Letter to Laura Lafargue, February 25, 1888

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 25 February 1888


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


ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE

AT LE PERREUX

London, 25 February 1888

My dear Laura,

I have just half an hour before post-time to give you a sign of life after sending off the last proofs of the Manifesto.[1] I hope you have better weather than we here: nothing but East winds, frost, snow showers, varying with a few hours' thaw. Very uncomfortable with the English system of fire-places, but then this winter cannot last for ever.

I have not sent the Pall Mall Gazette of late because there is literally nothing in it. It is strictly a London local paper, and consequently deadly dull when nothing is stirring in London.

Bebel and Singer had a glorious victory in the Reichstag, not only at the first but also at the third reading of the bill.[2] It was exactly like O'Brien's victory over Balfour[3] (who is a Scottish Puttkamer all over). Most of our people were at the meeting last Monday to welcome Cunninghame-Graham and Burns[4] ; O'Brien spoke there again, and very well. Cunninghame-Graham who already before, at Glasgow, had publicly stated that he stood on the basis of Karl Marx 'absolutely and entirely', here again proclaimed the nationalisation of all means of production. So we are represented in the British Parliament too. Hyndman, who had not been asked to speak, had got some of his fellows to call for him, took possession of the platform, but only to attack violently and personally some Radical M.P.s present—invited guests—who by the way had been told before by others, quite sufficiently, about their shortcomings.[5] This attack of Hyndman's however was so uncalled for and out of place that he was hooted down.

You will have heard that Reuss has sued Morris for libel for calling him a spy in the Commonweal. Evidently the work of the Bismarckian embassy. Morris was very funky at first, not having any evidence ready at hand, but I think we have since secured enough to make it a defeat for Puttkamer and Co. if they should persevere, which I doubt. I don't think Reuss will venture going into the witness box, perjury is only allowed to regular British police constables.

Nim wishes me to ask you again to give Longuet a hint that he better begin repaying a little of that money. She seems very sore on that point.

Shall we have war? If so, it will be the most foolish thing on the part of the Czar[6] and the French chauvins[7] that they can be guilty of. I have lately studied the military chances. What Bismarck says, that Germany can send out 2½-3 million of drilled and well-officered men, is rather below than above the truth. Russia will never have as many as a million actually on the seat of war, and France can send out 1½-1½ million of drilled and well-officered men; beyond that, officers and sergeants will be either absent or unfit. Thus Germany alone will be quite capable of resisting, for a time at least, an attack on both sides at once. The great advantage of Germany is in the greater number of drilled men, and especially of sergeants and officers. As to quality, the French will be fully equal to the Germans, as far as the line is concerned; beyond that, the German Landwehr is far better than the French territorials. The Russians I consider worse than they used to be, they have adopted a system of universal liability to service[8] for which they are not civilised enough and certainly are very short of good officers. And corruption is there as rife as ever—and probably will also play a certain part on the French side, if we are to judge from the Wilsoniades[9] and other scandals.

Jollymeier is very melancholy that you have not written him a line yet with that gold pen. Have you no mercy with him? He will be here again in about 4 weeks for Easter, which this year falls on Bismarck's birthday, alias All fools' day.[10] Very proper too, after people have been foolish enough for 1,800 years to celebrate such a fantastical festival!

Methinks I hear a certain bell calling me to the consumption of—I dare say veal cutlets. Farewell for today, and may the breeches of Paul, with their excessive length, lose also their perfume of sour size—a perfume too well known, alas, to an old Manchesterian!

Yours ever,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party
  2. ↑ The debates in the Reichstag about the motion to prolong the Anti-Socialist law (see note 52) in January-February 1888 ended in a defeat for the government. This outcome was largely predetermined by the speeches of August Bebel (30 January and 17 February) and Paul Singer (27 January and 17 February) during the first and the third reading of the draft bill, respectively. Both speakers exposed the provocative activities of the government which was planting spies in the labour unions. On 17 February 1888, the Reichstag prolonged the law for the last time, but not for a term of five years, as the government had suggested - the action of the law was extended for two years only (until 30 September 1890). The new clauses suggested by the government for the law were not adopted (see note 220).
  3. ↑ An allusion to William O'Brien's speech in the House of Commons on 16 February 1888, with scathing criticism of the policy of Arthur Balfour, Secretary of State for Ireland and nephew of the Prime Minister, Mr Robert Salisbury.
  4. ↑ On 19 February 1888, a big rally was held in London on the occasion of liberation of the socialists Robert Cunninghame-Graham and John Burns, convicted for taking part in the Trafalgar Square demonstration of 13 November 1887 (see note 185).
  5. ↑ See J. Blackwell, 'The Release of Burns and Graham', Justice, No. 215, Vol. V, 25 February
  6. ↑ Alexander III
  7. ↑ chauvinists
  8. ↑ 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).
  9. ↑ On 6 October 1887, Deputy Chief of the French General Staff General Louis Charles Caffarel was dismissed from his post and arrested on a charge of selling Legion d'honneur Orders. The investigation revealed that MP Daniel Wilson, son-in-law of the President of the Republic, Jules Grevy, was one of the chief accomplices of General Caffarel. As a result, General Caffarel was demoted, stripped of his decorations and discharged with disgrace; Grevy had to retire.
  10. ↑ 1 April