London, 31 December 1884

Dear Sorge,

I hope you are now better, as I am too – even if I am not yet quite my old self again, I am very nearly there.

“Capital” Book II (approx. 600 printed pages) will go to press in January. The editing will be finished in about 10 days, and then only the revision of the fair copy remains to be done. It has cost enough work – 2 complete and 6 fragmentary drafts were in existence!

Book III will follow, after I have done some urgent intermediate work; there are 2 drafts and a notebook of equations! – it will also be 6–700 pages in length.

Finally Book IV, “Theories of Surplus-Value”, from the oldest manuscript of 1859–61. This is still completely in the dark, can only be taken in hand when everything else is finished and to hand. It is about 1,000 closely written quarto pages.

I am completely revising my “Peasant War”. It will be the central point of the whole of German history. That too means work. But the preliminary studies are as good as finished.

The English translation of “Capital” is making slow progress; more than half is finished. Tussy’s husband, Aveling, helps, but he doesn’t do it as thoroughly as Sam Moore, who does the main part.

This summer Schorlemmer’s house in Darmstadt was searched because he was suspected of distributing the “Sozialdemokrat”. Great scandal among the philistines, has brought us about 500 votes.

The Democratic Federation here was blown apart on Saturday. The adventurer Hyndman, who had seized control of the whole affair, was exposed as having incited the members against one another, embezzled correspondence for the Council, and set up bogus branches in the provinces in order to plant his creatures in the conferences and congresses. He received a vote of no confidence, but the majority seceded, chiefly because the whole organisation was seen to be nothing but a swindle. That is true, they have not 400 paying members and their readership is composed of sentimental bourgeois. They now intend to found a new organisation (Morris, Bax, Aveling, etc.) and leave “Justice” and “To-Day” to Hyndman and his people (Fitzgerald, Champion, Burrows, etc.), while they themselves, finally recognising their own weak forces, will begin with a small monthly. Since the moneyed capitalists have seceded along with them (they noticed most clearly how H[yndman] exploited them), H[yndman] will thus have to pay for his non-paying papers himself, or else sell the whole party that still clings to him (which will be seen in 8 days) to the highest bidder. And since he is striving to get into Parliament at the next election, he must hasten.

Among the German deputies there is all sorts of petty-bourgeois prejudice; for example, the majority intends to vote for the steamship subsidy “in the interest of industry”. That makes enough correspondence for me. Fortunately, Bebel is there, who always correctly grasps the decisive point, and so I hope it will pass off without disgrace. Since I have been conducting the “official” correspondence with Bebel instead of Liebknecht, everything not only goes smoothly, but something actually comes of it, and my view reaches the people undiluted. Bebel is an absolutely splendid fellow; I hope he does not ruin his shaky health.

Now then, a happy New Year and better health – greetings to Adolph.

Yours,
F.E.

Thanks for the “Volkszeitung” with the wise man and his scruples about the abolition of the state. If I wanted to answer all such doubts, I might simply lay aside my other work. Apropos. The “Volkszeitung” no longer sends me the weekly edition. So if there is anything interesting in it, you would oblige me by occasionally sending it on.