AT LE PERREUX 
London, 10 February 1891 

My dear Lafargue, 

Herewith the cheque for £20. I hope it arrives before you leave for 
Allier. My mind was elsewhere when I wrote it, otherwise I should 
have made it out to Laura’s order so as to facilitate its endorsement 
should you be away. 

As to what has transpired at the congress on the subject of 1 May, 
I know nothing. You may say what you will,!°° but at this juncture it 
would be sheer madness for the Germans to persist in holding their 
celebrations on the 1st and not on Sunday the 3rd. For that matter the 
divergence of opinion is quite natural; it is the antagonism between 
north and south. You southerners sacrifice everything to form, where- 
as the northerners tend to underrate it, concentrating rather on the 
substance. You like a theatrical effect; they, perhaps, pay too little 
heed to it. But for them | May means a repetition throughout the 
country of last year’s tockouts* in Hamburg and in much less favour- 
able circumstances; it means an outlay of between 200,000 and 
300,000 marks, the exhaustion of all the funds for which the party is 
directly or indirectly responsible, the disorganisation of all our trades 
unions and, as a result, general discouragement. You must admit 

* See this volume, p. 116. 

Engels to Lafargue. 10 February 189] 123 

that if this is the price to be paid for the theatrical effect of a simulta- 
neous demonstration, it is distinctly on the steep side. 

The success of the Socialiste gives me much pleasure. It goes to 
show that your working men are beginning to read again and to ac- 
quire a taste for other things besides sensational and pornographic 
newspapers. You may be proud of this success; it augurs very well. 
Here, for the first time in many years, is a weekly that covers its 
expenses.'°’ It is also very well produced. Do you send it to 
Sorge? 

Marx’s article* has aroused great wrath in the party’s Central 
Committee and many encomiums in the party itself. They tried to 
suppress the whole edition of the Neue Zeit but it was too late, where- 
upon they put a good face on it and boldly reprinted the article in the 
official organ.” When they have calmed down, they will thank me for 
having prevented them from entrusting the preparation of yet 
another equally shameful programme to Liebknecht, who fathered 
the thing.*? In the meanwhile I have heard nothing from them di- 
rectly; they are boycotting me to some extent. 

Your article on the Russian alliance is very good‘; it will rectify 
Liebknecht’s repeated assurances that no one in France has dreamt 
of a Russian alliance, that it is all pure invention on Bismarck’s 
part, etc. The fellow believes it his duty to heap praise on whatever 
goes on in France (or to conceal discreditable facts) because it’s 
a Republic! 

I haven’t yet been able to read your article on feudal property. 

In Northampton it was the local section of the Social Democratic 
Federation ?° which invited Aveling to stand “ and duly notified Hynd- 
man, who tried to prevent them from putting him up. However they 
insisted, with the result that, last Saturday,“ Hyndman had to rally 
the faithful here in London in order to pass a resolution that they had 
had nothing to do with Aveling’s candidature. Since no one was sug- 
gesting that they had, this was tantamount to a public admission of 
insubordination within the bosom of the Federation. Hyndman’s star is 
on the wane, even in the eyes of his supporters. The impetus given to 
the movement 18 months ago brought the Feperation a significant 
number of recruits and it is now stronger than ever before. But the 
said recruits are totally ignorant of the scabrous antecedents of this 

158 

* Critique of the Gotha Programme -* Vorwarts-° P. Lafargue, ‘Der Schuf3 Padlewsky’s’, 
Die Neue Zeit, 9. Jg. 1890/91, 1. Bd., Nr. 19 (see this volume, p. 108).-* See this vo- 
lume, pp. 120 and 126-27.-° 7 February 

gang and haven’t the slightest intention of accepting responsibility for 
any of them. They leave the Feperation’s foreign policy to Hyndman 
& Co. because it is quite above their heads. But if Hyndman tried to 
revive old personal squabbles, or if he were forced to do so, he would 
no longer, as previously, have a submissive band of supporters to back 
him up. A fair number of casworxers also belong to the Federation 
and, so far as they are concerned, any interference with Aveling and 
Tussy would spell war. 

Moreover Aveling’s candidature must be all the more galling to 
Hyndman in that Aveling, who did not possess the £100 pvzrosrr for 
the expenses of the: pozz, roundly refused a Tory’s offer to make him 
a present of it. At which loud panegyrics in the liberal press (see The 
Daily News which I shall send you).* In similar circumstances Hynd- 
man and Champion accepted money from the Toris, as you know. 

All it amounts to is a postponement. There can be no doubt that, 
come the General Election, the Northampton workmen will have the 
necessary money. They would have had it this time had they had 
a week in which to raise it. And they were counting on between 900 
and 1,000 votes. 

You have no maid. As for us, Annie gave notice yesterday as from 
21 November; she is to marry her szoxe at last. 

What curious people the Roshers are! Percy’s little boy has had to 
be circumcised because of some infantile disorder—and now his 
brother Howard’s son is in similar case! Old Rosher is completely at 
a loss: is it divine vengeance for the 19 children (including Miscarriage- 
acts) he has engendered? I myself submit that it is religious atavism. He- 
reditarily speaking they are so very Christian! Now, since Christiani- 
ty is Judaism’s natural child, what we have here is a reversion to the 
ORIGINAL ANCESTRAL TYPE, a foreskin so extravagant that it calls for an ope- 
ration instituted as a sign of the bond between Jehovah and his cho- 
sen people. 

Kovalevsky has published his Oxford lectures.” Prehistorical part, 
weak, historical, on Russia, interesting. 

* “Election News. Nomination at Northampton. Enthusiastic Liberal Meeting’, The 
Daily News, 10 February 1891.-° M. Kovalevsky, Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of 
Russia being the Ilchester Lectures for 1889-90. 

We are drafting an inscription for Helene’s* grave to be submitted 
to Laura. Give her a kiss from me. 

Yours ever, 

F.E.