Letter to Laura Lafargue, November 9, 1891

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 9 November 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 for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 49


ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE

AT LE PERREUX

London, 9 November 1891

My dear Laura,

Victoire! Though hidden in one of its most desolate corners, amongst the paragraphs that help to make up columns, The Daily News did inform us that Paul had beaten Dépasse (who now would do well to change the a of his name, source of so many calembours, into i) by 1,400 or thereabouts/ So the two toasts, in Port and Claret, of- fered up yesterday by us, were not without effect. Well, that's so much gained. And what is worth more than the victory itself almost, is the way in which it was won and which turns a common by- election into a great political action, a cause of incalculable effects. Paul may well back his Constans against the roi de Prusse[1] as an invo- luntary promoter of Socialism;[2] but the real likeness lies between Con- stans and Bismarck, as it laid between Bismarck and Louis Bonapar- te— they all partake of that short-sighted cleverness and Dumm- schlauheit[3] of the ordinary merchant and speculator who aims at one thing, and by miscalculating causes and effects, arrives at effecting the very opposite.

Anyhow Constans' stupidity has resulted not only in Paul's elec- tion, which gives a tremendous élan to Socialism all over France, but also in loosening the coalition for the maintenance of the ministry which was formed against Boulangism at the Rue Cadet.[4] I don't think the mass of the Clémencist Radicals will as yet fall away from the ministry, they are held too tightly. But the old feeling of security does no longer exist since the Roche-debate.[5] And some, the more consistent elements like Millerand, can hardly keep within the minis- terial alliance. That, and the personal ambitions and intrigues within the ministry will be sufficient to bring on a change — and every change loosens the bonds between the Czar[6] and French Chauvinists, and thus is in favour of peace. By the bye, what an irony of history that the Russian government, after having spent millions on Boulanger, must now spend fresh millions on the very people who upset Boulan- ger!

It was a nice exciting time and I have to thank you very much for enabling me to follow all the péripéties of it in the Paris press. What a miserable helpless political ass that Ranc has become. Il doit être en train de s'enrichir, celui-là![7]

I have sent a few lines of humorous congratulations to Paul direct, so that M. le directeur de la prison might have the perusal of them.[8]

If he should confiscate them I will send you a copy. But I hope and trust there will be more respect shown to M. le député.

I am anxious to see what Constans and the Chambre will do now. If they try to keep Paul in Ste-Pélagie, it will be all the worse for them.

It strikes me Mother Crawford is not far wrong in saying the strength of the present ministry is its having brought about outward signs of the French and Russian entente;[9] and that this makes the Radi- cals[10] fear a dissolution. But if, as is probable, internal dissensions break up the ministry, taking advantage of another such doubtful vic- tory as that on Saturday week,[11] then everything changes. First, the Russian entente becomes very vapoury as soon as the instability of gov- ernments is evidenced again, and secondly, if the Cabinet splits up,

either fragment will claim the merit of that entente. And thirdly, after a split nobody can tell either what the reconstruction may turn out to be, or how long it may last.

I have looked at the Justice of Clemenceau lately again more often, and it strikes me that at the bottom of the antiboulangist Alliance must have been the idea that there was only one way of taking the wind out of the sails of any present or future Boulanger, and that is: to close with Russia at any price and then hasten on the guerre de re- vanche.[12] That is the only conclusion I can draw from the tone of the Justice: soyons plus patriotes que Boulanger![13] And no doubt that plan would suit them all: settle the account with Germany, raise France again to a position of supremacy (which Russia might allow them to show of, provided France gave her the reality) and then, but not be- fore, settle our internal republican party quarrels. Unless that is the fact, I cannot make out either the language or the action of the Radi- cals. They may be fools, but there is a limit to all folly, outside the madhouse at least.

Louise is going to write a few lines, so I close with love

Ever yours,

F.E.

My dear Laura,

I am very proud that my definition of the letters M. P.[14] turned out right at last though you have been right before and are right as long as the things last. The notice about M. P. (in your sense) election was underneath a paragraph 'The murder of a wealthy widow'; General found it out, as I did not know, that the election of a Social- ist ranges itself under the impression of a bourgeois...[15]

  1. ↑ William I
  2. ↑ See this volume, p. 269.
  3. ↑ low cunning
  4. ↑ An allusion to the Society of the Rights of Man and Citizen, whose offices were in the Rue Cadet, Paris. It was founded by the radicals (see Note 147) and moderate re publicans on 25 May 1888 to combat the common danger, Boulangism. Eventually the Possibilists (see Note 3) joined it, too.
  5. ↑ On 31 October 1891 the Chamber of Deputies discussed an interpellation by Er nest Roche, who had demanded that the government state its motives for keeping Lafargue in prison and thus denying him the possibility to campaign in the elec tion. The government's conduct was criticised by Etienne Alexandre Millerand and Georges Benjamin Clemenceau. The Radicals voted against the government's proposal to proceed to other business. The Monarchists abstained. As a result, the government's proposal was passed with only a small majority.
  6. ↑ Alexander III
  7. ↑ He must be getting rich now, that man.
  8. ↑ The Editors are not in possession of the original of this letter.
  9. ↑ Engels has in mind E. Crawford's'The French Ministry'in The Daily News, 9 November 1891.
  10. ↑ radicals (see Note 147)
  11. ↑ 31 October
  12. ↑ retaliatory war
  13. ↑ let us be greater patriots than Boulanger!
  14. ↑ In connection with Paul Lafargue's nomination as a candidate for the French Chamber of Deputies Louise Kautsky called him M. P. In her letter to Engels of 16 October 1891 Laura Lafargue jokingly remarked in this context that in France M. P. meant 'membre de Pélagie' — an allusion to the fact that Paul Lafargue was serving a sentence at Ste Pélagie prison. Engels plays on this joke.
  15. ↑ The end is missing.