[Draft] 
Eastbourne, middle of March 1893 

Dear Sir, 

I have duly received your two favors of 3/2 and 9/3 with enclosures. I 
very much regret that I shall not be able either to assist personally at your 
Congresses '*° or to supply the papers you ask me for. I should send them to 
you with the greatest pleasure, were it not that all my time is at present taken 
up with the manuscript of the third book of my late friend Karl Marx’s great 
work on Capital, which I am preparing for publication. This third book ought 
to have been out years ago; but never until now could I secure that continued 
freedom from interruption which alone will enable me to finish my task. I 
have been compelled to decline all outside work, though ever so tempting, 
unless absolutely necessary. By the time your congress meets, the MS ought 
to go to press, but this could not be, were I to accede to your request. For the 
work you ask me to do ought not to be journalistic commonplace; it ought to 
be the very best I can furnish, it would require mature study and thought; and 
that means a considerable amount of time, which for the reasons given, I am 
not in a position to sacrifice. 

I have, however, forwarded you per bookpost a copy of the English edi- 
tion of the Communist Manifesto of 1848 (by K. Marx and myself) and 
another of my Socialism: Utopian and Scientific’ published a few months 
ago, as a small tribute which I hope may prove of interest to some members 
of your Labor Congress.