| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 12 September 1882 |
ENGELS TO MARX
IN VEVEY
London, 12 September 1882
Dear Moor,
Postcard[1] and Laura's letter received. Am glad to hear you are having good weather at last and hope at will continue. We have been back here since Saturday; Tussy and Johnny spent a week at Yarmouth with us.
I remember Songeon very well; I often used to wonder what destiny might lie in store for that patronising, bonhomous countenance, until I eventually found it in the paper — chairman of the municipal council! That, in fact, was what was already written all over his face in 1850.
Many a bill on London from Genton & Co. has passed through my hands!
If you are planning to see something more of Switzerland, you could hardly take a better or more convenient route than that from Geneva via Berne to Interlaken and Brienz, thence over the Brünig Pass (only 3,150 feet up) to Lake Lucerne and, if you feel like it, from there to Zurich. It's an easy trip for a convalescent and would take you to some of the loveliest spots in Switzerland. You could make a longish halt at Interlaken and Lucerne or some other place on the shores of that lake. Morges, on Lake Geneva, is also a pretty spot and from it you get the finest view of Mont Blanc.
It is becoming increasingly evident that the Egyptian affair[2] was contrived by Russian diplomacy. Now that Gladstone has been sufficiently soft-sawdered by sweet Olga,[3] he is to be entrusted to a wilier mentor for treatment of a more drastic kind. England has got to occupy Egypt in the midst of peace so that, in self-defence, poor old Russia may thereby be compelled to occupy Armenia, likewise in the midst of peace. The Caucasian army has already moved up to the border, and there are 48 battalions at Kars alone — a constantly mobile army, this. And in order to prove that Gladstone assents to the liberation of yet another 'Christian' country from the yoke of the UNSPEAKABLE TURK, this particular moment has been chosen for the ostentatious recall of the English commissions despatched to Asia Minor after the Congress of Berlin to supervise the reforms, and for the publication of their reports which show that they have been fooled by the Turks and that everything remains as before, official corruption being ineradicable. Palmerston est mort, vive Gladstone! Vive Gambetta, who would also have gladly put his seal to the Russian alliance in Egypt. Alas, the good old times are a thing of the past, and Russia no longer backs Russian diplomacy, but confronts it.
I'd be damned glad if I could come over and see you, but were anything to happen to me, even temporarily, all our financial arrangements would be thrown out of gear. There's not a soul here to whom I could give power of attorney or entrust what are really rather complicated cash transactions. Sam Moore would have been the only possible man, but he is away and these matters can only be attended to on the spot. Besides I had been hoping that you might come over, at any rate this summer, if only for a brief spell. It was obvious to me even before you left England and suffered your relapses that you wouldn't be able to spend next winter here, and I said as much to Lenchen. Now, having had relapses, it is absolutely essential for you to spend a winter that takes the form of spring, and I was glad when I heard that Dourlen and Feugier had said so unequivocally, and with one voice. Lonely though it is here without you, there's nowt as we can do about it, and everything must be subordinated to your making a complete recovery. But this also demands that finances be kept on an even keel, and I therefore consider it my bounden duty not to run any risks so long as this remains the case.
Hartmann[4] has invented and patented an electric lamp and has sold it for £3,000 to a stingy fellow under a no less stingy contract, so that it is exceedingly doubtful when and whether he will get his money. Meanwhile he has got himself another post — but for how long? It's difficult to make head or tail of his perpetual UPS AND DOWNS.
Best thanks for the Algerian presents brought back by Tussy. The dagger is genuinely oriental — no grass will grow where it's stuck into the ground. I shall have to obtain a stem for the pipe before I can try it out. Pumps is very proud of her Arabian bracelets. She is busy furnishing her new house which will probably take her another week. Her little girl[5] came on remarkably at Yarmouth. Johnny has been going to infant school since yesterday (in Grafton Terrace, opposite your old home).
Love from all to yourself and Laura.
Your
F. E.