| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 8 January 1882 |
ENGELS TO MARX
IN VENTNOR
London, 8 January 1882
Dear Moor,
We were glad to hear that there was no reason for yours and Tussy's silence and, even though you couldn't be expected to make very much progress in view of the adverse weather, you have at least benefited to the extent that the danger of a relapse has now been pretty well eliminated, which was, after all, the main reason why you were sent to Ventnor.
The festive season here ends tomorrow. Schorlemmer will be returning to Manchester, and then it's back to the grindstone. I am looking forward to it; things were really getting too much. Tuesday with Lenchen, Friday with Pumps, yesterday with the Lafargues, today here at my house — and every morning the eternal Pilsener; it couldn't go on indefinitely. Lenchen was always one of the party, of course, and still is, so she hasn't felt too lonely.
By the time you get this note you will have been edified by old William's[1] magnificent proclamation in which he avows his solidarity with Bismarck and declares all this to be the free expression of his own opinion. I also liked the bit about the inviolability of the person of the monarch having persisted in Prussia since time immemorial. Particularly when one considers the shots fired by Nobiling. How comforting for Alexander II and III that their persons should be inviolable! One might, by the way, imagine that one was living under a travesty of Charles X when one reads that sort of drivel.
There has been yet another nice item in The Standard, a letter from a Russian general about the situation and the Nihilists, just like what used to be said and written by the Prussian generals of 1845 about demagogues, liberals, Jews, the bad principles of the French, and the universal and undying loyalty to the king felt by the sound core of the nation. Which didn't, of course, set the revolution back one day. You will have seen that the zemstvos have rebelled against Ignatiev, partly via the medium of petitions, partly by an outright refusal to convene. That is a most important step, the first to be taken by official bodies under Alexander III.
Like you, we hope for better weather. Yesterday was very fine with a north-wester from which you will have been sheltered. Schorlemmer and I were on the go the whole day and it was not until half past midnight that we accompanied Lenchen home from Laura's, covering the whole distance on foot. Today it's been beastly and wet, though during a brighter spell we got out and about for an hour or so with Sam Moore who turned up again the day before yesterday. It's blowing good and hard again outside. How is Tussy actually? Regards to her and to you from us all.
Your
F. E.