Letter to Laura Lafargue, March 8, 1885

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 8 March 1885


First published, in the language of the original (English), in: F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. I, Paris, 1956
Reproduced from the original in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47


ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE

IN PARIS

London, 8 March 1885

My dear Laura,

Somehow or other I have to-night a few free moments and so sjt down to write to you — hoping that nobody will drop in. For evening calls are getting rather frequent of late, more than is desirable some- times, when there is work to do. And the dictated portions of the Capi- tal I am obliged to look over while the thing is fresh in my mind and the original at hand ready to correct mistakes. Moreover, there are still translations to revise (last week part of a Danish one of my Ursprung[1] — very fair) and Russian pamphlets to decipher (Vera Zasoulitch has sent me one of Plechanoff, polemical against Lavroff and Tichomiroff,[2] and wants me to give her my opinion,[3] and besides these Russian quarrels are not uninteresting) and such like, so that besides the current small fry I have not had time to read a book for months.

The 3rd book [of] Capital is getting grander and grander the deep- er I get into it, and I am only (having passed over entirely about 70 pages, more or less superseded by a later manuscript) at page 230 out of 525. It is almost inconceivable how a man who had such tremendous discoveries, such an entire and complete scientific revolu- tion in his head, could keep it there for 20 years. For the ms. I am working at[4] , has been written either before, or at the same time as the first volume; and the essential part of it is already in the old manu- script of 1860-1862. 171 The fact is, first the intricacies of the 2nd book (which he wrote last and which alone he touched after 1870) kept him fast, as he of course would have to publish his 3 books in regular order; and then, his Russian and American material for the theory of the rent of land 8 0 would have required working up into the old manuscript and would probably have nearly doubled its size.

Here the two socialist bodies[5] are so far jogging on alongside each other without collision, but the foreign department will very likely embroil them. You may have seen in No. 9 of the Sozialdemo- krat a letter from Varenholz, dictated by Hyndman. This rather schnod- drige effusion required a reply which we have concocted and which will come, if possible, in next Saturday's Sozialdemokrat. This time, of course, Aveling had to speak out, and that strong enough to stop Hyndman's game once for all.[6]

We have Kautsky here 3 6 5 whom I think you saw before, with a young Viennese wife, a nice little body.[7] They intend settling down here for the present — and live in Maitland Park; just out of the Cres- cent. So there is always some connection going on with the old place. 3 6 8

Pumps and Percy are getting on as usual. On Sundays there is here now a great cardplaying company, some play whist if there are 4 to be got for that, the rest 'Mariage' and 'Nap', games introduced by the noble Percy. His firm had a law-suit which they lost but it is noth- ing serious, only I hope that it will damp poor Percy's ardent faith in English law. The little ones are getting on very well upon the whole; Lily is very amiable and jolly. She has an extremely sharp ear and re- tentive memory for des jurons,[8] and you may be sure, that she finds many an opportunity to catch them.

On Saturday[9] Nim and Tussy as well as Pumps will go to High- gate. 369 I cannot go, I am still very changeable with respect to capacity for movement, and have just had a little bit of notice to keep quiet. Anyhow I shall continue working at the book which will be a monu- ment to him, made by himself, grander than any that other people could set for Mohr. Two years already on Saturday! And yet I can truly say that while I work at this book, I am in living communion with him.

The 2nd book is getting on well. 13 sheets corrected. Will you please ask Paul to send me at once the address under which he writes to Danielson. I have had a letter from him and want to send the proof-sheets,[10] but am not certain as to address which may besides have been changed.

How is the Montceau Brenin Thévenin affair going on? 3 7 ° And has the Cri du Peuple cried his last?

Amitiés à Paul.

Yours affectionately,

F. Engels Nim's love!

  1. ↑ The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
  2. ↑ [Plekhanov] I". IlAexaHOBT>, Haiuu pamoejlaciH (Our Differences).
  3. ↑ See this volume, pp. 279 81.
  4. ↑ of the third volume
  5. ↑ The reference is to the Social Democratic Federation (see Note 300) and the So cialist League.
    The Socialist League was formed in December 1884 by a group of English social ists who had left the Social Democratic Federation. Its organisers included Elea nor Marx, Ernest Belfort Bax, William Morris and others. 'The Manifesto of the Socialist League' (see The Commonweal, No. 1, February 1885) proclaimed that its members advocate 'the principles of Revolutionary International Socialism' and '...seek a change in the basis of Society ... which would destroy the distinctions of classes and nationalities'. The League set itself the task of establishing a national workers' party adhering to international stand, assisting the trade union and co operative movements. In its initial years the League and its officials took an active part in the workers' movement. However, in 1887 the League's leadership split into three factions (anarchist elements, the 'parliamentarians' and the 'antiparlia- mentarians'); its links with the day-to-day struggles of the English workers were gradually weakened and there was a growth in sectarianism. In 1889-90 the League fell apart.
  6. ↑ In a letter published in Der Sozialdemokrat, No. 9, 26 February 1885, Karl Varen- holz, a member of the Social Democratic Federation, came out in defence of Henry Hyndman's policy and attempted to disprove the reasons for the split in the Social Democratic Federation reported by the same newspaper, No. 3, 15 January 1885; the report reflected Engels' views (see this volume, pp. 236-38). Bernstein's letter to Engels of 15 January gives reason to believe that the report was written by Eleanor Marx-Aveling. Edward Aveling's reply to Varenholz was carried by Der Sozialdemokrat, No. 13, 26 March 1885. Aveling exposed Hyndman's activities in trying to take over the presidency of the Federation, his intrigues against Andreas Scheu and other members of the Federation and the authoritarian practices employed by the editors of Justice, which carried material for the most part reflecting the posi tion of Hyndman and his supporters.
  7. ↑ Louise Kautsky
  8. ↑ swear words
  9. ↑ 14 March
  10. ↑ To speed up the Russian translation of the second volume of Capital Engels sent Nikolai Danielson the proofs of the German edition as they were printed. The volume appeared in January 1886.