Ramsgate, 31 July 1877 
2 Adelaide Gardens 

Dear Mrs Liebknecht, 

May I request you to arrange at your convenience for this note 
to reach your husband safely? With any luck you will shortly be 
relieved of labours of this kind and, I hope, for some considerable 
time.*” The wives of our friends in Germany have to play their 
part in the struggle which their husbands are actively waging, and 
to play it in a manner which would come as a surprise to our wives 
here, in the security of England. It’s all very well for us here to talk 
and criticise, when in Germany any thoughtless or ill-considered 
word may entail imprisonment and the temporary disruption of 
family life. Fortunately our German women do not allow 
themselves to be deterred by this and prove by their deeds that 
the sickly sentimentality of which one hears so much is just a class 
affliction peculiar to bourgeois women. 

With warm regards to you and your children, 

a 

Yours very sincerely, 

F. Engels