[London,] 4 August 1874 

Dear Sorge, 

My long silence cannot be excused at all; cependant il y a des 
circonstances atténuantes.” That damned liver complaint has made 
such headway that I was positively unable to continue the revision 
of the French translation’ (which actually amounts almost to 
complete rewriting), and I am very unwillingly submitting to the 
doctor’s* orders that I go to Karlsbad. I am being assured that 
after my return I shall be fully able to work again, and being 
unable to work is indeed a death sentence for any man who is not 
a beast. The journey is expensive and so is the stay there, and 
what is more, it is not certain whether the foolish Austrian 
government might not expel me! The Prussians would scarcely be 

* Charles Longuet - > however, there are extenuating circumstances - © of the first 
volume of Capital - 4 Eduard Gumpert’s 

so stupid, but they like to talk the Austrians into such compromis- 
ing measures; and I actually believe that the false newspaper 
reports that Rochefort wants to go to Karlsbad, etc., stem from Mr 
Stieber and are, in the final analysis, aimed at me. I have neither 
time nor money to waste and have therefore decided to apply for 
British naturalisation,* but it is very likely that the British Home 
Minister,” who decides on naturalisation like a sultan, will upset my 
plans. The matter will probably be decided this week. In any 
event, I am going to Karlsbad, if only because of my youngest 
daughter’ who was seriously, dangerously ill, is only now able to 
travel again, and has also been told by her doctor‘ to go to 
Karlsbad. 

About a week ago we were afflicted by a great misfortune, the 
death of Jenny’s (Mme Longuet’s) eleven-month-old sasy,° a truly 
Jovable child. He fell victim to a foudroyant attack of gastro- 
enteritis. 

I have given Beifuss a receipt for the monies transferred to me 
(and which would have been of much greater use in New York, 
since I need American things from time to time, publications, I 
mean). You must also convey my thanks to Section I for the 
splendid box of cigars. 

The few Frenchmen (I mean of those who still stuck to us in 
The Hague) later turned out for the most part to be rascals, in 
particular M. Le Moussu, who cheated me and others out of 
significant sums of money’ and who then resorted to infamous 
slanders in order to whitewash his character and present himself 
as an innocent whose beautiful sou] has gone unappreciated. 

In England the International is as good as dead for the present. 
The Federal Council in London exists as such only in name, 
although some of its members are active individually. The great 
event over here is the reawakening of the agricultural Labourers. '* 
The failure of their initial efforts does no harm, au contraire. As 
for the urban workers, it is regrettable that the whole gang of 
leaders did not get into Parliament. That is the surest way of 
getting rid of the rascals. 

In France workers’ syndicates are being organised in the various 
big cities and are in correspondence with one another. They 
confine themselves to purely professional matters, nor can they do 
anything else. Otherwise they would be suppressed without 
further ado. In this way they are keeping some sort of 

4 Robert Lowe - © Eleanor - © Elisabeth Anderson-Garrett (see next letter) - 
4 Charles - € sudden and terrible - £ See this volume, pp. 11, 12. 

organisation, a point of departure for the time when freer 
movement will again be possible. 

By their own practical impotence, Spain, Italy, and Belgium 
demonstrate the content of their super-socialism. 

In Austria our people are working under the most difficult 
conditions; they are compelled to move with the greatest caution. 
Nevertheless they have made one great advance: they have 
prevailed upon the Slav workers in Prague and elsewhere to act 
together with the German workers.” During the final period of 
the General Council in London I had tried in vain to achieve an 
understanding of this sort. 

In Germany Bismarck is working for us. 

General European conditions are such as to increasingly wage a 
general European war. We shall have to pass through it before there 
can be any thought of decisive overt activity on the part of the 
European working class. 

My wife and children send you their best regards. 

Your 
Karl Marx 

Despite errors of all sorts, the publication of B. Becker’s 
pamphlet on Lassalle’s movement* is very useful in putting an end 
to the sect. 

You will have noticed how semi-taught philistine fantasies make 
their appearance in the Volksstaat from time to time. Such stuff 
emanates from schoolmasters, doctors and students. Engels has 
told Liebknecht off about it, which he seems to need from time to 
time. 

In judging conditions in France, especially those in Paris, it 
should not be forgotten that alongside the official military and 
political authorities the gang of epauletted Bonapartist black- 
guards is still secretly active out of which the great republican 
Thiers formed the military courts for slaughtering the Com- 
munards. They constitute a sort of secret tribunal of terror; their 
mouchards” are everywhere, making the Parisian workers’ districts, 
in particular, unsafe.