London, 30 January 1879 

Dear Old Man, 

It hardly needed a postcard from you for me to bestir myself on 
your behalf.**’ From a friend in Manchester” I have received one 
pound to be used for victims of the Anti-Socialist Law.*” I could 
not put it to better use than by passing it on to you, and I have 

@ The words in square brackets were added by the compiler of the catalogue 
presumably because the name was illegible in the original. - > Probably Carl 
Schorlemmer. 

also added a second, for which you should get a remittance of 
50 frs 40 from Basle and get it, probably, the day after you receive 
this letter. I have retained the receipt. Anything more that can be 
done later on, will be done. 

As to agencies, there’s nothing doing.* Business here is 
absolutely rotten, and no one wants to take any chances. 

So far as the Précurseur is concerned, I would, if I were you, tell 
the people in Geneva once and for all that I was not in a position 
to pay out anything whatever in respect of the paper. It is a crying 
shame. Not only do you take upon yourself all the worry and the 
work, getting nothing in return, but on top of that you are 
expected to cough up the expenses. But the Genevans have always 
been like that. Ever since Calvin and his predestination,*” they 
have regarded themselves as the chosen people and expected 
everything to fall into their laps. It was thus in the case of the 
Egalité, when Utin had to supply both the work and the cash. It 
was thus in the case of the great building workers’ strike, when the 
International had to provide the cash,** but knocked in vain at 
the Genevans’ doors when there were strikes elsewhere. 

We were much tickled by the news that, like Achilles, the great 
Guillaume has withdrawn sulking into his tent. This was bound 
to happen. The anarchists weren’t worthy of the name until 
anarchy broke out in their own midst. Still, Guillaume was at least 
the great Bakunin’s successor—but that an upstart like Brousse 
should propose to turn the world upside down—why, it’s 
positively ludicrous. 

Over here Most is publishing a little sheet, the Fretheit, for the 
communist Workers’ Society; so far it has sold well.“ We wish it 
all prosperity but otherwise, of course, have nothing to do with it, 
nor are we in any way responsible for its contents. 

In Germany, by the way, things are going rapidly downhill. A 
walloping for the Reichstag *°’—such is the latest and best [piece of 
news]. Only let it carry on like this, with more and more taxes on 
top, and the good Bismarck will yet be surprised by his petty 
bourgeois, who are going to the devil fast enough as it is. Apart 
from the unavoidable suffering it will bring down upon individu- 
als, nothing could be of greater advantage to us on the whole than 
what is now happening. Any harm Bismarck could do us, he has 
already done; what he is now doing affects our opponents, the 
petty bourgeois men of Progress,’”? and, with time, will also affect 
the liberal big bourgeoisie. 

* See this volume, p. 348. 

So let him keep it up! And aside from this, affairs in Russia are 
going ahead splendidly, and that’s the main thing. If there’s an 
explosion there, then William,” too, might as well pack his bags. 

Your 
F. E.