Letter to Laura Lafargue, July 15, 1887

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 15 July 1887


First published, in the language of the original (English), in F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. II, Paris, 1956
Reproduced from the original
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE

IN PARIS

London, 15 July 1887

My dear Laura,

Thanks for your letters. I have Schorlemmer still here; a chronic catarrh of the stomach, the great heat, and the absence of a very pressing wish to revisit his dear country keep him here. Besides him, Fritz Beust from Zürich, whom you saw here eight years ago, has arrived too. So I must confine myself to urgent matters.

I was obliged to give a card of introduction (to Paul) to a young Dr Conrad Schmidt of Königsberg, who dabbles in question sociale. He is about the greenest youth I ever saw, he was here about 3 months, seems a decent fellow, as decent fellows go nowadays, frisst keine Schuhnägel und säuft keine Tinte[1] If Paul deposits him in rue Richelieu, Bibliothèque nationale, he will not trouble him much. He admires Zola in whom he has discovered the materialistische Geschichtsanschauung[2]

The Boulanger fit of paroxysm[3] ought to make our people demand again and again l'armement du peuple as the only guarantee against Caesaristic velleities on the part of popular generals. That is the only argument against the outcry of the Royalist press with regard to Boulanger being a danger to—the Republic they say, and the future monarchy they mean.

Saturday week, 23 July, we move to Eastbourne, 4 Cavendish Place,[4] same as last year. If your Jersey trip is realised, let us know. I should not wonder if Tussy and Edward caught the Jersey fever.

Love from Nim, Jollymeier.

Yours affectionately

F. Engels

  1. ↑ he eats no bootnails and drinks no ink
  2. ↑ materialist conception of history
  3. ↑ After his resignation from the post of War Minister, General Boulanger continued to whip up a revanchist campaign with the support of the chauvinist elements of different parties, from the radicals to the monarchists. On 8 July 1887, when Boulanger was leaving for Clermont-Ferrand to assume command of the 13th Corps, his supporters staged a chauvinist demonstration at the Lyons railway station. Boulangism was a reactionary movement in France in the mid-1880s, led by ex-War Minister General Boulanger. It urged a revanchist war against Germany to win back Alsace, annexed by Germany in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71. In alliance with the monarchists, the Boulangists sought to capitalise on the masses' discontent with the government's policy. Their large-scale demagogic propaganda was especially effective among the lower ranks of the army. France was under the threat of a monarchist coup. Measures taken by the republican government, with the support of the progressive forces led to the collapse of the Boulangist movement. Its leaders fled from France.
  4. ↑ Engels holidayed in Eastbourne from 23 July to 2 September.