A Council consisting of more than thirty members cannot, of 
course, draw up its own documents. It must entrust that task to 
some one or other of its members, reserving to itself the right of 
rejecting or amending. The address on the “Civil War in France,” 
drawn up by myself,* was unanimously adopted by the General 
Council of the International, and is therefore the official 
embodiment of its own views. With regard, however, to the 
personal charges brought forward against Jules Favre and Co., the 
case stands otherwise. On this point the great majority of the 
Council had to rely upon my trustworthiness. This was the very 
reason why I supported the motion of another member of the 
Council that Mr. John Hales, in his answer to Mr. Holyoake‘ 
should name me as the author of the address. I hold myself alone 
responsible for those charges, and hereby challenge Jules Favre 
and Co. to prosecute me for libel. In his letter Mr. Llewellyn 
Davies says, 

“It is melancholy to read the charges of personal baseness so freely flung by 
Frenchmen at one another.’ 4 

Does this sentence not somewhat smack of that pharisaical 
self-righteousness with which William Cobbett had so often 
taunted the British mind? Let me ask Mr. Llewellyn Davies which 

June 26, 1871.— Ed. 

was worse, the French petite presse, fabricating in the service of the 
police the most infamous slanders against the Communals, dead, 
captive, or hidden, or the English press reproducing them to this 
day, despite its professed contempt for the petite presse. I do not 
consider it a French inferiority that such serious charges for 
instance as those brought forward against the late Lord Palmer- 
ston, during a quarter of a century, by a man like Mr. David 

Urquhart,”’ could have been burked in England but not in 
France. 

July 1, 1871, The Daily News, June 27, 
Mall Gazette, No. 1987, June 27, 1871 (in 

Frederick Engels 

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY NEWS 

Sir,— 

I am instructed by the General Council of the International 
Working Men’s Association to reply to the letters of Messrs. 
G. J. Holyoake and B. Lucraft, which appeared in your issue of 
Monday last.* I find, on referring to the minutes of the Council, 
that Mr. Holyoake attended a meeting of the Council, by 
permission, on the 16th of November, 1869, and during the sitting 
expressed his desire to become a member of the Council, and to 
attend the next General Congress of the International, to be held 
in Paris, September, 1870. After he had retired, Mr. John Weston 
proposed him as a candidate for membership, but the proposition 
was received in such a manner that Mr. Weston did not insist, but 
withdrew it. With regard to Mr. Lucraft’s statement that he was 
not present when the address was voted upon, I may say that Mr. 
Lucraft was present at a meeting of the Council held on the 23rd 
of May, 1871, when it was officially announced that the draught of 
the address on the “Civil War in France”” would be read and 
discussed at the next ordinary meeting of the Council, May the 
30th. It was therefore left entirely to Mr. Lucraft to decide 
whether he would be present or absent upon that occasion, and 
not only did he know that it was the rule of the Council to append 
the names of all its members, present or absent, to its public 
documents, but he was one of the most strenuous supporters of 
that rule, and resisted on several occasions attempts made to 

dispense with it—on May 23, amongst others—and he then 
voluntarily informed the Council that “his entire sympathy was 
with the Commune of Paris.” On Tuesday evening, June 20, at a 
meeting of the Council, Mr. Lucraft was forced to admit that he 
had not even then read the address itself, but that all his 
impressions about it were derived from the statements of the 
press. With respect to Mr. Odger’s repudiation, all I can say is that 
he was waited upon personally and informed that the Council was 
about to issue an address, and was asked if he objected to his 
name appearing in connection with it, and he said “No.” The 
public can draw its own conclusions. I may add that the 
resignations of Messrs. Lucraft and Odger have been accepted by 
the Council unanimously.* 
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 

John Hales, 

Secretary to the General Council 
of the International Working Men’s Association 

256, High Holborn, W.C.