London, 16 December 1882 

Dear Moor, 

Having been interrupted yesterday,* I shall continue today. You 
will have noticed how hurriedly my letter was dashed off—I was be- 
ing perpetually disturbed by Pumps and sasy,° first while revising the 
ms.,° then while writing the letter. The point by which I set most 
store — because of the dissentient view you once expressed —is the 
almost total recession — de jure or de facto— of serfdom in the 13th and 
14th centuries. So far as the country east of the Elbe is concerned, the 
freedom of German peasants is an established fact by reason of coloni- 
sation; as regards Schleswig-Holstein, Maurer admits‘ that at the time 
(somewhat later, perhaps, than the 14th century) ‘all’ peasants had 
regained their freedom. Again, as regards the South of Germany, he 
admits that it was in this particular period that the bondsmen were 
treated best. The same thing applies to a greater or lesser extent in 
Lower Saxony (e. g. the new ‘tenant farmers’, virtually copyholders). 
He does not, however, share Kindlinger’s view‘ that serfdom did not 
come into being until the 16th century. That it subsequently reap- 
peared, however, in a 2nd refurbished edition, seems to me indubitable. 
Meitzen' specifies the years in which allusions to serfs first recur in 
East Prussia, Brandenburg and Silesia: mid-16th century, ditto Hans- 
sen in respect of Schleswig-Holstein.* When Maurer calls this a mzét- 
gated form of serfdom he is right, if one compares it with the period be- 
tween the 9th and 11th centuries which, in fact, saw the continuation 
of ancient Germanic slavery; right, too, if one compares it with the 
legal rights still exercised, as the statute books of the 13th century 

* See this volume, p. 400.-° Lilian Rosher-° F. Engels, “The Mark’.-* G.L. von 
Maurer, Geschichte der Fronhife, der Bauernhofe und der Hofverfassung in Deutschland. - 
* N. Kindlinger, Geschichte der Deutschen Hörigkeit insbesondere der sogenannten Letbeigen- 
schaft.-' A. Meitzen, Der Boden und die landwirthschaftlichen Verhdltnisse des Preussischen 
Staates...-= G. Hanssen, Die Aufhebung der Leibeigenschaft und die Umgestaltung der gutsherr- 
lich-bduerlichen Verhältnisse überhaupt in den Herzogthümern Schleswig und Holstein, 

confirm, both then and later, by the lord over his serfs. But as com- 
pared with the de facto position of the peasants in the 13th and 
14th—and in North Germany also the 15th— centuries, the new 
serfdom was ANYTHING BUT a mitigation. Let alone after the Thirty 
Years’ War?*7?! It is also significant that, whereas in the Middle 
Ages there were innumerable degrees of bondage and serfdom, so 
that the Sachsenspiegel *7° gives up the attempt to ‘make a tally’, this 
becomes remarkably easy after the Thirty Years’ War. Enfin,* I look 
forward to hearing your opinion. 

It was also Pumps’ fault if, at the place where I mention Russian 
common ownership, I failed to paste on a note saying that this infor- 
mation came from you. 

The enclosed is from old Becker *7*; luckily I was able to respond 
to his gentle nudging straight away and send him £5, as I had 
just sold some shares and the money had been paid on the same 
day. 

Herewith 2 Egalités—hope they'll be delivered tomorrow — from 
which you will see that Lafargue was immediately released’ and was 
expected back in Paris yesterday evening. **° 

Hartmann’s battery ‘: so long as he only plugged in the galvanome- 
ter, in which the resistance is represented by a very long wire so that 
there is only a gradual consumption of electro-mechanical power, all 
went well. But as soon as he plugged in the lamp in which the resist- 
ance is concentrated at one point, namely the thin, short, incandes- 
cent wire, that was that; the hydrogen immediately polarised the 
silver electrode, and the weak current produced only a faint red glow 
in the wire. Now his head is again full of all manner of innovations, 
each of which proves that he is looking for the difficulty in the wrong 
place. But whether the gents who are advancing the money will agree 
to any further experiments is a moot point. 

Do you think you might be able to book a couple of beds down 
there for Schorlemmer and myself in the first week of January? We 
would not be at all averse to nipping down for a day or two, if noth- 
ing intervenes. But that something will intervene is all too probable in 
view of Schorlemmer’s rheumatism, etc. However, if we knew that 
you could arrange for us to stay either with you or close by, and 

“ Well-" See ‘L’Arrestation de Lafargue’ and ‘L’Affaire de Montlugon’, L’Egalité, 
4th series, Nos. 53 and 54, 15 and 16 December 1882.-° See this volume, pp. 381-82, 
391. 

exactly how much notice we should have to give you, we could make 
our arrangements accordingly. 

Your 
F. E.