London, 4 May 1880 

My dear Lafargue, 

What are we to do about the introduction Malon has submitted? ?° 
Grateful as I am for his good intentions, what is needed here are facts, 
and where would he get them from? The history of German socialism 
from 1843 to 1863 is not yet in print, and Malon’s German friends in 
Zurich know hardly anything about that period, which preceded their 
entry into political life. So it is natural enough that Malon’s introduc- 
tion should omit the most important facts while going into details 
which can hardly interest the French reader and should, besides, be 
riddled with mistakes of a fairly serious kind. To mention only one — 
Lassalle was never editor of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. He never so 
much as contributed to it, if one excepts a feuilleton in a single is- 
sue — a feuilleton which was, moreover, completely rewritten by the 
editorial staff. At that time Lassalle was almost wholly taken up with 
the adulteries and divorce proceedings of Countess Hatzfeldt and her 

Frederick Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, Paris, 1880 

“Bibllothque de la REVUE SOCIALISTE 
z% 

SOCIALISME UTOPIOUE 
SOCIALISME SCHENTIFIQUE 

yar 
FREDERIC ENGELS 

‘Traduction frangaise par 
PAUL LAFARGUE 

eed 

Prix: SO centimes 

PARIS 
DERVEAUX LIBRAIRE-EDITEUR 
22, Rue dAngauléme, 32 

1880 

husband ?!; and had he offered to join the editorial department, we 
should have refused outright to associate ourselves with a man up to 
his eyes in the filth necessarily arising from the conduct of such a scan- 
dalous case. Neither Marx nor I have ever collaborated with Lassalle. 
In about 1860 he suggested we should join him in founding a big 
daily newspaper in Berlin, but the conditions we laid down were such 
that he was bound to find them unacceptable.?? 

Come to that, if someone is needed to introduce me to the French 
public, as is very possible, it seems to me that it could only be you, 
who have taken the trouble to translate my articles? and who alone are 
in a position to get hold of the necessary information which I have 
asked Marx to let you have. To my mind, I owe it to you as much as 
to myself to take on no one else. 

Yours ever, 
F. Engels