London, 25 November 1873 

Dear Sorge, 

Having been summoned to Germany by the illness and death of 
my mother,°’* I returned from there a few days ago and found 
your letter of 22 October waiting for me. Quite unknowingly you 
do me an injustice to blame me for keeping you in the dark for so 
long about decisions and developments here. The facts are these. 

a Hermann Meyer - > K. Marx and F. Engels, The Alliance of Socialist Democracy and 
the International Working Men’s Association - © Elisabeth Engels 

After long hesitation and after receiving lukewarm reports from 
some places and no news at all from others, Marx and I had come 
to the conclusion that the Congress°”? would become essentially a 
local Swiss affair and that since no one would be able to come over 
directly from America, we would do best to stay away too. (An 
additional factor was that no mandates arrived for either Marx or 
myself, apart from the alternative one from America.) As soon as 
this had definitively been agreed, I went off to the seaside at 
Ramsgate” to join my family, a break I needed urgently in view 
of my constant insomnia and nervous irritability. While I was 
there, Marx wrote to me about the sudden revelations about the 
treachery of the Genevans* which made it necessary to decide that 
neither should Serraillier attend the Congress.” This was pretty 
clear to me from Marx’s letter and I agreed to it on condition that 
Serraillier should inform you at once.’ A few days later I went to 
London for 24 hours in order to pay the Alliance‘ printer‘ and to 
organise the distribution. I had a look at the relevant documents 
and became convinced that it would have been the greatest folly 
for Serraillier to have gone there as your representative. Our 
absence and his, together with that of every German with one 
exception, stamped the Congress as a merely local assembly which 
still looked respectable enough when compared to the Alliance,”’ 
but which could lay no claim to any moral authority vis-a-vis the 
International. Furthermore, the general world situation was such 
that any congress was bound to end badly, as we can see from the 
fact that by now both the congress of the Alliance and that of the 
International have completely been forgotten. Wet, I urged Marx 
to let you know at once and went off again, and until I received 
your present letter, I assumed that this had been done. For his 
part, Marx had thought that Serraillier would have given you the 
first news when he sent back the money and that he could 
therefore wait until he was in a position to give you information 
about the results of the Congress, etc. 

Instead of that, Serraillier gave the money to Lafargue for safe 
keeping, as we discovered only last week, and I shall get it from 
Lafargue in the next few days and take care of the matter. I am 
very busy looking through the—extremely bad—German transla- 
tion of the Alliance pamphlet, which has been sent to me— Bracke 
is bringing it out in Brunswick.” What I have of your version has 

a See this volume, pp. 523-24. - > Ibid., p. 525. - © K. Marx and F. Engels, The 
Alliance of Socialist Democracy and the International Working Men’s Association. - 
@ Andrews - © A. Burchardt 

been very helpful in correcting the other one. Of course, the 
matter is urgent and I have to work through it as the manuscript 
has to go back this week. 

Marx and his youngest daughter* went to Harrogate in 
Yorkshire yesterday; both of them are to spend some time there 
convalescing.”° He needed it badly; the severe symptoms he had 
felt in the spring had vanished, but chronic brain pressure 
set in, which made him unable to work and unwilling to write, and 
which, if allowed to go unchecked for too long, might have serious 
consequences. During the next few days he will go and see our 
friend Gumpert in Manchester, the only doctor in whom he has 
complete confidence and who also looked after him in the spring. 
His condition is another reason why you have had to wait so long 
for a reply. 

Bakunin’s answer to the pamphlet has been to send the Journal 
de Genéve and the Jurassians a statement announcing his political 
demise”*’: 1 withdraw— dorénavant je ne troublerai plus personne et je 
ne demande que ce qu’on me laisse tranquille 4 mon tour. He is gravely 
mistaken in this. Apart from that, not the slightest attempt to 
reply to anything. 

Outine has been here for 4 weeks or so and has told us still 
more wonderful stories about Bakunin. The fellow has really put 
his catechism ”** into practice; for years now he and his Alliance’? 
have lived exclusively from blackmail, relying on the fact that 
nothing could be put into print about this without compromising 
other people who have to be taken into account. You have no idea 
what a low-down gang they are. That aside, their pseudo- 
International is as quiet as a mouse; the pamphlet has exposed 
their frauds and Messrs Guillaume & Co. will have to let the dust 
settle first. In Spain they have put an end to themselves, see my 
article in the Volksstaat.‘ 

The real International is equally silent. I have still not had an 
answer from Mesa, to whom I wrote in September.* In Portugal 
they are all being persecuted and have to watch their step. In Italy 
a section has been formed in Melegnano,”*? a fact I herewith bring 
to the attention of the General Council; for the address see below. 
The Plebe is still coming out, but very irregularly and with a 
strong emphasis on mediation. That is all I have to report. The 
federation here, having been badly shaken by Jung, Hales & Co., is 

2 Eleanor - > henceforth I shall interfere with no one and in return ask only that 
others should leave me in peace too. - © F. Engels, ‘The Bakuninists at Work’.