London, 13 December 1890 

Dear Kautsky, 

Very many thanks for your two letters and for the article de- 
voted to me“ which was, alas, all too flattering. I got through my birth- 
day all right and, even though the outside air was clear of fog, my 
head wasn’t when I went to bed at half past three in the morning. 
I fared almost as you did at my birthday in 1883, when the tippling 
took place round my sick-bed. 

I enclose herewith a preliminary piece about Brentano and would 
be obliged if you could contrive to get it into the next number of the 
Neue eit, should this be feasible. [ll give the man something to re- 
member me by. He’d like to keep Gladstone’s letters up his sleeve un- 
til I have answered, but we'll soon put a stop to that.?° 

You will also shortly be getting a contribution from Marx’s unpub- 
lished work, something quite new and extremely topical and to the 
point.” It has already been copied out but I shall have to look it over 
first and possibly write a few lines by way of an introduction. But 
please tell no one else about it yet; my hands are completely full, what 
with correspondence and replying to the many letters I get, and 
I can’t say exactly when. 

I cannot possibly entrust the remaining fascicles of Marx’s Volume 
IV '°° to the post or any other intermediary. So when you’ve had the 
2nd fascicle you won’t be getting any more for a while. This is also be- 
cause, in the later fascicles, there are all sorts of divagations and long 
deleted passages which may not have to be copied out and, since this 
will entail constant discussion, the work could only be done over here. 
Later on, if you come back to this country again, and I have been 
able to familiarise myself a bit more with the ms., we shall see what 

* ({K. Kautsky,] ‘Friedrich Engels. Zu seinem siebzigsten Geburtstag’, Die Neue Zeit, 9. 
Jg. 1890/91, 1. Bd., Nr. 8.-° Critique of the Gotha Programme 

can be done. Needless to say, you are to finish what you have already 
got. 

I should be obliged if you would send me another 6 copies of the 
8th issue*; that will, I think, suffice. 

Now, however, I must close; herewith a note to Dietz, which kindly 
pass on to him. 

Your old friend 

F. Engels