London, 15 December 1882 

My dear Laura, 

Only after 7 last night Percy* came with the needful so there was 
nothing to be done before today, so now I enclose a five-pound Bank 
of England note the number of which I have kept here, and will run 
the risk to send it whole for once. 

No doubt you will by this time be quite assured about Paul’s? fate, 
at least for the present. **° I have no doubt he is free again now, if not 
already back in Paris. But I am afraid the Bonapartist and other con- 
servative judges of Montlucon will give them‘ a couple of months 
each of retired life. The government evidently wishes to create a few 
precedents in the provinces before it dares to try repression in Paris. 
And thus the parquet? at Montlugon engaged the business, which, 
once engaged, must be carried out by the judges to the desired end, 
were it only to save the credit of the magistrature. And as the case will 
no doubt come before the police correctionnelle,* there can be not 
even that shadow of a doubt which a jury might still have rendered 
possible. 

The change to a short prison life would not in itself have anything 
very dreadful, indeed I think it would do Paul more good than harm, 

@ Rosher-> Lafargue-* Lafargue and Guesde-“ prosecutor’s office-* disciplinary 
court 

But very likely their time will come at a moment when they, Paul and 
Guesde, are both most wanted for the Egalité. And the paper had so 
much improved lately. Whether it is the cumulative effect of Parisian 
life and journalistic activity, Paul’s articles lately have been very 
much better, since he dropped the dogmatism of the scientific oracle 
and took up the ligne spirttuelle.: That on the candidature [of] 
Bontoux was charming, *7! but I think I discover a little female hand 
in that here and there. So was that on the behexte ministertum” *5° 
(I forgot the French title) which also pleased Mohr specially. * Now if 
Paul and Guesde are locked up, the soul of the paper is gone. Deville 
is witty and amusing only at intervals, generally he is clear but dull 
and doctrinaire, Massard is the reverse of a good Christian, for that 
with him the flesh is willing but the spirit (esprit) is weak. And I must 
conclude, from what information I possess, that Paul and Guesde 
are also the two who will be most wanted in a financially critical 
moment. Thus it will be a great pity that just at this time dynamitic 
brag and competition with the revolutionarism of the anarchists 
should have brought them in this predicament. 

Anyhow I hope you look down upon these petites miséres du haut de 
votre trowsiéme* with the same calmness as the quarante siécles* of Gen- 
eral Bonaparte du haut de leurs pyramides' on the French army and 
Bonaparte himself. 

How is Jenny * getting on? is she better? I do not hear much about 
her at Maitland Park," indeed they‘ do not know much themselves. 

Very affectionately yours, 

FL E.