London, 22 December 1892 

Dear August, 

We recently had the pleasure of seeing Cato Censorius Bonnier here while 
in transit from Oxford to Paris. I think I made some impression on him by 
pointing out that 1. his manner of giving ultimatums’ is hardly calculated to 
promote mutual understanding and 2. that it really might be better if the 
German party were to preserve its funds and its credit for the eventuality of a 
dissolution and future elections rather than dissipate both on a stoppage of 
work on May Day. It’s unfortunate for both French and Germans that this 
chap should be an indispensable middleman between the two, since Guesde 
seems reluctant to make use of any one else. But thwarted as it is by the 
isolation and inactivity of Oxford, his enthusiasm plus his intense urge to be 
up and doing serves to evoke discord rather than collaboration. And in the 
present state of Europe what is called for above all else is precisely the 
harmonious collaboration of Germans and French. 

Many thanks for the Reichstag stenographic reports. I shall not be able to 
read your big speech about the Army until tonight, but I was delighted by 
what you said about Heinze’s law.” So long as prostitution cannot be wholly 
eradicated, our first bid ought, I think, to be the girls’ total exemption from 
any kind of extraordinary legislation. Here in England this is more or less the 
case; there are no ‘morality police’, and no controls or medical examinations, 
but the police still have tremendous power because it is a punishable offence 
to keep a disorderly house, and every house in which a girl lives and 
receives visitors can be treated as such. But although this law is enforced 
only on rare occasions, the girls are none the less exposed to frightful 
extortion on the part of policemen. This relative freedom from degrading 
police restrictions enables the girls to preserve an independent and self- 
respecting character in a way that 

“See this volume, pp. 46-47 

would hardly be possible on the Continent. They look upon their situation as 
an unavoidable evil to which, since it has befallen them, they must resign 
themselves, but which otherwise need in no way affect their character or self- 
esteem and, given the chance to get out of their profession, they seize upon it, 
as a rule, successfully. In Manchester there were whole colonies of young 
men—bourgeois or clerks—who lived with girls of this kind, being in many 
cases legally married to them and treating them at least as well as a bourgeois 
would a woman of his own class. The fact that now and then one of these 
girls might take to the bottle in no way distinguished them from their middle- 
class counterparts over here, themselves no strangers to the habit. Indeed, 
some of these married girls, having moved to another town where there was 
no fear of their running into ‘old acquaintances’, have been introduced into 
respectable middle-class society and even into the squirarchy—squires being 
the English equivalent of country Junkers—without anyone’s noticing 
anything in the least objectionable about them. 

It is my belief that, in dealing with this matter, we should above all 
consider the interests of the girls themselves as victims of the present social 
order, and protect them as far as possible against ending up in the gutter—or 
at least not actually force them into the gutter by means of legislation and 
police skulduggery as happens throughout the Continent. In this country the 
same thing was attempted in a number of garrison towns where controls and 
medical examinations were introduced, but it didn’t last long; the only good 
thing the social purity people have done has been to agitate against this. 

Medical examinations are absolutely worthless. Wherever they were 
introduced here, syphilis and gonorrhoea increased. I am convinced that a 
police surgeon’s instruments are exceedingly effective in transmitting vene- 
real disease, since he would be unlikely to spend time or trouble on disin- 
fecting them. Free courses on venereal disease should be made available to 
the girls, then most of them would probably take precautions themselves. 
Blaschko has sent us an article on medical controlsa in which he is forced to 
admit that these are absolutely useless; if he were to draw the logical 
conclusion from his own assumptions, he would be bound to conclude that 
prostitution must be freed from all restrictions and the girls be protected 

*“ A. Blaschko, ‘Die moderne Prostitution’, Die Neue Zeit, Stuttgart, 1891-1892, Vol. IL , Nos. 27, 
32. 

against exploitation, but in Germany that would seem utterly Utopian. 

I hope that Kneipp treatment is doing Dietz good; at all events Naso* 
maintains that the crack-brained parson made him astoundingly healthy. By 
completely changing the habits of people the routine of whose urban 
professional lives has made them a bit rigid and set in their ways, and by 
forcing them to take exercise in the open air, the said cure may, from what I 
have heard, do them a certain amount of good or, indeed, harm—according to 
the nature of the case—just as does the ‘water cure’ when it is not as a rule 
the mineral water that does the trick, but rather the change of routine and the 
strict diet. But otherwise you are right; amongst our people there is many a 
one who deems it his duty fervently to embrace any and every new ‘ism’ and, 
likewise, any disgruntled bourgeois or bureaucratic malcontent, any obscure 
literary or artistic genius. He may equally well set himself up as the protector 
of all victims of persecution and injustice, and discover in every ism a theory 
of world redemption hitherto suppressed by the wicked capitalist world order. 
It is an excellent way of turning to account and putting on display the very 
things one has not learnt. One has only to look at what the late-lamented 
Volksstaat achieved in that sphere! 

The Panama business °° gets nicer every day. As so often in France the 
affair is taking a quite dramatically exaggerated course. At any moment, or 
so it seems, the efforts to thrust it out of sight are going to succeed, and then 
up it springs again where least expected and more vigorously than ever 
before. Now the situation is such that no hushing up will avail. First the 
affair was to be hushed up in the courts, whereupon fresh revelations 
necessitated the setting up of a committee of inquiry; then it was the latter 
that was to be hamstrung, an attempt that was only partially successful and 
only to the extent that further legal proceedings of a more serious nature 
were instituted. And now there’s a spate of fresh revelations and 
prosecutions of deputies and senators. The ball has been set rolling and is 
very far from coming to a stop. Standing in the wings are 1. Constans, who 
knows that he is played out and is anxious to avenge himself, 2. Rochefort 
and the Boulangists, ° who also know a great deal, 3. the Orléans family, who 
would like to make use of all this farcical business to attempt a restoration. 
All these people know a great deal and can to a large extent prove it. And if 
the worst comes to the worst, Ch. 

“Leonhard Tauscher 

de Lesseps and Rouvier will avenge themselves by compromising as many 
people as possible and involving them in their fall. Rothschild summed 
up the situation in the words: 
‘I need the monarchy and shall buy it once and for all; the Republic costs me too much, 
since every few years I have to buy yet another ravenous crew.’ 

What wouldn’t that jackass Boulanger give for that now if he hadn’t shot 
himself! He’d be in clover; indeed, I shouldn’t be surprised if an attempt 
were made to find another Boulanger. Fortunately this would not be at all 
easy. The monarchy, too, is down on its luck—the Right voted as one man 
for the Panama lottery '°° and, what is worse, made propaganda for it in the 
tural areas, thus landing philistines and peasants in the cart. The 1,700 
million francs that were swallowed up consisted to a very large extent of the 
savings of little men (over 800,000 are said to be involved!), hence the wave 
of indignation, while the Right (Clerical Monarchists) who at first rejoiced 
over the Panama scandal, are now turning coy. 

How it will all end is obvious—ultimately in our favour. But in a country 
as incalculable as France it is difficult to predict what intermediate stages 
there will be. Several, at any rate, before our people really take possession of 
the stage. Only if there were to be revolution in Paris would the Socialists 
come to power; for in Paris—cf. the Commune—every revolution is 
automatically socialist. But Paris is less turbulent than the provinces and that 
is a good thing, Paris is blasé, not least because the workers, disunited, 
confused and patriotic (in so far as they sense that Paris is—wrongly, or so 
they feel—no longer the political hub of the world), can see no way out. 
Should the scandals continue, there might be a presidential crisis—Carnot 
has at least connived at a lot of dirty work—and whatever happens there will 
be parliamentary elections next year. Also a good many municipal elections 
in Paris. All this will provide more than enough legal loopholes. On the other 
hand, uncertainty as to the reliability of the army (which is new to general 
military service and not so hardened to it as Prussia) is a safeguard against 
coups d’ état, as is the unarmed state of the masses (who this time could not, 
as always before, turn to the National Guard for guns and ammunition) 
against attempted uprisings. It therefore seems very probable that the crisis 
will take a peaceful course. It’s just what we need, however, if we are to have 
time to reap the benefits of Panama—no violent upheavals and time for the 
ferment to take effect throughout the country. In the provinces the Marxists 
have virtually no rivals; in Paris it is, for the time being, quite 

21 : 30 
and Broussists °° should wear 

a good thing if Blanquists, *° Allemanists 
each other out. 

At all events, internal developments in France have again become of 
paramount importance and we shall soon see to what extent the chaps are 
equal to the tasks by which they are confronted. I must say that, where major 
crises such as this one are concerned, I have considerable confidence in them. 
Not in their ability to win instant and striking victories—there may yet be 
short-lived episodes of a horribly reactionary nature—but in their ability 
eventually to emerge with honour. Nor, from our point of view, should things 
happen too quickly. We too require time for growth. 

Quite between ourselves, I am over the worst so far as Volume II P is 
concerned. The difficulties in the most difficult section have been sur- 
mounted. *’ But until I have been through the last two sections I can say 
nothing definite about the date of completion. There may still turn out to be 
individual difficulties that will take some time. But I have sighted land and 
the worse and most time-consuming part is behind me; this time I shall 
finish. When you come over here I shall show it to you. 

You would in any case do better to come via Calais; it’s hardly any further 
from Stuttgart and maybe even somewhat nearer than via Ostend—Cordial 
regards to you, your wife” and your children and a Happy Christmas to you. 

A uf Wiedersehen, 

Your F.E.