London, 14 April 1881 

Dear Mr Bernstein, 

Very many thanks for the excerpt — for numerous reasons, how- 
ever, it is desirable that we should read the full text of the relevant 
speeches. Kautsky will already have asked you to let us have the 
shorthand report '*! for a day or two. So much has been said in the 
Reichstag and Landtags that would have been better left unsaid 
that we cannot express an opinion on such matters unless we are 
fully acquainted with the case. 

Your announcement that you wished to resign from the paper< 
came as a most unpleasant surprise. We can see absolutely no reason 
for it and it would give us great pleasure if you were to reconsider your 
decision. You have edited the paper ably from the outset, have given 
it the right tone, at the same time developing the humorous side it 
needed. Erudition in a newspaper editor is far less important than the 
ability speedily to interpret things from the aspect that matters, and 

@ Marx’s jocular nickname.-? Written in large block letters at the beginning of the let- 
ter-° Der Sozialdemokrat 

this you have nearly always done. Kautsky, for example, would never 
be able to do that; he always has too many secondary viewpoints, 
which is perfectly all right for longish articles in a revue, but in the 
case of a paper, where rapid decisions are called for, frequently makes 
it impossible to see the wood for the trees, and that mustn’t happen in 
a party organ. Alongside you, Kautsky would be quite all right, but 
on his own he would, I’m afraid, be all too often prevented by qualms 
of conscience over theory from following up a crucial advantage as 
unswervingly as is required by the Sozialdemokrat. | don’t see who 
could take your place at this juncture, so long as Liebknecht remains 
in jail '** and doesn’t go to Zurich, which would be senseless except in 
an emergency, since there’s much more need of him in the Reichstag. 
So you'll have to stay on after all whether you like it or not. 

If we have not yet come forward directly and by name in the So- 
ztaldemokrat, the fault, I do assure you, does not lie with your editor- 
ship of this paper up till now. On the contrary. It lies with the very 
statements made in Germany | alluded to at the beginning. Admit- 
tedly, we have been promised that this won’t recur and that the revo- 
lutionary nature of the party is to be plainly spelled out and adhered 
to. But we should like to see evidence of it first, nor do we have any 
great confidence (rather the reverse) in the revolutionary bent of cer- 
tain of these gentlemen, and that is precisely why it is most desirable 
that we should have the stenographic reports of the speeches made by 
all our deputies. After you have used them you can easily send them 
over here for a day or two; I guarantee their prompt return. That will 
help to clear away the last obstacles that still exist — through no fault 
of our own — between ourselves and the party in Germany. This in 
confidence. 

It would seem that Gladstone has paved the way for the triumph 
of Most. It’s hardly likely that 12 jurors will be found who will unani- 
mously find Most guilty, and, if only one finds him innocent, the case 
will fall to the ground. Admittedly, he can be brought before another 
jury, but this hardly ever happens. On top of that, however, the 1861 
Act, '*3 under which Most is being charged, has never been applied 
before and by and large it is the opinion of jurists that the wording is 
inapplicable to the case. 

Argyll’s resignation from the Ministry because the Irish Lanp 
Brit '?* confers on tenants a measure of co-ownership of the land is an 
ill omen for the fate of the Biz in the Upper House. Meanwhile Parnell 
has made a successful start in Manchester to his English agitational 

53. Engels to Bebel. 28 Apri] 1881 87 

tour. The position of the grand liberal coalition is becoming ever 
more critical. But then over here everything moves slowly, if the more 
surely for that. 

So don’t be deterred by the initial difficulties; don’t lose heart but 
carry on editing just as before. If the worst comes to the worst, you 
could write to Leipzig and ask them to send you an assistant. That 
would probably be the best way of overcoming the difficulties you 
have to contend with. Then, when you have taught the new man the 
ropes, there will still be time enough to talk of resigning. 

Kindest regards. 

Yours 
F. Engels