Although I cannot be at your Congress in person, I 
nevertheless send you my best wishes for its success in the interests 
of international socialism. 

An unprecedented exceptional law has fallen upon the Italian 
socialists *°° which will without doubt cost them several years of 
severe suffering. So be it! Others had to pass through similar 
trials. 

When the Paris Commune fell, the bourgeois reaction in France 
got drunk on proletarian blood. The result is before your eyes: 
the French Chamber has 50 socialist deputies. 

In Germany Bismarck put the socialists outside the law for 
12 long years; they ended by trampling on the Anti-Socialist 
Law **’ and then driving Bismarck from power; and now they have 
become the strongest party in the empire. 

What the French and German workers have done the Italian 
workers will also do. A Crispi will certainly not succeed where 
Thiers, MacMahon and Bismarck have failed. Victory is yours.” 

@ In the manuscript there follows the passage omitted in the newspaper: “Your 
letter of August 30 did not reach me in London and was sent down here—that 
explains the delay in my reply which I deeply regret. I thank you personally and the 
Italian socialists whom you represent for your kind invitation. Unfortunately, I am not 
able to accept it.”— Ed. 

b In the manuscript: “Victory is ours”.— Ed. 

To the Third Congress of the SPIWP 473 

Long live international revolutionary socialism! 
Fraternal greetings. 

Frederick Engels 

No. 38, September 22-23, 1894 paper, checked with the French 
manuscript 

Translated from the Italian