[London,] 24 September 1878 

Dear Frep, 

Herewith a scrawl from Liebknecht*”; I opened the letter 

because I thought it might contain news of the party which would 
perhaps call for immediate action on our part. 

I should be grateful if you would send back Lavrov’s letter by 
return; it arrived today and has not yet been answered. The only 

a See this volume, pp. 327-28. - > Ibid., p. 328. -* The Daily Telegraph 

interesting thing about it is the passage relating to Wrdéblewski,— 
probably correct, as it is in keeping with his temperament as 
homme d’action* and is, moreover, plus ou moins” confirmed by his 
silence where we are concerned. 

After the opening of the Reichstag, I received the Bill submitted 
to the same by the government, together with the preamble *”; 
yesterday, from the same quarter (Bracke) I likewise received the 
stenographic report of the Reichstag sittings of 16 and 17 
September. One has little conception—even at this stage—either 
of the average Prussian minister’s stupidity and his master’s 
‘ingenuity’, or of the nastiness of his hangers-on, the representa- 
tives of the true-blue German bourgeoisie—until one sees before 
one the stenographic report of this, its most recent manifestation. 
I am to some extent occupied in making extracts from it for the 
English press, but I’m not yet sure whether it’s quite what I want 
for The Daily News.’ 

The Russians’ ploy in Afghanistan,** like the cients in 
Turkey —all this is of little interest to me now except in so far as it 
provides argumentum ad hominem* in regard to European state- 
craft. I am, besides, convinced that nothing Russia, and Prussia into 
THE BARGAIN, Can now do on the international stage can have other 
than pernicious consequences for their régime, nor can it delay 
the latter’s downfall, but only expedite its violent end. 

My wife, Jennychen and Johnny arrived here safe and sound on 
Friday! afternoon and the whole company took up quarters with 
us until yesterday evening when Jennychen removed, lock, stock 
and barrel, to Leighton Grove so as to be there to receive 
Longuet. But the big man won’t be arriving till this evening. The 
child is much better and, miraculously enough, Jennychen also 
recovered somewhat during the last few days of her stay in 
Malvern. 

Yesterday old Petzler called in with a letter from a parson who 
edits a magazine, also dabbles IN Socialism and wants SOME INFORMATION 
from me.*”’ Meanwhile Bismarck has again succeeded in placing 
socialism a lordre du jour’ so that even la haute politique) is in 
consequence plus ou moins lost from view. 

@ man of action - > more or less - © Stenographische Berichte tiber die Verhandlungen 
des Deutschen Reichstags. 4. Legislaturperiode. I. Session 1878, Vol. I, Berlin, 1878, 
pp. 29-91. - 4 Bismarck’s - © argument based on facts - £ 20 September - & the 
street in London where the Longuets lived - 5 Moritz Kaufmann -' on the 
agenda - ij high politics 

Hoping that Mother Nature is assisting your recovery, and with 
love from Tussy, Jennychen and my wife. 

Your 
Moor