[London,] 17 September 1878 

Dear Frep, 

I am writing this letter before going to your house (it is still very 
early); should I find a letter for you there, I shall send it under 
separate cover. 

The news from Malvern is much better so that it won’t be 
necessary for me to go there; but for safety’s sake the doctor is 
now calling regularly every day; I had already suggested as much 
to my wife so as to prevent their constantly flying into needless 

a 20 September (see this volume, p. 332). - > reigning princess - © Probably Henry 
Longuet. 

panics on the one hand and neglecting necessary precautions on 
the other; but she and above all Jennychen foolishly objected, not 
wishing, as they said, to add ‘needlessly’ to the already enormous 
doctors’ sus in Malvern. Now they realise that I was right. I had 
similarly prescribed a regular drive at the best time of day, 
whenever the child’s* condition permitted. This, too, has now been 
endorsed by the doctor. These drives are Jennychen’s only 
recreation and, for my wife—whose cure has been seriously 
impaired by the continual rrovsies with the child—the only means 
of combatting these influences which are so detrimental to her 
health. So long as I remained there,*' I saw to it that this was 
done. 

Mr Eulenburg (vide papers oF To-DAy) will not, for his part, be 
carrying any coals to Newcastle.” Anything more pitiful than the 
EXTRACT—quintessence—of his speech I have yet to see. Stolberg, 
too, is good. The purpose of the exceptional law *”’ is to deprive 
the Social-Democratic movement of every vestige of legality. 
Probatum est. Mettre hors la loi’ has, from time immemorial, been 
an infallible means of making anti-government movements ‘illegal’, 
and protecting the government from the law—la_ légalité 
nous tue.” Reichensperger represents the Rhenish bourgeois 
of the Centre.“ Bamberger adheres faithfully to ‘We are but 
dogs!’.47 

Bebel has clearly made an impression. 
TO-DAY.) 

It’s a good beginning. 

According to various English newspapers our friend Kovalevsky 
has been shot in Odessa; they spell his name thus—Kowalsky. The 
FAT BOY, who came to see me on Sunday,° told me a very choice 
anecdote. Before his departure, sundry ‘diplomatic’ aspirants 
amongst his Moscow students had to sit an examination. They 
included a number of laddies much older than himself, notably 
Montenegrins, who were being given an academic training at the 
expense of the Russian Asiatic (diplomatic) Department. These 
laddies are distinguished by their pensexess and advanced age, as 
once the country bumpkins at our grammar school in Trier, who 
were preparing to enter the seminary (Catholic) and most of them 
drawing stipends. 

Although marks (for university examinations) in Russia run 
from 0 to 5, Kovalevsky awarded only two lots of marks—4 for 

421 

424 

(See Daily News oF 

a Jean Longuet’s - > A punning reference to the name Eulenburg, ‘Eulen’=owls, and 
‘to take owls to Athens’, the equivalent of carrying coals to Newcastle. - © It has been 
proved. -¢ To put outside the law - € 15 September 

those who knew nothing at all and 5 for those who knew 
something. During the last examinations he was approached by 
one of his students, a long, lanky Montenegrin of 32, who said: 
‘You must award me a 5; I know that I don’t know anything, but 
on the other hand I know that, if I get “another” 4, the Asiatic 
Deparrment will send me packing back to Montenegro; so that’s why 
you must award me a 5. Needless to say, he failed his 
examination with flying colours, since Kovalevsky—as, indeed, he 
had told him—could see no necessity for his continued residence in 
Moscow. 

The oddest part of it is—or so Kovalevsky says—that all these 
laddies from Montenegro become imbued while in Moscow with a 
fanatical hatred of the Russians. They naively told him as much 
themselves, the alleged reason being that ‘the Russians IN GENERAL, 
and Russian students in particular, tell us we’re barbarians and 
blockheads and treat us as such’. Hence the Russian government 
achieves precisely the opposite of what it intended with its 
‘benefactions’. 

What used to be a private joke of ours, namely that it’s the 
Russian socialists who commit the ‘atrocities’ for which the 
‘law-abiding’ German Social-Democrats are to be put hors la loi, 
has been adduced in all seriousness by the fatuous Stolberg.*”* 
Only he forgot to add that, alongside those ‘atrocities’, there exists 
in Russia a ‘state of law’ which is the ideal if unattainable goal 
aimed at by that squireen Bismarck’s bill. 

The fact that the Russians, with the support of Prussia and 
Austria, are yet agaim seeking “European mediation’ is a highly 
significant symptom. 

Adio. I trust that you are recovering in Littlehampton from your 
recent shock. Love from Tussy and Lenchen. 

Your 
Moor