Letter to Friedrich Adolph Sorge, February 22, 1888

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 22 February 1888


First published, slightly abridged, in Briefe und Auszüge aus Briefen von Job. Phil. Becker, Jos. Dietzgen, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx, u. A. an F. A. Sorge und Andere, Stuttgart, 1906 and, in full, in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVIII, Moscow, 1940
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO FRIEDRICH ADOLPH SORGE[1]

IN ROCHESTER

London, 22 February 1888

Dear Sorge,

I must in all honesty confess that, from the start, I hardly thought it possible you would be able to stick it out in that small provincial town.[2] I can think of no greater misfortune for a civilised man who has come of age in a big movement than to be relegated to some such remote hole after living for years in a metropolis. Well, I'm glad you have made up your mind. It will make the remaining few months more tolerable for you.

I am undergoing treatment for my eyes—the eye specialist said 'there was nothing the matter with them', but that care would be necessary during treatment. More easily said than done—when I'm being badgered from all sides by dozens of people demanding German, English, Italian, etc., work of me—all of it urgent!—and at the same time urging me to edit Volume III of Capital. All very well, but it's the chaps themselves who prevent me from doing so.

At all events, a long-standing wish of yours is to be fulfilled in the next few days: the Manifesto is being brought out in English over here by Reeves. Translated by S. Moore,[3] revised by us both, preface by me.[4] Have already read the first proofs. As soon as I get copies I shall let you have two, one of them for the Wischnewetzkys. For Reeves is paying S. Moore a royalty for author's rights, and since it was I who concluded the contract, I cannot be directly involved in getting it pirated in America. Otherwise Reeves could declare that this constituted a breach of contract, and poor Sam Moore wouldn't get anything. But obviously I neither could nor would prevent its being pirated. After all, did not Reeves pirate my preface to the Condition of the Working Class[5]

Aveling is getting a couple of plays produced and, if all goes well, will extricate himself from his journalistic misère![6] He and Tussy are due here shortly; they are dining with me as Aveling has a meeting not far from here. At Christmas the Lafargues moved to Le Perreux, beyond Vincennes, 20 minutes from Paris by train, and are amusing themselves doing rural tasks. The Socialiste has died yet again.[7] The workers of Paris don't want to read a weekly. Vaillant is acquitting himself famously in the Municipal Council; he was much in evidence during the presidential crisis[8] when the menacing attitude of the workers prevented the election of Ferry. He will be the guiding light of the next provisional government provided it's not too long in coming.

Bebel and Singer have inflicted a formidable defeat on the Prussians over the Anti-Socialist Law.[9] For the first time the whole of Europe has had to pay attention to our people in the Reichstag. You will have read the text of Bebel's speech in the Gleichheit—a masterpiece in which he excelled himself.[10]

I hope it won't come to war, though this would mean that all the military studies which those very rumours of war have forced me to take up again will have been done in vain. The odds are as follows: Thanks to long years of universal military service and education, Germany can mobilise between 2½ and 3 million trained men and provide them with officers and NCOs. France not more than 1¼ to 1½ million. Russia barely 1 million. At worst Germany is a match for them both in terms of defence. Italy can raise and sustain 300,000 men. Austria roughly 1 million. Thus, as far as war on land is concerned, the odds are in favour of Germany, Austria and Italy, while the war at sea will be determined by Britain's attitude. It would be splendid if Bismarck were to be forced to cut away his own stay and support, Russian tsarism!

War or no war, everything is heading for a crisis. The state of affairs in Russia can't go on very much longer. The Hohenzollerns are done for, the Crown Prince[11] is mortally ill, his son,[12] a cripple and insolent young guardee.[13] In France the downfall of the exploiters' bourgeois republic looms ever closer; as in 1847, scandals threaten to bring about a révolution du mépris.[14] And in this country the masses are coming increasingly under the sway of an instinctive socialism which still, I am glad to say, resists definite formulation in accordance with the dogma of this or that socialist organisation, and hence will accept it all the more readily when something crucial happens. All that is needed is for the fun to begin somewhere or other, and the bourgeoisie will be dumbfounded by the hitherto latent socialism which will then vent itself and become manifest.

Your old friend,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ An excerpt from this letter was first published in English in the journal The Socialist Review, London 1908, III-VIII.
  2. ↑ From September 1887 to March 1888, Friedrich A. Sorge lived in Rochester, N.Y., i.e., where his son did.
  3. ↑ In his letter of 20 February 1887 Sorge suggested to Engels that Florence Kelley-Wischnewetzky should be asked to translate the Manifesto of the Communist Party into English for publication in the USA. This project did not materialise. An English edition of the Manifesto, in Sam Moore's translation and edited by Engels, appeared in London in 1888.
  4. ↑ F. Engels, 'Preface to the 1888 English Edition of the Manifesto of the Communist Party'
  5. ↑ F. Engels, The Role of Force in History
  6. ↑ misery
  7. ↑ In his letter of 5 February 1888, Paul Lafargue informed Engels about the cessation of the publication of the newspaper Socialiste, an organ of the French Workers Party (Guesdists), on 4 February of the same year (see note 33)'
  8. ↑ The reference is to the resolution of a presidential crisis in France over the exposure of speculatory machinations committed by Daniel Wilson, son-in-law of President Jules Grevy (see note 168). Under public pressure J. P. Grevy had to tender his resignation on 1 December 1887. Nominated as candidates for the presidency were the moderate republicans M. F. Sadi Carnot, Jules EC. Ferry, Charles Louis de Freycinet, among others; the ultra Right nominated Felix Gustave Saussier. Ferry's candidacy elicited sharp protests from left-wing organisations and Paris workers. The Blanquists, headed by Emile Eudes, a former general of the Paris Commune, and Edouard Vaillant, a member of the municipal council, joined hands with the Guesdists (see note 33) and organised several meetings and demonstrations against Ferry's candidature. After the first round of the election Ferry and Freycinet withdrew their candidacies in Marie Francois Carnot's favour, who was then elected president.
  9. ↑ The debates in the Reichstag about the motion to prolong the Anti-Socialist law (see note 52) in January-February 1888 ended in a defeat for the government. This outcome was largely predetermined by the speeches of August Bebel (30 January and 17 February) and Paul Singer (27 January and 17 February) during the first and the third reading of the draft bill, respectively. Both speakers exposed the provocative activities of the governmenhich was planting spies in the labour unions. On 17 February 1888, the Reichstag prolonged the law for the last time, but not for a term of five years, as the government had suggested - the action of the law was extended for two years only (until 30 September 1890). The new clauses suggested by the government for the law were not adopted (see note 220).
  10. ↑ Gleichheit, No. 6, 11 February 1888
  11. ↑ Frederick William (later Frederick III)
  12. ↑ William, later William II
  13. ↑ In the original: Jardeleutenant (Berlin dialect)
  14. ↑ The reference is to a scandal over the criminal actions of Louis Charles Caffarel and Daniel Wilson (see note 168). In 1847, just before the Revolution of 1848, there were many scandalous exposures of cases of corruption involving French statesmen (see note 169). For Revolution du mepris (a revolution of contempt) see note 170.