Letter to Laura Lafargue, July 12, 1891

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 12 July 1891


First published, in the language of the original (English), in F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. III, Paris, 1959
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 49


ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE

AT LE PERREUX

London, 12 July 1891

My dear Laura,

Paul sends me from Lille the enclosed.[1] As I do not know where he may be now, I return and reply to you.

First I have absolutely no time to do un vrai travail[2] for Duc- Quercy, in order that he may make out of it un article à sensation. I am finishing the Origin[3] and then I shall go and recover a bit of nervous tension, as I do feel rather unstrung. And after that—the 3rd volume[4] and nothing else. That is settled long since and cannot and shall not be unsettled.

If I was to write on such a ticklish question and for such a ticklish public as the French, I should certainly do it myself under my name; but never allow a journalist to turn my letter into an interview and put into my mouth, French fashion, not what I did say but what in his opinion I ought to have said.

But finally I am not capable of writing on the 3 questions proposed in a style to please the French bourgeois and readers of the Figaro. I should have to remind them of the fact that by their submission, for 20 years, to the adventurer Louis Bonaparte they laid the foundation for all the wars that have come over us since 1850, including the Franco-German war; that that war originated, en dernier lieu,[5] in their claim to interfere in German internal affairs, a claim which they even now think they have a right to; that if they lost Alsace etc. c'était la fortune de la guerre[6] and that I do most distinctly object to the whole fate of Europe and of the working class being made subordinate to the question as to who is to have that miserable bit of country. All this might be very useful to tell them, but would they even listen to it without accusing me of having stolen a pendule?

However that may be, I have no time and cannot submit to Duc- Quercy's manipulations. These are the two decisive points.

What Paul has written to me about Renard and his intended dec- laration, that he said the words attributed to Paul, he will have let you know even before me. I hope these things will help to smash up the verdict.[7]

Edward[8] is at St Margaret's Bay, he suffers from the kidneys again; so we shall have only Tussy and Sam Moore here. Wednesday[9]

Louise intends going to Vienna, I expect Schorlemmer and then we will see what we may do. I have no fixed plans yet for the summer, but various nebulous projects are colliding in my brain.

Another thing. I should not like just now to speak about matters connected with the Vallmar affair[10] while the thing is being thrashed out in Germany. Anything I said in France might be used, misused and abused against them in Germany, and render their posi- tion more difficult. And it is well known to them all that I have re- fused to do any work for anybody until after the conclusion of Volume III.[11]

I believe I sent you the second batch of Field-Burrows letters in The Star. Anyhow the matter has blown over—thanks to the accident of the Belgian Circular of 18th June. This complete submission of the Belgians to the Halle Resolutions so upset all Hyndman's calcula- tions that he is now in a towering rage against them, threatens them with his vengeance, but still holds back. In the meantime he ruins his last hopes in the East End by attacking the Gas Workers (most of the leaders of whom are in the Social Democratic Federation) and Tussy whom he calls Miss Marx. That's the degree of lowness he has come to.

Kind regards from Louise.

Ever yours,

F.E.

Tussy and I have just been talking over Nimmy's inscription. After various proposals of various epithets, to all of which objections may be made, I incline to Tussy's proposal to put nothing but the name. Then the inscription would run

In memory of
Jenny Marx

and of
Karl Marx

and of
Harry Longuet

also of
Helen Demuth
Born January 1st 1823, Died November 4th 1890

What do you think?

  1. ↑ This refers to a letter from the French socialist journalist Albert Duc-Quercy, en closed by Lafargue with his letter to Engels of 10 July 1891. Presumably, Albert Duc-Quercy had asked Engels, via Lafargue, to state his views on certain aspects of France's foreign policy; these pronouncements were to be published in the form of an interview in Le Figaro.
  2. ↑ a great amount of work
  3. ↑ the fourth German edition of The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State
  4. ↑ of Capital
  5. ↑ eventually
  6. ↑ it was the fortune of war
  7. ↑ In a letter to Engels of 10 July 1891 Paul Lafargue wrote: T have been sentenced for direct incitement to murder; for direct incitement to be the case, the persons to be killed must be specifically named; and the indictment charges me only with having said that one must get rid of the employers as of vermin with an insecticide.
    'But there is another point. This phrase, the only one where the word kill is used, was in the first instance attributed to Hippolyte Culine by an official newspa per; the indictment puts it down to me; and on Monday, when I arrived at Four- mies station, I met Renard, who had spoken at that meeting on April 11th and he showed me a letter which he was sending to the Minister of Justice in which he stat ed that it was he who had spoken these words and that he accepted all the conse quences.' For the trial of Lafargue see Note 275.
  8. ↑ Aveling
  9. ↑ 15 July
  10. ↑ Addressing a public Social-Democratic meeting at the Eldorado hall in Munich on 1 June 1891, Georg von Vollmar, leader of the Bavarian Social-Democrats, deliv ered a speech 'On the Immediate Tasks of German Social-Democracy' in the con text of the 'new course' of the Caprivi government. He advocated an opportunistic tactics of co-operation with the ruling classes in home and foreign policy, in par ticular in the event of war with Russia. This tactics was supposed to result in a grad ual reform of society. The speech, applauded by the bourgeois press, was criti cized at party meetings, in most party periodicals and, later, at the Erfurt Congress, especially in the addresses of August Bebel and Paul Singer (see Note 301).
  11. ↑ of Capital