{London,] 8 December 1880 

My dear Sir, 

Mrs Marx, like most sickly people whose illness has assumed 
a chronic character, becomes sometimes suddenly unable to leave her 
bedroom and then fit again for social intercourse. Believing she could 
within a few days pay a visit to Mrs Hyndman, she did not write to her 
at once, but as we are this week inundated with visitors from the Con- 
tinent, she begs me to write you that she will give herself the pleasure 
to call upon Mrs Hyndman next week. 

I welcome the prospect of the journal you speak of. If you say that 
you do not share the views of my party for England I can only reply 
that that party considers an English revolution not necessary, but — 
according to historic precedents — possible. If the unavoidable evolu- 
tion turn into a revolution, it would not only be the fault of the ruling 
classes, but also of the working class. Every pacific concession of the 
former has been wrung from them by ‘pressure from without’. Their 
action kept pace with that pressure and if the latter has more and 
more weakened, it is only because the English working class know not 
how to wield their power and use their liberties, both of which they 
possess legally. 

In Germany the working class were fully aware from the beginning 
of their movement that you cannot get rid ofa military despotism but 
by a Revolution. At the same time they understood that such a Revo- 
lution, even if at first successful, would finally turn against them with- 
out previous organisation, acquirement of knowledge, propaganda, 
and [word illegible]. Hence they moved within strictly legal 
bounds. The illegality was all on the side of government, which de- 
clared them en dehors la loi.* Their crimes were not deeds, but opinions 
unpleasant to their rulers. Fortunately, the same government — the 
working class having been pushed to the background with the help of 
the bourgeoisie— becomes now more and more unbearable to the 

* beyond the law 

latter, whom it hits on their most tender point—the pocket. This 
state of things cannot last long. 
Please to present my compliments to Mrs Hyndman. 

Yours very truly, 
Karl Marx