London, 24 April 1877 

Dear Bracke, 

It is hardly likely that you will get the photographic plate from 
Paris since Lachatre is in exile and his business has been 
sequestrated by the government; the publishing house is being 
administered by an arch-reactionary* who is doing all he can to 
ruin it.** For that matter, the portrait is a rotten one and Marx 
quite unrecognisable*”’; if you like, we can send you a better 
photograph. I shall be glad to write the biography for you. Tell 
me how many Kalender pages you'd like at most and at least, so 
that I know how much space I can take up, ditto the delivery 
date.?” 

The three stenographic reports received with thanks’; a pity 
your subject was not a better one; if one is constantly compelled to 
cite witnesses who provisionally withhold their names, one is in a 
poor position. But all the same, the purpose has been achieved 
since a favourable vote in that company is, presumably, out of the 
question?” Bebel’s speech is excellent—lucid, matter-of-fact and 
to the point.?” 

I should never have suspected any kind of Dühringian influence 
had Liebknecht told me the plain truth and promised me redress.” 
There was a definite agreement that an article should appear 
every week’; when I complained that it was not being adhered 
to, Liebknecht kept me waiting for ten days or more and during 
that time, despite his presence in Leipzig, there was no sign of 
rectification; finally he wrote and told me that I should spare him 
unnecessary objurgations—that was all, not a word about any 
future redress. Now, since I had no idea what influence other 
people might have over the editorial board, the only course open 
to me was to assume the above and, by means of an ultimatum, 
compel Liebknecht to keep his promises. I have written and told 
him he may, if he wishes, show the relevant letters from me to 
anyone he chooses, and hence, so far as I am concerned, they are 
at your disposal. Over here people are literally overwhelming me 

a Adolphe Quést - > See this volume, pp. 217-20. 

with reproaches on the grounds that I have allowed the articles to 
be printed as mere stop-gaps so that no one could follow the 
thread. And when you consider it is now at least the sixth time 
that this tale has recurred, that I have been given the finest and 
most unequivocal promises, only to see, without fail, the very 
opposite happen, you will realise that in the end one grows sick of 
it. 

So the Russians are in Bucharest.?” I trust the Turks will at 
once occupy all their Danubian fortresses in the locality facing the 
Romanian bank and turn them into bridgeheads. In particular 
Calafat (Vidin), Giurgevo (Rustchuk) and Calarashi (Silistria).* 
That would force the Russians to lay siege to these fortresses on 
both banks, i.e. beleaguer them with twice the number of troops, 
thereby losing a great deal of time. But with every soldier the 
Russians have to leave behind in Romania, it will become easier 
for the Turks to meet them in the open field and prevent them 
from taking the fortresses. I likewise trust that Abdul Kerim will, 
as promised, send 20,000 Circassians to Romania to destroy the 
railways and do some thorough foraging. All honour to Strous- 
berg for constructing the Romanian railways with such splendid 
ineptitude that they are already letting the Russians down. 

Re trade regulations. Cross, the Home Secretary here, has 
brought in a sit whereby all the many and sometimes conflicting 
laws governing the limitation of working hours are to be brought 
together within a single act*”’ and thus become enforceable for the 
first time. I will try and get hold of the thing and send it to you or 
Liebknecht so that the liberal jackasses may see for once what a 
Conservative minister has the nerve to do in that line over here. 

Time for the post and for a meal. Regards to all our friends. 

Yours, 
F. E.