Letter to Paul Lafargue, April 13, 1887

Author(s)	Friedrich Engels
Written	13 April 1887

First published in English in: Frederick Engels, Paul and Laura Lafargue. Correspondence. 1887-1890, Vol. 2, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1960
First published in the language of the original (French) in: F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. II, Paris, 1956
Printed according to the original
Translated from the French
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48

ENGELS TO PAUL LAFARGUE

IN PARIS

London, 13 April 1887

My dear Lafargue,

Herewith the letter for your publisher.^[1] I hope you will be successful this time but in any case make sure the copy is returned to you since I have no other to send you.^[2] Also negotiate for 20 to 25 free copies for us; we shall be sorely in need of them.

I shall send you the Daily Telegraph's report on the meeting of the day before yesterday, in which there in much talk of Tussy.^[3]

Schorlemmer was there. It was undoubtedly the biggest meeting we have ever held here.

The New York affair^[4] is going very well. The gentlemen of the Executive Committee have done so many silly things that they have already scuppered themselves. It has been a very long business and a very tortuous one, but we no longer have anything to fear from that quarter.

You must have a high opinion of Mr Sonnenschein if you suppose that we have at our disposal copies of the article by Aveling and Tussy. I have only seen the proofs, but I shall ask Tussy to have a copy sent me for you.^[5] They'll have to pay for it; Sonnenschein treats his authors as though they were mere clerks.

The day before yesterday the great anarchist Kropotkin accepted the hospitality of the Social Democratic Federation^[6] and was with them and Davitt on their waggonnette. Typically, when someone suggested taking Davitt to see Aveling, Davitt said: I cannot meet him because he is an atheist!

Impossible to press for the appearance of your article in Time—Price is in the midst of leaving Swan & Sonnenschein, says it is his partner Lowrey who is running the review—a man we have never set eyes on. If only you knew the confusion and disorder that reign in that business, you'd be far more patient.

Put yourself forward as candidate in any case, whether or no you stand a chance.^[7] It is something you have got to go through, especially in Paris and especially now that you have managed once again to kill off all your periodicals.^[8] There's nothing else you can do, for agitation involves keeping oneself in the public eye. With 10,000 francs you can maintain a weekly paper for a long time, and you ought to be able to raise that sum. Come to that, I hope that revolution in Russia will relieve your difficul- ties and will set Europe in motion. Three assassination attempts in thirty days^[9] —enough, I should have thought, even for a Tsar.^[10] According to the English press, even the pro-Russian, everything is topsy-turvy in Russia; faith in the power of the administration has been shattered, the army teems with Nihilists^[11] —482 officers exiled to the island of Sakhalin (Pacific)^[12] —, while the peasants, crushed by emancipation,^[13] taxation and usury, have been dealt a mortal blow in the shape of compulsory military service on the Prussian system.^[14] Add to that the permanent financial crisis, the paper ruble worth 2 fr. 8 or 9 centimes instead of 4, American and Indian competition in corn and not a banker in Europe prepared to lend—such a state of affairs cannot last out the year!

Schorlemmer sends his regards. A kiss to Laura, to whom I shall be writing,

Yours ever,
F.E.

↑ See previous letter
↑ This refers to Marx's Misere de la philosophic. In 1884 Laura Lafargue failed to reach an agreement on a second French edition of the book. In 1887 Paul Lafargue again conducted negotiations on the matter. However, it was not until 1896, after Engels's death, that the project materialised (in Paris).
↑ In the first half of April 1887 the British House of Commons discussed a Crimes Bill for Ireland which was to introduce a simplified judicial procedure for quelling the growing peasant unrest. The executive authorities were to be allowed to outlaw various societies, and members of the judiciary to pass sentence on charges of plotting, illegal assembly, disobedience to thuthorities and the like without a jury. On 11 April 1887 several mass meetings to protest against the Bill were held in Hyde Park, with 100 to 150 thousand people attending. The meetings, held separately by different organisations, were addressed by speakers for the Liberal Party (William Gladstone), the Social Democratic Federation (George Bateman, John Burns, Michael Davitt, John Williams and others), the socialist League (Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Edward Aveling and others) and other organisations. A report headlined Trish Crimes Bill, Great Demonstration in Hyde Park, Processions and Speeches', in The Daily Telegraph of 12 April 1887, said that Eleanor Marx-Aveling's speech was warmly greeted and heard with great interest. Despite the protests the two chambers of parliament passed the bill in July 1837. Beginning 23 July, a state of emergency was introduced on the strength of it, initially in four and ultimately in about 30 counties of Ireland.
↑ This concerns the charges the levelled at Aveling by the Executive of the Socialist Labor Party of North America (see note 3). This letter was the first of the many Engels wrote to American and German working-class leaders in defence of Aveling.
↑ This presumably refers to the Avelings' series of articles, 'The Labour movement in America', published between March and May 1887 in the journal Time, which appeared in Swan Sonnenschein's publishing house in London.
↑ The Social Democratic Federation was a British socialist organisation, the successor of the Democratic Federation, reformed in August 1884. It consisted of heterogeneous socialist elements, mostly intellectuals, but also politically active workers. The programme of the Federation provided for the collectivisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange. Its leader, Henry Hyndman, was dictatorial and arbitrary, and his supporters among the Federation's leaders denied the need to work among the trade unions. In contrast to Hyndman, the Federation members grouped round Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Edward Aveling, William Morris and Tom Mann sought close ties with the mass working-class movement. In December 1884, differences on questions of tactics and international co-operation led to a split in the Federation and the establishment of the independent socialist league (see note 21). In 1885-86 the Federation's branches were active in the movement of the unemployed, in strike struggles and in the campaign for the eight-hour day.
↑ Engels means the municipal elections in Paris held on 8 May 1887. Lafargue stood for election in the Fifth arrondissement (Jardin des Plantes). In the first ballot he received 568 votes and was third. In the second, on 15 May, he got 685 votes and was second.
↑ After Jules Guesde, Gabriel Deville and other members of the French Workers' Party had resigned from the editorial board of the Cri du peuple and after the Voie du peuple, the paper they had started, also ceased publication (see note 18), the Party's weekly La Socialiste likewise closed down (the last issue appeared on 26 March 1887). The Party's paper resumed publication on 11 June 1887.
↑ On 11 April 1887 the European press reported that another conspiracy to assassinate Alexander III had been uncovered. It was to take place during the Tsar's inspection of a Guards cavalry regiment. These reports were not confirmed (see also notes 72 and 77).
↑ This refers to Alexander III
↑ Nihilists were the extreme wing of the radical movement in Russia in the 1860s, intellectuals who believed in the destruction of existing society and culture. The Nihilists rejected the dominant ideology and morality and fought against religious prejudices. They demanded freedom of the individual and equality for women, and favoured the study of the natural and exact sciences. Towards the end of the 1860s the term practically ceased to be used in polemic literature, but in later years reactionary journalists occasionally applied it to revolutionaries. In West European literature the term was used to denote Russian revolutionaries, including the members of the Narodnaya Volya (People's Will), in the 1870s and 1880s.
↑ See this volume, p.46
↑ This refers to the Peasant Reform of 19 February 1861 ('Regulations concerning Peasants Emerging from Serf Dependence'). It put an end to serfdom in Russia and brought freedom to about 22.5 million peasants. However, even after the abolition of serfdom some of the former serfs (tho called temporarily liable peasants) were obliged to do corvee work or pay quit-rent for the use of land. It was not until 28 December 1881 that a law was passed stipulating the obligatory redemption of the peasant plots as of 1 January 1883. Corvee and quit-rent in their open form were abolished, but continued to exist in the shape of the redemption system until the first decade of the 20th century.
↑ Engels means the replacement of recruitment in Russia by conscription. Under the introduction of compulsory military service of 1 January 1874, the entire male population aged 21 to 43, with the exception of natives of Central Asia and Kazakhstan and men belonging to certain peoples of the Caucasus, Siberia, the Volga area and the Arctic regions, were liable for military service in the regular army, the reserve or the militia. The call up was conducted by casting lots. This system was to turn the Russian army into a mass army. However, under the existing autocratic and landlord system, the implementation of universal military service was hampered by the numerous privileges of the propertied classes and the unequal conditions of army service for members of different social strata. As early as 9 January 1877, during the Russo-Turkish war, Engels pointed out that conscription was contributing to the 'disorganisation' of the Russian army (see present edition, Vol. 45).

[1] See previous letter

[2] This refers to Marx's Misere de la philosophic. In 1884 Laura Lafargue failed to reach an agreement on a second French edition of the book. In 1887 Paul Lafargue again conducted negotiations on the matter. However, it was not until 1896, after Engels's death, that the project materialised (in Paris).

[3] In the first half of April 1887 the British House of Commons discussed a Crimes Bill for Ireland which was to introduce a simplified judicial procedure for quelling the growing peasant unrest. The executive authorities were to be allowed to outlaw various societies, and members of the judiciary to pass sentence on charges of plotting, illegal assembly, disobedience to thuthorities and the like without a jury. On 11 April 1887 several mass meetings to protest against the Bill were held in Hyde Park, with 100 to 150 thousand people attending. The meetings, held separately by different organisations, were addressed by speakers for the Liberal Party (William Gladstone), the Social Democratic Federation (George Bateman, John Burns, Michael Davitt, John Williams and others), the socialist League (Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Edward Aveling and others) and other organisations. A report headlined Trish Crimes Bill, Great Demonstration in Hyde Park, Processions and Speeches', in The Daily Telegraph of 12 April 1887, said that Eleanor Marx-Aveling's speech was warmly greeted and heard with great interest. Despite the protests the two chambers of parliament passed the bill in July 1837. Beginning 23 July, a state of emergency was introduced on the strength of it, initially in four and ultimately in about 30 counties of Ireland.

[4] This concerns the charges the levelled at Aveling by the Executive of the Socialist Labor Party of North America (see note 3). This letter was the first of the many Engels wrote to American and German working-class leaders in defence of Aveling.

[5] This presumably refers to the Avelings' series of articles, 'The Labour movement in America', published between March and May 1887 in the journal Time, which appeared in Swan Sonnenschein's publishing house in London.

[6] The Social Democratic Federation was a British socialist organisation, the successor of the Democratic Federation, reformed in August 1884. It consisted of heterogeneous socialist elements, mostly intellectuals, but also politically active workers. The programme of the Federation provided for the collectivisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange. Its leader, Henry Hyndman, was dictatorial and arbitrary, and his supporters among the Federation's leaders denied the need to work among the trade unions. In contrast to Hyndman, the Federation members grouped round Eleanor Marx-Aveling, Edward Aveling, William Morris and Tom Mann sought close ties with the mass working-class movement. In December 1884, differences on questions of tactics and international co-operation led to a split in the Federation and the establishment of the independent socialist league (see note 21). In 1885-86 the Federation's branches were active in the movement of the unemployed, in strike struggles and in the campaign for the eight-hour day.

[7] Engels means the municipal elections in Paris held on 8 May 1887. Lafargue stood for election in the Fifth arrondissement (Jardin des Plantes). In the first ballot he received 568 votes and was third. In the second, on 15 May, he got 685 votes and was second.

[8] After Jules Guesde, Gabriel Deville and other members of the French Workers' Party had resigned from the editorial board of the Cri du peuple and after the Voie du peuple, the paper they had started, also ceased publication (see note 18), the Party's weekly La Socialiste likewise closed down (the last issue appeared on 26 March 1887). The Party's paper resumed publication on 11 June 1887.

[9] On 11 April 1887 the European press reported that another conspiracy to assassinate Alexander III had been uncovered. It was to take place during the Tsar's inspection of a Guards cavalry regiment. These reports were not confirmed (see also notes 72 and 77).

[10] This refers to Alexander III

[11] Nihilists were the extreme wing of the radical movement in Russia in the 1860s, intellectuals who believed in the destruction of existing society and culture. The Nihilists rejected the dominant ideology and morality and fought against religious prejudices. They demanded freedom of the individual and equality for women, and favoured the study of the natural and exact sciences. Towards the end of the 1860s the term practically ceased to be used in polemic literature, but in later years reactionary journalists occasionally applied it to revolutionaries. In West European literature the term was used to denote Russian revolutionaries, including the members of the Narodnaya Volya (People's Will), in the 1870s and 1880s.

[12] See this volume, p.46

[13] This refers to the Peasant Reform of 19 February 1861 ('Regulations concerning Peasants Emerging from Serf Dependence'). It put an end to serfdom in Russia and brought freedom to about 22.5 million peasants. However, even after the abolition of serfdom some of the former serfs (tho called temporarily liable peasants) were obliged to do corvee work or pay quit-rent for the use of land. It was not until 28 December 1881 that a law was passed stipulating the obligatory redemption of the peasant plots as of 1 January 1883. Corvee and quit-rent in their open form were abolished, but continued to exist in the shape of the redemption system until the first decade of the 20th century.

[14] Engels means the replacement of recruitment in Russia by conscription. Under the introduction of compulsory military service of 1 January 1874, the entire male population aged 21 to 43, with the exception of natives of Central Asia and Kazakhstan and men belonging to certain peoples of the Caucasus, Siberia, the Volga area and the Arctic regions, were liable for military service in the regular army, the reserve or the militia. The call up was conducted by casting lots. This system was to turn the Russian army into a mass army. However, under the existing autocratic and landlord system, the implementation of universal military service was hampered by the numerous privileges of the propertied classes and the unequal conditions of army service for members of different social strata. As early as 9 January 1877, during the Russo-Turkish war, Engels pointed out that conscription was contributing to the 'disorganisation' of the Russian army (see present edition, Vol. 45).

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