Letter to Laura Lafargue, October 27, 1893

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 27 October 1893


First published, in the language of the original (English): in: F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. III, 1891-1895, Paris, 1959
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 50


ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE

AT LE PERREUX

London, 27 October 1893

My dear Löhr, Though Fortin is a business-man, yet with the help of a Roumanian (with business habits partly of a Polish Jew, partly of a spendthrift boyar) he succeeds in creating a very fair muddle.

I wrote to Fortin 25 that you did not know the Kritik der Rechtsphilosophie[1]

but if he thought proper, he might send you his copy of the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher so that you might read it and form an idea as to the advisability—both as to contents and to form—of its being submitted to the French working people. Diamandy, in his eagerness to get stuff for his review,[2] rushes at you and transforms, moreover, the one article into plusieurs[3] (business principles of the Polish Jew, to ask much so as to be able to rebate) as for instance:

— Was kostet die Elle von dem Stoff? — Fünfzehn Groschen. — Fünfzehn sagt er, zwölfeinenhalben meint er, zehn wird er nehmen, sieben und einen halben ist die Sache werth, fünf macht ich ihm geben, werd' ich ihm bieten zwei und einen halben Groschen![4] Voilà ce que c'est.[5] Let Fortin first send you his copy and then you will see what you will see.

As to the Gewalttheorie[6] not a line in Fortin's letter led me to conclude that the thing had been already done and I don't believe it either. To make you believe that you are en face d'un fait accompli, is another of these Oriental tricks which they consider perfectly justifiable in the service of the cause. You will never arrive at the facts, much less at any practical conclusion, until you have eliminated Diamandy and deal direct with Fortin.

Diamandy served me exactly the same with regard to the translation of the Ursprung[7] for the Ère Nouvelle.

I had a few lines from Bebel to-day about Paul's affair.[8] The delay was caused by 1. the Saxon elections; 2. the Cologne Congress 279 which prevented full meetings of the Executives, and overwhelmed them with business. As soon as both Bebel and Liebknecht shall have returned to Berlin, the matter will be settled. But Bebel says at the same time, there is a great distrust of Paris correspondents of French nationality, as hitherto everyone of them has ceased to write reports at the very moment when French affairs became highly interesting—they then looked after their own business and left the Vorwärts to shift for themselves. I shall do my best to persuade them that now Paul has no longer a free pass on the railways, this will cease as far as he is concerned, but I do hope that our Paris friends will at last learn to treat business as business and engagements as things to be fulfilled—at least as a rule.

Kind regards from Louise.

Ever yours,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ See this volume, p. 211
  2. ↑ L'Ère nouvelle
  3. ↑ several
  4. ↑ 'How much is a yard of that stuff?' 'Fifteen pence.' 'He says fifteen, he means twelve and a half, he would take ten, the thing's worth seven and a half, I'd be prepared to give him five, so I'll offer him tuppence ha'penny!'
  5. ↑ This is the thing.
  6. ↑ 'Theory of Force' (see F. Engels, Anti-Dühring, present edition, Vol. 25, pp. 146-71).
  7. ↑ Origin, see this volume, pp. 211
  8. ↑ See this volume, pp. 208-9, 215