London, 15 September 1879 

Dear Old Man, 

I trust you got my last letter‘ and the money order for 75 frs by 
post. 

Sorge writes saying that he has written to you, too, about the 
necessity of renewing the power of attorney in respect of 
Lingenau’s will, since Geib’s death might otherwise put the lawyers 

a Helene Demuth - > Marx is referring to the correspondence over the publication 
of the newspaper Der Sozialdemokrat. - < See this volume, pp. 383-84. 

of the contending party into the position of being able to declare 
the old power of attorney invalid and thus bring about new 
delays.*** 

Marx, who is still at the seaside” and has apparently made a 
wonderful recovery, has just written telling me to ask you to send 
him the form for the power of attorney* so that he can attend to 
the same. Would you therefore be so good as to do this as soon as 
possible. If it involves you in any expense, write and tell me at 
once what it amounts to and I will send you the money. The 
sooner this is done the better. The power of attorney should, of 
course, be exactly the same as before, only omitting Geib’s name, 
or else mentioning him as deceased. 

The business of the German party organ in Zurich*” is 
becoming more and more of a lark. The Zurich editorial 
committee which, under the general management of the Leipzi- 
gers, is to supervise and censor the paper, consists of Héchberg, 
Schramm and Bernstein. But now, in the Jahrbuch für Sozialwis- 
senschaft und Sozialpolitik, published in Zurich by Hdchberg, 
Schramm, Héchberg and Bernstein have printed an article 
‘Rückblick auf die sozialistische Bewegung in Deutschland’*! in 
which all three are revealed to be common or garden bourgeois 
and pacific philanthropists; they accuse the party of having been 
too exclusively a ‘workers’ party’, and of having provoked the 
hatred of the bourgeoisie, and claim that leadership of the 
movement should be entrusted to ‘educated’ bourgeois of their 
own stamp. That’s really going a bit too far. 

Luckily Héchberg dropped in on me unexpectedly the day 
before yesterday, whereupon I gave him a piece of my mind. The 
unfortunate lad—not a bad chap, au fond” but alarmingly 
naive—came down to earth with a bang when I pointed out to 
him that we couldn’t think of lowering the proletarian flag which 
we had held aloft for nigh on 40 years, still less join in the general 
petty-bourgeois fraternisation fantasies against which we had been 
fighting, again for nigh on 40 years. In short, now he at last 
knows where he stands with us and also why, whatever the 
Leipzigers may say or do, we can’t march shoulder to shoulder 
with people of his ilk. 

We shall likewise supply Bebel with a quite categorical statement 
as to our standpoint vis-a-vis these allies of the German party,° and 
then wait and see what they will do. If the party organ adopts the 
standpoint of the said bourgeois article, we shall publicly declare 

500 

a Ibid., p. 385. - © at bottom - © See next letter. 

394 276. Marx and Engels. Circular Letter. 17-18 Sept. 1879 

our opposition to it. However, they’re unlikely to let things go so 
far. 

Write soon, then. 

Warmest regards from Marx and 

Your old friend, 
F. Engels