Ramsgate, 10 September 1879 
62 Plains of Waterloo 

Dear Frep, 

Yesterday I got a note from Kovalevsky saying he had had a 
letter from Russia which necessitated his immediate return to the 
land of his birth. He didn’t send me the Jahrbuch.° 

Laura spent a week with us, and Paul a few days every now and 
again; the day before yesterday he returned with her to London. 
Laura, by the by, had let Pumptia know she was leaving. 

My wife is still making very slow progress; I have got much 
better.°” The air down here suits me extraordinarily well. Besides, 
I was kept in mouvement perpétuel by Laura. 

Herewith the letters received from you today. (The others will 
go off at the same time, but under separate cover.) Liebknecht has 
no discernment. The letters prove what they are intended to 
refute, namely our original view that the business was bungled in 
Leipzig, whereas the men in Zurich proceeded in accordance with 
the terms prescribed for them.*” Incidentally, their Horror at the 
attack made by the otherwise so innocuous Laterne on that 
scoundrel Kayser *!? shows more clearly than anything else what is 
the calibre of these chaps. Schramm, though a sound man in other 

a Engels used a dialectal expression here: es is nix zu wolle.- > See this volume, 
p- 386. - © perpetual motion 

respects, has always been a philistine. The Leipzigers for their part 
are already so ‘parliamentarily minded’ that they regard criticism 
of one member of their Reichstag céterie as a crime de lése majesté. 

I altogether agree with your view that no further time should be 
lost in stating our views, forcibly and ruthlessly, as to the Jahrbuch 
bunkum,”” i.e. pro nunc? ‘presenting’ it to the Leipzigers in black 
and white. Should they proceed to go ahead with their ‘party 
organ’ in this way, we shall have to disavow them publicly. In such 
matters, the line has to be drawn somewhere. 

I haven’t replied to Most,’ nor shall I do so; as soon as I’m in 
London I shall write, inviting him to turn up in person. You 
ought to be present at the meeting. 

The most typical thing about Bismarck is the way in which he 
came to be at odds with Russia. He wanted Gorchakov removed 
and Shuvalov put in his place. Since this miscarried, the obvious 
conclusion was— voila lU’ennemi!* And you may be pretty sure that 
Bucher did not fail to exacerbate his master’s irritation. On 
retourne toujours & son premier amour.’ From the point of view of 
our movement and of Europe generally, nothing could be more 
injurious than the implementation of Bismarck’s plan. So long as 
old William * is alive, this won’t be so easy; it might always happen 
that Bismarck himself falls victim to the reaction he sparked off 
with the Anti-Socialist Law. En attendant} the black cloud>”° in 
the east is already doing him a service; once again he is the ‘man 
they need’ and the liberals now feel it to be their ‘patriotic’ duty to 
kiss his arse. Not only will the iron military budget be renewed at 
the next sitting of the Reichstag; it might be ‘perpetuated’, as 
William originally wished. The secret of Russian diplomacy’s 
success ABROAD was the deathly silence oF Russia aT Home, the spell 
being broken by the movement in that country. Its final victory 
was the Treaty of Paris of 1856.°' Since then, nothing but 
blunders. 

I HOPE POOR SCHOLLYMEYER'S HEALTH WILL IMPROVE. My BEST WISHES FOR HIM. 

Your 
Moor