; impossible to say how far it will materialise. In the meantime, they are playing with fire — the War Ministerc openly inviting our people in the Reichstag to come out on to the streets by jeering at them — they are absolutely determined to create an opportunity for firing on the people. [478]
And in your country there are the scandals of bourgeois corruption which go beyond anything and are driving towards a crisis: certainly if the Ministry threatens to bring the majority to court unless it votes against Gérault-Richard, matters cannot go on much longer. [479] The
a William II — b Junkers - c Bronsart von Schellendorf 1895
victory of the bourgeois, who have succeeded in electing a model bourgeoisa President of the Republic, may well bring about the collapse of the whole bourgeois régime; the climax is approaching when they will be overthrown. As I see it, it is the bourgeoisie itself which, in your country, takes responsibility for doing socialist propaganda amongst the peasants. It is a long and wearisome task to enlighten peasants on political matters, but they will not be so stupid as not to realise at this juncture that they are being robbed. But once they have spotted that, there is nothing for them but to turn to the Socialists, the only party which is not involved in the thefts; for the Radicals [86] are well and truly done for.
So you see we can jolly well shout: Prosit Neujahrb! Speaking of the new year: your credit account of sixty pounds has been opened, if you want a cheque for twenty pounds, you have only to let me know.
I have sent Laura some working-class papers from here, Blatchford’s (alias Nunquam) Clarion and Keir Hardie’s Labour Leader. Since the end of the Workman’s Times, this is the only literature of the Independent Labour Party. [114] Sad but true.
A fortnight ago I received a letter from Vaillant enclosing some of his Bills. [480] I promised I would examine them critically as soon as I had the time.c Meanwhile I told him [25] that Wroblewski, in Nice, has written asking me for money, that he has had an accident, broken his arm, has been in hospital and is in great distress; that I have given him as much help as I could but that it is beyond my means and that in my view the Communards and the socialist deputies owe it to their honour not to let him die of starvation. He replied that they had tried to get up a public subscription for Wroblewski but that he, W., was against this and that there is nothing to be done.
Do you know anything about this? Wroblewski as a true Pole does not understand the handling of money, he spends it lavishly when he has it; perhaps he has done similar things in relation to Vaillant and others who would have been able to help him. What he needs is a little regular pension, paid out once a month in small amounts. But in my view it is a matter of the honour of French socialism which cannot claim credit for the Commune of 1871 if they allow the last general of the Commune to die of hunger. What do you and the others — Guesde, the National
a Gean Casimir-Périer - b Happy New Year! -c See this volume, pp. 453-5 1895
Council — think? Is there no way of making these former Communeux feel some shame? [481]
Kiss Laura for me.
Ever yours,
F. E. Monday [14 January 1895]a: received Le Temps and copies of Petite République. Thanks. First Gérault-Richard and now Rouanet, that’s nice! [482] What luck if this leads to a crisis, to a dissolution and a more and more revolutionary situation in your country and in Germany!
Monday: Aveling told us yesterday that the Labour Leader is on its last legs, the chief backer (said to be Passnevre Edwards, a rich Liberal Unionist) will not put up any more money.
Louise asks me to thank you for the charming card of congratulation which you and Laura sent her.
Correspondance, t. II I, Paris, 1959 translated from the French
252. Engels to Friedrich Adolph Sorge 16 January
Dear Sorge,
Have received card of 6th and letters of 19th and 31st Dec. Many thanks. And may I again heartily reciprocate your and your wife’s good wishes for the New Year.
By way of a New Year’s greeting Stiebeling sent me his grotesque riposte
[475] together with the suggestion that I should get the Neue Zeit to print it!! I replied [25] to the effect that its columns were not at my disposal
a These last three paragraphs are written in the margin of this letter.
1895
but that I had told K. Kautsky (which is true) he would be doing me a special favour were he to ensure that the thing was disseminated as widely as possible.a The man is a blockhead.
I cannot understand how it was that you should have failed to receive Volume II Ib until five days after Schlüter had got his. I posted both at the same time on 12 Dec. and the receipts for both are still joined together. I enclose them herewith in case you should wish to lodge a complaint,
I have for some time been aware of the temporary decline of the movement in America and it is not the German socialists who will stem it. Though America is the youngest it is also the oldest country in the world. In the same way as you have, over there, the most antiquated furniture designs alongside your own vernacular ones or, in Boston, cabs such as I last saw in London in 1838 and, in the mountains, seventeenth century STAGE COACHES, alongside
PULLMAN CARS, so too you continue to sport all the old mental trappings which Europe has already discarded. Everything that is outmoded here may persist in America for another generation or two. Karl Heinzen, for instance, not to mention religious and spiritualist superstition. Thus you still have old Lassalleans amongst you, while a man like Sanial, who would now seem passé in France, is still able to play a role over there. This may be attributed on the one hand to the fact that, over and above its concern for material production and the accumulation of wealth, America is only now beginning to find time for untramelled intellectual work and the preliminary training this demands; on the other hand, it may also be attributed to the dual nature of America’s development, still engaged as it is on the one hand in the primary task of reclaiming the vast area of untamed country, while being already compelled on the other to compete for first place in industrial production. Hence the UPS AND DOWNS of the movement, according to which point of view takes precedence in the average person’s mind — that of the urban working man or that of the peasant engaged in reclamation. In a couple of years’ time all this will change and then we shall witness a great step forward. The evolution of the Anglo-Saxon RACE with its ancient Teutonic freedom happens to be quite exceptionally slow, pursuing as it does a zig-zag course (small zig-zags here in England, colossal ones on your side of the Atlantic) and tacking against the wind, but making headway none the less.
a See this volume, p. 415 - b Capital 1895
Here in Europe the New Year will bring with it a very complex state of affairs. In Germany the peasant question has been pushed into the background by the Subversion Bill [428] and the latter — by young William (his Song to Aegir, [483] the lord of the waves, owes its inspiration solely to the seasickness from which he invariably suffers, which is why he and his Fleet always make for the calm waters of the Norwegian fjords). The young man has thrown Germany into complete disorder, no one knows where he stands or what the morrow will bring, the confusion in governmental circles, as in the ruling classes generally, grows worse from day to day and, during the debate on the Subversion Bill, the only people with cheerful expressions were our chaps. But it really is too marvellous! At the head of the anti-subversionists stands a man who is unable to desist from subversion for five minutes on end. And the aforementioned young William has now fallen into the clutches of the Junkers who, in order to keep him in a frame of mind in which he is prepared to give them extra help with their bankrupt estates, are presently dangling before him the carrot of more taxation and more troops and warships by their ostentatious advocacy of regis voluntas suprema lex,a
and are egging him on to dissolve the Reichstag and stage a coup d’état. At the same time, however, these gentlemen, Köller & Co., despite their ostentatious catchwords, are so poorly endowed with courage that they are already prey to all manner of forebodings, and it may well be asked whether they will not take fright when the moment for action comes.
And as for France! There, as in Italy, the bourgeoisie precipitated itself head first into corruption in a manner that would put America to shame. For the past three years all efforts in both countries have been directed towards finding a bourgeois government — admittedly not free from corruption — but whose immediate involvement in public scandal is nevertheless so slight that a parliament could support it without unduly violating the commonest decencies. In Italy Crispi will hang on for a little while longer only because the Kingb and the Crown Princec are as deeply implicated in the banking scandals as he is himself.d In France, our forty-five or fifty socialist deputies have just toppled their third Ministry on the count of actual corruption, and Casimir-Périer has gone tumbling after. [484] Presumably his intention is to pose as the one and only saviour of
a the King’s will is supreme law. - b Umberto I —c Victor Emmanuel — d See this volume, p. 390 1895
society, get himself re-elected with an immense majority, and thus consolidate his position, But it’s a risky game. At all events there is nothing stable about France either, and this year may see new elections, not only in England, but also in Germany and France, which will be of crucial importance this time. On top of that a crisis of the first water in Italy and, in Austria, the certainty of electoral reform [270]—in short, things are growing critical throughout the whole of Europe.
I was very pleased to hear that you and your wife are feeling better. Let us hope the improvement continues.
Many regards to you and your wife from the Freybergers and
Yours
F. Engels
First Russian Edition, Vol. XXIX, 1946
253. Engels to Laura Lafargue 19 January
Your last letter has indeed startled me. [485] I have tried, not very successfully, to recollect the terms used in my letter to you of December 29tha; still, in what I do remember there is not a word which ought to offend you. And indeed, if there is anything in the tone of that letter which you think strange, it is there entirely against my will and intention.
It never could occur, nor has it ever occurred to me for a moment to
a See this volume, pp. 394-96 1895
doubt the right or the propriety, on your part, of inquiring at any time what steps I had taken or intended to take in order to secure the return, at the time of my death, to you, the rightful owners, of those papers of Mohr’s which you have entrusted to me. Nor have I ever found anything to object to in the terms in which you spoke of that subject to Tussy. It seems, therefore, so exceedingly strange to me that I should have written to you in a tone that ought to give you reason to complain.
I did indeed feel nettled at the way Tussy caused the question to be submitted to me, and, under the circumstances, thought I was bound to speak to her about it. When I did, I told her, not once, but three or four times over, that I had not one word to say against your letter, neither as to the subject matter, nor as to the terms used. Anyhow, Tussy and I had an explanation, which as far as I know, settled everything connected with that subject, and left us as good friends as before; and I should regret very much if, through any unguarded words of mine, or through some other circumstance, that little incident had thrown its shadow as far as Le Perreux.
In the meantime things have come to a crisis in your neighbourhood. I intended to write at some length about that, but Bebel all at once asked me for historical materials as to the various and pretty frequent riots here in England which are settled without ever attempting to encumber the Statute Book with increased penal laws or exceptional legislation. He is in the Committee on the Umsturzvorlage [428] and wants it for them, so I had to leave everything else alone and get it off by this day’s post before the usual Sunday delays in postal communication retard it.
Anyhow our 50 French Socialist members are in luck. In less than 18 months they have upset three ministries and one president. [484] That shows what a Socialist minority can do in a parliament which, like the French or English, is the really supreme power in the country. A similar power our men in Germany can get by a revolution only; still, the break-up of the Centre party [71] would make them the arbiters of the house and give them the balance of power.
What a miserable retreat is that of Casimir’sa! After the brag with which he came in, to skedaddle at the first serious difficulty! [486] It looks as if our bourgeois heroes had individually degenerated quite as much as their class has done collectively.
a Casimir-Périer 1895
In Germany it looks as if the same principle was prevailing; Bebel does not seem to think von Köller and Co. the men likely to carry through a coup d’état to the end; it seems everywhere the story of Béranger’s old fool who courted Babette and found out too late that his courting days were past and gone.a
The greatest success, however, seems to me to be this, that the scandalous affairs of the opportunist majority have been again exposed, that Raynal has been nailed down, and that it seems impossible to have the subject burked again. [487] The evidence of the corruption of all other parties must work wonders in favour of ours, especially in France, and ought to secure us immense and unhoped for successes at the next general election which cannot be very distant now, for who can govern with the present Chamber?
Ça chauffe!b and neither Félix Faure nor young Williamc will be able to put out the fire.
I shall write to Paul as soon as ever I get a moment’s time. Thanks for the papers which I have sent on to Tussy after using them.
Ever yours,
F. Engels
254. Engels to Paul Lafargue 22 January
My dear Lafargue,
How lucky you are, you French! You bring down a Ministerd; then the whole Cabinet follows him and by way of aftereffect the President of
a Reference to Pierre-Jean de Béranger’s Le vieux Célibataire - b It’s getting hot! -c William II -d Charles Dupuy the Republic is involved in the general collapse.a Three Cabinets and one President finished off [484]—that’s not doing too badly. The socialist group seems to have succeeded to the role of the late Clemenceau [488]—and will play it better, I hope. It is now established that no ministry can exist without at least the help of the extreme Left. That will lead to the dissolution, to which the growing stench of the opportunists’ corruption is also leading. [87] In which case you will be returned in greater strength, both numerically and morally; that can lead to the formation of Lassalle’s ‘great reactionary mass’, [214] the coalition of all the bourgeois parties against socialism, a mass which is always formed at a time of danger, afterwards to be dissolved again into its various and mutually opposed groups of interests; large landowners, large manufacturers, high finance, small and middling bourgeoisie, peasants, etc. But, each time it is reformed, it gains solidity until the day of crisis, when we shall have a compact mass confronting us. We have had this process of continual concentration and dissolution in Germany ever since our Party numbered more than 20 members in the Reichstag; but in your case, it will go faster because decisive power is in the hands of your Chamber of Deputies.
Mr Faure may do what he likes, he cannot halt this process of forming into two opposing camps, nor the confusion which is necessarily born of this interplay of opposing forces, attraction and repulsion, within the milieu of the bourgeois parties. That is precisely the milieu we need, and which the existence of a socialist group creates everywhere, however little power it may have in Parliament. You will race ahead; it is the Party’s progress itself that will first subdue and then eliminate the intestine and traditional quarrels.
The addition of 30 Radicals has brought you luck, without them the group would not have had cohesion. Without Millerand you would not have been able to take advantage of the political situations as you have done. And Jaurès, indeed, seems full of goodwill — if he develops rather slowly it is perhaps a good thing for him and for us. Though frankly, in economic matters he needs further schooling. His Bills for immediate reforms in the Petite République [489] article are not quite as wild as his Bill for a corn monopoly, [13] but they are calling on the bourgeois for sacrifices incompatible with the advance of capitalist industry, so that in their eyes they are tantamount to immediate expropriation; whereas, on the other
a Gean Casimir-Périer - b See this volume, p. 275 1895
hand, he proposes improvement of the soil at the nation’s expense, of the soil which would remain private property, and under conditions perpetuating the small peasant and which would create a new Panama [60] for the big landowners who would laugh at the ‘obligation’ etc. with which the Bill saddled them. This is to see as a complete abstraction the environment in which one lives and in which these reforms would be carried out. So long as the air is not cleansed by the removal of all the parliamentary and financial rogues, this improvement of individual landed property at everyone’s expense would end as a colossal theft; and when we have got rid of these gentlemen, we shall be strong enough to do better than that.
The presidential crisis furthermore will have a capital effect on European politics. The Franco-Russian alliance is becoming more and more lenitive, insofar as the Russian hope of seeing the restoration of the monarchy emerge from the presidential crisis suffers repeated disillusionment. At the same time the Triple Alliance [126] has ceased to exist except on paper; bankrupt Italy slips through its fingers, Austria is only retained: by fear of war with Russia, for which she would foot the bill; this danger vanishes as Russia loses the chance of using the French army when she sees fit; young Williama has made himself far more disagreeable to his friends than to his enemies. So that, with the complete revolution in weapons since 1870 and, in consequence, of tactics, there is a total uncertainty about the outcome of a war where so many imponderables are involved and regarding which all the calculations made in advance are based on fictitious quantities. In these circumstances we seem to be assured of peace and even the most frenzied bourgeois chauvinists of the Déroulède type can keep calm: the Prussians have taken over responsibility in Alsace for maintaining and nourishing French patriotism.
Herewith cheque for twenty pounds; if that can do you until the beginning of April, I should be glad; at that time I shall have certain payments coming in which will allow me to be more liberal. But, if needs be, I could perhaps, after all, send you ten pounds in March — we’ll see.
Greetings from the Freybergers. Kiss Laura very warmly for me.
Ever yours,
F. E.
I am sending you a report of the Norwich Trades Union Congress. [396]
a William II First published in; Printed according to the original F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue,
Correspondance, t. II I, Translated from the French Paris, 1959
255. Engels to Ferdinand Tonnies 24 January
Dear Sir,
I still have to thank you for your kindness in sending me your critique of Barth ‘s book and your interesting article on Pestalozzi. [490] I would beg you to excuse the delay which was occasioned by an excess of work, the latter being aggravated by my having moved house (please note the change of address).
I should say that you have let Mr Barth off rather lightly; he would, at any rate, have fared far worse at my hands. However, in literary debate one has to get used to the fact that, lawyer-fashion, one’s opponent suppresses what doesn’t suit his book and introduces extraneous matter if he thinks this will enable him to pull the wool over his reader’s eyes. But in Mr Barth’s case this is done in a manner and to an extent that cannot but lead one to ask whether what we have here is simple ignorance and boneheadedness or deliberate, wilful distortion. To take only his chapter on Marx — how does one explain the horrendous misinterpretations, nearly all of which are incomprehensible in a man who does, after all, claim to have read my Anti-Dühring and Feuerbacha which should have constituted a perfectly adequate antidote? And what can one say about the absurd causal nexus attributed to me on p. 135.
‘In France Calvinism had been conquered, which is why in the eighteenth century, Christianity had become incapable of serving as an ideo-
a F. Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy.
1895
logical cloak for any sort of progressive class’? When I compare it with the original, Feuerbach, p. 65,a find it virtually impossible to believe that this is not deliberate distortion.
I am interested by what you have to say about August Comte. So far as this ‘philosopher’ is concerned, there still remains, in my opinion, a fair amount of work to be done. For five years Comte was secretary and con-fidant of Saint-Simon. The latter positively suffered from an over-fertile intellect; he was at once a genius and a mystic. Lucid analysis, classification, systematisation, none of this was his cup of tea. Thus in Comte he got hold of a man intended, perhaps, to present this proliferation of ideas to the world in orderly fashion after the Master’s death; Comte’s mathematical training and mode of thought may have made him seem peculiarly suited to the purpose as compared with the other, visionary disciples. But then Comte suddenly broke with the ‘Master’ and withdrew from the school. After quite a while he re-emerged with his ‘positive philosophy’.b In this system there are three characteristic elements; 1. A series of brilliant ideas nearly all of which, however, suffer to a greater or lesser extent from inadequate development; 2. A correspondingly narrow, philistine outlook in stark contrast to that brilliance; 3. A religious system of undoubtedly Saint-Simonian origin but stripped of all mysticism, hierarchically organised and utterly flat — with, at its head, a pope, no less. Thus Huxley was able to say of Comtism [491] that it was Catholicism without Christianity.c
Now I am willing to bet that No. 3 supplies the key to the otherwise incomprehensible inconsistency of Nos 1 and 2; namely, that Comte derived all his brilliant ideas from Saint-Simon but he assembled them in a manner peculiar to himself and by so doing bowdlerised them. By stripping them of the mysticism with which they were imbued, he simultaneously degraded them to a lower level, giving them a philistine slant in accordance with his own lights. A great many of them can be easily traced back to their Saint-Simonian source and I feel sure that certain others would admit of the same treatment if only someone could be found who would seriously apply himself to the task. This fact would assuredly have been discovered long since had not Saint-Simon’s own writings been
a F. Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy.a See present edition, Vol. 26, p. 396 - b A. Comte, Cours de philosophie Positive — c See Th. Henry Huxley, On the Physical Basis of Life. In The Fortnightly Review, No. XXVI, Vol. V, 1 February 1869 1895
completely overwhelmed after 1830 by the clamour of the école et religion saint-simmoniennesa which emphasised individual aspects of the Master’s teaching and elaborated it at the cost of the grand design.
There is one further point I should like to put right, namely the note on p. 513. [492] Marx was never Secretary General to the International but merely Secretary for Germany and Russia. And none of the Comtists in London participated in the founding of the International. At the time of the Commune, Professor E. Beesly did yeoman service in defending the International in the press against the violent attacks then being made upon it, and Frederic Harrison also publicly defended the Commune. [493] But a few years later the Comtists’ attitude towards the labour movement grew perceptibly cooler; Labour was becoming too powerful and, if a proper balance was to be maintained between capitalists and workers (both being, of course, producteur0 in the sense understood by Saint-Simon [494]), the former should again, it was felt, be given support, since which time the Comtists have kept quite mum on the subject of the labour question.
Yours sincerely, F. Engels
256. Engels to Ludwig Kugelmann 25 January
Dear Kugelmann,
I cannot yet give you an indication of the compendiums, [495] etc., in which the articles in question may be found, for 1. I shall first have to
a Saint-Simonian school and religion. - b producers
First published abridged in; G. Mayer, Eine Biographie, Bd. II , The Hague, 1934 and, in full, in Russian, in Bolsheviks, No. 14, 1935 1895
know what we have already got (some being in Germany, about which I shall shortly be hearing, and some in America, which I am waiting for), aside from my own things; 2. Because I myself cannot say exactly, though all sorts of things recur to me whenever any new stuff arrives; 3. Because, as soon as No, 1 has been attended to, we must so arrange matters that neither of us competes with the other, and thus puts the price up. In the meantime it would be a good thing if you were to keep an eye open for specifically Westphalian literature of 1845-47: Dampfboota and compen-diums as well as other stuff written by those people at that time.
I believe I have got Meyer’s collection of Tribune articles here; it will be the more comprehensive of the two collections, Marx having obtained various things from over there shortly after Meyer’s death. [455]
Kindest regards to all,
Yours
F. E.
Frankfurter Zeitung received with thanks.
257. Engels to Victor Adler 28 January
Dear Victor,
Many congratulations from myself and everyone else here on the rapid success achieved by the Arbeiter-Zeitung [496] It was no more than I expected, but to see it confirmed in actual fact is, of course, also worth a great deal.
a Das Westphälische Dampfboot 1895
There is no need at all for you to worry about the editorial side. During the early weeks you, as organiser, are infinitely more important than you would be as actual editor. Once everything is going smoothly, you should have no difficulty in striking the right note in the paper. You are quite right about it’s being a mite too serious. A bit more humour, particularly on the front page, which used always to be very funny in the twiceweekly edition, would do no harm at all. However, that will come.
A direct telegraph service from foreign capitals would be of absolutely no use to you, That would mean your having a properly organised office in every city with a chief correspondent to run it professionally, and solely on your account; here in London this would cost between six hundred and a thousand pounds a year, and even so you wouldn’t be getting the best news from ministerial or opposition circles, for the simple reason that you are only accorded priority and given news of this sort ahead of everyone else and before it has become common property if you are able to reciprocate by giving your informants your support and publishing the ready-made puffs they send you. But that is just what our press cannot do. So, where news from official circles is concerned, you will never be able to compete with the big bourgeois papers who not only monopolise the sources but can also organise news-gathering services on a footing similar to that of big industry.
It’s hard luck, your having to content yourselves during the first few weeks with the little provincial assemblies, but the Diet will soon be meeting again and then you will have plenty of material, whereupon your personal intervention will again become necessary,
The differences in the Ministry here are of no great account so far as their practical consequences are concerned. The Liberal government contains as many shades of opinion as it has members. Now that the big bourgeoisie together with Whig aristocrats [497] and the university ideologues have gone over to the Conservative camp (a process which began after 1848, gained impetus after the Reform Bill of 1867 [498] and became very marked after the
HOME RULE BILL
[171]). Liberalism has been largely an omnium gatherum of all the sects and sectarian crotchets in this sect-ridden country. And since each individual sect considers its own particular crotchet to be the one and only panacea, the result is constant strife.
But of greater moment than that strife is the certain knowledge that only cohesion vis-à-vis the outside world can keep them in power for a 1895
few months longer. Consequently it is a matter of pure chance which tendency may gain the upper hand.
I have been sending you in rotation copies of the three labour newspapers which still survive here. Since you get the Clarion by way of exchange I shall spare you this in future. There is nothing much in any of the three but nevertheless it’s advisable that you should take a look at one or the other from time to time. The Labour Leader is an institution for the idolisation of Keir Hardie; he is a cunning, crafty Scot, a Pecksniff and arch-intriguer, but too cunning, perhaps, and too vain. The financial sources he draws upon to keep the paper going are of a dubious kind, which might cause unpleasantness when the new elections are held.
Apropos. Not a single copy of Thursday evening’s issuea (confiscated) arrived here. But nevertheless I should like to read the article, K. M. in Wien
[471] Could you get hold of another copy for me? That was an astounding piece of cheek, by the way your announcing the confiscation to have been so extraordinarily effective that it enabled you to save yourselves the expense of another, quite unnecessary, edition. [499] You people are lucky in Austria — if you were to say something like that in Prussia they would promptly chuck three Subversion Bills [428] at your head.
We shall be sending you extracts from la Crawford’s Paris letters whenever they contain something of interest. I would specially call your attention to them. She has been in Paris for over forty years, knows every mouse in the place by name, possesses dossiers on the career of every politician and is a good judge of character. No one in Paris can equal her knowledge of personalities and you would therefore be well-advised to file away for future reference even those articles for which you have no present use. Over and over again she has seen all her Radical and Republican friends plunge into the mire of corruption and has thus, bourgeois though she is, acquired a remarkable sympathy for Socialists. She has one unshakeable conviction, however, and that is that J. Guesde is Marx’s son-in-law.
Yesterday I sent you another excerpt from one of her articles. [500]
Louise has been especially gratified by the unequivocal rejection of the petitions of the Women’s Union — see Clara Zetkin’s article in the supplement to Thursday’s Vorwärts. [501] Clara is right and did after all manage to get the article accepted in the teeth of long and determined opposition. Bravo Clara!
a of the Arbeiter-Zeitung Love from Louise and Ludwig and the baby who always yells with glee whenever the Arbeiter-Zeitung arrives, and from
Yours,
F.E.
Victor Adler und Friedrich Engels, Vienna, 1922
258. Engels to Wilhelm Ellenbogen 28 January
Esteemed Comrade,
Unfortunately for somewhat over a year I have been forced to make it my duty politely but firmly to decline all invitations to contribute to festive messages, etc., in particular periodically recurring ones, or to send messages of greetings on holidays (18 March, May Day, etc.), the only deviation from this rule being certain exceptional occasions, which promise an immediate specific effect. When you were bringing out the first issue of the daily in Vienna, I believed congratulations to be indicated.a If I sent you two lines for the May Day address, I would be compelled to do the same for the Czechs, Hungarians, Italians, Germans, Romanians and who knows what other nations and, moreover, probably send in addresses for the various May Day meetings, leave alone anniversaries like the 13thb and 18th of March.
a F. Engels, ‘Message of Greetings to the Austrian Workers on the Daily Publication of the Arbeiter-Zeitung’. - b Probably a slip of the pen. Should be 14 March, the day of Karl Marx’s death.
1895
If I am to have time for work, I am obliged to leave the demonstrating to younger forces.
Much as I would like to do a favour precisely to the Austrian comrades, I trust the above will help them realise that this time I must refuse.
Yours faithfully,
F. Engels
259. Engels to Vera Zasulich 30 January
Dear citizeness Vera,
I shall certainly be at home either tomorrow between 3 and 5, or Fridaya from 3 to 4 in the afternoon, when I shall be happy to see you.
The book by G. Plekhanovb is quite to the purpose; today the newspapers announce that Nicholas has just declared to the Zemstvos [504] he abides as firmly as his fatherc by tsarist autocracy.d There is no remedy against the folly of princes. [505] So much the better if Georgi has made a furore.e
Always yours,
F. E.
a 1 February - b [name in Russian] The Development of the Monist View of History, put out in St. Petersburg under the pen-name of N. Beltov [name in Russian]. -c Alexander II I - d [word in Russian] -e [phrase in Russian] 1895
260. Engels to Witold Jodko-Narkiewicz 2 February
Dear Comrade, Unfortunately I can give you absolutely no hint as to how the German comrades might view the proposal regarding the addition to the name of the next congress. [506] So far as I myself am concerned, I think that on this occasion one might oblige the Trades Unions, since the congress will be held on English soil where the Trades Unions have, after all, always got the bulk of organised labour behind them, so that a congress in which they played no part would create a bad impression. At the same time it cannot but be of importance to us to encourage the trend that is driving Trades Unions more and more into the socialist camp. Kindest regards.
Yours,
F. Engels
Dr and Mrs Freyberger also send you their kindest regards.
261. Engels to Richard Fischer 2 February
Dear Fischer,
You and the others have an odd way of holding a pistol to a fellow’s 1895
head. Having made your plans for Marx’s articles, you really might have told me about them a bit sooner rather then at the very last moment. [507] In a case such as this, where I am the administrator of other people’s property, I cannot rush things in the same way as I could if the matter simply concerned myself. Added to that, I am at this moment getting Lassalle’s letters [284] ready for you and these are far more likely to fall foul of the Subversion Bill [428] than Marx’s articles — the latter, then, is the work I ought to put on one side!
So tell me first of all what format and type you are using and how large the edition is to be, also the selling price, for on this occasion I shall, for various reasons, only sell you the right to one edition of a specific size. Meanwhile I shall have a word with Tussy; as soon as I get your reply, I shall let you know for certain.
If you cannot advise me of the exact selling price, it will be sufficient if you say how much you propose to charge per printed sheet.
I assume that you have a copy of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung—Revue from which to reprint. For I myself do not possess one of my own and if I did I couldn’t let it out of my hands.
Now for another matter. When the Vorwärts set up its bookselling side, Augusta wrote to say that I would be sent two copies of all your publications. Of late, however, that has been very far from the case. For instance, I have not received your latest edition of the Manifesto, or indeed either of the Berlin editions. [508] I am still short of sundry lesser pieces and am listing those that immediately spring to mind. You would greatly oblige me by sending them to me, namely your reprint of the Subversion Debate in two parts’b and a couple of copies of the most recent edition of the Communist Manifesto.— As regards the other things I am short of, I have just seen from your list that you are not to blame, since you were not the publisher. Apart from the above I am still short of
Minutes of the Wydenc Congress, 1880 [343]
“ “ Brusselsd “ 1891 [228] and one on Zurich [229] if it was you who published it. [509]
a Bebel - b Umsturz und Sozialdemokratie. Verhandlungen des Deutschen Reichstags am 17. Dezember 1894 und 8-12. Januar 1895 nach dem offiziellen stenographischen Bericht. - c
Protokoll des Kongresses zu Wyden 1880. Berlin, 1893. -d Verhandlungen und Beschlüsse des Internationalen Arbeiter-Kongresses zu Brüssel (16-22. August 1891). Berlin, 1893 — e Protokoll des Internationalen Sozialistischen Arbeiterkongresses in der Tornhalle Zürich vom. 6. bis 12. August 1893.
1895
The list I used for comparison was issued in 1893 and it is therefore possible that one thing or another may still be missing.
So please let me have the information by return and I shall send you a definite answer as promptly as possible.
Give my kindest regards to your wife and children and all my friends.
Yours
F.E.
262. Engels to Georgi Plekhanov 8 February
My dear Plekhanov,
Freyberger will happily undertake to give Veraa an examination, but how shall we make it seem plausible to her? Naturally, Freyberger cannot go to her and say: George Plekhanov has asked me to take a look at you. You will have to speak to her about it first, and obtain her consent, and then the best would be for her to talk to me, and I will take care of the rest. Or else she can talk to Louise Freyberger if she prefers, and Louise will see to everything. That is my suggestion, but if you think you have another idea on how to achieve your aim, tell me about it, and we can discuss it.
Vera has given me your book,b for which my thanks. I have begun to read it, but it will take time. However, it is a great success to have managed to have it published in your country. That is a step forward, and even if we cannot retain the new position we have just gained, a precedent has
a Vera Zasulich - b The reference is to G. V. Plekhanov [name in Russian], The Development of the Monist View of History [in Russian], published in St. Petersburg under the pen-name of N. Beltov [name in Russian] 1895
been established, the ice is broken. The suppression of the Russkaya Zhizn (Russian Life)a would seem to mark the beginning of reaction. Nikolai would seem to want to prepare his moujiksb for liberty by compulsory education, so that only the next generation will be ripe for the constitution; it is still just another formula for the old: après nous le déluge! [510] However the deluge is like the devil in Faust! den Teufel spürt das Völkchen nie, und wenn er sie beim Kragen hätte—c
And when the Devil of the revolution has someone at his collar, then he has Nicholas II .
As for my health, it is better than it has been for a long time. My digestion is good, my respiratory system working perfectly, I sleep my seven hours per night, and work with pleasure — happy to be able, at last! to recommence my own work after an interruption of almost a year: proofs of the 3rd volume, correspondence, moving house, intestinal trouble, etc., etc.
Greetings to Mme Plekhanov and to Axelrod from myself, and also from Ludwig and Louise Freyberger.
Yours,
F. Engels
You did not give me any special address, and therefore I am using the old one.
Truda ‘No. 2, 1924 Translated from the French
a [the name of the newspaper is written in Russian] - b This Russian word meaning “peasants” is written by Engels in Latin letters - c Goethe, Faust, Part I, Scene 5; this quotation and the following paragraph are written in German.
1895
263. Engels to Hermann Engels 8 February
Dear Hermann,
The arrival of your letter of the 23rd coincided with a spell of fine, frosty weather which has been playing Old Harry with consignments of wine. I have nevertheless ordered your sherry from Dublin but with the proviso that I shall not give instructions for it to be despatched until such time as the Rhine is open again and there is no longer any danger of the wine freezing en route. Indeed, I myself had a mild fright when five cases!—fifteen dozen of port and claret en route to me from Dublin were exposed for about forty-eight hours to an unexpected frost. It would seem, however, that everything has turned out all right, for the stuff I have sampled so far has not suffered, while a period of repose in my splendid wine cellar — an even temperature and space for nearly one hundred dozen in eight brick-walled bins — will see to the rest.
For the first time in many years we are again having a real Continental winter over here. Warm, almost spring-like up till the New Year with the shrubs all coming into bud, then cold and, for the past three weeks, constant sharp frost (80-100 Centigrade — 60-80 Réamur of frost at night) and snow. When the north-easter blows it is bitterly cold but when, like yesterday and today, there is little wind, it is glorious. Fortunately there is always enough wind to disperse the fog, the result being a marvellous blue sky.
I can well imagine your tribulations as a result of wining, dining and dancing to the accompaniment of serenades from a cavalry band. Over here we call it THE SOCIAL TREADMILL which, however diverting it may often have been in one’s younger days, is a pretty ghastly business when one gets older. I fight tooth and nail to keep out of it, but in this country, too, the likes of us cannot escape it entirely at Christmastime.
The £40 from Wilhelm Pf. duly and gratefully received.
Incidentally, on this occasion I survived the treadmill of the festive season in better shape than usual because I took proper care of myself and 1895
just now, what with icy weather so similar to that at home, I feel better than I have done for a long time. I have also been able to put the heating properties of my new study to the supreme test, for not only is there the extraordinary cold to contend with, but, added to that, the two neighbouring houses are both empty, i.e. unheated, and my room abuts on the two party walls. And I have nevertheless managed to keep it warm. It was not until yesterday that I felt a bit chilly, but whenever one’s need is greatest, help is always close at hand. On this occasion Rudolf’sa nightshirt stepped into the breech, whereupon I smartly stepped into it.
You can learn about my fellow occupantsb from Oscar Jaeger who met them both at my house when he last visited us here. Freyberger was courting at that particular time and spent the evening with us.
I have just received a deputation from the local rating authority. The gentlemen wished to satisfy themselves that I was not in fact paying more than, £85 for the house, the reason being that the last tenant had paid £130, while the rates for the house are based on an annual rental of £110. Needless to say I protested. I showed the gentlemen all the documents and shall now see what they do. Out of the eight houses close by, four are empty and so I hope they will deal mercifully with me.
Well then, I have ordered 11/2 dozen No. 1 and 11/2 dozen No. 2 sherry as per samples.
As you have said nothing further about it, I assume that Walterc has passed his exam and I send him my congratulations. Even heartier congratulations to Elsbethd on her forthcoming marriage. But she must also tell me the day, so that we over here can also indulge ourselves in her and her bridegroom’se honour.
Much love, then, to Emmaf and all your children, your sons and daughters-in-law and your children’s children.
Your old
Friedrich
I shall pay for the sherry in May and debit it on delivery.
a Rudolf Engels, Engels’ brother - b Louise and Ludwig Freyberger - c Walter Engels— Engels’ nephew - d Elsbeth Engels — Engels’ niece - e Arthur Schuchard - f Emma Engels— Engels’ sister-in-law
264. Engels to Richard Fischer 12 February
Dear Fischer,
If you yourself are of the opinion that the difference in price as between 60 Pfennigs and 1 Mark will make little difference so far as sales are concerned, I am, of course, in favour of selling the edition for 1 Mark. In return for a fee of 400 Marks I therefore assign you the right to bring out an edition of up to 3,000 copies and you may start printing straight away. [507] I shall get down to the Introduction forthwith and let you have it very shortly. The copy I have of the Neue Rheinische Zeitungs-Revue came into my possession on the strict understanding that it would not leave this house, besides which it is most necessary to me for the correction of proofs, since the relevant text was corrected in Hamburg and contains a mass of misprints — it was copied from Marx’s manuscript. It is equally necessary to me for purposes of comparison in respect of the Introduction. So please send me the first proofs in galley form and I can then insert the necessary explanatory notes. [511]
N. B., thirty-six free copies should be reserved for myself; a considerable number of them have to be passed on to the heirs.
So for the time being I shall leave Lassalle’s letters [284] on one side. The explanatory introduction and notes call for a good deal of rummaging about amongst my papers and I cannot therefore say in advance when it will be done.
When printing Marx’s articles, please note that, in the original, Konstitution, Klasse, Kollision, etc. are generally spelt with a ‘C but also probably with a ‘K’. Please put ‘K’ throughout; that will save a great deal of Korrigiererei.a
Congratulations on your maiden speech; [512] it will have made the bourgeois pretty furious!
a correction 1895
Many regards from everyone.
Yours,
F. Engels
The various pamphlets — two lots — arrived safely. Very many thanks.
265. Engels to Richard Fischer 13 February
Dear Fischer,
I enclose the titles for the pamphleta as well as for the chapters. In order to complete the three articles it will be necessary to add the passages on France from the 5th and 6th (double) issue as a 4th chapter. [513] Arranged, that is, as set out on the encl. sheet; first (in square brackets) my few introductory words, then the passage on pp. 150/153b as shown, then a line of dots indicating the omission and, by way of conclusion, the main passage on pp. 160-171.c That will provide a perfectly respectable chapter and, with the abolition of universal suffrage which served Bonaparte as a pretext in Dec. 1851, round off the whole with a pertinent conclusion without which it would remain a fragment. Tomorrow I shall get on with the introduction to the whole.d In Germany matters are really coming to a head quite nicely. I can hardly imagine that the Centre [71] would deliberately saw off the branch it was sitting on. But the foolishness of our opponents increases from day
a K. Marx, The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850. - b See present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 507-10, 132-35. - c See present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 516-25, 135-45. - d F. Engels, Introduction to Karl Marx’s ‘The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850’, 1895 - See present edition, Vol.27, pp. 506-524.
1895
to day and in this respect nothing is really impossible. If the gentlemen’s defection is consummated, that will mean making over the whole of the Rheinland and Westphalia to us. Regards.
Yours,
RE.
(The title should include: Reprinted from the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue, Hamburg, 1850)
266. Engels to Julius Motteier 23 February
Dear Julius,
One Theodor Barlen,a the bearer of a card from the Dortmund club, has called on me seeking assistance. He is a deserter, having decamped from Spandau, and alleges that he was previously a very active party member in Hörde, Dortmund, etc. I referred him to the Society. [62] He came back today to say that the Society refused to recommend him to me, since they did not know whether the papers he produced were his own. As I should like to have some information on the man so as to know whether I ought not to send him packing once and for all, I would ask you to tell me whether this accords with the facts and, once his case has been investigated, what view they take of him at the Society. [516]
Many regards to your wife and yourself from
a Hermann Barlen in the ms.
1895
Yours,
F. Engels
267. Engels to Paul Lafargue 26 February
My dear Lafargue,
I am sending the Manuscript to you by registered post with a few comments — as always the translation is excellent. [517] There has been a delay of a few days, and this is why; in Berlin they want to reprint the three articles by Marx on the events in France in 1848-49 (published in 1850 in the Revue de la Nouvelle Gazette Rhénanea and this cannot be done without an introduction; [507] this introduction has become quite long, since besides a general review of the events since that date, it would be necessary to explain why we were right to expect the imminent and definitive victory of the proletariat, why that has not come about, and to what point events have modified the way we saw things then. This is important because of the new laws which are threatening us in Germany. [428] A Reichstag Commission is attempting to transform all the articles of the penal code into rubber articles which are applicable or not, depending on the political party to which the defendant belongs. Arguments in favour of an act declared criminal, etc. will be punished if they are made in circumstances which could justify the opinion that the accused wished to provoke or incite imitation! etc., etc. that is, you who are socialist will be punished for having said something which any conservative, liberal or
a Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue.
1895
clerical may say with impunity. The clericals in the commission are worse than the government itself. Just imagine, they are requesting two years in prison for anyone who denies in public or in the press the existence of god or the immortality of the soul.
This is a fury of reaction wholly without purpose, and absolutely inex-plicable except on the supposition that all these gentlemen are threatened by a coup d’état. This coup d’état is openly preached by top-ranking officials. Constantin Rössler, ministerial counsellor, has called for it in a brochure.a Boguslawski, a retired general, has just done the same thing.b The liberals and clericals know that, faced with such determination on the part of the government, there is nothing left for them but to submit. In the presence of 2 million socialist electors, these gentlemen do not have the courage to resist a coup d’état openly — the government uses this threat to disarm them, and they will vote just to ‘save’ the constitution and domestic peace! Wait and see, they will vote for all the taxes, all the battleships, all the new regiments requested by Williamc—if the electors do not become involved. For our bourgeois deputies are so cowardly that even the courage of cowardice may prove lacking.
In any case, we are striding towards a crisis, if there can be a crisis in this Germany of the Bourgeoisie, where everything is blunted. What is certain is that there will be a new age of persecution for our friends. As for us, our policy should be not to let ourselves be provoked at this point; we would be fighting without the least chance of success, and we would be bled like Paris in 1871, whereas in two or three years our forces may have doubled, as under the exceptional law. [15] Today our Party would be fighting alone against all the others, rallied around the government under the banner of social order; in two or three years we will have on our side the peasants and the petty-bourgeois crushed by taxation. The battle corps does not engage in frontline battles but reserves itself for the critical moment.
Anyway, we shall see how it ends. How ironical that you, one of the most French writers of our age, should be doomed to be published almost always in German! And what German! The translators of Berlin and Stuttgart display a truly Germanic heaviness. There is only Adler who does you justice, and he will not al-
a C. Rößler, Die Sozialdemokratie. — b A. Boguslawski, Vollkampf-—nicht Scheinkampf. Ein Wort zur politischen Lage imlnnern. - c William II 1895
ways have the time to translate you himself. The only consolation I can offer is to tell you that I myself always breathe a little of the French spirit when I retranslate mentally your translator; sometimes I succeed.
We have been without water for 15 days, the pipe beneath our road is frozen; otherwise everything at home is going well. For one week we had almost no gas, as paraffins containing C[4], C[5] and C[6], and more of carbon are precipitated in the pipes by the cold. It was one of those periods when London relapses into barbarity. And the Standard tells you that, this is the proof that England has reached the summit of civilisation!
Thank Laura for her fine translation; I still have not received the letter you promised I would receive from her, but I hope that she has received the copy of the 3rd volumea for Deville that I sent to her on 1st January.
Greetings from the Freybergers.
Yours,
F.E.
The preface to the 3rd volume has been published in Italian in La Rassegna
[467] translated by Martignetti, and reviewed by Labriola, who has rendered the passages on Loria with a voluptuousness which bursts through each line. On the other hand, Loria has written a critique of the 3rd volume in the Nuova Antologia which is of unequalled superficiality. [15] 1st volume: Napoleon I, 2nd: the king of Rome, tubercular, 3rd: Louis Bonaparte II I. In Germany, Werner Sombart, a Berlin professor and a rather eclectic Marxist, has written a good article on the 3rd volume.c How are things progressing for 1st May? People are talking only of the Allemanists. [21] And how is the unity, or disunity, of the groups progressing, particularly as regards your own? Vaillant has written to me again, he wants my opinion on his draft laws.d I have still not found the time to read Jaurès on materio-idealism. [518]
Engels’ Comments on the French translation of his On the History of Early Christianity:
a of Capital- b A. Loria, ‘L’opera postuma di Carlo Marx’. In: Nuova Antologia, Anno XXX, fascicolo II I - 1 febbraio 1895. - c W. Sombart, Zur Kritik des ökonomischen Systems von Karl Marx’. In: Archiv für Soziale Gesetzgebung und Statistik. Bd. 7, H. 4, [1894] - d See this volume, pp. 420, 453 1895
P.17* The Philonic school of Alexandria and Greco-Roman vulgar philosophy — Platonic and especially Stoic — played an important role in the development of Christianity as the state religion under Constantine. This role is far from being established in detail etc. etc.
p. 34” What holy indignation was provoked after 1830 in the pious nursery that was Germany at the time by, as Heine called it, Saint Simon’s reinstatement of the flesh! The most shocked were the aristocratic estates who dominated at the time (I’m not speaking of the aristocratic class, given that in 1830 classes did not yet exist in our country) who, etc.
same page, last word conception — doesn’t this word lend itself too well to a play on words here?
English for the first time
268. Engels to Georgi Plekhanov 26 February
My dear Plekhanov,
Everything was arranged eight days ago, Veraa wrote to me and said that she would be delighted to be treated by Freyberger. He went to see her eight days ago yesterday, and has since been twice. He discovered that she had a severe case of bronchitis, and has prescribed the necessary medicines. However, he says that what she needs most is a different diet.
Zasulich - * See p. 453, Vol. 27 - ** See p. 459, Vol. 27 She should eat meat instead of fruit jellies and other vegetable foods. Freyberger is out at the moment, so I will return to the question of her health before finishing this letter.
Now, since you have made me more or less responsible for the state of her health, you must tell me if she has need of money. If she has, I would ask you to permit me to offer you some for her, however little, at least during her illness, I will send you, say, five pounds to begin with, that you can persuade her to accept as coming from you, so that I do not come into it at all. You could tell her that you have sent her this money to remove any excuse for refusing to change her diet, and that Freyberger has said that she must do so. Or perhaps you can find another excuse.
I will not have the time to read the critical review of my booka in Russian Heritage.b I have already seen enough on this subject in the issue for January 1894. [520] As for Danielson, I fear that there is nothing to be done with him. I sent him by letter post [25] the Russian material from Internationales aus dem Volketaat, and in particular the 1894 appendix, which was written, in part, directly with him in view. [522] He has received it but, as you see, it is useless. There is no way of discussing with this generation of Russians to which he belongs, and which still believes in the spontaneous-communist mission which distinguishes Russia, the true Holy Russ,c from other profane peoples.
As for the rest, in a country such as yours, where largescale modern industry is grafted onto the primitive peasant commune, and where all the intermediary stages of civilisation are represented simultaneously, in a country which, in addition, is surrounded more or less effectively by an intellectual wall of China erected by despotism, it is scarcely surprising if the most bizarre and impossible combinations of ideas are produced. Take the poor devil Flerovsky, who imagines that tables and beds think, but have no memory. It is a phase the country must pass through. Little by little, with the growth of the towns, the isolation of men of talent will disappear, and with it these mental aberrations caused by loneliness, the inconsistency of the patchy knowledge of these curious thinkers, and also a little, in the Narodniki,d by the despair of seeing their hopes evaporate. Indeed, one ex-terrorist Narodnikd would end quite appropriately by becoming a tsarist.
a F. Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. -b The magazine title is written by Engels in Russian. - c [in Russian] - d [in Russian] 1895
To join in these polemics I would have to read a vast literature, keep up to date, and reply. This would then take up all my time for a whole year, and the only useful result would be that I would probably know Russian considerably better than I do now, but I am asked to do the same for Italy on the question of l’illustrea Loria. And I am already overwhelmed with work!
Jaurès is on the right road. He is learning Marxism, and he should not be hurried too much. However, he has already made good progress, much more than I had dared hope. [518] As for the rest, let us not require too much orthodoxy! The party is too large, and the theory of Marx has become too widespread for relatively isolated muddle headed persons to do too much harm in the West. In your part of the world it is different, as it was with us in 1845-59.
I share your opinion as regards Nicholas. [13] The ‘Zemsky Sobor’c will come despite this little gentleman. [523]
Freyberger has just returned, and tells me that Vera is a great deal better, and that up to the present he has discovered nothing more than chronic and neglected bronchial catarrh.
Yours,
F.E.
269. Engels to Julius Motteier 2 March
Dear Julius, I am returning Meyer’sd letter herewith, also one written to me by
a famous - b Nicholas II - c [in Russian] - d Johann Meyer 1895
Lütgenau of Dortmund on the same subject,a which I should like to have back. The man is the right Barlen, Barlwin being, presumably, merely a misnomer by people who have never seen the name in writing. He was able to give the name of the confidential agent Bochum, and also confirmed what Meyer had written concerning Kritzler and the money — although that money, ten marks, he said, had fallen into the hands of the police. On the first occasion I gave him three shillings and, when he came back today, ten shillings, but he said he would have to give it all to his landlord and would then be penniless, so I gave him another five shillings, eighteen shillings in all, but even that will leave him in dire straits — he’s living in a robber’s den in the seamen’s quarter, and is suffering from laryngitis and can’t talk, so that I wasn’t able to subject him to a long interrogation.
Even if the Society [62] is unable to do anything else, it could at least take care of the poor devil to the extent of getting him out of the seamen’s district and helping him to find lodgings in which he wouldn’t be so exploited and from which he could look around for work; and surely the chaps could give him a modicum of assistance. He should, at any rate, have an address to which letters could be sent. Anything that goes to his present diggings probably falls into the clutches of the landlord. In view of your illness and the Coheniad, [524] I would have come to see you myself about this business, but I am again suffering from one of those attacks I get in the spring and which temporarily prevent me from walking.
Apropos of which, I should like to say how very sorry I am that you and your wife should be ill. I wish you a speedy recovery and congratulate you on the merciless thrashing you inflicted on the great anarchist.b Let him take to his bed again alongside Kropotkin.
Many regards to you and your wife from
Yours,
F. Engels
a See this volume, p. 445 - b Alexander Cohen 1895
270. Engels to Eduard Vailliant 5 March
Dear citizen Vaillant,
I was unable to reply sooner to your letter of 8th January — at the moment our friends in Germany are having to hurry as much as possible with the publication of all works, brochures, articles, etc., now in preparation before the new reactionary legislation which is now threatening them is enforced. [428] That has kept me, and is still keeping me, busy from morning to night with both literary work and the accompanying correspondence.
To return to your draft laws, [480] the first, No. 384, agricultural delegates, deals with an institution of indisputable importance; as a means of propaganda among farm workers it will have a very favourable effect; but it has no chance of becoming law, particularly in France, where the inspection of factories is still so neglected.
No. 928, communal agricultural land. This draft goes into too much detail for me to pass knowledgeable judgement on it. First of all one would need to know whether, in the great majority of cases, this communal land does not consist of forests, moorland, heath or, at very most, land suitable only for grazing, and where agriculture proper cannot be practiced to advantage. Such is the case in Germany and, if I am not mistaken, in a large part of northern France. In these cases, farming such land, unless kept within very narrow territorial confines, would risk falling into the errors of the National Workshops of 1848. [525] However, as I have just said, one needs very specialised knowledge to form an opinion on this subject.
No. 933, an eight-hour working day and a minimum wage for workers, etc., employed by the state, corresponds more or less to what has been instituted here by the County Council, and in part also by the ministries of war and the navy. A measure very useful both as an example for the capitalists, and as a means of propaganda; however, the day before yesterday the workers abandoned the County Council Progressives who had introduced these measures. Three of these progressives have been black-balled because tiny minorities (50 to 300 votes) were cast for ‘socialist’ candidates who are more or less ‘revolutionary’, but these minorities were sufficient to ensure the election of reactionary ‘moderates’. [526]
No. 939, ministry of labour, etc. This subdivision of work, which would remove some of the functions of the ministry of the interior and unite them with new functions hitherto neglected seems to me to be very useful. As for the details of the attributes of the new ministry, we can discuss this at greater length when the idea becomes feasible in practice.
I see these proposals simply as a means of propaganda, since with the present house there is no chance of seeing them accepted. From this point of view, we would first have to assure ourselves of their efficacy, and then determine whether or not they might be of interest for future action by the party when we are in a position to proceed to positive legislative activity. It is from this angle that I have formulated my criticism, and here I find just one point that seems to me to be dubious; whether it is wise to promise 40 million annually to the peasants in a form and for a purpose so clearly defined. The peasants could one day present us with this promissory note, and at a time when we might have better uses for such a sum.
Thank you for your comments concerning Wroblewskia. I have calculated that the roughly 45 socialist deputies receive a total of 400,000 fr. annually from the state, and that it would not perhaps be wholly impossible to provide on the basis of this sum, an annual income of, say, 1,200 francs to the sole surviving general of the Commune. I am perfectly well aware that the requests made by electoral constituencies on the funds of their deputies are not very reasonable, but here it seems to me to be a question of the honour of the whole of revolutionary France. It will be difficult to make the world understand that the survivors of and successors to the Commune are represented in the house by 45 deputies, and that a party of this size is not, however, capable of guaranteeing its most senior general against the most extreme poverty. And indeed, I still dare to hope that it will be found possible to use this means of enabling him to live out his life, without exposing him to the humiliation of a public subscription.
Here socialist sentiment (it is far more a sentiment than a clear idea) is continuing to make progress among the masses, but the existing organisations and their leaders are also continuing with the disputes and
a See this volume, p. 420 1895
rivalries that keep them powerless. It is a matter for despair for those who do not know the English character; in any case the European continent would seem about to give the English the impetus it so needs. That band of swindlers who govern and exploit France shamelessly will not retain support much longer. The same is true for Italy, where bribery and corruption is even more shameless. In Germany, everything is leading to a crisis, generals and high-ranking officials are openly calling for a coup d’état. The end of the century is taking a decidedly revolutionary turn. In France, the socialists are the only serious and honourable party, in Germany they are the only real opposition party; if a crisis comes, there will be no other party to turn to except this. In Austria, everyone agrees that the socialists will enter parliament, and it only remains to decide through which door. And in Russia, little Nicholas [11] has done us the service of making revolution absolutely inevitable.
Yours sincerely,
F. Engels
271. Engels to Nikolai Danielson 5 March
My dear Sir, I am very sorry, in reply to your kind letter of Jan. 29th, to inform you that our authorb has not left any manuscripts relating to his views upon, and deductions from the state of landed property in Russia such as might be useful to the Russian translator. [527] All I have been able to find
a Nicholas II - b Karl Marx 1895
are simple and very voluminous extracts from Russian sources statistical and generally economical, but, and this more or less against his habit, not interspersed with observations of his own.
I enclose you a letter received from Berlin for you, and am requested by the Mr. Engels mentioned in it to complete it by the following bits of information. Mr. Engels received some time ago an inquiry from a Dr. Lux who writes on economic subjects: whether the Essaysa were worth translating, and if so, would he do something to assist the publication of a German translation? to which he replied, that he was very desirous of seeing a German translation brought out, and that not only would he recommend the same for publication to Dietz, but also very gladly write an article upon it, when brought out, in the Neue Zeit, pointing out the importance of the results of your inquiries, but at the same time also stating that he differed from some of the conclusions arrived at by you. At the same time he stated, that he, Engels, had no right whatever to authorise a translation, but that the translator, a friend of Dr. Lux, had better apply to you direct for your permission. To avoid indiscretion, he insisted that the letter to you should be sent through him.
The translator, a young Russianb in Berlin, was said to be capable of undertaking the work (Dr. Lux’s wife is a Russian lady), and Dr. Lux has promised to revise the German text in order to insure correctness. The translator is also said to have occupied himself with economical subjects, so as to be no stranger to the contents of your book.
The letter enclosed seems to assume that your consent has already been given, at least I cannot find in it any trace of a formal request to you to that effect. I know that some young Russians abroadc are of opinion that such is an unnecessary formality, but such is not my opinion, and if you feel inclined to entertain at all Mr. Konov’s proposal, I think a hint in that direction might do the young man good.
As to myself I know nothing at all of the intended translation.
If you will kindly send me your reply to Mr Konov, I will see that it is forwarded at once. [528]
Yours very sincerely
L. K.d
a Nikolai-on. [Danielson N. Fr.], Essays (see FN p. 308) - b Andrei Konov - c [word in Russian] -d Engels used Louise Kautsky’s initials for his pen-name.
1895
1908 Published in English for the first time
272. Engels to Richard Fischer 8 March
Dear Fischer,
I have taken as much account as possible of your grave objections although I cannot for the life of me see what is objectionable about, say, half of the instances you cite. [529] For I cannot after all assume that you intend to subscribe heart and soul to absolute legality, legality under any circumstances, legality even vis-à-vis laws infringed by their promulgators, in short, to the policy of turning the left cheek to him, who has struck you on the right. True, the Vorwärts sometimes expends almost as much energy on repudiating revolution as once it did — and may soon do again — on advocating the same. But I cannot regard that as a criterion.
My view is that you have nothing to gain by advocating complete abstention from force. Nobody would believe you, nor would any party in any country go so far as to forfeit the right to resist illegality by force of arms.
I also have to take account of the fact that my stuff is read by foreigners as well — Frenchmen, Englishmen, Swiss, Austrians, Italians, etc.—and I simply cannot compromise myself to that extent in their eyes.
I have therefore accepted your amendments with the following exceptions: 1. Slip 9, re the masses, now reads: ‘they must have realised what they are coming out for’.a—2. next paragraph: the whole sentence about going into battle deleted; your suggestion contained an outright mistake. The slogan ‘going into battle’ is used daily by the French, Italians, etc., if
Cf. present edition, Vol. 27, p. 520 1895
with less serious intent.—3. Slip 10: ‘Social Democratic subversion which presently owes its existence to’; you wish to remove the ‘presently, thus changing present into permanent, and relatively into absolutely valid, tactics. This I will not and cannot do without making an eternal ass of myself. I shall therefore avoid the contradiction of terms and say: ‘Social Democratic subversion to which it is of very great benefit just now to abide by the law.’a
Why you should see anything dangerous in the allusion to Bismarck’s procedure in 1866, when the constitution was infringed, I find utterly incomprehensible. If ever there was an argumentum ad hominem,b I should say that this was it. However, I bow to your wishes.
Well, I can go so far and no further. I have done everything in my power to spare you embarrassment in debate. But you would be better advised to adhere to the standpoint that the obligation to abide by the law is a legal, not a moral one, as indeed, has been so nicely demonstrated to you by Boguslawskic (who has got the pip); and that it ceases absolutely when those in power break the law. But you people — one or two of you at any rate— have been weak enough not to oppose your adversaries’ pretensions as you ought to have done, and to accept the obligation to abide by the law as being also a moral one and binding under all circumstances, instead of telling them: ‘You are in power, it is you who make the laws; if we infringe them, you can deal with us in accordance with those laws and we must put up with it, that and nothing more — we have no further obligations, and you no further rights.’ That’s how the Catholics behaved in the face of the May Laws, [530] likewise the Old Lutherans in Meissen and likewise that Mennonite [531] soldier who figures in all the newspapers, and it’s a standpoint you people must not betray. The Subversion Bill [428] is in any case doomed; a thing of that sort cannot even be formulated, let alone put into practice and, given the power to do so, the chaps will manage to muzzle you and harass you in any case.
If, however, your intention is to make the chaps in the government see that we only want to bide our time because we are not yet strong enough to help ourselves and because the army is not yet thoroughly disaffected — if such is your intention,
My dear fellows, then why the eternal bragging in your press about the party’s victories and the enormous strides it is
a Cf. present edition, Vol. 27, p. 523 - b a biased argument - c A. Boguslawski, Vollkampf-— nicht Scheinkampf. Ein Wort zur politischen Lage in Innern.
1895
making? Those chaps know as well as we do that victory is almost within our grasp and that in a few years’ time there will be no stopping us, and that is why they are already anxious to get us by the scruff, though unfortunately they don’t know how. Nothing we say can alter that fact, and they know all this as well as we do; they likewise know that, once power is ours, we shall use it for our own purposes, not theirs.
So when next there’s a general debate in plenary session, mind you uphold the right of resistance to as good effect as did Boguslawski on our behalf, and do not forget that your audience also comprises old revolutionaries — French, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, and English — and that the time may again come — how soon, no one can tell — when the deletion of the word ‘legal’, effected donkey’s years ago at Wyden, [343] will really be consummated. Take a look at the Austrians whose threat to use force, should suffrage not soon be forthcoming, could hardly be plainer! [523] Think of your own unlawful actions at the time of the Anti-Socialist Law, [15] a law they would like to foist upon you again. Legality for so long as and to the extent that it suits your book, but not legality at any price, not even as a manner of speech!
Yours,
F.E.
Too late now to put quotations into German (most already have been in the texta) already made up into pages.
The proofs are being sent to Hamburg from here.
of K. Marx’s The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850 1895
273. Engels to Werner Sombart 11 March
Dear Sir,
In replying to your note of the 14th of last month, I should like to thank you for so kindly sending me your book on Marxa; I had already read it with great interest in the volume of the Archivb which Dr H. Braun was good enough to send me and was glad at long last to find such appreciation of Capitalc at a German university. Needless to say, I cannot identify myself with all the expressions into which you have transposed Marx’s exposition. In particular, it seems to me that the definitions of the concept of value, given by you on pp. 576 and [5] 77, are rather too generalised; for one thing, I should delimit them historically by expressly confining them to the economic phase in which alone there has and could have been any question of value hitherto — to the social forms in which exchange of commodities and production of commodities exist; primitive communism was innocent of value. And in the second place the proposition would also seem to me to be susceptible of a conceptually narrower formulation. But this would take us too far afield and on the whole you are certainly right in what you say.
On p. 586, however, you appeal directly to me and I could not but laugh at the unconcerned way in which you hold a pistol to my head. But you need not worry — I am not going to ‘contradict you flat’. The conceptual transitions whereby Marx arrives at the general and equal rate of profit from the various values produced in individual capitalist concerns, namely s/c = s/(c+v), are wholly foreign to the consciousness of the individual capitalist. In so far as they have any historical parallel or any reality outside our own heads, this consists in, say the fact that the individual constituents of the amount of surplus value produced by capitalist
a W. Sombart, ‘Zur Kritik des ökonomischen Systems von Karl Marx’ — b Archiv für soziale Gesetzgebung und Statistik. - c Volume II I 1895
A., over and above the rate of profit or his share of the total surplus value, pass into the pocket of capitalist B. whose own output of surplus value is normally less than the dividend accruing to him. But this process takes place objectively and unconsciously, in the nature of things, and only now, when we have attained to a proper consciousness of that process, can we judge how much labour it has cost. Had the creation of the average rate of profit demanded the conscious collaboration of the individual capitalists, and had the individual capitalist known that he was producing surplus value and how much, and that in many cases he would have to surrender part of his surplus value, the connection between surplus value and profit would, of course, have been more or less clear from the start, and would certainly be found in Adam Smith if not already in Petty.
As Marx sees it, the whole of past history, so far as major events are concerned, is an unconscious process, i.e. those events and the consequences thereof are not deliberate; either the supernumeraries of history have wanted something that was the diametrical opposite of what was achieved, or else that achievement entailed consequences quite other than those that had been foreseen. If we apply this to political economy, we find that each individual capitalist is in pursuit of bigger profits for himself. Bourgeois economics reveals that this pursuit of bigger profits on the part of each individual capitalist results in a general and equal rate of profit, an approximately equal rate of profit for all. But neither capitalists nor bourgeois economists are aware that the real purpose of that pursuit is the equal percentual distribution of the total surplus value over capital as a whole.
But how did this process of equalisation really come about? That is a very interesting point about which Marx himself has little to say. But Marx’s whole way of thinking [Auffassungsweise] is not so much a doctrine as a method. It provides, not so much ready-made dogmas, as aids to further investigation and the method for such investigation. Here, then, is a piece of work to be done which Marx himself did not attempt in his first draft. Here, for a start, we have the statements on pp. 153-156, II I, Ia which also have some bearing on your rendering of the concept of value and prove that that concept has, or had, more reality than you ascribe to it. In the early days of exchange when products gradually changed into commodities, exchanges were made in proportion to value. For the labour
a See present edition, Vol. 37, pp.174-76; see also, pp. 882-84 1895
expended on two articles was the sole criterion of quantitative comparison. At that time, then, value existed in an immediate and real sense. That this immediate realisation of value ceased in exchange, that it now no longer exists, we know. And I do not suppose you will have any particular difficulty in tracing the intermediate stages, at any rate in broad outline, that led from the above-mentioned real and immediate value to value as represented in the capitalist mode of production, value which is so thoroughly well-concealed that our economists can happily deny its existence. A genuinely historical exposition of this process — which, though admittedly requiring a great deal of research, holds out the prospect of correspondingly rewarding results— would be a most valuable pendant to Capital. [534]
Finally, I must again thank you for the high esteem in which you must hold me if you take the view that I could have turned Volume II I into something better than it is. But I am unable to share that opinion and believe I have done my duty by presenting Marx in Marx’s own words, even at the risk of expecting the reader to do rather more thinking for himself.
Yours very truly,
F. Engels
274. Engels to Conrad Schmidt 12 March
Dear Schmidt,
I have before me your two letters of the 13th of November last and of the 1st of this month. Let me begin with the most recent, No. 2.
1895
So far as Fireman is concerned, you had better leave well alone. [535] Lexis had simply posed the question [536] as you did in Σs/Σ(c+v). He is the only one to have gone a step further along the right road in as much as he classified the progression s/(c’+v’) + s”/(c”+v”) + s’”/(c”‘+v’”) ... etc., set out by you and divided it, according to the varying composition of capital, into groups of the branches of production between which equalisation only comes about as a result of competition. The fact that this was the next important step will be evident to you from Marx’s own text in which, up to that point, the process is exactly the same. Fireman’s mistake was to break off here and rest on his laurels, which is why he necessarily remained unnoticed until the booka itself came out.—But there’s no need for you to worry. You have every reason to be content. After all, you discovered for yourself why it is that the rate of profit tends to fall and how commercial profit is created — and discovered, not just two thirds as did Fireman the rate of profit, but the whole bally thing.
Your letter, I think, sheds some light on why you allowed yourself to be side-tracked when it came to the rate of profit. In it I find you lapsing into detail in just the same way, and for this I blame the eclectic method of philosophising endemic at German universities since 1848, a method which loses sight of the whole, and all too often goes astray by indulging in almost endless and unprofitable speculation on minutiae. Now it so happens that your earlier studies of classical philosophy revolved primarily around Kant, and Kant was more or less compelled by the then state of philosophising in Germany and by his own antipathy to Wolf’s pedantic Leibnizianism to make what appeared to be formal concessions to Wolfian speculation. It is thus I explain your tendency, also apparent from your epistolatory digression on the law of value, to become engrossed in minutiae; hence your occasional failure, or so it seems to me, to see the wood for the trees, which is why you reduce the law of value to a fiction, a necessary fiction, in much the same way as Kant reduced the existence of God to a postulate of practical reason.
Your objections to the law of value apply to all concepts regarded from the standpoint of reality. The identity of thinking and being, to use a Hegelian expression, corresponds in all respects to your example of the circle and the polygon. In other words, the concept of an object and its reality run side by side like two asymptotes which, though constantly
a Vol. II I of Capital 1895
converging, will never meet. The difference between the two is the selfsame difference which is responsible for the fact that the concept is not immediately and ipso facto reality and reality is not immediately its own concept. Because a concept is by its nature essentially a concept, hence does not ipso facto and prima faciea correspond to the reality from which it has had first to be abstracted, that concept is always something more than a fiction, unless you declare all reasoned conclusions to be fictive on the grounds that they correspond to reality only in a very circuitous way and even then only approximately, like converging asymptotes.
Is it otherwise with the general rate of profit? At no time is it more than an approximation. Should it ever prove to be absolutely identical in two separate undertakings and should both achieve exactly the same rate of profit in a given year, it would be purely fortuitous; in reality rates of profit vary from business to business and year to year, according to circumstances, while the general rate exists only as the average achieved by a large number of businesses over a succession of years. If, however, we were to insist that the rate of profit — say, 14.876934... be exactly the same down to the last decimal point in every business every year, on pain of being reduced to a fiction, we should be grossly mistaking the nature of the rate of profit and of economic laws generally — they none of them have any reality save as an approximation, a tendency, an average, but not as immediate reality. This is due partly to the fact that their action is frustrated by the simultaneous action of other laws, but also to some extent by their nature as concepts.
Or take the law of wages, the realisation of the value of the power of labour, a value which is only, and even then not always, realised as an average and varies from locality to locality, indeed from branch to branch, according to the standard of living customary in each. Or ground rent, which represents the surplus profit, in excess of the general rate, arising from a monopolisation of a natural force. Here, too, real surplus profit and real rent do not by any means automatically correspond, but do so only approximately and on an average.
Exactly the same thing applies to the law of value and the distribution of surplus value through the rate of profit.
1. Both come closest to full realisation only in as much as capitalist production has everywhere been fully implemented, i.e. society has been a self-evidently 1895
reduced to modern classes of landowners, capitalists (industrialists and traders) and workers, all intermediate stages having been eliminated. That has not yet happened even in England nor will it ever happen — we shouldn’t let things get to that pitch.
2. Profit, including rent, has a number of constituents: a) profit from sharp practice which you discount in your algebraic sum; b) profit from an increase in value of stocks (e.g. what is left of the previous harvest when the next one fails). In theory this ought also to equalise out, so long as it has not already been discounted by a fall in the value of other commodities, for either the capitalist buyer’s contribution must be equal to the seller’s gain, or else, where means of subsistence for workers are concerned, wages must eventually rise. The most significant of these rises in value are, however, not lasting ones, hence equalisation takes place only over an average of years and in very incomplete form and, as is well known, at the expense of the workers; they produce more surplus value because their labour power is not paid for in full;
c) the total amount of surplus value from which, however, we must again deduct that portion that is presented to the buyer, especially at times of crisis when overproduction is reduced to its true content of socially necessary labour.
From this it necessarily follows that the total profit and the total surplus value can correspond only approximately. If, however, you also consider that neither the total surplus value nor the total capital are constant quantities but variables which change from day to day, then any correspondence between the rate of profit and Σs/Σ(c+v), other than an approximate progression, and any coincidence of the total price and total value other than one which constantly tends towards, and yet as constantly tends away from, unity, will be seen to be a sheer impossibility. In other words, the unity of concept and phenomenon turns out to be an essentially endless process, and so indeed it is, in this case as in every other.
Has feudalism, then, ever corresponded to its concept? Having begun in the Kingdom of the Western Franks, [537] been further developed in Normandy by the Norwegian invaders, and taken a stage further in England and the south of Italy by the Norman French, it came closest to its concept — in the ephemeral Kingdom of Jerusalem, a relic of which, the Assises de Jérusalem, [538]
the most classical expression of the feudal order. Was that order a fiction merely because it was in Palestine alone that it achieved a short-lived exis-
1895
tence in fully classical form — and even then largely on paper?
Or are the concepts that prevail in the natural sciences fictive because they by no means always correspond to reality? From the moment we accept the theory of evolution, all our concepts of organic life correspond only approximately to reality. Otherwise there would be no change; if the day should ever come when concept and reality coincide completely in the organic world, evolution will cease. The concept ‘fish’ embraces life under water and breathing through gills; how is it possible to evolve from fish to amphibian without infringing that concept? And infringed it has been; we know of a whole number of fish whose air-bladders have evolved into lungs and which are thus able to breathe air. How is it possible to evolve from oviparous reptile to viviparous mammal without bringing one or both concepts into conflict with reality? And in fact we have, in the monotremata, an entire sub-class of oviparous mammals — in Manchester in 1843, I saw the eggs of a duck-billed platypus and, in my narrow-minded arrogance, cast scorn on the folly of supposing that a mammal could lay eggs, and now it has been proven! So do not treat the concept of value in the same manner as has obliged me to proffer my belated apologies to the duck-billed platypus!
In Sombart’s otherwise excellent article on Volume II P I have also found a similar tendency to emasculate the theory of value; evidently he, too, had hoped to find a rather different solution. [15]
Your article in the Centralblatt, however, is first-rate,c and your demonstration — by quantitative determination — of the specific differences between Marx’s theory of the rate of profit and that of the earliest political economists, is very well done. In his wisdom, the illustrious Loria sees Volume II I as nothing less than an abandonment of the theory of value,d and thus your article is a cut-and-dried reply. There are now two more interested parties, Labriola in Rome, and Lafargue, the latter having joined battle with Loria in the Critica Sociale. [539] If, therefore, you could send a copy to Prof. Antonio Labriola, Corso Vittorio Emmanuele 251, Rome, he would do his best to get an Italian translation of it published; and a second copy to Paul Lafargue, Le Perreux, Seine, France, would give the
a W. Sombart, ‘Zur Kritik der ökonomischen Systems von Karl Marx’. In: Archiv für soziale Gesetzgebung und Statistik, Bd. 7, H. 4. -b See this volume, p. 461 -c C. Schmidt, ‘Der dritte Band des Kapital’. In: Sozialpolitisches Centralblatt, 25. Februar 1895 - d A. Loria, ‘L’opera postuma di Carlo Marx.’ In: Nuova Antologia, Anno XXX, fascicolo II I, 1 febbraio 1895 1895
latter the support he needs; he would also mention your name. I have written to both of them about this, [540] saying that your article supplies a ready-made answer on the main issue. Please let me know if you are unable to supply the copies.
With this, however, I must close, for otherwise I shall never be done. Kindest regards,
Yours,
F. Engels
275. Engels to Karl Kautsky 13 March
Dear Baron,
Just to inform you in all haste that Plekhanov has misread or misun-derstood my letter. I have no intention whatsoever of concerning myself with Loria, and have written to tell Plekhanov [25] that he should not allow himself to be put off. Loria has written a reply to the prefacea and only if absolutely necessary shall I write a few words in return, but that is all. Everything the chap has published has been sent me from Rome.
I should be grateful if you were to send me Platter’s thing [541]—I have already got W. Sombart’s — it is good.b I’m glad you should have used it as an excuse to stave off Enrico Ferri since the man’s quite incapable of writing about Volume II I.
a Loria, ‘L’ opera postuma di Carlo Marx’. In: Nuova Antologia, Anno XXX, fascicolo II I —1 febbraio 1895 - b W. Sombart, ‘Zur Kritik des ökonomischen Systems von Karl Marx’. In: Archiv für soziale Gesetzgebung und Statistik. Bd. 7, H. 4 1895
My preface has come out in Italian and is said to have made quite an impact. [467]
Yours,
F.E.
276. Engels to Victor Adler 16 March
Dear Victor,
Herewith by return the information you request. Sombart’s article is very good,a except that his view of the law of value is impaired by some disappointment over the solution to the rate of profit question. He clearly expected a miracle, instead of which he merely found what was rational and that is anything but miraculous. Hence his reduction of the significance of the law of value to the domination of the productive force of labour as the determining economic power. This is all much too generalised and imprecise.—Little Conrad Schmidt’s article in the Sozial politisches Centralblatt is very good.b Eduard Bernstein’s articles were very muddle-headedc; the man is still neurasthenic and, what is more, scandalously over-worked. Having too many other things on hand, he left the article on one side and then was suddenly dunned for it by K. Kautsky.
Since you want to swot away at Capital II and II I while you’re in quod,
[542] let me give you a few hints to lighten your task.
a W. Sombart, ‘Zur Kritik des ökonomischen Systeme von Karl Marx,’ In: Archiv für soziale Gesetzgebung und Statistik, Bd. 7, Heft 4 - b C. Schmidt, ‘Der dritte Band des Kapital’. In: Sozialpolitisches Centralblatt, 25 Februar 1895 - c E. Bernstein, ‘Der dritte Band des Kapital’. In: Neue Zeit, 1 Bd., Nr. 11-149 16, 17 und 20, 13 Jg. 1894/95 1895
Book II . Part I. Read Chap. I carefully, after which you can more or less skim through Chaps 2 and 3; pay closer attention to Chap. 4, it being a resume; 5 and 6 are easy, 6 in particular being concerned with incidental matters.
Part II . Chaps 7-9 are important. 10 and 11 exceptionally so. Likewise 12, 13 and 14. On the other hand 15, 16 and 17 need only be read cursorily to begin with.
Part II I. Is an absolutely first-rate exposé of a subject which has not been dealt with since the days of the physiocrats, namely the entire circulation of commodities and money in capitalist society — brilliant as to content, but terribly ponderous as to form, firstly because put together from two versions using two different methods and, secondly, because version 2 was completed under duress, namely an illness involving chronic insomnia. If I were you, I should keep that to the very last, after an initial reading of Volume II I. Also, it is the one you can most easily dispense with so far as your work is concerned.
Now for Volume II I. Important in Part I are Chaps 1-4; on the other hand, Chaps 5, 6 and 7 are less important so far as the general context is concerned, so not very much time should be spent on them to start off with.
Part II . Most important are Chaps 8, 9, 10. 11 and 12 to be treated cursorily.
Part II I. Most important, the whole of it, 13-15. Part IV. Likewise most important, though 16-20 also easy to read. Part V. Most important, Chaps 21-27. Less so, Chap 28. Chap. 29 important. Chaps 30-32 not, on the whole, important for your purposes, but Chaps 22 and 34 important as soon as they turn to paper money, etc., 35 important as regards international rates of exchanges; 36 of great interest to you, and also easy to read.
Part VI. Ground Rent. 37 and 38 important. 39 and 40 less so, but nevertheless not to be skipped. 41-43 demand rather less attention. (Differential rent II , individual cases.) 44-47 are again important and also, on the whole, easy to read.
Part VII very fine; unfortunately truncated and, moreover, strongly symptomatic of insomnia.
So if you make a thorough study of the essentials by following the above, and devote less attention initially to what is of lesser importance (preferably having first reread the essential bits of Vol. I), you will get a 1895
general view of the whole and will afterwards find it easier to digest the passages to which you have devoted less attention.
Your news about the papera pleased us very much. The main thing is political efficacity; financial efficacity is bound to follow, and will be achieved far more easily and quickly once the former is assured. It is with pleasure I detect your hand in the notes on electoral reform on the front page
[532]—there you have the FULCRUM for the efficacity you need.
As a result of the old trouble which comes to plague me periodically, especially in springtime, I am again somewhat lame but less so than usual, the attack being milder and, in about a fortnight I should, I think, be rid of it without any need for sea air as in 1893 and 1894.
The movement over here may be summed up as follows: Amongst the masses, progress is steady if instinctive, and the tendency is adhered to; the moment it comes to giving conscious expression to that instinct and to that impulsive tendency, however, their sectarian leaders set about it in so stupid and narrow-minded a way as to make one feel like hitting out left, right and centre. But I suppose it’s just the typical Anglo-Saxon way of going about things.
Many regards,
Yours,
F.E.
1 March 1908 Published in English in full for the first time
277. Engels to Carl Hackenberg 16 March
Dear Sir,
Following are my brief answers to your questions:
a Arbeiter-Zeitung 1895
1) Beckera was in Cologne when we came there in May 1848; [544] I had heard nothing of him previously.
2) 1 know-nothing about this. [545] 3) ditto. [546] 4) We got to know Becker as belonging to the more moderate trend in the democratic party.
5) I believe Becker also gave talks in the Democratic Association [547] (the Eiser Hall) from time to time, but I hardly ever went there. W. Wolff, F. Wolff and Dronke attended more frequently on behalf of our editorial boardb than did Marx or I.
6) I do not know what associations you mean. On the whole, the Workers’ Union [548] and the Democratic Association worked hand in hand in Cologne, although the former was more radical than the latter. As for what had been going on before our arrival, at the time when the Workers’ Union had been led by Dr. Gottschalk, I can say nothing definite about it.
7) If by the Central Association [549] you mean the central section of democratic associations, led by the Frankfurt Left, I must say the Rhenish democrats soon lost trust in it and made themselves independent.
8) We were on the same good terms with Becker as with the other bourgeois democratic leaders in Cologne, without making a secret of the fact that we were going considerably further than they and without expecting them to unconditionally support the stance taken by the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. The majority of them, Becker included, were not contributors to the paper, except, at the most, for publishing short, usually signed, articles from time to time in the local news section (then printed ‘under the line’). You will often come across the initials H. B. [550] there. After the onset of reaction, in the autumn of 1848, democracy became more radical and Becker also drew closer to us. But he did not work more for the paper then either.
9) I’ve no knowledge of this at all. [551] I was already gone by then, we left Cologne in May.
10) After we had gone, Becker and Heinrich Burgers founded the Westdeutsche Zeitung, one might say on the inheritance of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung? [552]
11) I have no further material on the Communist trial [553] concerning
a Hermann Heinrich Becker - b of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung 1895
Becker specifically. Becker had joined the Communist League, which was set up anew on the Continent at the end of 1849 or the beginning of 1850, and sat on the Cologne district authority, which was entrusted with the functions of central authority after the split in London.
12) I know of no attempts to free Becker while he was on remand. If anything of the kind was contemplated, certainly good care was taken not to mention it in letters to London, for it would hardly have escaped the notice of the Prussian postal service.
For the rest, I regret to be unable to give you any further information. I hope you have the latest edition (Zurich 1885) of Marx’s revelations concerning the Cologne trial,a with my introduction.b If not, you may obtain a copy from the bookshop of Vorwärts, 2 Beuthstrasse, Berlin; the earlier editions are incomplete.
Incidentally, Becker’s involvement with the League was only an episode in his life, caused by the then rampant reaction. With the return of calmer times he again became what he had been previously, a bourgeois democrat, and, as you will know, went through all the changes undergone by German, and particularly Prussian, bourgeois democracy. This attitude stemmed from his whole nature, so I am far removed from seeing any sort of careerism in it; on the contrary, if he had tried to remain more radical and carry the communist episode on, he would have missed his calling. In this he differed, very favourably, from Miquel.
I hope these notes will be of use to you.
F. Engels
a K. Marx, Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne - b F. Engels, On the History of the Communist League 1895
278. Engels to Pablo Iglesias 16 March
Dear friend Iglesias,
I could not answer your letter of 19 October 1894 earlier because I did not know whether or not you had come out of Malaga prison; [554] nor could I answer your letter of 1 February, being busy finishing some publicationsa for our people in Berlin which had to be circulated before the new repressive draft laws [428] became law.
Before I got your letter of 19 October, friends in Barcelona had asked Comrade Eleanor Marx-Aveling to inform the British Trades-Unions of the Malaga strikers’ situation, and she had done all she could, so that nothing more is left for me to do. And as you know, some of the Trades-Unions helped.
As regards really socialist organisations in England, they are so disunited and so poor that no help can be expected from them.
I have been following the progress of this strike with great interest, admiring the workers’ tenacity and courage. Marquis de Larios’ name reminds me of an episode that occurred about 1850.
At that time there was a firm of Larios Bros. (Jews) in Gibraltar. A British merchant used to send his goods to the firm on commission to be smuggled to other merchants on Spanish territory. Those goods were constantly seized by Spanish Customs, and Larios Bros, would pay the Englishman the guaranteed sum in insurance, as is customary in this kind of business. But that did not suit the Englishman, for he lost his customers in Spain and a substantial amount of profit. He arrived in Gibraltar to see for himself why those accidents always befell his goods but never those of others. However, he could not find out the reason. One day as he was taking a walk in the city, he saw a cart lose a wheel and some boxes with goods fall to the ground and burst open. The boxes were
a See this volume, p. 444 1895
his — they bore his trade-mark — but he saw that, instead of goods, they contained, yes, sand. The mystery was solved. It became clear that Larios Bros. had always notified Spanish Customs of the dispatch of the boxes of sand, which had been seized, the Englishman being paid insurance; thereupon Larios Bros. had dispatched the goods on their own behalf by a safe route to their Spanish correspondents, thus pocketing without risk the whole profit derived from the operation.
The enraged Englishman descended on Larios. ‘I’ll disclose all that, I’ll make a scandal, I’ll have you put on trial!’ ‘Why get excited, sir? We will pay you for your goods and make the amends you want.’ After much argument, the Englishman was paid a definite sum, and Larios Bros. signed the following statement:
‘We, Larios Bros., are the greatest swindlers there are here in the city of Gibraltar, and we advise everybody against doing business with us, for they can rest assured that we would cheat them.
‘Gibraltar, (date).
‘Larios Bros.’ The statement was posted for general information in the Bourse of Gibraltar, where old Larios continued for another twenty years to buy and sell goods.
Would the marquis be a relative of the Larios of Gibraltar?
Works, First Russian Edition, Translated from the Spanish Vol. XXIX, 1946
279. Engels to Carl Hirsch 19 March
Dear Hirsch,
I am willing to oblige you, [555] but only on two conditions: 1. that the 1895
matter remains strictly between ourselves, for otherwise I shall get a hundred such requests for advance criticism; and what I do for one person I cannot refuse to do for others — in which case I might as well throw up the sponge. 2. That this is the last time you ask me to do anything of this kind. I get more things sent to me in a week than I can read in a month, but if I am to criticise them into the bargain, I shall be in even worse case.
P. 4. Onesided}. This is far less the case in big industry than in manufacture. On the contrary, big industry does to a large extent eliminate the disabling effect of manufacture, although it produces a similar effect of its own, which last may be exacerbated by the intensification of labour. From what I know of big industry, I should say that in your case this point is given more emphasis than is justified by the circumstances. The division of labour is, and will continue to be, the chief cause of the disablement of labour.
P. 6. - ‘in every case overproduction, crises’. May, has a tendency to— realisation by no means inevitable. ‘Spiral movement’—seems to me too general a term. What mode of production have you in mind here? ‘The minimum of socially necessary labour time’—if this is supposed to be the time needed to produce the gross social product, it is meaningless so far as capitalist society is concerned, since in its apportionment among individual workers, the industrial reserve army is wholly left out of account.
P. 15. ‘Everywhere’ (etc., up till the end of the sentence)—this is expressed very obscurely, to say the least and, as it stands, is a contradiction. First, the increase in the products of labour is said to give rise to ‘a gain as such’ and then to a ‘loss of value, which is at least a possibility’. This will not do unless explanatory and delimiting intermediate links are provided.
P. 18. ‘The capital of the working man is his own person.’ That sounds very nice, but in this context the word capital loses every vestige of meaning. Why the devil must you go and translate things that are sensible into nonsensical philistine cliches? What you say here is quite beyond my comprehension. Similarly on p. 18, no. 2. The concentration of labour re-sulting from improvements in machinery is all of a sudden supposed to be unhealthy. It may be so, and very often is, in the capitalist system but of itself it is no more unhealthy than is eating and digesting on the following page. Not only will it not cease, but we shall be able to augment it considerably because, with it, we shall get compensation for the workers. Other 1895
incidental comments — should there ever be a second edition, I would advise you to substantiate what are, after all, very generalised arguments by providing specific examples, citing facts relating to various branches of industry and, in general, indicating which industries you are referring to. E.g., your propositions are true of the highly developed English textile industry only in a very limited sense. On the other hand, they may be far more true of Germany where big industry is still in its infancy and is only just coming into its own in a whole number of branches of production in which old methods are being superseded and the intensity of labour suddenly augmented. However, these are merely transitional stages. The main thing, when dealing with economic and, more especially industrial matters of this kind, is not to succumb to parochialism. Seen for what they are, these transitional phases are of undeniable importance, but one must also recognise and say that that is what they are and nothing else. And your immediate surroundings provide you with the most splendid opportunity for presenting all your propositions as having been deduced from real life, while you yourself will learn something in the process.
Now, do your best in the Cologne by-election [556] so that we may at least win here. And if by chance you should be writing to me again, let me know if the old house, behind Hutmacher, where the Neue Rheinische Zeitung used to be, is still no. 17 and whether the owner of the sweatshop who now lives there is called Salomon or Lewi — I have forgotten.
So far you have been conducting your battle with the Centre [71] quite nicely, but it seems to me that you might castigate the conduct of the Liebers et al in the Reichstag rather more often in your leading articles. [557]
Many regards,
Yours,
F.E.
First published in: Printed according to a Marx and Engels, Works, typewritten copy First Russian Edition, Vol. XXIX, 1946 Published in English for the first time 1895
280. Engels to Ludwig Kugelman 19 March
Dear Kugelmann,
The eachets cramponsa have arrived here safely and have already been put to use. The machine presents no difficulty to the doer-up of letters — whether it does to the opener thereof is something that could be elucidated for us by the German and Austrian postal authorities to whom we have already most humbly submitted several samples. Many thanks. Köller will, I hope, be obliged to introduce a Subversion Bill [428] for the subversion of these staples in the face of which the best intentions of the cabinets noirsb fail so ignominiously.
Thanks for your endeavours in the Bielefeld district. If there is anything of mine or, indeed of Marx’s in the Dampfboot, it is likely to be anonymous. [558]
No news from Livingston. [559] The cold suited me very well; it acted on me like a powerful tonic while it lasted, and I felt twenty years younger. On the other hand, it precipitated London as always back into an age of barbarism. The water pipes froze; we went on having water until the Company shut off supplies, whereupon the water froze in the mains. Ours was about four and a half to five feet down and when uncovered a fortnight after the thaw, was still completely frozen up. Then we had to wait another two days until our connecting pipe thawed out. At eight o’clock in the evening, a week ago today, the water at last came on again. We then discovered that the drains were blocked because of the inadequate flow of water. By the end of last week everything was back to normal again, after four weeks during which we had to have forty buckets of water a day carried up to the attic on the
a A type of staple for closing letters — b The name given in France to the office where letters of suspect persons were opened and examined before being forwarded to the addressees. (Trans.)
1895
fourth floor in order to keep the house supplied with water and prevent the boiler exploding every time the range was lit in the kitchen. There was no need for you to worry and take so much trouble over the duty on the staples; in this country all industrial products are duty-free. Many regards to you and your family from Louise and
Yours,
F. Engels
281. Engels to Hermann Engels 20 March
Dear Hermann,
Many thanks for the kind wedding invitation which I am unfortunately unable to accept. Apart from other obstacles, I have again fallen prey to the springtime complaint which, for the past four or five years, has regularly crippled me for some weeks at this season. A little rest will no doubt suffice to put paid to the thing, thus enabling me, a week tomorrow, to drink a glass of the best to ElsbethV and her bridegroom’sb health, as will be conscientiously done.
Otherwise I am well and have grown more or less accustomed to the domestic and dietary regulations befitting an elderly gentleman — so much so, in fact, that any deviation therefrom becomes instantly apparent to me from all manner of little upsets and I get given the well-meant but earnest advice to desist from the same in future. I had never imagined
a Elsbeth Engels, F. Engels’ niece - b Arthur Schuchard 1895
that pedantry could again be imposed upon me as a rule of life and a moral duty.
Well, I hope that, even in my absence, you will all have a very happy day, and wish Elsbeth the best of luck in her new status as a married woman; also offspring more distinguished by their health than by their numbers.
Much love to Emma [1] and all the children,
Your old
Friedrich
282. Engels to Vera Zasulich 22 March
41 Regent’s Park Road, N. W.
Dear citizen Vera,
On Sunday evening we will be without a maid and without a cook. They are both leaving us tomorrow, and therefore the house will be upside down, and in a state which will scarcely permit us to receive our friends — you will therefore, I hope, excuse us for that evening.
Cordial greetings from the Freybergers — we hope that the fine weather will cure you completely.
Sincere good wishes,
F. Engels
a Emma Engels, F. Engels’ sister-in-law.
First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 39, Moscow, 1966 1895
283. Engels to Karl Kautsky 25 March
Dear Baron,
No difficulty about a reply to your telegramm—’with pleasure’. The text will follow by book-post. It is in proof form and is entitled Introduction to Karl Marx’s ‘The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850’ by F. Engels. The text explains that the contents are a reprint of the old articles from the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, Revue. My text has suffered to some extent from the apprehensive objections, inspired by the Subversion Bill, [428] of our friends in Berlin — objections of which, in the circumstances, I could not but take account. [529]
I at once wrote to Plekhanov to clear up the misunderstanding.a It was very right of you to stave off Ferri; the chap is a belletrist and sensation-monger in no matter what field and, like most Italians, holds Loria to be a giant in the field of economics, an opinion the illustrious one has implanted in them by dint of ‘reiterated appearances’ (to use Ruge’s expression) and by a refined system of camaraderie.
I have not read the stenographic version of Liebknecht’s militia speech [360]
and one cannot go by the newspaper reports. A long dissertation might be written on the subject of militia and the standing army. If France and Germany were to agree gradually to turn their armies into militias, each with the same period of training, that would be that; Russia could be left to her own devices and Austria and Italy would be delighted to follow suit. But because of domestic circumstances France and Germany cannot afford to do this and, even if they could, it would not be feasible because of Alsace-Lorraine. And that will prove the undoing of the whole of the militia business.
Unfortunately your Early History of Socialism [561] hasn’t reached me yet; I look forward keenly to seeing it, and specially, if not exclusively, to your
a See also this volume, pp. 439-40, 449-50, 467 1895
account of the Anabaptists; [562] in the earlier movements, too, there is still a good deal to be elucidated. It is a great pity that you have not been able to have recourse to Czech sources on the Taborites, [563] but that would have been quite out of the question unless you had spent a long time in Bohemia and been given special access to mss. No doubt you could find someone on the spot, a young Czech, who would be able to help you.
What I have seen of Ede’sa work has pleased me very much, particularly as regards the material and the perspectives it opens out. On the other hand, I should say that he planned it in rather too much of a hurry, but that is something one can only judge when one has the whole thing in front of one.
So far as you people are concerned, there would be considerable snags to a history of the International. First of all, you would have to collect the material from the individual countries. So far as Spain is concerned, Mora is now bringing it out — very much by dribs and drabs — in the feuilleton of the Socialista. I myself possess quite a lot on Italy up till the time of the Hague Congress, [115] where, however, a great deal went on behind the scenes. Frankel and Lafargue could probably lay hands on a fair amount of stuff on France up till 1870 and, so far as Switzerland is concerned, you would have the Tagwacht, the Vorbote, the Egalité and the Bulletin jurassien.b (Héritier’s articles in the Berliner Volks- Tribüne should be treated with the greatest circumspection; they are all written in unconscious extenuation of the Bakuninists; [49] so unaware was the man of what he was doing that he didn’t realise, until told by me, after the event, what a slap in the face they had been to his spiritual foster-father, Beckerc). The other countries don’t really matter.
For years past I have been intending to make use of the material in my possession for a biography of Marx and, in fact, it is this, as it happens to be quite the most important part, that I shall do first. A number of circumstances make this necessary. Firstly, I was personally involved during the crucial period, 1870-72, and can fill out the material from my own experience. Secondly, it is at one and the same time the most important episode in Marx’s public life and that least amenable to accurate portrayal from printed sources. Thirdly, the calumnies to be disposed of belong for the most part to this period. Fourthly, I am seventy-four years old
a Eduard Bernstein - b Bulletin de la Fédération jurassienne de l’Association internationale des travailleurs. - c Johann Philipp Becker (See this volume, pp. 82, 85, 141)
1895
and shall have to make haste. And, fifthly, the other period during which Marx was publicly active (1842-62) can perfectly well wait until later and even, if necessary, be depicted by someone other than myself, since public controversy up to the time of Herr Vogt throws light on most of it and Marx had so emphatically lived down the calumnies of the then vulgar democrats that these no longer call for individual refutation.
I shall apply myself to this task, to which I have long been looking forward, as soon as I possibly can,—indeed I only have one or two small jobs to do in the mean time, in effect merely the revision of the introduction to the new edition of the Peasant War [235] (for which I need your book too). Then I shall turn my back on all my correspondence (which is enormously time-consuming) and on all incidental work (no doubt with the help of the Subversion Bill [428] ?!), when I should be able to manage it all right.
Your news about the Arbeiter-Zeitung is indeed very gloomy; however, I believe it will come through all right. Maybe the chaps planned things on rather too lavish a scale at the start [377] and will now have to cut down a bit. But its political success seems assured and, that being so, it would be very strange if it didn’t eventually prove a financial success also. Electoral reforms [270] that would enable us to get into parliament are, I consider, a virtual certainty in Austria, unless a period of general reaction were suddenly to set in. In Berlin they would seem to be making determined efforts in that direction, but unfortunately no one there knows his own mind from one day to the next. So they may find themselves in the same boat as the recruit from Lancashire who, while training, was ordered by his N.C.O. to ‘slope arms— order arms — slope arms — order — slope — order’. ‘I WINNOT,’ cried the recruit. ‘YOU WON’T?’ ‘NO, I WINNOT’, ‘YOU REFUSE TO OBEY YOUR SUPERIOR OFFICER?’ ‘I WINNOT!’ AND WHY NOT?’ ‘BECAUSE YOU DUNNOT KNOW YOUR OWN MIND FOR TWO MINUTES TOGETHER!’
Many regards from one household to the other.
Yours,
F. E.
Please keep to yourself what I have said above about my plans; there are so many indiscreet men of letters in the party!
First published abridged Printed according to the original in: Neue Zeit, Bd. II , Nr. 47, 1895
1894-95 and in full in: Published in English for the first time Aus der Frühzeit des Marxismus. Engels Briefwechsel mit Kautsky, Prag, 1935
284. Engels to Laura Lafargue 28 March
My dear Löhr,
If you were in danger of being flooded, it was just the reverse with us— four weeks without water, and at the end of the frost the canalisation blocked up as the result. A fine mess it was. London was thrown back into barbarism by this month of hard frost, and the Standard with truly British Conservatism congratulated us on the fact that the non-supply of water was a proof of the high civilisation attained here, while it pitied the uncivilised cities of the Continent where the water-pipes had not frozen. Well, thank goodness, it’s over.
You grumble at the mythical union and real squabbles of the French Socialists — they are babies at that game, compared to the English. They are especially interesting — the English Socialists I mean — since Social Democratic Federation [44] and Independent Labour Party [114] fight each other under the cloak of a pretended harmony. This harmony goes exactly as far as their common hatred of John Burns, and allows the Social Democratic Federation to invite Keir Hardie to speak at their Commune meeting; at which meeting Keir Hardie (read his speech in the Labour Leadera) directs hidden attacks against the Social Democratic Federation to which that body replies in Justice.b The Social Democratic Federation says the Independent Labour Party has no right to exist, the Social Democratic Federation being the
a No. 51, 23 March 1895 -b No. 584, 23 March 1895: Topical Tattle 1895
only true orthodox church; and the Independent Labour Party says the Social Democratic Federation ought to allow itself to be absorbed in the Independent Labour Party. Their latest exploit was at the County Council Election where both of these organisations put up candidates, and only against ‘Progressives’; [526] the result was: 1,300 votes in all out of 486,000, and the election of 4 Moderates (Conservatives) for seats held formerly by Progressives, and the cry of triumph in both Justicea and Labour Leaderb that they had beaten the Progressives. Imagine the Paris Socialists voting with Clericals, Monarchists and Opportunists [87] against the parties claiming municipal autonomy for Paris, and you have the exact counterpart of the Socialist vote in London. But — to support the Progressives would have been to acknowledge that John Burns had behaved well in the County Council, and to endorse the policy of Sidney Webb and the Fabians [43] who, muffs though they be as Socialists, are really doing very good work municipally, and fighting energetically and cleverly for an autonomous London. And so the ‘Socialists’ prefer to support the party which refuses to allow London its self-government and fights hard to keep the County Council powerless. Now the County Council is the next and best and easiest-to-be-conquered piece of governmental machinery — the working class could have it tomorrow if they were united. And what would Parliament be with a Socialist autonomous Council for London!
The Berlin people are republishing Mohr’s articles in the Revue der Neuen Rheinischen Zeitung on France 1848-50 and I have written an introduction which will probably first appear in the Neue Zeit. It has suffered somewhat from the, as I think, exaggerated desires of our Berlin friends not to say anything which might be used as a means to assist in the passing of the Umsturzvorlage in the Reichstag. [428] Under the circumstances I had to give way. [529] But this Umsturzvorlage and the absolutely uncertain state of things in Germany — splendid though it be for the general progress of our party— upsets a good deal of my calculations. I was, I believe you know, getting ready the Lassalle correspondence; [284] for that I have to compare a lot of old papers, letters, etc. But if the new bill passes, neither the letters nor my notes and introduction will be printable in Germany. And a reprint of our old articles of 1843-52 will be equally impossible. So I am compelled to neglect all this until we can see somewhat clearer wie
a Justice, No 582, 9 March 1895: ‘A Pill for Palmer’ and H. W. Lee, ‘A Much-Needed Lesson for Progressives and Social-Democrats’ - b The Labour Leader, No. 49, 9 March 1895: ‘The L.C.C. Elections’ and ‘The L.C.C. and the I.L.P.’ 1895
der Hase läuft.a In the meantime I am taking up Vol. IV of the Capital, [101]
reading and correcting the parts already copied out by Karl Kautsky and shall then arrange with Tussy about her continuing the work.
Things in Germany are decidedly becoming critical. The latest escapade of young Williamb—his tiefste Entrüstung at the Reichstag’s anti-Bismarck vote [564] is big with serious eventualities. First as a symptom; it shows that he has now not only ‘a slate off but that the whole of his slate roof is getting out of order. Then as a défi.d I have no doubt our party will reply to that in the Reichstag, and although the thing may appear to be buried for the moment, the conflict is there and will crop up again. There is no doubt, we are facing in Germany a modern Charles I, a man possessed by Cäsarenwahnsinn.e
Then look at the confusion the fellow creates in the ranks of the bourgeois parties. The Conservative Junker he in turns cajoles and repels; their clamour for state-secured rents he cannot satisfy; the alliance between landed aristocracy and large manufacturers, founded by Bismarck [in] 1878 by means of his protective tariff, [565] has gone to pot over conflicting economic interests; the Catholic party, [566] who hold the balance of power in the Reichstag with their 100 members, was on the best way of being bribed into voting for the Umsturzvorlage, when the Bismarck vote and the Entrüstunskaiserf throw them at once back into opposition — and that means furthering the splitting up of the Catholic Centre into an aristocratic-bourgeois wing and a democratic, peasant and working men’s wing. Everywhere confusion and disunion, pushing William to a coup d’ état to assert his divine right to absolute power and to get rid of universal suffrage, and on the other side the silent and resistless advance of our party manifesting itself at every election for any post accessible to working men’s votes. This does look critical—qui vivra verrag!
In a day or two I shall write to Paul about his half of his double-bedded book.h He has got a strange bed-fellow! [567]
Ever yours
F. Engels
a how the cat jumps - b William II - c profound indignation - d challenge - e Caesaristic mania - f the indignation of the Kaiser - g time will show - h See this volume, pp. 487-90 1895
285. Engels to Karl Kautsky 1 April
Dear Baron,
Postcard received. I was amazed to see today in the Vorwärts an excerpt from my ‘Introduction’ that had been printed without my prior knowledge and tricked out in such a way as to present me as a peace-loving proponent of legality quand même.a [569] Which is all the more reason why I should like it to appear in its entirety in the Neue Zeit in order that this disgraceful impression may be erased. I shall leave Liebknecht in no doubt as to what I think about it and the same applies to those who, irrespective of who they may be, gave him this opportunity of perverting my views and, what’s more, without so much as a word to me about it.
Platter received with thanks. [541] Of very minor importance, though the man is coming increasingly into line. If things go on like this, we soon shan’t be able to stir for all these professors. It is absolutely capital that J. Wolf should also have replied. [570] I shall lay him alongside the others, together with Stiebeling and Loria. Sic transit gloria mundi.b
Kindest regards from one household to the other.
Yours
F. E.
We get two copies of Deutsche Worte, one for Freyberger and one for myself.
a come what may - b Thus passes away the glory of the world (words from the ritual of the Pope’s inauguration.)
1895
286. Engels to Harry Quelch 2 April
Dear Comrade,
I have been compelled to decline, at least for this year, all demands for contributions to extra numbers of periodicals both for 18 March and 1st May, and am therefore unable to make an exception in the shape of an ‘winterview’ for Justice. This, however, does not mean that I should not be quite willing, if you should wish it, to discuss with you privately and in a friendly way the progress and the present position of the movement, in England and out of England.
If this should meet your views and you will be good enough to propose a day and hour when you could call, I will try to arrange to be at home.
Yours faithfully
287
287 Engels to Paul Lafargue 3 April
My dear Lafargue, I h d fi i h d di h lf b k [567] h I i d V l I f 1895
ing Loria (from Labriola) and a heap of Russian journals (from Nikolai Danielson). I am overwhelmed with post. Well, I read yours to the end nevertheless. It has a brilliant style, some very striking flashes of historical insight, there is truth in it and originality and, what is more important, it is not like the German professor’s book where what was true was not original and what was original was not true. Its principal fault is that apparently you were in too great a hurry to be done with it; the arrangement, in particular of the sections on feudal and capitalist property, could have been more careful, especially for a Paris public, accustomed to easy reading and, moreover, adapted for lazy readers; the Parisian, too, asserts his right to be lazy. [573] Many very good passages may possibly lose some of their effect because they are written as though in parentheses, or because you have left the trouble of drawing conclusions and results too much to the reader.
As for the material itself, the main point of criticism is in the chapter on tribal communism. [574] There you lay too much emphasis, I think, on the form in which that phase has been maintained up to our own times, in France, and on the form of its dissolution in that country. The form of coparcenary under which the consanguineous community has gone on so long in France is already in itself a subdivision of the large family community, continued to our day in the zádruga of the Serbians and Bulgarians. This form, it appears certain, preceded the peasant commune in Russia, in Germany, etc.; in breaking up, the Slav zádruga, the German Hausgenossenschaft (genealogy of lex Alamannorum [575] ) passed over to the commune of separate families (or, quite often at first, and still today in Russia, to coparcenaries), with separately cultivated fields though subject to periodic redistribution—that is to say, what emerged from it was the Russian mira and the German Markgenossenschaft. The more restricted community of several families which was kept up in France was no more, as I see it, than an integral part of the Markgenossenschaft, at any rate in the North (the Frankish region); in the South (former Aquitaine) it may perhaps have formed a unity holding its land under the superior ownership of the lord of the manor alone, without being subject to the control of the village commune. It is only this special French form which, on breaking up, could pass in one leap to the individual ownership of the land.b
This is a point on which there are still many things to study. It is from
a This Russian word meaning ‘peace’, ‘world’ and ‘community’ is written by Engels in Latin letters. - b Cf. F. Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, present edition, Vol. 26, pp. 250-55 1895
you that I learn of this special character of tribal communism in France, and since you are already in it heart and soul, you could not do better than to pursue this study, which holds out great promise.*
Small errata: p. 338, you make the water of the Peruvian aqueducts flow upwards; as there is scarcely any natural water in Peru save in ‘the heart of the mountains’, and as your aqueducts are expressly built to carry water to them, it must, I suppose, be sea-water?
p. 354. Terra salica.a Guérard is making a huge mistake with his derivation of Sala house.b So the Salian Franks were Franks living in houses? They were called Salians, Salio, after the small region of Holland, Salland, where the group which conquered Belgium and France between Ardennes and Loire was formed for the conquest; the name still exists today. At the time when the Salic Law was drafted (about 400), [576] the Sala was still, as you have observed yourself, a personal estate among the Germans.
p. 386 ‘another likes to set the snares or prepare grass-hoppers [saute-relles]. Did they eat grasshoppers in Berry in 1787? I look in my dictionary and I find sauterolle, bird-trap.
p. 393. Black redistribution — in Russia tchornoi,c black, is used for dirty, and in a secondary sense popular, common, vulgar. Tchornoi narod,c the black people — the common people, the people as a whole. Tchornoi perediel,c black redistribution, means rather therefore the general, universal distribution, where everyone has his share, including the poorest. And in this sense a Narodnik (friend of the peasants) journal in Switzerland was called Tchornoi perediel,c which was meant to signify the distribution of aristocratic estates amongst the peasants.
That is all that I have noted and you will have had enough. As for Yves Guyot, I wash my hands of it.
Liebknecht has just played me a fine trick. [569] He has taken from my introduction to Marx’s articles on France 1848-50 everything that could serve his purpose in support of peaceful and anti-violent tactics at any
* You must note the tripartition of France: France proper, to the Loire, strong Germanic influence; Burgundian area, to the East of Saône and Rhône, less Germanic; Aquitaine, between sea, Loire and Rhône, minimal Germanic influence. (Note by F. Engels.) — a Salian land — b B. E. Guérard, La terre salique. Bibliotèque de l’Ecole des chartes, November-December 1841. - c These Russian words meaning black redistribution are written in Latin letters.
1895
price, which he has chosen to preach for some time now, particularly at this juncture when coercive laws are being drawn up in Berlin. [428] But I preach those-tactics only for the Germany of today and even then with many reservations. For France, Belgium, Italy, Austria, such tactics could not be followed as a whole and, for Germany, they could become inapplicable tomorrow. So please wait for the complete article before judging it — it will probably appear in Neue Zeit, and I expect copies of the pamphlet any day now. It’s a pity that Liebknecht can see only black and white. Shades don’t exist for him.
However, things are warming up in Germany, it promises a splendid end to the century. Young William’sa ‘indignation’ [564] is highly amusing. You may be sure our people will answer him in the Reichstag where there is no lese-majesty.
I intended to say a lot of other things to you as well, but I cannot bring them to mind at the moment when I need them. I am gradually aging. So, as I must write a few lines still to Laura before the post goes, goodbye! Greetings from the Freybergers (whose little girl gets on wonderfully well) and from your
F. Engels
1900 and in full in: F. Engels, Translated from the French P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. II I, Paris, 1959
288. Engels to Richard Fischer 5 April
Dear Fischer,
You will have got my letter of the 3rd. [25] Your postcard arrived this morning. So another snag has cropped up. [577] I would ask you to seek legal
a William II 1895
advice straight away as to the extent to which the copyright owned by Marx’s heirs still applies to his articles in the ‘Rheinische Zeitung of 1842. The articles appeared anonymously. As anonymous articles, however, they are of no value to Mr Baake. So far as he is concerned they only acquire value through Marx’s name. And if he publishes them under Marx’s name, is he not thereby acknowledging that we have the copyright in so far as this might perhaps have been compromised by the fact of their having first appeared anonymously?
If there is no recourse to law — which would first have to be established so that we can act accordingly — it would be best if you were to get copies made of all the articles — three — in the library and send me duplicates, so that I could look through them quickly and write an introduction. There are three articles.
1. On the proceedings of the Rhine Province Assembly, 2. On thefts of wood, 3. On the condition of the wine growers on the Mosel. [578] You would then have to issue an announcement straight away to the effect that they would be brought out by you and edited by me, along with an introduction and notes (if any).
So far as the Russians are concerned, it is normal practice to encroach upon an author’s rights without so much as your leave ‘in the interests of propaganda’, not to speak of the interests, as is frequently the case, of their own private printing-shop and publishing house, as opposed to those of others. [579] Up till now, however, I have not been accustomed to that kind of thing when dealing with Germans.
Had I only known what I had merely suspected, namely that the old Rheinische Zeitung is in the Berlin Library, I should have gone there back in 1893 [580] and looked it out, in which case we should have made a good deal more progress in regard to other matters too.
Is Baake a brother of Kurt Baake’s? Regards to everyone.
Yours,
F.E.
First published in: Marx Printed according to the original and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXIX, Published in English for the first time 1946 1895
289. Engels to Conrad Schmidt 6 April
Dear Schmidt,
I am most indebted to you for your tenacity over the ‘fiction’.a (There is in fact a difficulty here which I only mastered as a result of your insistence upon the ‘fiction’. The solution may be found in II I, 1, pp. 154-157b though it has not been elaborated or emphasised with sufficient exactitude, a circumstance that has persuaded me to enlarge briefly on the above point in the Neue Zeit with reference to Sombart’sc and your objections. In any case there is a further point regarding which I should like to make an addition to Volume II I and bring it into line with the situation today by taking account of certain changes in economic conditions since 1865. [534]
But if I am to develop that point concerning the effectiveness and validity of the law of value, it would make thing easier for me if you would permit me to make mention, not only of the ‘hypothesis’ of your Centralblatt article,d but also of the ‘fiction’ you discuss in your two letters and to quote one or two passages from them for the purpose of defining more precisely what you mean by the hypothesis of the article. So would you kindly reread the passage alluded to above and then tell me whether I may say that the aforesaid quotations were extracted from letters by Dr C. Schmidt to myself. Should you be convinced by Marx’ passage that, where the production of commodities is concerned, the law of value is, after all, rather more than a necessary fiction, we should then see eye to eye, and in that case I should of course be glad to dispense with this.
Mrs Freyberger, formerly Louise Kautsky I, along with her little girl, sends you her best compliments in the same way as I would ask you to remember me very kindly to your wife.
a See this volume, pp. 462-66 - b See present edition, Vol. 37 — c Sombart, ‘Zur Kritik des Ukonomischen Systems von Karl Marx’. In: Archiv für soziale Gesetzgebung und Statistik, Bd.7, H. 4 - d C. Schmidt, ‘Der dritte Band des Kapital’. In: Sozialpolitisches Centralblatt, 25 Februar 1895 1895
Yours,
F. Engels
290. Engels to Stephan Bauer 10 April
Dear Sir,
May I say how very grateful I am to you for so kindly sending me the facsimile of Quesnay’s Tableau as well as your monograph on ita which I am just reading with much interest. You are right to stress the point that, after Baudeau, no one understood this important piece of work on political economy [582] until Marx who was, in fact, the first to raise the physiocrats from the obscurity whither they had been consigned by the subsequent successes of the English school. Should it be granted me to edit Book IV of Capital as well, you will find there a further, more exhaustive tribute to the services rendered by Quesnay and his pupils.b
I am, Sir,
Yours very truly,
F. Engels
a S. Bauer, ‘Zur Entstehung der Physiokratie. Auf Grund ungedruckter Schriften François Quesnays’, In: Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik. 21 Bd., 1890, S. 113-158 - b See present edition, Vol. 31, pp. 204-40 and Vol. 34, pp. 195-96, 289-90.
1895
291. Engels to Hermann Engels 12 April
Dear Hermann,
I have heard nothing further about the sherry since it was despatched.a All I know is that immediately after the hard weather the two Cologne steamers Energie and Industrie were reported as having arrived here — departures are difficult to keep track of in the newspapers and I don’t therefore know whether both have sailed — and if so when. If the wine doesn’t turn up in the course of next week, please send me a postcard and I shall then make inquiries.
The news that the wedding had gone off so merrily and that the loving coupleb had enjoyed their honeymoon pleased me enormously. It is all right about the 80 marks. I hope that by now you have quite shaken off your influenza. Luckily I have recovered from mine and am gradually beginning to get out and about again.
Very many thanks for the information re the Schaaffhausens. I shall be glad to take up the allotment of 1000 marks—à 120%. The initial payment of 700 marks will be amply covered by my balance as at 30.4.94, even after deduction of the £40 (...)c per P.P. & Co., while accrued interest and the last Schaaffhausen dividend ought to be just about enough for the remaining payment of 500 marks. Should a few more marks be needed, you might be so good as to advance them to me pending the next dividend — i.e. assuming that I have not overlooked anything in the above calculation, in which case kindly advise me.
The conversion into bonds à 1,000 marks would also be perfectly acceptable to me if it could be done without leaving a tiresome or unproductive balance, something that can’t be managed just now when all bonds must be in denominations of 1,000 or 450. So if the thing is impossible it
a See this volume, pp. 416, 441, 478 - b Arthur Schuchard and Elsbeth Schuchard (née Engels) -c Ms. damaged
292. Engels to Krystyu Rakovski 13 April
1895
would best be forgotten. But there might after all be some solution.
Well, you now have the prompt answer you wanted. For the past four days we have been having wonderful spring weather; overnight everything began sprouting and burgeoning and the warm sun in the day time is quite untypical of a normal English April with its grey skies and biting north-easters.
For the first time in my life I paid a dentist 10/6d last Mondaya for pulling out a couple of old stumps. Now I only have seventeen teeth left, all of them in front and all of them so far complete, but nothing at the back, so I may have to be fitted with a set of false teeth!
Love to you all.
Yours,
Friedrich
292
ENGELS TO KRYSTJU RAKOWSKI
IN NANCY
London, 13 April 1895 41 Regent’s Park Road, N. W.
Dear citizen,
I am answering at once your request to drop a line to the Bulgarian comrades. Being overburdened with work, I answered in the negative the requests directed to me by the comrades both on the occasion of 18 March and on that of May Day. I also sent a negative reply last weekb to the British Social-Democratic Federation. [44] You will see that if I were to comply with your request, I should have to comply with the requests of roughly forty groups from ten to twenty different countries, which is
8 April -b See this volume, p. 487 1895
more than I can do. Please be so kind as to give the Bulgarian comrades my excuses and to tell them that I regret not being able to render them the service they are asking for and that in a different situation I should have been glad to write something specially for the Bulgarians as the youngest followers of socialism. Sincerely yours,
F. Engels
293. Engels to Richard Fischer 15 April
Dear Fischer,
The 400 marks received with thanks. I shall change them tomorrow and distribute them to the heirs. [583]
So the position as regards the essays in the old Rheinische Zeitung is as I feared.a The copyright has lapsed and only by acting swiftly can we restore our title to it. It will therefore be perfectly in order if you at once announce that the articles will be published by you and edited and annotated by me. Possibly under the title:
Karl Marx’s Early Writings. Three Essays from the (First) ‘Rheinische Zeitung’ of 1842. I. The Rhine Province Assembly on Freedom of the Press. II . The Same on the Law relating to Thefts of Wood. II I. The Condition of the Wine-Growers on the Mosel. Edited and with an Introduction by F. Engels. [578]
a See this volume, pp. 490-91 1895
I am not quite happy about the title and should like you if possible to refrain from giving it a definite title until we have found one that is more suitable. As to the Mosel article, [584] I am sure of the facts in as much as Marx always used to tell me that it was precisely his preoccupation with the law on thefts of wood and the condition of the Mosel wine-growers that led him from politics pure and simple to economic conditions and thus to socialism. And during our conversations we always treated the Mosel article as having emanated from him. I didn’t read it, as I was already in England at the time. It is so long ago since we spoke of the matter that I cannot entirely rule out the eventuality of a misunderstanding. Once I have the article in front of me, I cannot possibly go wrong.
Now as to your great scheme, [585] I think you would do best to shelve it until the fate of the Subversion Bill [428] has been decided. A library which re-issues historical documents and writings from earlier periods cannot tolerate any kind of censorship — quite literally or not at all. Still less could I consent to Marx’s and my own early works being subjected to a process of emasculation, however wild, in order to conform to the conditions temporarily obtaining in the press. But in view of the fact that we used to write in a very unrestrained way and were forever justifying things which, in the territories of the German Empire, are regarded either as a crime or an offence, a re-issue in Berlin after the passing of that exemplary Bill would be quite impossible without numerous deletions.
Secondly, however, I have a scheme for again presenting Marx’s and my lesser writings to the public in a complete edition—not, that is to say, by instalments but all at one go, in whole volumes. I have already been in correspondence with Augusta on the subject and we are still discussing it. So you might have a word with him when he gets back. I am by no means certain that an enterprise like this is really your cup of tea, nor do I know whether you, i.e. the publishing side of the Vorwärts, are the best people for the job — quite aside from the harassment of the press which has already inclined me to believe that we may be forced to have recourse to a publisher outside the German Empire.
Marx would never have consented to the issue of a work by instalments. In the case of the 2nd Ed. of Capital I he once allowed Meissner to bring out seven big instalments, each of some seven sheets, but that was as much as he could stomach. [586] To chop up books such as The Holy Family, Herr
a Bebel 1895
Vogt, etc., into instalments of two sheets or so would certainly not do. In such cases people derive absolutely nothing from their reading and to read a work in this way, piecemeal, is conducive only to incomprehension.
The Tribune articles exist only in English. [587] We survived the holiday without too many mishaps and the weather was really beautiful. Otherwise no news. As soon as you have a copy of one of the three articles from the Rheinische Zeitung, please send it to me straight away so that I can set to work. By registered book post or, if not, in some other manner with adequate regard for safety precautions.
Many regards to everyone.
Yours
F.E.
294. Engels to Laura Lafargue 17 April
My dear Löhr,
Yesterday I sent you cheque for £6.9.9., your share of honorarium for the Klassenkämpfe.b To-day I return registered, book post, your translation with thanks and suggestions. [517] In one passage I had to make an alteration, you yourself had marked it as unintelligible, which indeed it was owing to omission of a word in the German text. The alteration is at the back of the page and requires a little frenchifying at your hands. I hope all your trouble will be rewarded by the French reading public!
a See this volume, p. 491 - b See this volume, pp. n421, 517 1895
I have at last succeeded in hunting up the old Rheinische Zeitung of 1842. It was all this time in the Berlin Bibliothek, and our friends in Berlin, who might have known that long ago, only found it out now. Someone in Berlina had a sharper way of doing things than they, and intended publishing Mohrs articles therefrom; [578] we have no right to stop this, as according to German law all anonymous or pseudonymous works become public property after 30 years from date of publication, unless copyright has been previously registered by the author or other qui de droit.b However this threatened competition roused our friends all at once; Fischer who manages now the publishing department of the Vorwärts book-selling firm, has at once, at my suggestion,c set some one to copy Mohrs chief articles, and will announce that I am going to edit them with introduction, etc. This will probably stop competition. Financially we can hardly expect much, if anything, therefrom, but at all events the articles are safe.
For the Lassalle letters [284] and ulterior plans of republication of old affairs, we shall have to await the fate of the Coercion Bill [428] before the Reichstag; if that passes, I do not see how we can safely proceed to work, at least in Berlin. Maybe Stuttgart may remain more favourable — anyhow qui vivra verra.d
I hope you send the Devenir social also to Madrid — our friends there are almost entirely dependent, for foreign reading, on French literature, and it strikes me they get to see more from other sects’ publications than from ours. For if the management of the Socialiste is to serve as a pattern, woe be unto us! The Vorwärts announces the complete reorganisation of that illustrious paper, published ‘mit Ausschluss der Oeffentlichkeit’,e and that Chauvin has remodelled the publishing department [588]—if so, il est tellement chauvinf that nobody here has seen a trace of it. But then, the Vorwärts seems to know of France only the Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle, and if the nouvelles ne sont pas assez bonnes, il les fabrique lui-même.g
Many thanks for your news about Sganarelle, they are quite sufficient for the éclairage de ma têteh upon the subject. [589]
I had in my head only the Sganarelle of the Médecin volant and Don Juan.
a Hans Baake - b authorised person - c See this volume, p. 497 - d wait and see - e in camera - f he is so chauvinist - g news is not interesting enough, he invents it himself - h enlightenment of my mind 1895
Please tell Paul that if he is in want of a draught composed of L, s, and d (in which case the British philistine spells it draft) he is quite welcome to one.
Kind regards from Louise
Ever yours
F.E.
295. Engels to Ludwig Kugelmann 18 April
Dear Kugelmann,
I apologise for having overlooked your request that I should at once write to you about Livingston, though his letter as such hardly seemed to call for any special reply. [559] I don’t imagine that Jacobi or M. Becker will have anything useful. If Livingston writes to them, we shall find that out. We have been regularly corresponding with Sorge for many many years.
Apart from that I am most grateful to you for your information. I, too, am at a loss to know how to trace anything that may have appeared anonymously in the Westphälisches Dampfboot. [558] It is possible that when I get down to work one thing or another will refresh my memory. Besides, should there be anything in it, it would be of little consequence and serve at most as proof of our lack of agreement with the Bielefeld sentimental socialism of the day. [590]
Lastly, I shall doubtless have to do as you say. [591]I, too, having long been of the opinion that this was how we should proceed if the worst came to 1895
the worst. Meanwhile one thing and another continues to turn up as, recently, the old Rheinische Zeitung in the Berlin Library. What might badly upset our calculations, however, is the Subversion Bill. [428] Until that has been decided there can be no thought of devising a plan of action. Many regards from the Freybergers and myself to you and yours.
Yours
F.E.
You will be getting one by post. [592]
296. Engels to Richard Fischer 18 April
Dear Fischer,
One further matter: Would you please take another look at the old Rheinische Zeitung with regard to the Mosel articles [584] to find out whether some sort of polemic may not have arisen over the things and if so whether there are also articles under Marx’s usual pseudonym and written in his own style — short, antithetically expressed sentences — as well as any other shorter articles under the same pseudonym and stylistically the same. If there are, let me know.
I can no longer remember my own articles — the best of them fell foul of the censor — or even my pseudonym; most of the longer ones, i.e. those that are not merely day to day reports, are in the supplement or the feuilleton.
In addition to the articles in the Rheinische Zeitung, [578] I have discovered 1895
another one by Marx dating from the same period and also dealing with the machinations of the censor.a This can be printed with the remainder but no one must get wind of it since it, too, appeared anonymously. It will run to between 11/2 and 2 sheets. I may possibly discover some other shorter pieces, in which case we shall have collected all the main items from Marx’s pre-socialist period. Meanwhile see to it that a copy is sent off to me quickly and we can then agree upon our next move.
Yours
F.E.
297
297 Engels to Stanislaw Mendelson 23 April
My dear Mendelson, If it is convenient, I will call to see you tomorrow, on Wednesday, between 3 and 4 in the afternoon—weather permitting. My best wishes to Mme M. and yourself,
From yours F. Engels
a K. Marx Comments on the Latest Prussian Censorship Instruction.
1895
298. Engels to Franz Mehring end April
41 Regent’s Park Road, N.
Dear Mr Mehring,
May I say how very grateful I am for your offer, which is gladly accepted, to help me hunt out Marx’s early writings for republication. The first difficulty to confront me was the Rheinische Zeitung of 1842, which I had imagined to be in the Berlin Library. Despite numerous inquiries, I was unable to ascertain whether it was actually there, but now that that point has been cleared up, we can make a start.
Marx was in Bonn up till October 1842. When I passed through at the end of September or the beginning of October on my return from Berlin, the editorial board consisted, so far as I recall, only of M. Hess and Dr Rave, a former editor of the Elberfelder Zeitung (which was, I believe, known by another name at the time). Rutenberg had, I believe, already been expelled, though I am not sure about that. When I dropped in again towards the end of November on my way to England, I ran into Marx there and that was the occasion of our first, distinctly chilly meeting. Marx had meanwhile taken a stand against the Bauers, i.e. he had said he was opposed not only to the Rheinische Zeitung becoming predominantly a vehicle for theological propaganda, atheism, etc., rather than for political discussion and action, but also to Edgar Bauer’s hot air brand of communism, which was based on a sheer love of ‘going to extremes’ and was soon after replaced by Edgar with other kinds of extremist hot air. Since I corresponded with the Bauers, I was regarded as their ally, whereas they caused me to view Marx with suspicion.
To the best of my recollection Marx resigned — at any rate officially— from the post of editor en chef on I January 1843. That, however, did not prevent him from surreptitiously contributing to the paper up to and including February. I think I am equally right in saying that the ukase requiring the paper to close down on 31 March 1843 was served on it no later than 31 December. Negotiations then began, the result of 1895
which proved negative, hence the delay in publishing the ukase until 28 January and likewise in appointing the chief censor who had, in fact, already been functioning for some time. At one period there were no less than three censors: 1. the usual censor, 2. assessor von Saint-Paul who had been sent from Berlin, 3. the District President. Saint-Paul was still there at the time of the paper’s funeral feast. The vacillations between 12 and 18 February would pretty well coincide with Marx’s departure from Cologne. [593]
If, by comparing these data with the paper itself, you could discover more details or rectify inaccuracies, it would be of great benefit both to your work and to mine.
As regards the Mosel articles, [584] it will doubtless turn out to be as you say. Marx was tied to Cologne at the time and could not possibly have collected material of that kind in person.
The article I mentioned to Fischer [1] is in fact the one about the censorship instruction which appeared in Ruge’s Anekdota.b
One of the best pieces in the Rheinische Zeitung, again in the feuilleton, is a long critique of Leo’s History of the French Revolution. It is my Marx’s friend C. F. Köppenc (who also wrote about old Fritzd and Norse mythologye) and (for the first time in any language) gives a correct explanation for the reign of terror.
Certain quotations and retrospective insights in your articles in the Neue Zeit have already shown me that you have made a thorough study of the period previous to 1848. 1 am glad that it has fallen to you to deal with this, as well as with the later period in respect of Germany.
There might possibly be one or two more things of Marx’s in the supplement for the period prior to October 1842; it would hardly be worth your while to search out smaller items from Bonn in the main part of the paper.
My heartfelt condolences on the destruction of the Freie Volksbühne.
[594]Subversion from above could not possibly have passed that institution by.
Once again my best thanks.
Yours faithfully
F. Engels
a See this volume, p. 502 - b K. Marx, Comments on the Latest Prussian Censorship Instruction. - c C. F. Köppen, Leo’s Geschichte der Revolution. In: Rheinische Zeitung, 1921, 22 May 1842 -d Frederick II — e C. F. Köppen, Friedrich der Grosse und seine Widersacher and Literarische Einleitung in die Nordische Mythologie.
1895
299. Engels to Franz Mehring 9 May
Dear Mr Mehring,
Very many thanks for your long and informative letter plus enclosures, which I shall reply to at length as soon as my cranium permits. Unfortunately for the past week a rheumatic condition of the scalp has been encircling and compressing it as though with a band of iron. I hope to have got over it by next week along with the attendant insomnia. Meanwhile I agree to your proposal that the only articles from the Rheinische Zeitung that should be published in their entirety are the two long ones and those on Communisma (as also the article from the Anekdotab). It would only be necessary to copy from the remainder such passages as you might be so good as to indicate as being the most pregnant (along with particulars of the context). As regards the Mosel articles, [584] it would be desirable if my introduction included a brief outline both of the course of the debate and of the contents. Would you be kind enough to acquaint Fischer with the foregoing? Once again my best thanks and until my next, which has to do with one minor detail,
I remain Yours sincerely F. Engels
a K. Marx, Proceedings of the Sixth Rhine Province Assembly. First Article. Debates on Freedom of the Press and Publication of the Proceedings of the Assembly of the Estates; Proceedings of the Sixth Rhine Province Assembly. Third Article. Debates on the Law on Thefts of Wood and Communismus and the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung’. — b K. Marx, Comments on the Latest Prussian Censorship Instruction.
1895
300. Engels to Richard Fischer 9 May
Dear Fischer,
At the moment I feel so run down as a result of rheumatic pains in the scalp and the insomnia associated therewith that I am incapable of any kind of work. I hope to be all right again by next week. In the meantime, however, seeing that you and Mehring can both take a look at the copy of the Rheinische Zeitung, I think it would be best if you yourselves were to arrange what should be done with the shorter and Mosel [584] articles and to provide me with a copy just of the most important bits. I am also sending Mehring a line or two about it.a
Ms. just arrived. [595]
Yours,
F. E.
a See previous letter 1895
301. Engels to Laura Lafargue 14 May
My dear Löhr
I was extremely glad, and indeed so were Louise and Ludwig to learn that both you and Paul were ready and willing to come over here for a bit, and I should have written at once in reply, had it not been for those confounded pains which for a week nearly drove me mad and even now have not left me, anything but painless, but extremely stupid and unfit for anything. The fact is this. Some time ago I got a swelling on the right side of the neck, which after some time resolved itself into a bunch of deep-seated glands infiltrated by some cause or other. The pains arose from direct pressure of that lump on the nerve and will of course only give way when that pressure disappears. At present a process of resorption is going on very satisfactorily, but a couple of these glands are suppurating and will have to be cut; and as they are so deep-seated and slow in coming to the surface, and we old people being such slow coaches, the time for the operation cannot be exactly fixed, but it is hoped will come off this week. That once performed I am ordered to the sea-side; but the uncertainty is still about the time.
Now as things are situated, would it not be the best thing for you to come over say in the course of next week, and then as soon as possible you and I could bundle off to Eastbourne [596] and settle down in comfortable quarters and prepare for visitors from London. I say you and I, because I intend to keep you here a good bit longer than very likely Paul would care to separate himself from his studies and your animals and the garden work; so he perhaps would prefer to do as you say and come tumbling after.
When I shall have cleared out from here, Louise intends giving my two rooms a good cleaning down and after that she might come and join us with her baby for a week or so; after that Tussy and Edward might come, and then Paul who by that time is sure to be tired of his solitude, and then 1895
we might bethink ourselves of returning all of us to London and show Paul our new establishment too.
This is such a sort of rough prospectus as a man with neuralgic pains in the head after a series of sleepless nights has been able to excogitate under the present indefinite conditions, and therefore subject to alterations as novel circumstances and novel ideas may command. It is humbly submitted to you for approval or improvement as may be.
The heat is insupportable, 22°C in the room all day long — no wind, clouds and impending thunder which unfortunately keeps impending. And that 2 months after that hard frost!
Kind regards from the Freybergers to both of you. Amitiés à Paul et au revoir.
I enclose cheque £10 — for your journey hither and any little additions you may like to make to your outfit.
So please say when we may expect you.
Ever yours,
F. Engels
302. Engels to Ignaz Brand 20 May
Esteemed Comrade, many thanks for kindly sending the two copies of Námezdni Prace a Kapital,a a one of which I have given to Mrs Eleanor Marx Aveling. If she does not learn Czech now, I am not to blame. Please give my thanks to the translatorb with the assurance that my progress in Czech, though slow, is, I hope, none the less steady for it.
Yours,
F. Engels
a K. Marx, Wage Labour and Capital- b J. K. Náchodsky 1895
Friendly greetings to Mr Heller.
303. Engels to Carl Hirsch 20 May
Dear (...)a You have set us a difficult task. We are to seek out ‘the journalist Tollittb England’ as also those ‘English papers’ containing the relevant details about Brauweiler. [598] In the first place, the English daily press does not even mention the name Braunweiler in its accounts of the case. The report of a Parliamentary Committee is not, however, published until its work has been completed. So the item must doubtless have emanated from some obscure trade paper and will therefore be impossible to trace in this country. In the second place, no one here knows the journalist Tollitt, who according to some is called Pollitt. Dr Freyberger tried in vain to track him down at the NATIONAL LIBERAL CLUB which has a vast number of journalists amongst its members. We have now taken further steps in order to discover the man if possible — it seems quite clear that he does not live in London or work for the political press; more likely he is in some trade branch — though that will take time. But it is very naive of you to expect that he would appear over there as witness on your behalf. After all, he himself says that he got into the prisons by stealth, and consequently be would at once be thrown into jug in Cologne for bribery of officials or something of the kind, and put on trial. Hofrichter’s
a Ms. damaged — b reference is to James Pollitt 1895
suggestion that he should submit to a judicial examination here is also impracticable. If, however, he is willing, he can swear an affidavit (a statement made on oath which, if false, carries with it all the consequences arising from perjury) before a Justice of the Peace in which he attests the statements he made before the committee. Once the document had been ratified by the German Consul, it would also be legally valid over there.
Bernstein was away from London during that week and Beer has no connections whatever in the circles in which Tollitt must be sought.
As soon as we discover anything further we shall let you know.a But time is damned short. Where did you get the item from ? Keep on inquiring over there until you have found out how and through whom it got into the German press. That would provide a clue.
Many regards.
Yours,
F. Engels
304. Engels to Karl Kautsky 21 May
Dear Baron,
I should have replied at once to your letter of the 6th had not a nasty inflammation of the glands in my neck, accompanied by much pain and inevitable loss of sleep, rendered me almost wholly incapable of work during the past two weeks. But now you are to be kept waiting no longer.
At the time in question you took it upon yourselves to produce a
a See this volume, p. 514 1895
History of Socialism. [561] Of all the people then living there was only one, I think I may say, whose collaboration was absolutely necessary, and that person was myself. I might even say that, without my help, a work of this nature cannot today be anything but incomplete and inadequate. And this you knew as well as I did. But of all those who might have been of use to you, I and I alone was the only one who was not invited to collaborate. So you must have had very pertinent reasons for choosing to exclude me. I am not complaining — far from it. You had a perfect right to act as you did. I merely remark on the fact.
What did pique me, however, if only for a moment, was the strange se-cretiveness with which you withheld from me a matter about which all the rest of the world was talking. It was only from third persons that I learned of the whole enterprise, and it was only from the printed prospectus that I learned of the general outline of the scheme, Not a word either from you or from Ede; it was as though you had a guilty conscience. At the same time all manner of people kept surreptitiously inquiring what connection I had with the thing, whether I had refused to collaborate, etc. And then at length, when silence could no longer be maintained, the good Ede got round to mentioning the subject with a sheepishness and embarrassment that would have been worthy of a worse cause — though nothing wrong had been done save for this absurd play-acting which, in the meantime, as Louise can testify, has enlivened many a dull hour for me.
Well and good. You have presented me with a fait accompli; a History of Socialism on which I have not collaborated. I have accepted the fact without complaint from the very start. But that fact is of your own making, nor can you do away with or ignore it, should this ever happen to suit your purpose. And neither can I do away with it. If, on mature reflection, you chose to slam the front door in my face at a time when my advice and help might have been of material use to you, please do not expect of me that I should now slink in through some little back door in order to help you out of a quandary. I must admit that, had the roles been reversed, I should have reflected for a very, very long time before coming to you with a request such as this one. [600] Is it really so terribly difficult to see that everyone must bear the consequences of his own actions? As YOU MADE YOUR BED so YOU MUST LIE IN IT. If there is no room for me here, it is only because you wanted it so.
Well, that settles that. And now you would oblige me by considering this reply as irrevocable. Let us both regard the whole incident as finished 1895
and done with. [601] Nor shall I mention it to Ede again unless he is the first to broach it.
Meanwhile I am engaged in producing another piece for the Neue Zeit which should gladden your heart—Ergänzungen und Nachtäge zum ‘Kapital’, Buch II I, No. 1: Law of Value and Rate of Profit. Reply to the Objections of Sombart and C. Schmidt. No. 2 — the role of the Stock Exchange which has changed very considerably since Marx wrote about it in 1865 — will follow later. [534] A sequel will follow if required and should time permit. The first article would have been finished had I had nothing else on my mind.
Of your book,a I can say that it improves the further into it one gets. To judge by the original plan, your treatment of Plato and early Christianity still leaves something to be desired. You do very much better on the medieval sects, after which you go from strength to strength; and are at your beat on the Taborites, [563] Münzer and then the Anabaptists. [562] Alongside a great many more important economic analyses of political events there are also some commonplaces which would seem to indicate a gap in your studies. I have learnt a great deal from your book which is indispensible preliminary reading for my new edition of The Peasant War. [235] It would seem to me to have two main faults — 1. Very inadequate research into the development and role of the déclassé, almost pariah-like elements who had no place whatever in the feudal system and who were the inevitable outcome of urban development,, It is they who in all cases formed the lowest stratum of urban population in the Middle Ages — devoid of rights and set apart from village communities, craft guilds and feudal dependence. Though difficult, this should serve as your main basis, for by degrees, with the dissolution of the feudal bonds, these elements became the pre-proletariat which, in 1789, was responsible for the revolution in the faubourgs’ [3] of Paris and absorbed all the outcasts of feudal and guild society. You talk of proletarians — a term which is inapt — amongst whom you comprise weavers whose importance you quite rightly stress — but you can count them among your ‘proletariat’ only after, and in so far as, déclassé journeymen weavers came into existence outside of the guilds. There is still much room for improvement here.
2. You have not fully grasped the position of Germany — her international economic position in so far as it is possible to speak of any such a Kautsky, Von Plato bis zu den Wiedertäufern —b suburbs 1895
thing — in the world market at the end of the fifteenth century. That position alone explains why the bourgeois-plebeian movement, disguised as religion, which failed in England, the Netherlands and Bohemia should, in sixteenth century Germany, have enjoyed a certain success — the success of its religious trappings—whereas the success of its bourgeois substance was reserved for the next century and for the countries, Holland and England, which had meanwhile evinced a new tendency in international trade. It is a lengthy subject which I hope to deal with in extenso in The Peasant War— would I had got to that stage!
In an attempt to remain popular your style is now that of the leader writer, now that of the dominie. This you should be able to avoid. Again, is it for Janssen’s sake that you still refuse to see the pun in which Ulrich von Hütten is indulging with his obscuri viri? The joke lies in the fact of its meaning both — obscure or obscurantist — and that is what Hutten was trying to say. [602]
But that is all by the way. You and Ede have both been working on a completely new subject, and you cannot expect to attain perfection straight away. You should be glad to have produced a book that is presentable, even at this stages when it is, as it were, in its initial draft form. Now, however, you are both honour-bound not to allow the ground you have broken to lie fallow but to continue with your researches so that, in a few years’ time, you will be able to bring out a new edition capable of meeting every requirement.
Someone in St Petersburg has sent me a Russian translation of your old piece on marriage and the familya (Kosmos) .b I don’t know who did it. I shall send it to you.
Many regards from one household to the other,
Yours,
F. Engels
One more thing. I have suggested to Sorge that, when he has finished his articles on the American movement, these should be published as an off-print. [603] He is agreeable but says there will have to be a great deal of revision and many corrections and additions, for which he is unlikely
a K. Kautsky, Die Entstehung der Ehe und der Familie. In Kosmos, 6. Jg. 12 Bd. - b [Kautsky— title of work in Russan] 1895
to have time until his summer holidays. He accepted my proposal that the thing be suggested to Dietz. Perhaps you would be so good as to ask Dietz if he would care to take it on and, if so, on what terms. The articles are the best, and the only authentic, stuff we have got on the American movement, and I think it most desirable that they should be preserved for readers as a consecutive whole in an off-print.
305. Engels to Editors of Rheinische Zeitung 22 Msy
IN COLOGNE
London, 22 May 1895 41 Regent’s Park Road, N. W.
Dear Editors,
The man has been found, is called James Pollitt, and is ready to do anything within reason. Has already supplied us with all the material to be had. The articles are in The Hardwareman, 11 and 18 May — stenographic reports of the sessions of the BOARD OF TRADE COMMITTEE on convict labour abroad, at which his statements were made. These are being sent to you in the original with translations of the passages relating to Braunweiler. He will further supply us with samples of the commodities produced in Braunweiler and sold over here, and also an affidavit as to the accuracy both of his statements before the Committee and of the excerpts quoted by you.
But since the material is very ample and would not lend itself to being paraphrased in a letter in such a way as to put you in a position to make full use of it in court, a personal discussion is urgently called for. This morning I therefore telegraphed Hirsch, 37 Hämergasse, Cologne: ‘Most important that Hirsch, Hofrichter or lawyer come over here forthwith Engels’. [133] 1895
It is to be hoped that someone has set off at once and will, on arrival, present himself at 41 Regent’s Park Road, where he will find accommodation and thus be able to get down to work forthwith. The whole thing should be settled in twelve hours, after which he could, if necessary, leave for home.
I enclose a note of the expenses that have arisen so far and shall later let you have a full account of them.
The man who gets his London agent, S. A. Rothschild, to sell the Braunweiler products for him in this country is called Christian Abner and lives in Cologne. He would be your most important witness. He would have to be asked to declare on oath what commodities he obtains from Braunweiler and exports to England. Pollitt followed the fully laden waggons from the institution in Braunweiler to his place of business in Cologne. Abner has, in fact, had statements printed in English to the effect that he does not sell the products of convict labour, for he maintains that Braunweiler is not a prison but merely a house of correction. But such distinctions cut no ice over here.
More tomorrow, if no one has turned up by then. Kindest regards from
Yours,
F. Engels
306. Engels to Richard Fischer 29 May
Dear Fischer,
Thanks for the package. Am not yet in a fit state to deal with it. In the meantime I would ask you to send me in addition a copy of all the articles on the Mosel wine-growers. [584] For Hofrichter of Cologne has been here 1895
and would like to have them so as to make use of them at home. [605] He and I have therefore agreed that I should send for them and that, if unable to use all or any of them, I should let him have them, in which case he will repay you, at the Rheinische Zeitung, the cost of having them copied. So you are covered either way. Kindest regards.
Yours,
F.E.
307
307 Engels to Nikolai Danielson 4 June
My dear Sir,
I am rather unwell at present (though not seriously) and must confine myself to what is absolutely necessary.
I have sent to Mr. Konow the additions and alterations [606] forwarded by you and requested him to correspond direct with you, giving him your address. His address is
Andrej Konow Augsburgerstr. 37
Berlin
Hoping soon to be able to give you better news I remain
Yours faithfully
L. K.a
a Engels’ pen-name made up of Louise Kautsky’s initials 1895
308. Engels to Eduard Bernstein 18 June[596]
Dear Ede,
Thank you for your letter — there is some improvement but, in accordance with the principles of dialectics, the positive and the negative aspects are both showing a cumulative tendency. I am stronger, eat more and with a better appetite and look very well, or so I am told; thus my general condition has improved. On the other hand, the disease as such has also shown a cumulative tendency — more tumours and hence more pain and greater difficulty in getting to sleep, etc. The thing is taking a course that is normal, if more critical and not quite so sluggish as in London. Consequently my duly acquired pathological stupidity has tended to grow worse, as has my inability to work. Today I have had another particularly bad day but now, at 5 p.m., my mind is just beginning to grow a little more lucid.
Louise, Ludwig and their little girl came down on Saturday.a Ludwig has to be back on duty at his London hospital on Sunday but will probably return here on the Friday or Saturday.
The Avelings are coming down on Saturday or Sunday and, perhaps, Sam Moore also. Unfortunately they will have to provide their own entertainment since, subjectively and objectively, I am a bore.
Love to Gine and the children.b My visitors have all gone out and I have been trying to get a little sleep.
Yours,
F.E.
a 15 June - b Bernstein’s wife and her children 1895
309. Engels to Bolesaw Antoni Jedrzejowski 28 June
Dear Comrade,
In reply to your inquiry of the 25th of this month, which has been forwarded to me here, I beg to inform you that I should have no objection at all to your translating my article in the Commonwealth and publishing it in the way you suggest. [607]
Yours faithfully, F. Engels B. A. Jedrzejowski, Editor, Przedswit
310. Engels to Filippo Turai 28 June[608]
4 Royal Parade Dear citizen Turati,
To write a summary of the three volumes of Capital is one of the most 1895
difficult tasks a writer could set himself. [609] In the whole of Europe there are, in my opinion, no more than half a dozen men capable of undertaking it. Among other prerequisites one must have a profound knowledge of bourgeois political economy, and also complete mastery of the German language. Now you say that your Labriolinoa is not very strong in the second, while his articles in Critica Socialeb prove to me that he would do better to begin by understanding the 1st volume before wishing to produce his own work on all three volumes. I do not have the legal right to prevent him from doing this, but I must wash my hands of the affair completely.
As for the other Labriola,c the malicious tongue which you attribute to him may have a certain justification in a country such as Italy, where the socialist party, [340] like all the other parties, has been invaded, like a plague of locusts, by that ‘declassed bourgeois youth’, of which Bakunin was so proud.
Result: rampant literary dilettantism which only too often lapses into sensationalism and is inevitably followed by a spirit of camaraderie domi-nating the press. It is not our fault that this is the state of affairs, but you are subjected to this environment, as is everyone else. I would speak at greater length about Labriola but when I find that bits and pieces from my private letters have been reproduced in the Critica Sociale without my knowledge,
[610] you must agree that it is better if I remain silent. For the rest, after all the quarrels and controversies, the party would seem to have behaved in general at the last elections as the situation required: independent confirmation at the 1st round when that did not help the Crispinis, support for the radicals and republicans at elections where our candidates had no chance of winning. [611] Warmest greetings from Dr and Mme Aveling, who are here with me, and also from myself, to you and citizen Anna Kulishov.
Yours,
F.
Please continue to address my letters to London.
a Arturo Labriola - b Arturo Labriola, La teoria marxista del valore e il saggio medio del profitto and La conclusioni postume di Marx sulla teoria del valore, in: Critica Sociale, Nos. 3 and 5, February I and March 1, 1895 - c Antonio Labriola 1895
311. Engels to Paul Lafargue 29 June
If the mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain. If Paul will not come to Eastbourne, Eastbourne must go to him. Thus what Mohammed could not accomplish, Paul accomplishes in the twinking of an eye. Witnessed the 29th June, 1895, by the undersigned
F. Engels
Tussy
Edward
Laura
First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 39, Moscow, 1966 Published in English for the first time 1895
312. Engels to Richard Fischer 29 June
Dear Fischer, The Mosel articles [584] have arrived safely in London.a Thank you. Unfortunately I can say nothing definite about completing the ms. or about the introduction which can only be done in London, since I am in no condition to do any work, nor do I know how long I shall continue to be held up by these processes which, while they may be normal at my age, are hideously slow. The weather has been finer here than the farmers would like; at this place, in particular, there’s a positive drought. Regards to your wife and children.
Yours,
F. E.
313. Engels to Louise Freyberger 1 July
Dear Louise,
Will you also please bring me a small bottleful of the carbolic acid solution in my bedroom? My nose is again suffering from hallucinations.
a See this volume, p. 515 1895
You would also be well-advised to rig yourself and the baby out for rather chilly weather. Yesterday it was certainly not above 12 or 13 degrees Centigrade here.
With regard to E. Aveling’s article [614] on the Independet Labour Party, [114]
which I left in your keeping on my departure, would you please forward it to him at Green Street, Green NEAR Chislehurst, Kent. Edward and Tussy left this morning. Laura, too, intends to take the day boat from Newhaven on Wednesday morning so as to be home that same evening. So you won’t be seeing her again. She sends her love. This morning it was fine, then wet, and now it’s sunny again. I slept very well last night, but on Saturday evening the powders didn’t have much effect, whereas yesterday they acted all the more effectively — in consequence am somewhat muzzy today, Regards to Ludwig. Love and a kiss to the little one and to yourself from
Yours
F.E.
314. Engels to Eduard Bernstein 4 July
4 Royal Parade
Dear Ede,
Letter received. Thanks. So far the same as always, i.e. my mood changes constantly, according to my physical condition. No question of being able to work or even deal with the most urgent correspondence. Laura left yesterday and Louise is back. Like me, she sends her love to you, the children and Gine.a
a Bernstein’s wife and her children 1895
Yours,
F.E.
315. Engels to Eleanor Marx-Aveling 4 July
4 Royal Parade
My dear Tussy,
The Glasgow affair [617] might be a trap — maybe something else, as the people hardly will be in a position to follow the offerings seriously.
As for your translation, [618] there indeed I do pity you. Where is the poor girl to have picked up the necessary knowledge for such work!
Here everything ‘as you were’, as the military command says. Louise and baby and nurse came yesterday. I am much as usual, that is to say subject to all sorts of variations of temper and spirits. That will last for some time yet to come. Either Louise or myself will keep you informed of how I go on. Love to you both.
F. E.
Laura left yesterday morning as arranged.
First published, in the Reproduced from the original language of the original (English), in: Friedrich Engels 1820-1970. Referate Diskussionen, Dokumenten, Hanover, 1971 1895
316. Engels to Filippo Turati 4 July
4 Royal Parade
Letter received. All the best. Goodbye.
F. Engels
317
317 Engels to Antonio Labriola 8 July
It’s all of it very good, just a few small factual errors and, at the beginning, a somewhat too erudite style. I look forward keenly to seeing the rest of it. [620]
First published, in the language Printed according to the magazine of the original (German), in: La Critica. Rivista di Letteratura, Storia e Filosofia, an XXVI, Published in English for the first time Napoli, 20 January 1938 1895
318. Engels to Eleanor Marx-Aveling 9 July
4 Royal Parade
My dear Tussy,
Thanks for Johnnie’sa letter returned herewith. Of course the boy is right in sticking to the house. Edgarb seems a downright Normand, looking after momentary advantage. More’s the pity.
Edward’s reply to Glasgow is all right. [617] The solution is to be found Labor Leader, 6 July page 2, Keir Hardie against Edward Aveling in the Jeunesse Socialiste. [614] Now the noble nature of Keir Hardie shines out brilliant. While E. Aveling attacks him, Keir Hardie generously finds him a candidature, which if E. Aveling accepted, Keir Hardie could on general grounds get cancelled by the Executive Council.
I was pretty fairly going on till Sunday night, since then had two bad nights and days, maybe partly from the acceleration, by the sea air, of the processus of elimination going on in my neck, but chiefly from the decreasing effects of the anaesthetics which I now have been using daily and in increasing quantities for about eight weeks. On the other hand I have found out several weak sides of my capricious appetite and take lait de poulec with brandy, custards with stewed fruits, oysters up to nine a day etc.
Love to you both F.E.
a Jean Longuet - b Longuet - c milk egg-flip 1895
319. Engels to Laura Lafargue 23 July
My dear Löhr,
To-morrow we return to London. There seems to be at last a crisis approaching in my potato field on my neck, so that the swellings may be opened and relief secured. At last! so there is hope of this long lane coming to a turning. And high time it is for with my deficient appetite, etc. I have been pulled down considerably.
The elections here have come off as I said: a large Tory majority, the Liberals hopelessly beaten and I hope in full dissolution. [345] The brag of Independent Labour Party [114] and Social Democratic Federation [44] face to face with a reality of some 82,000 votes for Labour Candidates up to now (hardly any yet to come) and the loss of K. Hardie’s seat. Still that was more than they had a right to expect.
Victor Adler is here. Have you or Paul any questions to ask him about Paul’s arrangement with the Arbeiter-Zeitung or can I be of any use in any way to you with him?
I am not in strength to write long letters, so good bye. Here’s your good health in a bumper of lait de pouleb fortified by a dose of cognac vieux.c
Amitiés à Pauld
Ever yours
F. Engels
Correspondance, t. II I, Paris, 1959
a See this volume, pp. 419 - b milk egg-flip -c old brandy - d Regards to Paul LETTERS
WILL AND CODICIL OF ENGELS
Supplementary Letters
Engels to Arnold Ruge 19 April 1841
Dear Sir,
When, during your stay in Berlin, I had the honour of making your personal acquaintance at the Wallmüller Inn, I believe to have mentioned, in the course of our conversation about Schelling, a pamphlet on him written by me,a which was then being printed. I am taking leave to enclose a copy of this little work, just off the press, with the request of kindly contributing to its circulation by mentioning it in the Jahrbücher [622] When an occasion offers itself. I need hardly say that it is calculated for a public with roughly the educational level of a student.
Perhaps I will take the liberty of soon sending you an article for the Jahrbücher which, without reference to any particular recently published work, deals with the Christian poetry of the Middle Ages, notably with its central figure, Dante. This is done in the context of the perspectives opened up by Feuerbach. [623] Meanwhile I am sending you my regards and best wishes for the success of the Jahrbücher.
Yours faithfully,
F. Oswaldb
Endnotes
[337] Engels jotted down the draft of his reply on the reverse side of the letter from Professor Gizycki of Berlin, dated 14 February 1894; Georg von Gizycki asked Engels to contribute an article to the weekly Ethische Kultur on the ethical designation of the woman.
[452] Engels wrote the following dedication to Victor Adler on the title page of Volume II I of Das Kapital: ‘Seinem Victor Adler, London. 1/1.95 (‘To my Victor Adler, London. 1.1.95’).
[453] After the publication of Volume II I of Das Kapital in December 1894 Engels began preparations for republishing the earlier works written by Marx and himself, including those published by the New-York Daily Tribune in the 1850s. Therefore in January 1895 he resumed his correspondence with Ludwig Kugelmann who for many years had been collecting the works of Marx and Engels for his library.
[454] In September 1893, during his trip to the European continent, Engels had two meetings with L. Kugelmann in Berlin to discuss the planned publication of the works of Marx and Engels.
[456] On 28 December 1894 L. Kugelmann wrote this to Engels: ‘Indicated in the list of ‘errata’ for Volume II I is also “page 352, line 13 from top”, but I have found none.—Will you not give the correct place in the Neue Zeit and Vorwärts?’
[457] In his letter to 11 August 1894 Hermann Schlüter asked Engels to approach Eduard Bernstein with an invitation to contribute a series of articles on Volume II I of Das Kapital for the newspaper New-Yorker Volkszeitung (see also this volume, p. 345). E. Bernstein’s articles under the general title Der dritte Band des ‘Kapital’appeared in Die Neue Zeit (13.Jahrgang, 1. Band, Nr. 11-14, 16, 17) in 1894-95.
[459] As Karl Kautsky wrote to Engels on 29 December 1894, Wilhelm Liebknecht had found the original of the letter Marx had written to Johann Baptist Schweitzer; he also said that Liebknecht was going to offer it to Dietz Publishers for publication. However, Liebknecht did not know that this letter had been published as an article — under the name ‘On Proudhon’—by the newspaper Der Sozial-demokrat in February 1865 (see present edition, Vol. 20). Kautsky also told Engels he had found certain differences between the manuscript and the printed text of the article.
[460] Probably a reference to Ernst von Köllers speech in the Reichstag on 15 December 1894. Speaking in the debates on court proceedings against W. Liebknecht (see Note 436), von Köller advocated suffer disciplinary liability for Reichstag deputies.
[425] On 14 November 1894 August Bebel spoke at a party meeting in Berlin’s second constituency with a critique of the stand taken by Georg von Vollmar and other Bavarian Social-Democrats at the Frankfurt Congress of the German Social-Democratic Party (see Note 418) and of the resolution adopted by the Congress on the agrarian question. Bebel’s speech was published by the newspaper Vorwärts (No. 268) on 16 November and reprinted in La Critica Sociale (No. 23) on 1 December 1894.
[313] A reference to the English edition of Carl Schorlemmer’s The Rise and Development of Organic Chemistry which came out in Manchester and London in 1879. The German text was published in 1889 as Der Ursprung und die Entwicklung der organischen Chemie in Brunswick. Arthur Smithells prepared a new English edition which was published in London and New York in 1894 under the same title as the 1879 edition.
[311] Sir Henry Roscoe’s and Carl Schorlemmer’s work appeared in English under the title A Treatise on Chemistry. Volumes I-II I. London-New York, 1877-92; the whole edition comprised 9 books. The German name of the work was Ausführliches Lehrbuch der Chemie. Bände I-IV. Braunschweig, 1877-89. Julius Wilhelm Brühl continued the series beginning with Volume V; after C. Schorlemmer’s death the nine-volume edition was completed in 1901.
[418] Engels refers to a congress of the Social-Democratic Party of Germany held in Frankfurt am Main on 21-27 October 1894. The co-report on the main issue on the agenda — the agrarian question — was made by Georg von Vollmar, the leader of the Bavarian Social-Democrats; he insisted on augmenting the agrarian programme by clauses expressing the interests of all the peasantry, including the affluent strata. Some of the delegates, August Bebel among them, voiced objections. The congress elected a commission that was to draft the final text of the Party’s agrarian programme as a supplement to the general programme. In addition, delegates heard the reports of the Party Executive Board and the Party group in the Reichstag; it considered such issues as the role of trusts and other major capitalist amalgamations, May Day celebrations, etc. The final account of the proceedings of the Frankfurt Congress of the German Social-Democratic Party was published by the newspaper Vorwärts (No. 254) on 31 October 1894.
[461] Engels mentioned A. Bebel’s speech in the Reichstag on 15 December 1894 in the debates on bringing W. Liebknecht to court trial (see Note 436). Bebel drew attention to the violation of Article 30 of the Constitution which prohibited court prosecution of deputies for statements made in the Reichstag.
[462] A reference to the constitutional conflict of February 1860 in Prussia between the Prussian government supported by the Junkertum, on the one hand, and the bourgeois majority of the lower house of the Prussian Landtag, on the other, over appropriations for army reorganisation.
[463] Writing to Engels on 26 November 1894, Paul Stumpf voiced his apprehensions about the differences at the Congress of the German Social-Democratic Party in Frankfurt am Main in October 1894 (see Note 418) which, in his view, showed the inadequate theoretical grounding of the young party members.
[464] A reference to the German People’s Party (Deutsche Volkspartei) founded in 1865; it comprised democratic elements of the petty bourgeoisie and to some extent those of some other strata of the bourgeoisie — for the most part from the southern German states. The German People’s Party opposed the Prussian hegemony in Germany and championed a Great German Reich, so-called, which was to include Prussia and Austria. Although it steered anti-Prussian policies and put forward democratic slogans, the People’s Party expressed at the same time the particularist aspirations of the individual German states. It was against Germany’s unification into unified democratic republic.
[465] An allusion to the stay of Marx and Engels in Mainz on 7-9 April 1848 en route from Paris to Cologne. While in Mainz, they met local members of the Communist League, including Paul Stumpf, to discuss the unification of workers’ associations for participation in the German revolution of 1848.
[466] In his letter of 6 September 1894 Pasquale Martignetti asked Engels to tell Edward Aveling that the attempt to publish in Italian his work The Student’s Marx had not come off.
[28] The Parliamentary Committee — the executive body of the Trades Union Congress of Great Britain that met in Manchester in 1868 and united the country’s unions. As of 1871 the Parliamentary Committee was elected at annual congresses of the British trades-unions and, in fact, was their steering body in between the congresses. It nominated candidates to Parliament, supported draft bills tabled in the interests of the trades unions and worked to prepare regular trades-union congresses.
[469] This dispatch by Louise Freyberger (Kautsky) about the report of Mrs. Crawford to the newspaper Weekly Dispatch on 6 January 1895 was published by Die Arbeiter-Zeitung (No. 10) on 10 January 1895 (signed: K.L.).
[470] In his letter to Engels on 27 December 1894 Victor Adler asked him to invite Emile Vandervelde as a correspondent for the Vienna newspaper Arbeiter-Zeitung. A similar request was uttered with respect to Paul Lafargue as well (see Note 477).
[435] Filippo Turati wrote to tell Engels on 28 November 1894 that a Socialist group of Italian university students was planning to release an Almanocco socialista per l’anno 1895 and would like to have a short note from him.
[474] On 9 August 1848 the Prussian National Assembly approved the motion of one of the deputies, Julius Stein, whereby the War Minister Schreckenstein was to issue an order providing for a voluntary discharge of army officers opposing the constitutional aspirations of the people. Yet no such order was issued. On 7 September 1848 Stein tabled his motion again and demanded an immediate vote on it. The proposal was adopted by 219 votes against 143; as a result, the Auerswald-Hansemann government had to tender its resignation. The Pfuel cabinet that succeeded did finally issue the order on 26 September 1848, but it remained on paper only.
[476] Speaking on 7 January 1895 in the Reichstag debates on the proposed Subversion Bill (see Note 428), Ignaz Auer argued there were no valid motives for its introduction.
[393] Engels was taking a rest in Eastbourne from 14 August to 18 September 1894.
[477] P. Lafargue began to cooperate with the Arbeiter-Zeitung. His first article “Der ‘Panama Bazillus’” was published by this newspaper on 8 January 1895-
[478] A hint at the Reichstag speech on 10 January 1895 by the German War Minister General Bronsart von Schellendorff in the debates on the Subversion Bill (Die Umsturzvorlage, see Note 428). He tried to validate the necessity of this legislation by pointing to the activity of ‘instigators’ who had to be combatted with the aid of law and right.
[479] Speaking in the Chamber of Deputies on 10 January 1895, Etienne Millerand proposed that Gérault-Richard be released from prison (see Note 451) and demanded a broad discussion on the issue. But the Chairman of the Council of Ministers Charles Dupuy opposed the Millerand proposal and put a vote of confidence on the agenda. The Millerand proposal was turned down by 294 votes against 205. Gérault-Richard was pardoned only after the resignation of President Casimir-Périer.
[86] Radicals—in the 1880s-1890s, a parliamentary group in France that used to belong to the party of moderate Republicans (the ‘Opportunists’). The Radicals relied chiefly on the petty bourgeoisie and, to some extent, on the middle bourgeoisie; they supported certain bourgeois-democratic demands like a unicameral parliament, separation of the Church from the state, a progressive income tax, limitation of the working day and other social issues. The Radicals were led by G. Clemenceau. Officially the group became known as the Republican Radical and Radical-Socialist Party (Parti républicain radical et radical-socialiste), formed in 1901.
[481] Engels hints at a group of French Blanquist emigrés (E. Vaillant, Fr.-É. Cournet et al.) who, in June 1874, published in London the pamphlet Aux Communeux {On Communal Property).
[482] The daily La Petite République (before 1893, La Petite Republique Française) on 12 January 1895 published an article by A.G. Rouanet; like the article of A.L. Gérault-Richard in Le Chambart (see Note 451) it was directed against the President of the French Republic, Casimir-Périer. On 12 January 1895 Amand Rouanet, a Socialist deputy, made a proposal in the Chamber of Deputies providing for a cut in the pensions paid to the holder of the Legion d’honneur order; such pensions were not to exceed 1000 francs. The aim of this motion was to prevent arbitrary decorations being conferred on all kinds of parvenus. Rouanet intimated, however, he had no hope for an unbiased voting on his proposal (Rouanet recalled the deputies had rejected the proposal on Gérault-Richard’s liberation). At this point the President of the Chamber of Deputies demanded that Rouanet leave the assembly hall, which he had to do in spite of protests from some of the deputies.
[483] Sang an Ägir—a musical composition by Emperor William II .
[485] The reference is to Laura Lafargue’s letter of 12-13 January 1895 about the testamentary dispositions which Engels had made concerning Marx’s literary heritage.
[486] The French President Jean Casimir-Périer resigned on 15 January 1895. The day before, the Chamber of Deputies had declined his proposal on the order of proceedings in the inquiry into the government’s involvement in major financial speculations (see Note 487).
[487] Late in 1894 the French Chamber of Deputies raised the issue of the agreements concluded in 1883 by the government and the railroad company. These agreements gave the company virtually a free hand in speculation for as long as ten years; but the government refused to revise them. Then, on 14 January 1895, Etienne Millerand proposed to look into the matter and exposed the role David Raynal, the then Minister of Public Works, had played in that deal. The Chamber approved this motion by 263 votes against 241. A parliamentary commission of inquiry in 1896 found Raynal not guilty.
[488] The leader of the Radical Party (see Note 86) Georges Benjamin Clemenceau had gained the reputation of a ‘government toppler’ for, as a result of his incessant interpellations in the Chamber of Deputies, the following cabinets had to resign: of Gambetta (1882), Freycinet (1882), Ferry (1885) and Brisson (1885). By calling Clemenceau ‘the late’, Engels intimated that the Radical Party had lost some of its former influence.
[214] Engels hints at the thesis of ‘one reactionary mass’ which entered into the Programme of the German Social-Democratic Party adopted at its Gotha Congress in 1875. Thus, the Programme said this in part: ‘Emancipation of labour ought to be the cause of the working class in relation to which all the other classes consititute but one reactionary mass’. Marx censured this tenet in his Critique of the Gotha Programme (see present edition, Vol. 24, pp.75-99).
[489] A reference to the article La Situation by Jean Juarès which was published by the newspaper La Petite République (No. 6855) on 20 January 1895. Juarès proposed a package of the following reforms: pensions for industrial and agricultural workers at the expense of factory and land owners; new shop regulations providing for worker participation in decision-making; an institution of labour protection inspectors; worker profit-sharing at the enterprise level; steps to improve soil fertility. In February 1894 he tabled a motion in the Chamber of Deputies for a state monopoly of grain imports with the aim of raising the grain prices.
[60] The Panama affair — a shady transaction connected with the bribery of French statesmen, government officials and the press by the Panama Canal joint-stock company set up in France in 1880 at the at the initiative of Ferdinand de Lesseps for building a canal across of the isthmus of Panama. In December 1888 the company declared its insolvency which caused the ruin of small-time shareholders and numerous bankruptcies. This scandal compelled the French authorities to start an investigation. On 19 November 1892 the Monarchists tabled three questions on the Panama crash in the Chamber of Deputies which on 21 November elected a Commission of Inquiry of 33 with M. Henri Brisson, a Radical, as chairman. The Commission obtained irrefutable evidence implicating a number of high-ranking officials, e.g., the former French premier CL. de Freycinet and others who had been bribed by the Lesseps company which wanted to conceal its true financial situation and embezzlements. French justice hushed up the affair by going no further than condemning F. Lesseps and a number of his cat’s-paws (see Note 157). ‘Panama’ became a byword for major dealings in which government officials were implicated.
[126] The Triple Alliance—a military and political bloc of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy against France and Russia. This alliance took its final shape in 1882 after Italy had acceded to the Austro-German military alliance concluded in 1879. The Triple Alliance Treaty was signed for a term of five years; it was prolonged in 1887 and 1891 and then automatically extended (in 1902 and in 1912). The Triple Alliance set the stage for division of Europe into two major groups of states hostile to one another and ultimately led to the World War of 1914-18.
[396] The 27th Annual Congress of the British Trades-Unions was held in Norwich on 3-8 September 1894. The Trades-Union Congress spoke out for the legal eight hours and for the nationalisation of all means of production, distribution and exchange; for Engels’ assessment of this congress, see this volume, pp. 341, 343-44, 347.
[490] A reference to the following works of Ferdinand Tönnies: ‘Neuere Philosophie der Geschichte: Hegel, Marx, Comte’ (Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, Bd. 7 for 1894) which disputed the tenets of P. Barths book Die Geschichtsphilosophie Hegels und der Hegelianer bis auf Marx und Hartmann; and Pestalozzi als Sozialpädagog {Sozialpolitisches Centralblatt, 3 December 1894).
[491] Comtism or positivism—a trend in philosophy, sociology and historiography that surfaced in the 1830s; its leading exponent was Auguste Comte, a French philosopher and sociologist. The positivists extended the methods of natural science to social studies. They viewed the historical process as slow evolutionary changes and denied the role of revolutions.
[492] This note to F. Tönnies’ article ‘Neuere Philosophie der Geschichte: Hegel, Marx, Comte’ (see Note 490) says this in part: ‘Hervorragende englische Comtisten gehörten zu den Mitbegründern der “Internationale”, deren General-Sekretär K. Marx war...’ (‘Illustrious English Comtists were among the founders of the “International” the Secretary-General of which was K. Marx’).
[493] The reference is to the statements in defense of the Paris Commune made in the press by positivists Edward Beesly and Frederick Harrison between March and September 1871. Thus, from March to June 1871 The Bee-Hive Newspaper carried a series of articles by Professor Beesly; the opening article was entitled ‘On the Paris Revolution’. In May and August 1871 The Fortnightly Review published two big articles by Harrison in support of the Commune.
[494] The idea that besides working men, factory-owners and merchants were also among the industrialists so-called producteurs was formulated by Saint-Simon in his Catéchisme des industriels, published in Paris in 1823-24.
[495] In his letter of 12 January 1895 Ludwig Kugelmann asked Engels for the names of German publications in which works by Marx and Engels had been published, signed or unsigned (see also this volume, p. 500).
[496] On 23 January 1895 Victor Adler wrote to Engels that the publication of the Arbeiter-Zeitung ‘was making very good progress’: as many as 14,000 copies were being printed daily instead of the planned 10,000, while on Sundays the circulation reached 22,000 copies.
[497] Engels means the Liberal Party’s Right Wing akin to the Conservatives and expressing the interests of big industrial, commercial and financial bourgeoisie. In 1893 the Gladstone cabinet tabled a second edition of the draft Home Rule Bill (see Note 77) which riled the Liberal Party’s Right Wing. Having declared themselves ‘independent’, the Right-Wingers actually sided with the Conservatives.
[498] A reference to the second electoral reform of 1867 in Britain. Town residents — house-owners and tenants who had been resident for not less than a year and whose annual rent was not under £10 — received voting rights. In counties the property qualification was reduced to £12 of rent per annum. As a result, the number of eligible voters increased more than twofold (with voting rights being granted to part of industrial workers).
[171] Home Rule—the demand for Irish self-government within the British Empire, as put forward by the Irish liberal bourgeoisie in the 1870s. Home Rule provided for an independent Irish parliament and national bodies of government. However, the British government was to retain the key positions in Ireland.
[499] Engels refers to an article in the Arbeiter-Zeitung (No. 26) on 26 January 1895 in which the editors reported the confiscation of the paper’s evening issue of 24 January and stated that since a larger part of the confiscated circulation had nevertheless reached the subscribers, a repeated publication of the issue was not necessary.
[500] This excerpt from Emily Crawford’s report in The Weekly Dispatch of 27 January 1895 was published by the Arbeiter-Zeitung (No. 32) on 1 February 1895 in Louise Freyberger’s article ‘Zur Charakteristik des neuen Präsidenten’.
[501] On 9 January 1895 the newspaper Vorwärts published an appeal of the Union of Women’s Societies to the German women ‘of all classes and all parties’ urging them to sign a petition to the Reichstag and Landtags to concede women the right of association and assembly in those German lands where they had not yet this right. Writing in Vorwärts on 24 January 1895, Clara Zetkin ran a sharp critique of this appeal on the grounds that it lacked a class approach. She stressed that ‘the women’s question ought to be considered only in the context of the total social question’ and called on the proletarian women not to put their signatures on the petition.
[504] Zemstvo—elective district councils instituted in some provinces of European Russia in keeping with the local government reform of 1864.
[505] Engels means the statement made by the Russian Tsar Nicholas II on 29 (17) January 1895 at a reception for deputations of the Russian nobility, zemstvos (see Note 504) and town communities on the occasion of the royal marriage. The tsar dismissed as ‘idle dreams’ the desire of some zemstvo representatives to participate ‘in the affairs of domestic government’ and gave it to understand he would ‘safeguard the autocracy principle as firmly and stead-fastly as had his lamented parent’.
[506] The Committee, set up to prepare the International Socialist Working-Men’s Congress due in London in 1896, suggested that henceforth it be named as an International Congress of Socialist Working Men and Trade Unions. In this connection Tomasz Jodko-Narkiewicz, a Polish Socialist emigré, asked Engels in his letter of 31 January 1895 what he and German Social-Democrats thought of the suggestion.
[508] A reference to the fifth and sixth authorized editions of The Manifesto of the Communist Party published in Berlin in 1891 and 1894, respectively.
[228] The International Socialist Working-Men’s Congress in Brussels was held on 16-22 August 1891. It was attended by 370 delegates from 16 European countries and the United States who represented, by and large, the Marxist trend in the working-class movement. Most of the delegates voted against anarchists participating in the Congress (who had sent their delegates). Attending the Congress were also representatives of the British trades unions, a rather positive factor according to Engels. Such issues were on its agenda as the labour code, work stoppage and boycott, and militarism. In its resolution on labour legislation the Congress called on workers of the world to join forces in the struggle against the capitalist rule; it urged workers, wherever they had political rights, to use these rights for their emancipation from wage servitude. The resolution on work stoppage and boycott recommended that workmen use both forms of the struggle. It emphasised the absolute need of trade unions for the workers. The attitude of the working class to militarism was the central issue on the agenda. The reports delivered by W. Liebknecht and E. Vaillant, as well as the resolution proposed by Liebknecht characterized militarism as an inevitable follow-up of the capitalist system; they stressed that a socialist system alone would be able to put an end to militarism and establish peace among the nations; that Socialists were a genuine party of peace. Yet these documents did not define specific tasks and ways of the struggle against the war threat. The resolution proposed by Liebknecht was attacked by the leader of the Dutch Socialists D. Nieuwenhuis, a man of anarchist leanings. He tabled a resolution urging the Socialists of all countries to appeal in the event of a war to their peoples to stage a general strike, but it failed to win support among the delegates. The overwhelming majority of votes was cast for the W. Liebknecht resolution (see also F. Engels ‘The Brussels Congress. The Situation in Europe’; present edition, vol. 27).
[229] The Third International Socialist Working-Men’s Congress was held in Zurich on 6-12 August 1893. Attending were over 400 delegates from 18 countries. The British delegation had a much broader representation than at the previous two congresses. The following issues were on the agenda: the legal eight hours, May Day celebration, the political tactics of Social-Democrats and the position of Social-Democracy in the event of a war. Since participation in the Congress was conditional on one’s recognition of political activity (something that the anarchists denied), the Congress began its work by considering the legitimacy of the mandates of the anarchist delegates. Following a heated debate a resolution was carried by a majority of votes. It interpreted the notion of political activity as the use of political rights and law-making institutions by working-class parties in the interests of the proletariat and for gaining political power. Upon the adoption of this amendment the anarchists, includ ing the representatives of The Young (see Note 129), had to leave the Congress. On the issue of May Day festivities the Congress rejected by a majority of votes the proposal of the German Social-Democrats to have the celebrations as late as the first Sunday of the month; it stressed the major political significance of a demonstration on May 1 as the day of proletarian solidarity. On the third issue of the agenda (the political tactics of Social-Democrats) the Congress adopted a resolution which recognised the need of combining the parliamentary and non-parliamentary forms of struggle depending on specific conditions in this or that country. Concerning the attitude of Social-Democrats to war, the Congress turned down the Nieuwenhuis proposal for a general strike to be declared in case of a war and reaffirmed the basic provisions of the Brussels Congress resolution on this issue (see Note 228); it added a clause urging workers to wage a disarmament struggle and obliging the Socialist MPs to vote against war credits.
[509] The protocols of the Zurich Congress were never issued by Vorwärts. They appeared in Zurich in 1894 under the title: Protokoll des Internationalen Sozialistischen Arbeiter-kongresses in der Tonhalle Zürich vom 6. bis 12. August 1893.
[510] Après nous le déluge [‘After us, the deluge’]—a saying attributed to Madame de Pompadour and addressed to King Louis XV of France.
[511] The final version of the text of the Introduction to Karl Marx’s The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850 (1895) contained no explanatory notes from Engels in it.
[512] The reference is to Richard Fischer’s speech in the Reichstag on 6 February 1895 during the debates on worker representation in settling moot issues among workmen and employers. Fischer criticised the social policies of the Centre Party (see Note 71) which did not go beyond demands for minor social concessions (like, for instance, granting recognition to working-men’s alliances), while leaving aside the workers’ vital interests: shorter working hours, social insurance and guarantees for freedom of association.
[513] Appended to this letter were the titles of the first three chapters of Marx’s work The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850 (see Note 507). Engels suggested changing the original titles ‘The Defeat of June 1848’, ‘June 13, 1849’ and ‘Consequences of June 13, 1849’ (as given by Marx in Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politische-ökonomische Revue) for: I. ‘From February to June 1848’, II . ‘From June 1848 to June 13, 1849’, and II I. ‘From June 14, 1849 to March 10, 1850’, respectively. As Chapter IV Engels suggested materials on the revolutionary events in France from ‘The Third International Review’ published by the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politische-ökonomische Revue(No. 5-6) for 1850; he entitled this chapter ‘The Abolition of Universal Suffrage in 1850’ (see present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 47-145). The above work—The Class Struggles in France—was to be published as a separate booklet.
[516] Acting on Engels’ request, J. Motteler had made inquiries in Germany and, having received a letter from a Johann Meyer in which Theodor Barlen’s person was confirmed, sent it to Engels (see this volume, p. 452).
[4] Working on the book Handbuch des socialismus, Hugo Lindemann and Carl Stegmann requested Engels in their letter to clarify ‘certain moot points’ and, if possible, grant them some journals not available in the British Museum.
[5] Addressing the 10th Congress of the French Workers’ Party on 25 September 1892 in Marseille (see Note 11) as a representative of German Social-Democracy, Wilhelm Liebknecht said the following, partly on the outcome of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 and partly on the seizure of Alsace-Lorraine by Germany: ‘... the matter would be settled without any trouble once the social and democratic Republic was established on both sides of the Rhine.’ This statement triggered rabid attacks in the French bourgeois press against the Socialists. Thus, in its editorial note of September 28 titled ‘Herr Liebknecht’, the newspaper La France urged his immediate expulsion from France. Meanwhile, Lucien Millevoye, deputy for the Nord in the Chamber of Deputies, asked the Minister of the Interior: ‘Following the example of Mr. Liebknecht, does the government of the Republic intend to tolerate that foreigners should come to France in order to arouse hatred and con-tempt for the French nation?’
[6] Boulangism—a movement that emerged in France in the mid-1880s; named so after its leader, General Georges Boulanger, the War Minister in 1886-87. This movement expressed the views of reactionary chauvinism. Appealing to the injured national pride of the French in connection with the loss of Alsace-Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, the Boulangists succeeded for some time in enlisting significant popular support in their cause and in influencing the army rank and file. Capitalising on popular discontent with the domestic policies of the bourgeois Republicans, the Boulangists were preparing a coup d’etat to restore the monarchy in France. Yet the Boulangist movement suffered a fiasco due to steps taken by the Republican government with the backing of progressive forces, and its leaders fled from France.
[21] Allemanists {les allemanistes)—supporters of the French socialist Jean Allemane. After a split in the Possibilist Party (see Note 30), the Allemanists formed a Revolutionary-Socialist Workers’ Party {Le Parti ouvrier socialiste-révolutionnaire) in October 1890; this party existed up to 1905. Considering economic struggle above the political one and opposing excessive parliamentarism, the Allemanists concentrated their efforts on propaganda work in labour unions {les syndicats) and assigned the political party of the proletariat but a secondary role. A significant part of their activity was devoted to campaigns to win seats at municipal councils.
[520] Engels refers to Y. Zack’s article ‘Historical Materialism’, published in the first issue of the journal Russian Heritageïot 1895, and also to N.Mikhailovsky’s review ‘Literature and Life’, published by the above journal in 1894 (No. 1).
[522] Refers to Engels’ fifth article ‘On Social Relations in Russia’ (see present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 39-50) in the series Refugee Literature which, alongside the first and second articles, he included in the collection Internationales aus dem Volksstaat (1871-75), as well as to the Afterword (1894) which Engels had written for this collection (see present edition, Vol. 27, pp. 421-33).
[524] J. Motteier told Engels in his letter of 28 February 1895 that on 18 February he had been attacked in his house by two anarchists who had identified themselves by false names— Alexander Cohen and Zimmer.
[525] National workshops-were set up by the Provisional Government of France immediately after the February Revolution of 1848 for jobless workers, artisans, office employees, school teachers as well as petty entrepreneurs who were given menial jobs at miserable wages.
[11] Marseille was the venue of the 10th Congress of the French Workers’ Party which contin ued in session from 24 to 28 September 1892. The Congress considered the party’s situa tion and its activities, its work in country districts, the celebration of May Day, its partici pation in the International Socialist Congress of 1893 at Zurich, its participation in the forthcoming parliamentary election, among other issues. The Congress worked out an agrarian programme — its critical analysis is contained in Engels’ work The Peasant Question in France and Germany (see present edition, Vol. 27, pp. 481-502). The Congress also passed a decision not to participate in the International Congress on an Eight-Hour Working Day convened by the British Trades-Unions but to invite their representatives to the International Socialist Working Men’s Congress at Zurich. The French Workers’ Party {Le Parti ouvrier français) was set up by Marx’s followers— Jules Guesde and his supporters — by the decision of the Workers’ Congress held in Marseille in 1879; this Congress endorsed the Party Rules. In 1880 Jules Guesde and Paul Lafargue drew up the Workers’ Party Programme, with Karl Marx taking part in framing its theoretical chapter. In November 1880 a Workers’ Congress in Le Havre adopted the Party Programme by a majority vote whereby the French Workers’ Party took shape.
[527] Nikolai Danielson wrote in this letter that the passage in Engels’ preface to Volume II I of Capital about Marx’s research on Russian land ownership made him want to find out if there were any notes written by Marx on this topic.
[528] In his letter to Engels of 10 March 1895 N. Danielson enclosed a message to Andrei Konov, a Russian emigré in Berlin who undertook the translation. N. Danielson’s book Essays on Our Post-Reform Social Economy was translated by G. Polonsky and came out in Munich in 1899.
[530] May laws—the four laws adopted at Bismarck’s initiative in May 1873; they provided for strict state control over the activity of the Catholic Church. These laws marked the culmination of the Kulturkampf (‘Struggle for Culture’) policy.
[531] Mennonites—an evangelical Protestant Christian sect founded in the 1530s-1540s in Friesland by Anabaptists who, after the defeat of the Peasant War of 1524-26 and the Münster Commune of 1534-35, abandoned their revolutionary aspirations. Named after Menno Simons, the founder of this sect, Mennonites oppose the taking of oaths, infant baptism, military service, and the acceptance of public office; they favour plain dress and plain living.
[535] The reference is to Peter Fireman’s article ‘Kritik der Marx’schen Werttheorie’ published in the economic and statistical yearbook Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik for 1892 (3. Folge, Bd. 3). Engels gave a positive appraisal of this article in his preface to Volume II I of Capital. However, Conrad Schmidt took exception to this assessment: writing to Engels on 1 March 1895, he said Fireman had only repeated what Professor Wilhelm Lexis had found before him.
[536] A reference to W Lexis’ article ‘Die Marx’sche Kapitaltheorie’ published in the yearbook Jahrbücher fur Nationalökonomie und Statistik (11 Bd. ) for 1885, and C. Schmidt’s book Die Durchschnittsprofitrate auf Grundlage des Marx’schen Wertgesetzes published in Stuttgart in 1889.
[537] The West Frankish Kingdom came into being after the disintegration of the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne (Charles the Great). According to the Verdun Treaty of 843, it was divided among Charlemagne’s three grandsons. The West Frankish Kingdom occupied a territory of roughly what is now France.
[538] Assises of Jerusalem (Assises de lérusalem)—a code of laws for courts in the Kingdom of Jerusalem established by the medieval crusaders after the First Crusade; this kingdom was in existence from the end of the eleventh to the late thirteenth century.
[539] A reference ot the two articles by Paul Lafargue: ‘Breve risposta - domanda ai critici di Marx circa la teoria de valore’ and Replica di Lafargue published by Critica Sociale, Nos. 20 and 22 on 16 October and 16 November 1894.
[540] The letters to P. Lafargue and A. Labriola have not been found.
[542] In March 1895 Victor Adler, the editor of the Arbeiter-Zeitung, was sentenced to a seven-week term in prison for the paper’s criticisms of the Austrian government. He was incar-cerated in the Vienna prison Rudolfsheim from 18 May to 18 June 1895.
[532] The movement for universal suffrage organised by the Social-Democrats gained new momentum in Austria in 1895 (see Note 270). There were 12 mass rallies in Vienna on 19 February 1895, in support of this demand. The newspaper Arbeiter-Zeitung carried regular reports by V. Adler on this matter.
[544] With the outbreak of the 1848 Revolution in Germany Marx and Engels moved from Paris to Cologne where they arrived on 11 April 1848. On 15 April or thereabouts Engels set off on a tour of German towns and returned to Cologne on 20 May 1848. In 1848-49 H. Becker was one of the leaders of The Cologne Democratic Association (see Note 547).
[545] C. Hackenberg had asked Engels if H. Becker had stayed put in Cologne in the spring of 1848 or he had undertaken trips to other towns to propagandise his ideas.
[546] C. Hackenberg had inquired about H. Becker’s attitude to the Schleswig-Holstein issue. This issue, concerning the Danish duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, became particularly acute during the Revolution of 1848-49. Backed by Prussia, the German population of these regions in March 1848 had begun a war of national liberation against the Danish monarchy.
[547] The Cologne Democratic Association—formed in Cologne in April 1848; until April 1849 Marx and Engels had been among its leadership.
[548] Der Kölner Arbeiterverein {The Cologne Workers’ Union)—a working-men’s assocation founded on 13 April 1848. Owing to the influence of Marx and Engels, it became a major centre of revolutionary activity involving working men and peasants.
[549] Engels means The Central March Association, named after the March 1848 Revolution in Germany. Founded in Frankfurt am Main at the end of November 1848 by Left-Wing deputies to the Frankfurt National Assembly, it had branches in various German towns.
[550] The Neue Rheinische Zeitung never published any articles signed by H.B.
[551] Engels answers C. Hackenberg’s question whether he knew of the book Ungarns Fall, allegedly by H. Becker.
[552] The Westdeutsche Zeitung, published by H. Becker in Cologne, was launched on 25 May 1849 immediately after the termination of the publication of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Heinrich Bürgers did not take part in setting up the Westdeutsche Zeitung.
[553] The reference is to the Cologne Communist Trial when members of the Communist League were framed on the basis of forged evidence and perjury; they were accused of ‘conspiring’ against the Prussian state. The trial took place in Cologne from 4 October to 12 November 1852. Hermann Becker was among the defendants; he was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in a fortress (see this edition, Vol. 11: Marx, ‘Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne’).
[554] In October 1894 Pablo Iglesias was sentenced to a forty-day term in prison for leading a strike action of Malaga textile workers. This strike broke out in the first half of October 1894 at the textile mills of Marquis Larios in protest over the decision of the entrepreneurs to disband the Textile Workers’ Union and punish 19 workers active in it. The four thousand strikers were joined by workers in other cities, Madrid included. The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, led by P. Iglesias, captained the movement of Spanish workers in support of the Malaga strike. Despite the intervention of the government which sided with the factory-owners, the 80-day strike action ended in a workers’ victory. P. Iglesias appealed to Engels with a request to help in rallying British working men and Socialist organisations to support of the striking Spanish workers.
[555] Writing to Engels on 16 March 1895, Carl Hirsch asked to review the four articles he had written for Das sozialpolitisches Centralblatt: i) ‘Intensifikation der Arbeit und Verkürzung der Arbeitszeit’, published on 8 January 1894 — No. 15; ü) ‘Intensifikation der Arbeit und ihr Widerstand’, published on 19 February 1894 — No. 21; üi) ‘Die ökonomische und die sozialpolitische Schätzung der Arbeitskraft’, published on 14 January 1895 — No. 16; and iv) ‘Die Verdichtung der Arbeit unter sozial-politischem Gesichtspunkt,’ published on 18 February 1895 — No. 21. C. Hirsch wanted to have these articles published as a separate booklet.
[556] Refers to the by-election to the Reichstag in Cologne, due on 13 May 1895. It was between Franz Lütgenau, a Social-Democrat, and Adolf Greiß, representing the Centre Party. A. Greiß won.
[557] The Cologne-published newspaper Rheinische Zeitung which, in 1894-95, was edited by Carl Hirsch.
[360] Engels means A. Loria’s article ‘Karl Marx’ published in La Nuova antologia di scienze, lettere ed arti on 1 April 1883 (see present edition, Vol. 47) as well as the preface to Volume II I of Capital (see present edition, Vol. 37).
[115] The Hague (Fifth) Congress of the First International held on 2-7 September 1872. It was in fact the last congress of the First International. Its work was directed by Marx and Engels.
[49] From 6 August to 24 December 1892 the German Social-Democratic newspaper Die Berliner Volks- Tribüne was publishing (in its supplement) a series of articles by the Swiss Socialist Louis Héritier under the general title ‘Die Juraföderation und Michael Bakunin; the author’s name was indicated only in the final article. Proceeding from Bakuninist principles, the author gave a slanted picture of the history of the First International in Switzerland and vindicated the divisive activities of the Bakuninists in particular, of the anarchist Jura Federation which, at its congress in La Chaux-de-Fonds held between 4 and 6 April 1870, had broken away from the International sections in Roman Switzerland. In addition, the articles contained numerous innuendoes about the activity of the General Council, Marx and his associates, specifically, about Johann Philipp Becker. Thus, it was claimed without any ground whatever that the London Conference of the First International (1871) had been held in Marx’s house. The tenth article, published on 12 November 1892, contained particularly numerous distortions. Engels therefore decided to speak out and refute the insinuations without waiting for the end of the series. He sent his statement, together with the present letter, to August Bebel for delivery to the editorial board of Die Berliner Volks-Tribüne. The newspaper published Engels’ statement on 19 November 1892 (see present edition, Vol. 27, pp. 344-46). On 24 December 1892 L. Héritier offered his reply, which was published together with his final article. As in his letter to Engels of 15 December 1892, Héritier tried to rebut the accusations. See also Engels’ letters: to Héritier of 20 January 1893 and to Kautsky of 25 March 1895 (see this volume, pp. 85-6, 481).
[43] Fabians—members of the Fabian Society founded in 1884 by democratic-minded intellectuals. It was named after the Roman general of 3d century B.C., Quintus Fabias Maximus, surnamed Cunctator (‘the delayer’) because of his cautious tactics in the war against Hannibal. The Fabian Society included such prominent members as Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Bernard Shaw, H. Bland, among others. Its local organisations drew support from industrial workers who were attracted by a sharp critique of the capitalist order contained in Fabian publications. However, except in 1892, when it attracted a number of otherwise ‘homeless’ working-class socialists, the number of actual ‘practising’ workers (i.e., non-official trade-union members) never exceeded 10 per cent of the identifiable membership, and perhaps even less if the total numbers were counted. Rejecting the possibility of a revolutionary transformation of bourgeois society, the Fabians thought it was possible to shift from capitalism to socialism by implementing reforms within the framework of so-called municipal socialism. In 1900 the Fabian Society joined the Labour Party.
[101] Engels sent this letter to A. Bebel (together with a letter addressed to Bebel personally, not available today) who, at Engels’ request, sent it to K. Kautsky.
[565] In December 1878 Bismarck proposed a draft reform of customs tariffs to a Reichstag commission set up for the purpose. Following debates in the Reichstag, this bill was adopted on 12 July 1879. It provided for a substantial increase in the customs duties on imports of iron, machinery, textiles, grain, cattle, fats, flax, timber, etc.
[566] The Centre Party (see Note 71).
[570] Engels means Ein Wort des ‘Adressaten’—the introduction which Julius Wolf wrote to F. Bertheau’s book Fünf Brief über Marx an Herrn Dr. Julius Wolf published in Jena in 1895. In his Introduction J. Wolf replied to Engels’ critical remarks on his address in the preface to Volume II I of Capital (see present edition, Vol. 37).
[573] An allusion to P. Lafargue’s book Le droit à la paresse. Réfutation du ‘Droit au travail’ de 1848, published in Paris in 1883.
[574] This chapter of P. Lafargue’s work Origine et évolution de la propriété bore the title ‘Collectivisme consanguin’.
[575] Lex Alamannorum (The Law of the Alamanni)—part of the Leges Alamannorum, or the records of the common law code of the Alamanni (Alemanni), the Germanic tribes which invaded and settled in Alsace and part of Switzerland in the early 5th century A.D. The Alamannic laws, dating from the 6th to 8th centuries A.D., reflected the transition from the primitive tribal system to early feudal society.
[576] Lex Salica (Salic Law)—a code of laws of Germanic tribes, including the Salian Franks. Recorded in the early 6th century A.D., this code reproduces various stages of archaic court proceedings and is regarded as an important historical document illustrative of the evolution of Frankish society from the primitive communal system to nascent feudal society. The Salians were a tribe of Franks who settled along the Ijssel River, in the Netherlands, in the 4th century A.D.
[577] On 3 April 1895 Richard Fischer told Engels — who had begun preparing for publication of the early works of Marx from the newspaper Rheinische Zeitung—that Hans Baake, a German Socialist, was planning a similar edition. Baake’s plans never materialised.
[579] Engels alludes to Boris Krichevsky, a Russian Socialist, who, without his consent, had published in 1894 the Russian translation of Marx’s works The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte and Wage Labour and Capital (see note 368). This publication was undertaken in the series ‘Social-Democratic Library’ (original in Russian).
[580] Engels had stayed in Berlin on 16-28 September 1893 (see Note 262).
[582] N. Baudeau’s work Explication du tableau économique published in 1846 in the book Physiocrates. Avec une introduction sur la doctrine des physiocrates, des commentaires et des notices historiques, par E. Daire.
[583] Refers to the royalties for Marx’s The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850, published in Berlin in 1895. Engels had written an introduction to this edition (see Note 507).
[585] In his letter to Engels on 27 January 1894 R. Fischer proposed that works by Marx and Engels should be published in installments. In his opinion, this did not exclude the possibility of a complete collection of works, as Engels had contemplated.
[586] The second German edition of volume I of Das Kapital was published in 1872-73 in nine installments. Marx wrote an afterword to the entire edition.
[587] Marx had been writing articles for New-York Daily Tribune from August 1851 to 1862 at the suggestion of the paper’s editor Charles Dana. A significant number of contributions, especially on military matters, were written by Engels at Marx’s request. Some of the dis-patches were co-authored by Marx and Engels. The articles which Marx and Engels wrote for New-York Daily Tribune have been published in volumes 11-17 of the present edition.
[588] On 14 April 1895 Vorwärts published a note entitled ‘Parteipresse’ informing readers about the changes in Le Socialiste: the larger format of this periodical, the appointment of A. Zévaés as editor-in-chief and of René-Auguste Chauvin as managing editor.
[589] At Engels’ request Laura Lafargue told him in detail about the characters in Molière’s plays in her letter of 6 April 1895. Engels showed an interest in Sganarelle in view of Achille Loria’s theory that he personified vulgar common sense.
[590] The reference is to ‘true socialism’, a trend that gained wide currency in Germany in the 1840s, chiefly amongst the petty bourgeois intellectuals. Critical of capitalism, True Socialists idealised the pre-capitalist way of life (medieval guilds, etc.) and believed Germany could reach socialism without passing through the stage of capitalist industry. True Socialists would hold forth on friendship and solidarity, and preach against participation in political activity and the struggle for democracy; they denied the necessity of a bourgeois-democratic revolution in Germany. The views of ‘True Socialists’ were sharply criticised by Marx and Engels.
[591] Writing to Engels on 21 March 1895, Ludwig Kugelmann suggested publishing a complete collection of works by Marx and Engels, beginning with articles published in Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher and The Manifesto of the Communist Party .
[592] Probably a reference to the copy of Marx’s The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850 the receipt of which L. Kugelmann acknowledged in his reply letter to Engels on 14 July 1895.
[593] Some of the data given by Engels in this and in the preceding paragraph and referring to his curriculum vitae are erroneous: he was in Bonn after 8 October 1842, the day when he had completed his military service in Berlin; Marx left the editorial board of the Rheinische Zeitung on 17 March 1843, and his statement to this effect was published in the newspaper on 18 March 1843. The ban on Rheinische Zeitung of 1 April 1843 was issued on 21 January 1843 with the adoption, on 19 January of the same year, of the decision by the Prussian government to close down the newspaper; this decision was published in the Kölnische Zeitung on 26 January and in the Düsseldorfer Zeitung on 27 January 1843. Marx left Cologne for Bad-Kreuznach in May 1843.
[594] On 18 April 1895 the Berlin Polizei-Präsidium imposed censorship over theatrical performances of Die Freie Volksbühne Gesellschaft (see Note 256). Its steering committee replied by stopping performances altogether, while its president, Franz Mehring, appealed to the court and demanded the defence of the right of free expression. Since the court had rejected this plea, the Free Popular Stage Society disbanded in March 1896, but it was reinstituted in the spring of 1897 with a new charter.
[595] Engels refers to the copies of the two articles written by Marx for the Rheinische Zeitung in 1842: ‘Debates on Freedom of the Press and Publication of the Proceedings of the Assembly of the Estates’, and ‘Debates on the Law on Thefts of Wood’—the copies which R. Fischer sent him on 6 May 1895.
[598] On 15 May 1895 Carl Hirsch, then cooperating with the Rheinische Zeitung, told Engels about criminal charges being brought against A. Hofrichter, the managing editor of that newspaper. The criminal proceedings had been instituted by Schellmann, the superintendent of a reformatory at Braunweiler, since the newspaper had accused him of intensifying the inmates’ work. The editors asked Engels to find James Politt, a British journalist who had, at the request of British factory-owners, visited a number of German prisons, including one at Braunweiler, and had described his impressions in the newspaper The Hardwareman. The Rheinische Zeitung editors wanted Politt as a witness at the trial.
[600] In his letter of 6 May 1895 to Engels, K. Kautsky asked him to write a section on the First International for Volume IV of Die Geschichte des Sozialismus in Einzeldarstellungen; this volume was to come out in 1897.
[601] In his reply to Engels on 25 May 1895 K. Kautsky wrote that he and E. Bernstein had not asked Engels for contributions to Die Geschichte des Sozialismus only because in the winter of 1893-94 he, Engels, had been busy preparing the manuscript of Volume II I of Capital for the press.
[3] The rough copy of this letter written in Engels’ own hand is still available. Louise Kautsky copied the rough notes of the letter. Engels wrote in the word ‘hochachtungsvoll’ (with kind respects) and added his signature. The texts of the original letter and of the rough notes are identical.
[602] In his work Von Plato bis zu den Wiederstäufern K. Kautsky had translated Ulrich von Hutten’s Epistolae obscurorum virorum as Briefe unberühmter Manner, like Johannes Janssen, the author of Die Geschichte des deutchen Volkes set dem Ausgang des Mittelalters, Kautsky believed the accepted translation of the Epistolae’s name was not clear enough.
[603] In 1890-95 Friedrich Adolf Sorge had written a series of articles for the journal Die Neue Zeit on the labour movement in the United States in a period from the 1830s to 1892: ‘Die Arbeiterbewegung in den Vereinigten Staaten’. As far back as 21 November 1891 Engels had suggested that these articles should be published in a separate edition and had promised to find a publisher (see present edition, vol. 46). However, this publication did not materialise at the time. A book of his articles in Russian translation appeared in St. Petersburg only in 1907, i.e., after Sorge’s death (1906).
[133] The whereabouts of the cable is unkown.
[605] A. Hofrichter probably intended to have these articles reprinted in the Rheinische Zeitung.
[606] Concerning the additions and alterations for the revised German translation of Nikolai Danielson’s book Essays on Our Post-Reform Social Economy (original in Russian). The author had sent these corrections enclosed in his letter to Engels of 1 June 1895 for A. Konov, the translator. The German edition of this book appeared only in 1899 in G. Polonsky’s translation.
[607] The reference is to Engels’ work What Have the Working Classes to Do with Poland (present edition, Vol. 20) which, translated into Polish, was published by the journal Przedswit (No. 7) in July 1895 under the title: Klasa robotnicza a rwestya polska.
[608] Engels wrote the following address on the envelope of the letter: Sig. avv° Filippo Turati, 23, Portici Galleria V.E. Milano, Italy. The first page of the letter has the note written by F.Turati: ‘Riferito al Arturo Labriola. 1.7.95’ (‘Told Arturo Labriola, 1.07.95’).
[609] On 19 June 1895 E Turati asked Engels for permission to allow Arturo Labriola to make a précis of Capital for publication in Italian.
[340] Pertaining to the Socialist Party of the Italian Working People [Il Partito socialista dei lavo-ratori italiani] founded in 1892 at a congress in Genoa. The Party took a resolute stand in distancing itself from the anarchists; in 1895 it changed its name and came to be known as The Italian Socialist Party [Il Partito socialista italiano].
[610] In the article ‘Un fatto personale che infolge una questione generale’, published under the pseudonym Noi (‘We’) in the Critica Sociale (No. 10) on 16 May 1895. E Turati reproduced a passage from the letter which Engels had written on 8 January 1895 to Pasquale Martignetti (see this volume, pp. 407). Writing to Engels on 1 July 1895, E Turati apolo-gised for not having indicated the author of the passage quoted. F. Turati wrote the above article in reply to A. Labriola’s articles on the situation in Italy, which were published anonymously on 3 and 7 May 1895 by the Liepziger Volkszeitung. In them Labriola had criticised the stand of the Italian Socialist Party at a parliamentary election (see Note 611).
[611] At the election to the Italian Parliament on 26 May and 2 June 1895, the Italian Socialist Party, which had joined in a coalition with the Radicals and Republicans against the Crispi government and its supporters, gained 17 seats in the Parliament.
[618] A reference to the work of Eleanor Marx-Aveling translating into English the French edition of G. Plekhanov’s pamphlet Anarchism and Socialism’ (original in Russian). The English edition, to which Eleanor wrote a preface, was published in London in 1895.
[620] A reference to the first part of A. Labriolas article ‘En memoire du Manifeste du parti communiste’ published by Le Devenir social (No. 3) in June 1895; the second part of this article appeared in the next, July issue of the journal.
[345] On 12-29 July 1894 Britain had a parliamentary election which gave the Conservatives a majority of over 150 votes in the Commons. Many candidates from the Independent Labour Party, among them Keir Hardie, were blackballed.
[622] A. Ruge complied with this request. In a review published by the Deutsche Jahrbücher fur Wissenschaft und Kunst (Nos. 126-128) on 28, 30 and 31 May 1842 he praised Engels’ work Schelling and Revelation. Ruge stressed in particular the author’s clarity in his exposition and critique of the Schelling philosophy.
[623] Engels means Ludwig Feuerbach’s Das Wesen ses Christenthums.
[455] As L. Kugelmann wrote to Engels on 7 January 1895, Hermann Meyer, who emigrated to America after the 1848 Revolution, had been collecting Marx’s works. After Meyer’s death in a shipwreck in 1875, the books and other documents that still remained in his collection fell into the hands of his nephew, Max Livingston of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Having learned of this, Kugelmann asked Lvingston to send on Marx’s works in his possession. Livingston replied in his letter on 21 March 1876 that he had only the articles and reports written by Marx for the New-York Daily Tribune in 1851-58 (see also Note 559).
[44] Social Democratic Federation—a British socialist organisation set up in August 1884 on the basis of the bourgeois-radical Democratic Federation; it united heterogeneous socialist elements, predominantly intellectuals and a section of politically active workers. The Federation stated in its programme that the entire wealth of the nation should belong to Labour, its only source. It also set as its aim a socialisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and came out for a society of ‘emancipated labour’. That was Britain’s first socialist programme based mainly on Marxist ideas. The leadership of the Federation was in the hands of Henry Hyndman, prone to authoritarian methods of guidance, and his supporters who did not deem it necessary to conduct work in the trades unions, a stance that inevitably led to isolation of the organisation from the working-class masses. A group of Socialists within the Federation (Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Edward Aveling, William Morris, Tom Mann and others) opposed Hyndman and championed closer ties with the working-class movement. The differences on tactical issues and international cooperation resulted in a split and the formation of an independent organisation— The Socialist League (see Note 136).
[114] The Independent Labour Party was founded by leaders of the new trades unions at the Bradford Conference on 13-14 January 1893 in a situation characterised by the mounting strike action and the movement for a greater say of the British working class in politics. This party was headed by Keir Hardie. In its programme the Independent Labour Party championed collective ownership of the means of production, an eight-hour day, prohibition of child labour, social insurance, unemployment allowances, among other demands. The party leadership focused on parliamentary forms of struggle in its practical activities. In 1900 the Independent Labour Party joined the Labour Party.
[458] On 3 May 1894 the workers of Berlin breweries declared a ‘beer boycott’ to protest against the firing of about 300 coopers of the Ricksford Union of Brewers who had taken part in the May Day demonstrations of 1894. The brewery workers pressed their demands for hav ing May 1 as a day off, for reducing the working day to 9 hours, a legal status for the trade-union organisations of brewers, an independent court of arbitration, and for the reinstate ment of the sacked workers with compensation for damages. The owners of large breweries responded by a mass lockout. However, since the beer boycott attained a wide scope, in September 1894 the employers had to enter into negotiations with the workers and meet their demands by and large. An arbitration court, comprising representatives of employers and workers, was likewise set up. The beer boycott was stopped on 26 December 1894.
[428] Engels refers to the Draft of a Law on amendments and addenda to the Criminal Code, the Military Criminal Code and the legislation on the press (‘Der Entwurf eines Gesetzes, betreffend Änderungen und Ergänzungen des Strafgesetzbuchs, des Militärstrafgesetzbuchs und des Gesetzes über die Presse), known for short as the Subversion Bill (‘Umsturzvollage’). It envisaged harsh punishment for ‘the intention to effect an overthrow of the existing state system’ even in the absence of a criminal act, and also for an encroachment on religion, monarchy, matrimony and property. The government tabled the draft law in the Reichstag in December 1894, but the top German legislature rejected it in May 1895.
[436] On 6 December 1894 the members of the Social-Democratic faction in the Reichstag did not rise but remained seated as the Reichstag President von Levetzow had proposed the health of Emperor William II , and the other deputies had stood up to shout three ‘hurrahs!’ Such behaviour of the Social-Democratic group was qualified as lèse-majesté, thereupon the district court of Berlin decided to start criminal proceedings against Liebknecht. On 11 December the Reichskanzler, Prince zu Hohenlohe, demanded that the Reichstag approve the court decision. But on 15 December the Reichstag rejected this demand by 168 votes against 58.
[467] Martignetti’s Italian translation of the preface which Engels had writen to Volume II I of Capital was published in the journal Le Rassegna agraria, industrials, commerciale, letteraria, politica, artisticaNo.l/2 for January 1895.
[15-] The Anti-Socialist Law (The Exceptional Law Against the Socialists) was introduced by the Bismarck government on a majority vote cast in the Reichstag, on 21 October 1878 to combat the socialist and workers’ movement. It banned all party and mass workers’ organisations, and the socialist and workers’ press, and sanctioned confiscation of socialist literature and persecution of Social-Democrats. Nevertheless, the Social-Democratic Party, in accordance with Constitution preserved its group in the Reichstag. Assisted by Marx and Engels, the Party was able to overcome both the reformist and anarchist tendencies within its ranks and expand its base among the popular masses by a skilful combination of legal and illegal methods of work. 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’ (Vol. 24, pp. 407-09).
[1] Probably another part of a Gobelin tapestry from the study of Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz. Ludwig Kugelmann had sent two parts of this tapestry to Karl Marx on his birthday, 8 May 1870.
[2] In his letter of 28 September 1892 Ludwig Kugelmann informed Engels he had three copies of Herr Vogt which had been sent to him for custody on a commission from Karl Marx. Kugelmann expressed the desire to have them sent to Engels so that the latter could dispose of them at his discretion.
[377] The central organ of the Austrian Social-Democratic Workers’ Party Die Arbeiter-Zeitung was a weekly newspaper in 1893; it became a semiweekly in 1894 and a daily as of January 1895.
[471] On 27 December 1894 Victor Adler wrote in his letter to Engels about his plans to have the Arbeiter-Zeitung publish the article ‘Karl Marx in Wien’ and asked if Engels could help him with the material for it. He also said he had found some of the data in the newspaper Der Radikale published in 1848 by Alfred Julius Becher. On 24 January 1895, the Arbeiter-Zeitung published Max Bach’s article ‘Karl Marx in Wien” which drew upon the facts supplied by Engels (see also this volume, p. 434).
[475] In the preface to Volume II I of Capital Engels took a critical view of certain tenets of George Stiebeling’s work Das Werthgesetz und die Profit-Rate. Leichtfaßliche Auseinandersetzung einiger wissenschaftlicher Fragen. Stiebeling’s letter was published in Die Neue Zeit, 13. Jg.1894-95, 1 Bd., No. 18.
[480] On 24 December 1894 Edouard Vaillant sent Engels a number of draft laws on labour legislation and agrarian issues which Socialist deputies had tabled in the Chamber of Deputies. He asked Engels to pay particular attention to the draft law on agricultural communal holdings.
[25] This letter has never been found.
[484] Three successive French governments had to resign since November 1893: the Dupuy cabinet (November 1893), the Casimir-Périer cabinet (May 1894) and then the Dupuy cabinet again (January 1895). Thereupon, on 15 January 1895, President Casimir-Périer tendered his resignation; he was resolutely opposed by the Socialist faction in Parliament enjoining the French to defend the Republic ‘in jeopardy’. On 17 January 1895 François Félix Faure was elected President of the French Republic.
[270] A reference to the draft electoral reform tabled in the Austrian Reichskrat on 10 October 1893 by Ministerpräsident (Premier) Eduard Taaffe whose government represented the conservative bloc of the big landed proprietors and top bureaucracy. He was supported by the Polish, Czech and Slovenian feudal-clerical interests, A broad campaign for a reform of the country’s electoral system began in the early 1890s. On 9 July 1893 Social-Democrats organised a mammoth demonstration of Vienna’s workers for universal suffrage. Similar demonstrations and rallies were held countrywide. Under the circumstances the Taaffe government proposed a draft electoral reform which provided for a considerably wider range of prospective voters, but preserved the old curial system and the privileges for the landlords and the bourgeoisie. The reactionary political parties, however, opposed the draft law, and the Taaffe cabinet had to resign in October 1893. The country’s electoral system was reformed as late as 1896.
[71] Centre—a political party of German Roman Catholics formed in 1870-71 as a result of unification between the Catholic factions in the Prussian Landtag and the German Reichstag (the seats of their deputies used to be in the centre of the assembly hall). The Centre Party would take an intermediate stand, as a rule, by manoeuvering between the parties that backed the government and the Left-wing opposition groups of the Reichstag. It rallied under the banner of Catholicism the socially heterogenous strata of the clergy, the landed aristocracy, the bourgeoisie, that part of the peasantry predominantly in small and medium-sized states, as well as Roman Catholic working men in Western and South-Western Germany. The Centrists, while being in opposition to the Bismarck government, voted nonetheless for its anti-labour and anti-Socialist enactments. Engels gave a detailed analysis of the Centre in his work The Role of Force in History (see present edition, Vol. 26, pp. 453-511) and in the article What’s Next? (see present edition, Vol. 27, pp. 7-11). Since in 1893 the Centre Party had 196 seats in the Reichstag out of 397, it could play a decisive role in the event of differences among other parties.
[87] Opportunists—a party of moderate bourgeois Republicans which emerged after the 1881 split in the Republican Party and the formation of the left-wing Radical Party with Georges Clemenceau as its head (see Note 86). This name was introduced in 1877 by the journalist Henri Rochefort who coined it from the words of L. Gambetta, the leader of the ‘Moderates’, that reforms should be implemented ‘at an opportune time’ (‘en temps opportun).
[13] Late in 1884 Bismarck, in a bid to intensify Germany’s colonial policies, urged the Reichstag to approve annual subsidies for steamship companies with the aim of organising regular voyages to East Asia, Australia and Africa. This demand caused a split within the Social-Democratic faction in the Reichstag. The Left wing with August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht at the head spoke out against support for the government’s demand. The Right-wing majority in the faction (J.H.W Dietz, P. Frohme, G. Grillenberger) intended to vote for the subsidies on the pretext of furthering international ties. The Right-wing stand was condemned by the party’s rank and file and its central organ, the newspaper Der Sozialdemokrat. As a result, the majority of the faction was compelled to modify their attitude to the government motion during Reichstag debates in March 1885 by making its ‘yes’ votes conditional on passage by the Reichstag of some of the proposals of the faction (in particular, the demand that ships for these lines be built only at German yards). Only after these demands had been turned down by the Reichstag did all the members of the Social-Democratic faction vote against.
[507] In his letter of 30 January 1895 Richard Fischer told Engels about the plans of Vorwärts to release in a separate edition a series of articles which Marx had written for Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politische-ökonomische Revue in 1850 on the 1848-49 Revolution in France (see present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 47-131) and asked for his agreement to the proposed publication. He also asked him to write an introduction (see also Note 529).
[284] The letter of Ferdinand Lassalle to Marx and Engels which Engels wanted published with his notes and a preface; this was done by Franz Mehring in 1902.
[343] The Congress of the Socialist Workers’ Party of Germany in Wyden (Switzerland) was held in August 1890. That was the first illegal congress of the German Social-Democrats following the introduction of the Anti-Socialist Law of 1878 (see Note 15). The Congress criticised the anarchist stand of Johann Most and Wilhelm Hasselmann, who rejected all legal means of struggle, advocated individual terror and launched an open campaign against the Party leadership; it expelled them from the Party. The Congress unanimously decided to strike out the word ‘legal’ from the statement contained in Part II of the Gotha Programme of 1875 to the effect that the Party was working to attain its goals ‘with all legal means’. The Congress confirmed the status of Der Sozialdemokrat as the Party’s official organ.
[62] This refers to the London German Workers’ Educational Society. Founded in 1840 by Karl Schapper, Joseph Moll, Heinrich Bauer and other activists of the League of the Just. In 1847 and 1849-50 Marx and Engels took part in the work of the Society. With the foundation of the First International it joined the International Working-Men’s Association. The London Educational Society continued in existence under different names until 1918 when it was closed by the British government.
[517] Concerning the French translation of Engels’ work On the History of Early Christianity (see present edition, Vol. 27) made by Laura Lafargue (see also Note 420).
[518] A reference to the lecture L’Idéalisme de l’histoire which Jean Juarès delivered in Paris early in 1895.
[523] Writing to Engels on 20 February 1895, G. Plekhanov described Tsar Nicholas II as ‘the young idiot of the Winter Palace’ whose speech of 29 January 1895 ‘has done a great service to the revolutionary party’.
[526] According to the local government reform on 1888, the London County Council could be elected by all male citizens who were eligible to vote in parliamentary elections, as well as by women 30 years and older. The London County Council, which controlled taxation, local budgets, etc., was elected every three years. The 1889 and 1892 elections brought victory to the Progressists, a group comprising bourgeois Liberals, members of the Fabian Society (see Note 43) and Socialists; it defeated the group of Moderates that united the Liberal Unionists (see Note 206) and the Conservatives. At the elections of 2 March 1895, the Moderates gained a few new seats in the London County Council because of the refusal of the Socialists to vote in a bloc with the Progressists.
[529] On 6 March 1895 Engels received a letter from Richard Fischer, the Executive Secretary of the German Social-Democratic Party, who requested him to soften what appeared to be the stridently revolutionary tenor of the manuscript of the Introduction to Karl Marx’s The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850 (1895); R. Fischer feared the moot points would be taken advantage of by the enemies of Social-Democracy, a making it easier for the government to push through the Subversion Bill (see Note 428). Being obliged to fulfill the request of the Party’s Executive Board, Engels agreed to make some amendments in the text and omit some of the passages, e.g., ones dealing with the armed struggle which the proletariat was to wage against the bourgeoisie. Engels admitted that the original text of the Introduction ‘suffered somewhat’ as a result of such deletions (see this volume, p. 480).
[534] In May 1895 Engels wrote the article ‘Law of Value and Rate of Profit’ conceived as an addendum to Volume II I of Capital. It was published shortly after his death by Die Neue Zeit (14.jg., 1. Bd., Nos. 1,2 for 1895/96) under the heading: ‘Fr. Engels’ letzte Arbeit: Ergänzung und Nachtrag zum dritten Buch des ‘Kapitals” (see present edition, Vol. 37). Engels intended to write yet another article, ‘The Stock Exchange’, but could not go further than the general outline (see present edition, Vol. 37).
[541] In his letter of 5 March 1895 K. Kautsky told Engels about J. Platter’s critique of Volume II I of Capital in the Swiss journal on economic and social policy—Schweizerische Blätter für Wirtschafis- und Sozialpolitik (1. Märzheft, 1895)—under the title ‘Die Lösung’. Kautsky added he had declined E. Ferris offer for publication of his article in defence of the Marxian theory of value.
[558] Ludwig Kugelmann had been looking for the earlier writings by Marx and Engels for the publication of a complete collection of their works (see Note 453). In July 1846 the journal Das Westphälische Dampfboot had published, anonymously, Marx’s and Engels’ Circular Against Kriege (see present edition, Vol. 6, pp. 35-51); and in August and September 1847 it had published Chapter 4 of the second volume of The German Ideology. ‘Karl Grün: Die Soziale Bewegung in Frankreich und Belgien (Darmstadt, 1845) or ‘The Historiography of True Socialism’ (see present edition, Vol. 5, pp. 484-531).
[559] L. Kugelmann, acting on Engels’ request in connection with the preparation of a complete collection of Marx’s works for the press (see this volume, p. 504), got in touch with Max Livingston. On 21 March 1895 Kugelmann informed Engels of Livingstons reply: 18 years before he had commissioned Friedrich Sorge to send Hermann Meyer’s heritage (see Note 455) to London.
[561] A reference to the book Die Vorläufer des Neuren Sozialismus which appeared in 1895 as the first volume of Die Geschichte des Sozialismus in Einzeldarstellungen published in Stuttgart by K. Kautsky, E. Bernstein, P. Lafargue, F. Mehring and others. The first part of Volume I—Von Plato bis zu den Wiedertäufern—was written by K. Kautsky; the second part includes contributions by K. Kautsky, P. Lafargue, C. Hugo as well as E. Bernstein’s Kommunistische und demokratisch-sozialistische Strömungen während der englischen Revolution des 17.Jahrhunderts.
[562] The Anabaptists (lit., those baptised again) belonged to one of the most radical and democratic religious-philosophical trends in Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands during the Reformation. This sect denied the vailidity of infant baptism and practised baptism of adults.
[563] Die Taboriten—the title of the sixth chapter of Part II I of the Kautsky work Von Plato bis zu den Wiedertäufern. The Taborites (so called after their camp in the town of Tabor in Bohemia)—a radical trend in the Hussite movement. In contrast to the Calixtines, they formed a revolutionary, democratic wing of the Hussites; their demands reflected the striv-ing of the peasantry and the urban lower classes to put an end to feudal oppression and all manifestations of social and political injustice.
[235] Engels never realised this intention. For the available fragments and outlines, see present edition, Vol. 26, pp. 554-56.
[564] The Reichstag at its session on 23 March 1895 rejected, by 163 votes against 146, the proposal to send a message of greetings to Bismarck on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Voting against were Social-Democrats, deputies of the Free-Thinking Party, the Centre Party, those representing the Polish lands, and others. This decision aroused the anger of Emperor William II who sent a cable to Bismarck expressing his profound indignation over the incident; he said the Reichstag decision was ‘in gross contradiction to the feelings of all German princes and their peoples’.
[567] A reference to P. Lafargue’s work Origine et évolution de la propriété which came off the press in Paris in 1895. At the publisher’s suggestion, it appeared under the same cover as Ives Gugot’s work Réfutation de l’essai sur l’origine de la propriété which refuted P. Lafargue’s conclusions.
[569] On 30 March 1895 the newspaper Vorwärts carried the leading article ‘Wie man heute Revolutionen macht’ which cited, without prior consent from Engels, selected excerpts from his ‘Introduction’ to Marx’s work The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850. The aim was to represent Engels as a protagonist of an exclusively peaceful takeover of political power by the working class. Shortly before the appearance of this work in a separate edition, the ‘Introduction’ had been published in the journal Die Neue Zeit (13. Jg., 1894/95, 2. Bd., Nr. 27, 28) in the same form as in the separate edition (see Note 529). The original version did not see print even after the threat of a new Anti-Socialist Law in Germany had been over.
[578] A reference to the following articles written by Marx and published by the Rheinische Zeitung in 1842-early 1843: Proceedings of the Sixth Rhine Province Assembly. First Article. Debates on Freedom of the Press and Publication of the Proceedings of the Assembly of the Estates; Proceedings of the Sixth Rhine Assembly. Third Article. Debates on the Law on Thefts of Wood; Justification of the Correspondent from the Mosel (present edition, Vol. I, pp. 132-81, 224-63, 332-58). Engels never realised his intention to have these articles published in a separate edition.
[584] By the Mosel article (subsequently, the Mosel articles) Engels means the Marx article ‘Justification of the Correspondent from the Mosel’ published in January 1843 in five numbers of Rheinische Zeitung. Marx had planned five parts of this article (see present edition, vol. I, p. 334); however, only two parts had been written and published (ibid., pp. 334-58).
[596] Engels stayed at Eastbourne from early June to 24 July 1895.
[614] In April 1895 the Paris monthly journal Le devenir social carried Edward Aveling’s article ‘Les sans-travail en Engleterre’ in which he claimed that Keir Hardie, the leader of the Independent Labour Party, denied the fact of unemployment in Britain. In June 1895 the French youth monthly La jeunesse socialiste reprinted excerpts from this article. On 6 July 1895 the journal Labour Leader carried a refutation from K. Hardie.
[617] Apparently a reference to the proposal made to E. Aveling in June 1895 by the Glasgow organisation of the Independent Labour Party (see Note 114) to nominate his candidacy at the forthcoming parliamentary election. Aveling declined for reason of poor health. This was reported in The Labour Leader (No. 67) on 13 July 1895 (see Note 614).