Letter to Laura Lafargue, May 9, 1888

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 9 May 1888


First published in full, in the language of the original (English), in: F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. II, Paris, 1956
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE[1]

AT LE PERREUX

London, 9 May 1888

My dear Laura,

I have just finished, after many interruptions, a lengthy preface to the English edition of Mohr's discourse on Free Trade (Brussels 1848)[2] which is to come out in New York, and as this is the last piece of work which had to be done within a certain time I make use of my recovered liberty in order to write to you at once. And I have a rather important object too to write about, viz. that we want you here in London. You have planted, as I hear from Schorlemmer, some Waldmeister[3] in your garden, and as it will be utterly impossible for us to come over and use it there, there is nothing left but that you should come over and bring it here, when the other ingredients shall be duly and quickly found. The weather is beautiful, on Saturday,[4] Mohr's birthday, Nim and I went to Highgate, and today we have been on Hampstead Heath, I am writing with both windows open, and by the time you come which I hope will be next week we shall have lilacs and laburnums ready to receive you. If you only say by return that you are willing to come, je me charge du reste[5] Moreover you will by this time have brought your country-house and garden to such a state of perfection that you can leave it in charge of Paul who must be by now an accomplished gardener. Nim has been sighing for Löhr for some time past, and surely you ought to be present at Edward's great dramatic triumph on the 5 of June when his dramati- sation of N. Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter is to be brought out at a matinée. And I need not add that I want you here as much as anybody else. There are moreover so many other reasons for your coming that I must refrain from stating them here for fear of missing the post and killing you with ennui. So make up your mind at once, and say you will.

Of Edward's remarkable preliminary successes in the dramatic line you will have heard. He has sold about half a dozen or more pieces which he had quietly manufactured; some have been played in the provinces with success, some he has brought here himself with Tussy at small entertainments, and they have taken very much with the people that are most interested in them, viz. with such actors and impresarios as will bring them out. If he has now one marked success in London, he is a made man in this line and will soon be out of all difficulties. And I don't see why he should not, he seems to have a remarkable knack of giving to London what London requires.

Paul's letter in the Intransigeant[6] was very good indeed. He managed to hit the Radicals[7] without the slightest concession to Boulangism[8] and with the demand for general armament, put a spoke in both their wheels. It was done with great tact.

Have you heard that Fritz Beust is engaged—to an Italian-Swiss girl from Castasegna, hard on the border of Lombardy. I don't know who she is, we shall soon hear from our Zurich friends,[9] who are expected here in less than a fortnight. Maybe you will see Bernstein in Paris on his journey; he may be there any day. How they are going to manage here with regard to the paper[10] I am curious to see.[11] For many reasons London is not the best place for it, though perhaps the only one now. However we shall see, and generally things do settle down at their natural level.

Paul's 'Victor Hugo' in the Neue Zeit is very good. I wonder what they would say in France if they could read it.

The great Stead is off to Petersburg to interview the Czar[12] and to make him tell the truth about peace or war. I sent you his Paris inter- views,[13] profound man left Paris exactly as wise as when he came there. The Russians will soft-sawder him to his heart's content, I am afraid he will return from Petersburg a greater ass than what he is now. Perhaps in tonight's paper we may read that he has fathomed Bismarck.

The Romanians are queer people. I wrote to Nadejde in Jassy a letter[14] in which I tried to work them up in the anti-Russian line. Now the Jassy Marxists are quarrelling with the Bucharest Anarchists on account of the peasant revolt[15] stirred up by Russia, and so they translate and print my letter at once![16] This time I am not sorry, but it shows what indiscreet fellows they are.

Not only the paper is at an end, but time too—5.20 p.m. and Nim will ring directly, and in ten minutes the post closes. So farewell for today and do say you come!

Affectionately yours,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ A brief excerpt from this letter was first published in French by the journal La Pensee, No. 61, 1955. For the first publication of this letter in English, see note 40.
  2. ↑ F. Engels, 'Protection and Free Trade'
  3. ↑ woodruff
  4. ↑ 5 May
  5. ↑ I'll attend to the rest
  6. ↑ P. Lafargue, 'Le Boulangisme et les parlementaires', L'Intransigeant, 1 May 1888
  7. ↑ The Radicals were a parliamentary group in France in the 1880s and 1890s that emerged from the party of moderate republicans ('Opportunists', see note 199). The Radicals relied chiefly on the petty bourgeoisie and to some extent on the middle bourgeoisie; they upheld the bourgeois-democratic demands: a unicameral system of parliament, separation of the church from the state, a progressive income tax, limitation of the workday, among other social issues. The Radicals were led by George Clemenceau. This group transformed itself into the Republican Party of Radicals and Radical-Socialists (parti republicain radical et radical-socialiste') in 1901.
  8. ↑ After his resignation from the post of War Minister, General Boulanger continued to whip up a revanchist campaign with the support of the chauvinist elements of different parties, from the radicals to the monarchists. On 8 July 1887, when Boulanger was leaving for Clermont-Ferrand to assume command of the 13th Corps, his supporters staged a chauvinist demonstration at the Lyons railway station. Boulangism was a reactionary movement in France in the mid-1880s, led by ex-War Minister General Boulanger. It urged a revanchist war against Germany to win back Alsace, annexed by Germany in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. In alliance with the monarchists, the Boulangists sought to capitalise on the masses' discontent with the government's policy. Their large-scale demagogic propaganda was especially effective among the lower ranks of the army. France was under the threat of a monarchist coup. Measures taken by the republican government, with the support of the progressive forces led to the collapse of the Boulangist movement. Its leaders fled from France.
  9. ↑ Eduard Bernstein, Julius Motteler, Leonhard Tauscher and Hermann Schlüter
  10. ↑ Der Sozialdemokrat
  11. ↑ At the insistence of the German authorities the Swiss Federal Council on 18 April 1888 expelled several associate editors of and contributors to the Sozialdemokrat (Eduard Bernstein, Julius Motteler, Hermann Schluter and Leonard Tauscher) from the country. Until 22 September the paper continued to appear in Switzerland, edited by the Swiss Social Democrat Conrad Consett. From 1 October 1888 to 27 September 1890 the paper was published in London.
  12. ↑ Alexander III
  13. ↑ W. Th. Stead, 'The Life and Adventures of a Lady Special. From our Special Commissioner in Paris', The Pall Mall Gazette, 5 May 1888
  14. ↑ See this volume, pp.132-5
  15. ↑ In March-April 1888 a peasant uprising broke out in Romania's central districts. The rebels burned landlords' estates, destroyed promissory notes, and divided bread, cattle and land amongst themselves. The revolts were crushed brutally by the government.
  16. ↑ See Contemp- oranul, No. 6, 1888