Letter to Laura Lafargue, November 12, 1887

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 12 November 1887


First published in the language of the original (English) in F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. II, Paris, 1956
Reproduced from the original in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE[1]

IN PARIS

London, 12 November 1887

My dear Laura,

Nous voilà en plein 1847![2] The parallel is indeed striking; for Teste read: Wilson, for Emile de Girardin read: A. E. Portalis; and if Grévy is not an exact counterpart of Louis Philippe, he is a very well got-up combination of both Louis Philippe and Guizot, uniting the money-greed of the first with the false dignity of the other.[3] I have devoured this morning the papers Paul was good enough to send me, and thought myself forty years younger. Only that the république bourgeoise beats the bourgeois monarchy in out-and-out in cheek. Girardin's study was never broken into nor was his head smashed, and the wholesale suppression of documents seized by police and parquet[4] has no counterpart in 1847. But all these tricks will be useless, the ball is set a-rolling and roll on it will. What we see now is only the 'exposition' of the drama which seems likely to be as creditable to the innate dramatic genius of French history as any of its predecessors.

The most important feature is that this commencement de la fin de la république bourgeoise[5] does not come alone. In Russia, too, the end seems near. The ever-repeated promises of an energetic and successful policy with regard to Bulgaria, followed by ever-renewed checks and moral defeats, seem to have again united the various elements of opposition—it looks as if there might soon be a crisis. Then there is Unser Fritz[6] with a now undeniable cancer in his throat—if anything happens to him, the successor to Old William will be a dummer schnoddriger Junge,[7] of the Gardelieutenant type, at present an adorer of Bismarck but sure soon to fall out with him because he will want to command; a fellow who will soon drive things to extremes and upset the present alliance between feudal nobility and bourgeoisie by sacrificing the latter entirely to the former and who even in army matters is almost sure to fall out with the old experienced generals. And then a crisis is certain. Thus, the critical point is coming nearer everywhere, and I only hope that everywhere people will find as much work cut out for them at home as to prevent them from rushing into war.

La belle Limouzin alias Scharnet is indeed a beauty of a peculiar kind to fascinate French officers. But then, she aimed at nothing less than generals, and generals are people of a certain age when tastes begin to be uncertain with some people. It is certainly a very queer new edition of the Victoires et conquêtes de l'armée française[8] —the conquest of a hunchbacked, lame, repulsive old hag from Karlsruhe! Anyhow she looks energetic and has roused Thibaudin to a rare enthusiasm.

The stories you tell me about the men of the agglomération[9] are characteristic too.[10] The transformation of Paris into a Luxusstadt[11] under the Second Empire could not help telling on the working-class too. But any serious movement will shake off a good deal of that. The effect upon the intellect of the masses, I am afraid, will be more lasting.

Tomorrow we shall have here a bit of a tussle too. After a deal of hesitation and vacillation the police have at last forbidden all meetings on Trafalgar Square; the Radical Clubs have answered by calling a great meeting thither for to-morrow afternoon.[12] Tussy and Edward are of course bound to go. I do not anticipate a serious collision. But it is just possible that Matthews and his colleagues of the Tory government for once show fight; especially as the daily Liberal press have taken the side of the police, and as there is no general election in sight just now, as was the case at the time of the Dod St affair.[13] If so, there may be a scrimmage and a few arrests. So you better look out for tomorrow evening's papers.

I must shut up now, it's past five and no time to lose if you are to have this letter to-morrow morning. So good-bye. Nim keeps cutting her fingers now with one kitchen tool and then with another. Percy has been to Dresden and Berlin for his buttonhole machines and consumed untold quantities of lager. Pumps and children are well.

Ever yours affectionately

F. Engels

  1. ↑ This letter was first published, in the language of the original (English), in F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. 2 (1887-1890), Paris, Ed. sociales, 1956.
  2. ↑ We are back in 1847!
  3. ↑ Here the reference is to the Caffarel-Wilson case (see note 168) in which connection Engels recalls the exposures made by the French journalist Emile de Girardin in 1846-47 (see note 169). The journalist Albert Eduard Portalis, referred to in the letter, was the publisher of the newspaper Le XIXe Siecle which was taking a particularly vigorous stand against Wilson, and which published a number of materials compromising him. During the court trial the dossier, entitled Los antecedents financiers des membres du cabinet Rouvier, was stolen from Portalis, and an attack was made on Portalis himself.
  4. ↑ public prosecutor
  5. ↑ beginning of the end of the bourgeois republic
  6. ↑ Our Fritz (Crown Prince Frederick William)
  7. ↑ stupid, insolent youth
  8. ↑ victories and conquests of the French army
  9. ↑ the Paris branch of the French Workers' Party
  10. ↑ Early in November 1887, Laura Lafargue wrote to Engels about squabbles among some of the members of the Paris branch (agglomeration parisienne) of the French Workers' Party.
  11. ↑ luxury city
  12. ↑ In view of the frequent meetings of the unemployed from the autumn of 1886 to the spring of 1887, the Chief Constable of London, Charles Warren, banned demonstrations and meetings in Trafalgar Square by his fiat of 8 November, 1887. In reply the Metropolitan Radical Federation (see note 22) appointed Sunday, 13 November 1887, as the day of a rally. On that day Trafalgar Square was cordoned off by the police and soldiers, and nearly all the demonstrators, about a hundred thousand strong, were dispersed with exceptional cruelty on their way to the square. Hundreds of workers sustained injuries in clashes with the police (with three workers receiving deadly wounds); numerous arrests were made. Also taking part in the demonstration was Eleanor Marx-Aveling, who described the events of that day in the Pall Mall Gazette on the 14th of November 1887. 13 November 1887 went down in the history of the British working class movement as 'Bloody Sunday'.
  13. ↑ The reference is to the joint meeting of the Social Democratic Federation, the Socialist League, the Labour Emancipation League and the Londoadical Clubs in London on 20 September 1885, in protest against the arrest of Socialist speakers who had addressed rallies in the East End in July-September 1885 when the British Socialists were fighting for freedom of speech ('the free speech struggles against the police suppression of outdoor meetings'). The September 20 rally brought together several thousand who offered resistance to the police trying to arrest the speakers. Several people were detained nonetheless, but they were set free the next day. September 27 saw an even larger demonstration and a rally that adopted a resolution protesting the police actions. Thereupon the authorities ceased their attempts to silence Socialist speakers.