in Harrogate

[London] 29 Nov. 73

Dear Mohr,

Lopatin returned to Paris yesterday evening; he intends to come here in 1–2 months, at which time Lawrow too will move here with his printing press, unless he changes his mind on account of the cost, to which I particularly drew L[opatin]’s attention.

L[opatin] and Outine will probably never become very thick friends; their natures are not very sympathetic to each other, and the shadow of their first cold contact in Geneva still lies upon them. Besides, L[opatin] still has a great Russian patriotism and treats the Russian cause¹ always as something apart, of no concern to the Occident, and he does not seem to be very grateful to Outine for having initiated us into the mysteries². Add to this that L[opatin] has just passed through Lawrow’s hands and, having come quite fresh from Siberian solitude, was of course bound to be somewhat susceptible to his reconciliation twaddle.

On the other hand, the whole Russian emigration mess is revolting to him up to his neck, and he wants nothing more to do with it, whereas Outine, despite, and because of, his antagonism to that gang, is still up to his ears in this gossip and attaches importance to every fart — thus he is blackly annoyed that L[opatin] wants to have the manuscript of Chernyshevsky known to you printed not by Trussow but by Lawrow, parce que cela leur donne du prestige?!

In my opinion, therefore, it is of no great consequence whether L[opatin] considers Elpidin, for example, not a complicated scoundrel but a simple ass; although it was precisely through the indiscretion of that same Elpidin towards a certain Fedetzki or Feletzki, and the latter’s chatter, that the Russian government was informed of L[opatin]’s presence in Irkutsk and L[opatin] was arrested.

When L[opatin] arrived in Irkutsk, Chernyshevsky was “quite close at hand”, i.e. 700 to 800 English miles further away near Nerchinsk, but was at once taken to Sredne-Vilyuisk, north of Yakutsk, latitude 65°, where, apart from the native Tungus, he has only the non-commissioned officer guarding him and two soldiers for company.

L[opatin], after having made off in July, remained hidden in Irkutsk for another month, finally in the house of the very man specially charged with finding out his hiding place; then, disguised as a peasant, acting as the carter, he travelled with his own telega to Tomsk, from there by steamer, from Tobolsk by post-horses, and finally by rail to Petersburg, always as a peasant; here he stayed hidden for another month, until he quietly travelled by rail across the frontier.

In the Russian translation of Capital, Chapters 2–5 (including machinery and large-scale industry) are by him, thus quite a good piece. 122! He is now translating English things for Iloiskosp.

Yesterday I read the chapter on factory legislation in the French.* With all due respect for the art with which this chapter has been turned into elegant French, I am sorry for the fine chapter. Strength, sap, and life have gone to the devil. The possibility for the everyday writer to express himself with a certain elegance is bought at the cost of the castration of the language. To engender thoughts in this modern compulsory French is becoming more and more impossible. The inversion of sentences, made necessary almost everywhere by pedantic formal logic, alone deprives the exposition of all striking quality, all liveliness. I would consider it a great mistake to use the French garb as the basis for the English translation. In English, the vigorous expression of the original need not be weakened; what is unavoidably lost at the properly dialectical passages is compensated by the greater force and brevity of the English in many others.

Apropos, how does Herr Kokosky excuse his bad translation? By saying that I write in the ‘Liebknecht-Marx style’, which is very difficult to reproduce! What a compliment!

Tussy’s letter arrived yesterday evening. Will be answered tomorrow, so you don’t get everything on the same day.

What does Gumpert say?

Best regards to Tussy. Your
MFE

¹ the Russian cause — ² because this gives them prestige

* Chapter: The Working Day