| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 20 December 1892 |
ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE
AT LE PERREUX
London, 20 December 1892
My dear Löhr,
Yesterday we forwarded by Van Oppen and Co's Express (they have an office in Paris too, but I did unfortunately not note the address) the box with pudding and cake, and hope it will arrive safe (directed to you, Le Perreux). The pudding is not quite boiled out, our copper would not heat last Saturday and so, instead of twelve hours' boiling, the unfortunate pudding only got about nine or ten. But if you give it two to three hours' boiling before serving, it will be all right.
Before crossing the Channel, the Oxford sage[1] gave us a call here. I hope I quietened his anxiety about the first of May[2] to some extent. The attempt, in 1890, to chômer[3] at Hamburg alone cost the party above 100,000 marks, and in my opinion it would never do to allow the bourgeois to bleed the German party's cash and credit à blanc just at the moment when a dissolution of the Reichstag is in the air, and when every farthing would be wanted.
Panama is delightful. The papers you so kindly send me, and old Mother Crawford's letters—though awfully cut down by the respectable people of the Daily News—form already a pretty comprehensive dossier which I intend to complete up to the—I hope—bitter end. Respectability here, of course, triumphs.
Wenn sich das französische Laster erbricht, setzt sich die englische Tugend zu Tisch[4] —and I'll be damned if I do not prefer a thousand times that plain open outright French vice to this hypocritical British virtue. Here corruption has been brought into a system and has been endowed with a complete code of étiquette which you have only to keep within, in order to be perfectly bullet-proof against all charges of undue corruption. In France no man would stand a chance in a popular constituency, a town especially, who openly wanted to get into Parliament for the purpose of furthering his own interests; here, anybody who wanted to get in for any other purpose would be considered a fool and a Don Quixote. The English Panama is called Building Society and has more than one head—the savings of the small people have been eaten up in these societies by wholesale, and no great fuss about it.[5] One M.P. is in here too, Spencer Balfour—he will take the Chiltern Hundreds and retire into private life—while lots of M.P.'s make money by selling their names as directors of all sorts of swindling companies, which is considered perfectly fair so long as it is not pushed to excess.
On Friday[6] we expect Pumps and her family here, as we have not room enough in the house we have taken lodgings next door but one—the old Marquis's house is now a lodging house! I think I wrote to you that on November 13th Pumps had a little girl.
Shall write to Paul after the first rush of the holidays is over.
Ever yours,
F. Engels
[Postscript from Louise Kautsky][7]
My dear Laura,
Should I do penance, in sackcloth and ashes? But I'd rather not for I regret all my misdeeds as it is. Because of my not writing I suffer more than you do. After my return the General[8] was no longer his old self and I had hardly any time of my own, but when I did have time I was in no mood for writing. Yet now and again everything turned out very well. I look forward to the spring when we'll be able to talk to our hearts content. My best regards to the M.P.[9]
With love and kisses
Your
Louisa