Letter to Laura Lafargue, July 23, 1885

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 23 July 1885


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 36, Moscow, 1964
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47


ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE

IN PARIS

London, 23 July 1885

My dear Laura,

Very glad to learn that our prisoner[1] is going soon again to breathe l'air pur de la liberté (sans égalité et fraternité)[2] and [...][3]

Of course Deville is quite innocent of the trick of Hyndman and Co.[4] — for it is said that the 'John Broadhouse' who figure-heads as translator, is the immortal Hyndman himself— and I hope the thing may blow over. Perhaps it was merely concocted between Hyndman and Kegan Paul to set us on, for Kegan Paul has not heard from me for a long time, considering that I cannot as yet fix a date when we shall be ready. At all events we cannot have anything about this pre- tended publication. Of course it would be best if it turned out a mere Schreckschüsse[5] But if not, I am bound to declare publicly that the lat- ter half of the résumé does not render the original correctly. I told Deville so, before it was printed,6 and yet it was printed in the old shape, 'because the publisher would not wait'. That could be al- lowed to pass unnoticed in France, where the French edition is in the market. But it will never do here, so long as there is no English translation out,[6] or so long as it is brought out in competition to that.

The little squabble amongst the German deputies has on the whole had excellent effects. The workingmen have everywhere shown such an energetic front against these ridiculous pretensions that the big men in Parliament are not likely to repeat their attempt at domineer- ing.[7] This our men have done in the most unmistakable way and in spite of all the trammels of the Socialist Law.[8] In the meantime poor Liebknecht is hurrying from one end of Germany to the other preach- ing concord and telling everybody that there are no differences of principle, that it's all personal squabbles, that both sides have committed faults, etc.— the hen that has hatched ducklings. He has been hatching 'heducated' socialists for the last twenty years and now ob- stinately refuses to see that the chickens are ducklings, the socialists are philanthropic Spiessburger.[9]

Most happy am I to see that the scrutin de liste5 invented to per- petuate Opportunist government, is likely to smash up Opportunism altogether.[10] If Clemenceau keeps only one half of what he prom- ises, if he merely initiates the break-up of the vast French bureaucracy, it will be an immense progress. On the other hand, even supposing him to really intend being sincere and a man of his word, he will find so many real obstacles, he will so soon be brought to a standstill, that to the Paris electors he will always appear as a traitor. It is a delusion to think that in France Anglo-Saxon, especially American local self- government can be introduced without upsetting the whole bourgeois régime. So, very soon he will have to choose: either drop his reforms and remain bourgeois avec les bourgeois[11] or go on and revolutionise himself. I think he will remain bourgeois, and then our time may come.

Schorlemmer is here, has as yet no definite projects for Continental tours, but keeps his mind's eye on Paris. He is out at present, may re- turn before I close this.

Here too we shall have a peaceable revolution in November. The new electorate is sure to change the whole basis of old parties.[12] The Whigs have already declared through their great mouthpiece The Edinburgh Review that there must be now 'a parting of the waters': the Radicals are to shift for themselves and the Whigs intend joining the Tories who, they find, are not so bad after all.[13] Whether the Tories will accept them, and on what terms, remains to be seen. The fact is that this alliance has been on the tapis for the last 10 years, but al- ways broke down on the question of the division of the spoil. Another progress: we shall very likely get all the rotten 'representative work- ing men' into Parliament. That is just the place where we want them.

Pumps wants us to go Jersey this year; if we do, and Paul is out, will you come and join us there, and then come over to London? Steamers from St Malo — or will you wait in Paris till Jollymeier comes and brings you over? You might ruminate that a bit and let me know. We cannot leave before 8th or 10th August on account of Percy's busi- ness.[14]

Love from Nim and Jollymeier.

Yours affectionately,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ Paul Lafargue
  2. ↑ fresh air of freedom (without equality and brotherhood)
  3. ↑ The next two lines in the original are crossed out by an unknown person and cannot be deciphered. See this volume, pp. 61, 63.
  4. ↑ Engels is referring to the report in Justice, No. 73, 6 June 1885 that the publisher William Reeves intended to put out Gabriel Deville's book Le Capital de Karl Marx. Resume... (see Note 81) in an English translation by John Broadhouse (Hyndman's pseudonym). At that time Engels was negotiating with the publish ers Kegan Paul and Co. about publishing the English translation of the first volume of Capital (see Note 56). These negotiations ended without success. Marx's work was put out by another publishing house and Deville's book did not appear in English.
  5. ↑ false alarm
  6. ↑ The idea of translating Capital into English occurred to Marx as early as 1865, when he was working on the manuscript (see Marx's letter to Engels of 31 July 1865, present edition, Vol. 42). The British journalist and member of the Interna tional's General Council, Peter Fox, was to help Marx find a publisher. However, this matter was not settled due to Fox's death in 1869. The English translation of the first volume of Capital, edited by Engels, did not appear until after Marx's death, in January 1887, and was published by Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co., London. The translation was done by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling between mid-1883 and March 1886. Eleanor Marx-Aveling took part in the preparatory work for the edition (see also this volume, pp. 33 and 127-28).
  7. ↑ The majority of the Social-Democratic group in the German Reichstag, consisting of reformists, tried to dispute the right of the party newspaper — Der Sozialdemokrat— to criticise the action of the parliamentary group and its attitude towards the bill envisaging the payment of subsidies to steamship companies (see Note 342). They published a statement to this effect in Der Sozialdemokrat, No. 14, 2 April 1885.
    However, the majority of the local Social-Democratic organisations resolutely supported the editors. The reformists were virtually forced to renounce their objec tions and, in a joint statement with the editors of Der Sozialdemokrat published on 23 April, they recognised the newspaper's status as the 'organ of the whole party' (see also notes 380 and 390).
  8. ↑ The Exceptional Law Against the Socialists (Gesetz gegen die gemeingefährlichen Bestrebungen der Sozialdemokratie — the Law against the Harmful and Dan gerous Aspirations of Social Democracy) was introduced by the Bismarck govern ment, supported by the majority in the Reichstag, on 21 October 1878 to counter the socialist and workers' movement. This law, better known as the Anti-Socialist Law, made the Social-Democratic Party of Germany illegal, banned all party and mass workers' organisations, and the socialist and workers' press; on the basis of this law socialist literature was confiscated and Social Democrats subjected to reprisals. However, during its operation the Social-Democratic Party, assisted by Marx and Engels, uprooted both reformist and anarchist elements and managed to substan tially strengthen and widen its influence among the people by skilfully combining illegal and legal methods of work. Under pressure from the mass workers' move ment, the Anti-Socialist Law was abrogated on 1 October 1890. For Engels' assess ment of this law, see his article 'Bismarck and the German Working Men's Party' (present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 407-09).
  9. ↑ philistines
  10. ↑ Opportunists was the name given in France to the party of moderate bourgeois re publicans after its split in 1881 and the formation of a radical party based on the Left wing and headed by Georges Clemenceau.
    The reason for this name, introduced in 1877 by the journalist Henri Roche- fort, was the statement by Léon Gambetta, the party's leader, that reforms should be carried out 'at an opportune time'.
  11. ↑ with the bourgeois
  12. ↑ In 1884 the third parliamentary reform was carried out in England, as a result of which the suffrage was extended to include small farmers and the farm workers who were homeowners or householders. Suffrage was not extended to the poorer rural and urban sections of the population (tenants and domestic servants), nor to women. The first elections under the new electoral law took place in November- December 1885, with the electorate having a numerical strength of two million higher than at the previous poll (see Note 487).
  13. ↑ Under the heading 'The Parting of the Waters', The Edinburgh Review, No. 331, July 1885, contained a summary of the parliamentary debates for 1884-85. It sharp ly criticised the policies pursued by the Radical wing of the Liberal Party (see Note 415). The author of the summary called on the Whigs to split with the Radi cal wing, describing this act as a 'watershed'.
  14. ↑ On 6 June 1879 Wilhelm Bracke wrote to Engels, T admire Bebel; he is the only one among us with the skills for life in parliament.'