London, 9 August 1890 

Dear Sorge, 

A week ago on Wednesday I sent you a postcard* gratefully ac- 
knowledging receipt of Morgan.” Today, a few lines in so far as time 
allows before the post goes. 

The trip to North Cape did us both‘ a great deal of good and, after 
another 3 or 4 weeks of extra recuperation at the seaside, whither we 
shall be going next week (I have been held up here by sundry domes- 
tic business), I think I shall be absolutely fit again. On the face of it 
I look very well. Aboard our ship (a steam yacht of 2,200 tons), upon 
which we spent all our time going in and out of all the Norwegian 
fjords, there were 3 doctors who refused to believe that I’m going to 
be 70 this year. In fact, I am able to sleep without sulphonal, but how 
long will it last? 

Tussy and Aveling likewise went to Norway on Wednesday. Consid- 
ering what Ibsen enthusiasts they are, I’m surprised they should 
have waited so long before seeing the new promised land. I wonder if 
they are in for another disappointment, as in America? At any rate, 
Norway is by nature, just as America is socially, a pillar of what the 
philistines call ‘individualism’. At intervals of 2 or 3 miles there are 
pockets of light soil among the rocks upon which a family might just be 
able to subsist — and, sure enough, it does, cut off from all the rest of 
the world. The people are handsome, strong, honest, bigoted and — 
fanatically religious, i.e. in the country. The towns are just like those 
on the Dutch or German coast. In Bergen there is a Social Democra- 
tic association which, to the horror of the reigning teetotallers, is de- 

* See Engels’ letter to Sorge of 30 July 1890 (present edition, Vol. 48). - 
> L.H. Morgan, Houses and House-Life of the American Aborigines.-° Engels and Carl 
Schorlemmer 

manding the right to serve beer in its club. I read an indignant article 
about it in the Bergensposten. 

In Germany there’s a minor row in store for the congress.!? Mr 
Schippel—a protégé of Liebknecht’s—-and other men of letters 
propose to attack the party leadership and form an opposition.'? 
Well, after the abolition of the Anti-Socialist Law,!! there would be 
no real objection to that. The party is so big that complete freedom of 
discussion within its ranks is imperative. Otherwise the many new ele- 
ments who have joined it during the past 3 years and who are in some 
cases still exceedingly green and unpolished, could not be assimilated 
and trained. An accretion of 700,000 in 3 years (only counting the vot- 
ers) isn’t like a bunch of schoolboys into whom you can drum things; 
discussion and a certain amount of dissension is necessary and will 
help them over the first hurdle. There’s not the slightest danger of 
a split; the press, now 12 years old, will take care of that. But these in- 
solent literary men, bent on satisfying their colossal vanity, are intri- 
guing and forming cliques for all they are worth, thereby arousing far 
more wrath than they warrant among the party leaders for whom 
they create a great deal of unaccustomed trouble and vexation. 
Hence the latter’s conduct of the battle has been anything but skilful; 
Liebknecht is constantly on the warpath with his ‘expulsions’ and 
even Bebel, usually so tactful, has been stung by anger into publish- 
ing a somewhat foolish letter.'* Which is why our literary gents are 
now screaming about the silencing of the free expression of opinion, 
etc. The chief organs of the new opposition are the Berliner Volks- 
Tribüne (Schippel), Sdchsische Arbeiter-Zeitung (Dresden) and the Mag- 
deburg Volksstimme. They have gained a certain following in Berlin, 
Magdeburg, etc., particularly among the new recruits who are still 
susceptible to the lure of stock-phrases. I shall probably be seeing Be- 
bel and Liebknecht over here before the congress, and shall do my ut- 
most to convince them of the imprudence of any expulsion that rests 
not on convincing proof of activities harmful to the party, but solely on 
charges of opposition-mongering. The biggest party in the empire 
cannot remain in existence unless every shade of opinion is allowed 
complete freedom of expression, while even the semblance of dictator- 
ship @ la Schweitzer must be avoided. | shall have no difficulty so far 
as Bebel is concerned, but Liebknecht is so subject to the mood of the 

moment that he is capable of breaking all his promises and doing so, 
as always, for the best of reasons. 

Here the peace of summer reigns save that, in his answer in Justice 
to my May article in the Vienna Arbeiter-Zeitung,* Hyndman has 
again sent me to kingdom come as the ‘grand lama of Regent’s Park 
Road’. 

Lafargue writes to say that in France all the generals in the gov- 
ernment, the Senate and the Chamber are definitely opposed to any 
war. And rightly so. For if there were war, it would be 3 to | against 
that Russia and Prussia would fight a couple of battles and then make 
it up at the expense of Austria and France, so that each of the latter 
would lose an ally. 

Lafargue’s article on the French movement? in the Neue Zeit is 
very good and is charmingly written, but I wish Ede Bernstein had 
translated it instead of Kautsky, who is too heavy-handed. 

I have just received copies of the new German edition of the Mani- 
Jesto and enclose one herewith. 

Many regards from myself and Schorlemmer to your wife and 
yourself and also to the Schliiters, 

Your 
F. Engels