| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 5 December 1892 |
ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE
AT LE PERREUX
London, 5 December 1892
My dear Löhr,
It's a long time yet till April, but if it cannot be managed otherwise, well then we must submit and only consider the matter finally settled, affaire bâclée, that you celebrate, both of you, your silver wedding here. And maybe you may manage a few days with us in the meantime, at all events we will consider that an open question still.
If you do not receive this week the Arbeiterinnenzeitung please let us know; Louise will write again. The paper having been handed over to the women altogether has probably caused some irregularities which will soon be set right.
Ah le Panama! 60 I can tell you I am 45 years younger again, and living through a second '47. Then La Presse (Girardin's) brought every day a fresh revelation about some scandal. 61 or some other paper brought a reply to some charge of his; and this went on till it killed Louis Philippe. But those scandals, and even those of the Second Empire dwindle into nothingness compared with this Grand National Steeplechase of Scandals. Louis Bonaparte took jolly good care, when he coaxed the peasants' money out of their buried hoards, to do so for the benefit of his State loans, which were safe; but here the savings of the small tradesman, the peasant, the domestic servant and above all of the petit rentier,[1] the loudest howler of all, have gone into irretrievable ruin, and the miracle has been performed of transforming a canal which has not been dug out, into an unfathomable abyss. 1,500 million francs, 60 million pounds sterling, all gone, gone for ever, except what has found its way into the pockets of swindlers, politicians and journalists; and the money got together by swindles and corrupt dodges unequalled even in America. What a base of operations for a Socialistic campaign!
The thing has evidently been based upon its own immensity.
Everybody considered himself safe because everybody else was as deeply in it. But that is just what now makes hushing up impossible; partial disclosures having set in, the innumerable receivers of 'boodle' (for here American is the only possible language) are by their very numbers debarred from common and concerted action, everybody fights on his own hook and as best he can, and no talking and preaching can prevent a general sauve qui peut.[2] That the police have placed themselves at the disposal of the Committee after the strike of the courts of law, shows that confidence in the stability of swindle is broken, and that it is considered safe to keep well with the 'financial purity' side.
To my mind c'est le commencement de la fin.[3] The bourgeois republic and its politicians can hardly outlive this unparalleled exposure. There are but three possibilities: an attempt at monarchy, another Boulanger, 6 or socialism. The first and the second, if attempted, could only lead to the third, and thus we may be called upon, long before we in consequence of our own action had a right to expect it, to enter upon a career of immense responsibility. I should be glad of it, if it does not come too soon and too suddenly. It will do our Germans good to see that the French have not lost their historical initiative. A country cannot pass through 200 years like what 1648-1848 were for Germany without leaving a small impression of the philistine even on the working class. Our revolution of 48/49 was too short and too incomplete to wipe that out altogether. Of course, the next revolution which is preparing in Germany with a consistency and steadiness unequalled anywhere else, would come of itself in time, say 1898-1904; but revolutionary times, preparing a thoroughgoing crisis, in France, would hasten that process, and moreover, if the thing breaks out in France first, say 1894, then Germany follows suit at once and then the Franco-German Proletarian Alliance forces the hands of England and smashes up in one blow both the triple and the Franco-Russian conspiracies; then we have a revo- lutionary war against Russia—if not even a revolutionary echo from Russia—vogue la Galère![4]
Love from Louise who is at a meeting of actors and dramatists for the foundation of a freie Bühne or théâtre libre[5] or what not. 94
My respectful salutes as well of those of our tom-cat Felix to your animals.
Ever yours,
F.E.
Mendelsons were here last night, spoke a good deal of their visit to Le Perreux.