| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 18 December 1894 |
ENGELS TO PAUL LAFARGUE
AT LE PERREUX
London, 18 December 1894
41 Regent's Park Road
My dear Lafargue,
I am returning Lavrov's letter to Laura. I replied to him at once to say that he shall have the two books[1] as soon as I myself shall have copies.[2] Meissner supplied me, and still supplies me, after he has supplied everyone else. I am also sending you a copy for Deville.
As I said: the (Nantes) programme 406 itself has only one pointless clause: the reduction of LEGAL rates of interest, i.e., the revival of the ancient laws against usury whose total uselessness was demonstrated 2,000 years ago. You cannot effectively reduce the rates of interest paid by mortgaged peasants without turning all mortgages on property into debts against the State, in which case you are free to reduce the interest—except that you lose money yourself, when it falls due. And also the clause on hunting, as it is drafted, is self-contradictory.
Not only is young William[3] cracked, but this time he is pushing things to a crisis. The new chancellor[4] is simply a man of straw, the moving spirit in the new government is Köller (der macht as immer döller,[5] as Kladderadatsch said of him years ago). They are provoking a conflict with the Reichstag. They are going to prosecute Liebknecht for lese-majesty after the closure. 436 They are pressing for a dissolution which will mean a recalcitrant Reichstag in Berlin and then—a little coup d'état. We may look forward to some nice happenings in Germany if everything turns out as these gentlemen visualise.
In Italy, too, the monarchy is hard pressed. The Crown Prince[6] is involved in the Banca Romana to the tune of 300,000 francs, the King[7] in the name of various nominees, for very much larger amounts. All that is well known. Crispi is mortally wounded by Giolitti's sensational move 445—the whole of Parliament as well as all the higher officials are compromised by it, and in simple-minded Italy they are still so Catholic, that is to say, pagan, that all this is done in broad daylight and there is no means of concealing the corruption, of which, on the contrary, they boast—until there is a crisis.
And then, Russia—the unknown, where only one thing is certain: that the present regime will not be able to stand a change of tsar, and there will be a crisis there too.
What you say about the effect produced by the little scene in the Reichstag goes for England as well. All the years of work, all the electoral and real victories count for nothing; a little melodramatic scene—that is the striking, the dazzling thing. How petty people are!
I shall write to Adler about your letters. But there, with the small working strength they have, it seems to me very unlikely that a regular correspondence would suit them, unless it were written in German and ready for the printer. So, strictly speaking, one ought to ask Frankel first. But we shall see.
Ever yours,
F. E.
Laura should have received my letter of yesterday.