| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 2 June 1894 |
ENGELS TO PAUL LAFARGUE
AT LE PERREUX
London, 2 June 1894
My dear Lafargue, Herewith the cheque for £20. Please acknowledge receipt. The last bit of the manuscript of Vol. II[1] is at the printer's. What a relief! But the proof-sheets are giving me a rough time; they need close, unremitting attention, it's wearisome! And Meissner employs a rather careless printer, which makes my job twice as hard. Add to this that Dietz is printing the 3rd edition of my Anti-Dühring and you can take my word for it when I say that I am literally overwhelmed by proof-sheets.
Your description of fashionable socialism in France gave me a good laugh. But it could turn out to be a serious matter. If you had a strong, steady army like the two million German voters, well and good; that would control the heterogeneous mass of newcomers. But with a Party split into Marxists, Blanquists, 20 Allemanists, 21 Broussists 30, and several other ists, not to mention the ex-Radicals 86 of the Millerand stamp who boss all the others in the Chamber, it is very hard to say where this new fashion is going to lead you. You compare it to Boulangism 6: Boulangism, after a few months' spree, ended in the mire and in ignominy. In a movement of this kind it is pretty well certain that phrase-mongers like Jaurès, who already arrogate to themselves the sole right to speak for you all in the Chamber, will boss things.
Today they have the ear of the House where they silence our people, tomorrow they will have the ear of the nation.
It is always on the cards that the whole thing will not turn out too badly, and even well; but, in the meantime, you will go through some curious experiences, and I am glad for us all that there is a solid combat corps in Germany whose actions will decide the battle. This socialist mania which is emerging in your country may lead to a decisive struggle in which you will win the first victories; the revolutionary traditions of the country and of the capital, the character of your army, reorganised since 1870 on a far more popular basis—all this makes such an eventuality possible. But to ensure victory, to destroy the foundations of capitalist society, you will need the active support of a much stronger, more numerous, more tried and more conscious socialist party than you have at your command. It would mean the achievement of what we have foreseen and predicted for many years. The French give the signal, open fire, and the Germans decide the battle.
In the meantime, we are nowhere near that and I am very curious to see how the confused enthusiasm surrounding you will resolve itself.
Even Carl Hirsch noted in the Rheinische Zeitung that behind all this noise over Turpin 374 there are but bourse speculators. It is only the English press that is forbidden to say this and consequently, it pretends to see in that an affair of high and low politics. Here one is sure that behind any great political affair there must be the bourse and the smart operators, and this is why it is strictly forbidden to speak of that. Protestant bourgeois hypocrisy! Look at Jabez Balfour and at Mundella who has just resigned from his ministry and for good reason; look at Sir J. Ferguson and Sir J. Gorst, who are also implicated and who probably have made themselves ineligible for any future Tory ministry. 375
The other day Kautsky came to us—he has been four times to us. Louise and her husband received him in the most amiable manner; if someone was embarrassed, it was not they.
As to your medallion (that is to say, mine), this will make difficulties. Once I was foolish enough to have myself photographed in profile, but this will never happen to me again. I have such a foolish look that I would rather not have my portrait in profile go down to posterity. However, I would be pleased to see the medallion of Marx (send it also for Tussy, please!), and I am quite curious if your artist has succeeded in reproducing the nose which, in profile, has really impossible lines.
Kiss Laura on my behalf! Greetings from Louise and Ludwig. The latter continues trying to get English physicians to see how much their colleagues on the continent are superior in real science, anatomy, physiology, pathology, etc.
Cordially yours,
F. Engels