London, 11 April 1884 

Dear Ede, 

Like you, I think it would be better to allow Frohme’s massive 
tome* to die a natural death. 

A delegation to Roubaix would have done a great deal of harm at 
a moment when the Anti-Socialist Law °’was under discussion. ‘The 
wailers '?3 would have apportioned the blame for its renewal— in 
any case inevitable — to that delegation alone; this had to be avoided. 
Congresses are demonstrations and an occasion for useful personal 
encounters, and as such are of secondary importance, nor should 
more weighty considerations be sacrificed to them. I shall try to make 
this clear to the Parisians. In the circumstances, the address was the 
only thing possible and quite adequate. '°° The very thought of an 
international congress in London ?!? appals me. I should go away. 

As regards the Rodbertus stuff, you would do best to wait until you 
have my preface to the Poverty; you can’t possibly be aware of the 
most important works, namely those concerning England (alluded to 

@ K. Frohme, Die Entwicklung der Eigenthums-Verhdltnisse.-> F. Engels, ‘Marx and 
Rodbertus’. 

in Poverty, p. [...]*) from which it is plain that the socialist applica- 
tion of Ricardo’s theory of value—Rodbertus’ great hobby- 
horse — had been an economic commonplace in England since 1820 
and one universally known to socialists since 1830. As I have, I be- 
lieve, already written and told you,” I shall show, on the same occa- 
sion, that, far from purloining the least thing from Rodbertus, Marx 
had, in the Poverty, unwittingly criticised in advance all the said Rod- 
bertus’ works, both written and unwritten. I think we had best with- 
hold our attack until the Poverty has come out in German, and then go 
it hot and strong (i.e. the main attack I mean; no harm at all in 
skirmishes to draw Rodbertus’ fire). 

I look forward to seeing the ms. !! Notabene, should you have dif- 
ficulty over the Hegelian expressions in the 2nd chapter, simply leave 
blanks in the ms. and I will fill them in; the German version must 
contain the terminology proper to that school, otherwise it will be in- 
comprehensible. 

There were three copies of the 3rd edition. ° I racked my brains a bit 
over the Dihring that came with them and then simply laid it on one 
side, imagining it had got in by accident. That it might be a hint 
about a 2nd edition never occurred to me. I am delighted to find that 
this is so, more especially since I have learnt from various sources that 
the thing has been more influential — particularly in Russia — than 
I would ever have expected. So after all the tedium of a polemic with 
an inconsiderable opponent has not prevented the attempt to present 
an encyclopaedic survey of our view of the problems pertaining to 
philosophy, natural science and history from taking effect. I shall 
make virtually no changes but stylistic ones and, perhaps, add some- 
thing to the section on natural science.— Its earlier publication in 
2 parts was due to the way the thing came out (as a separate edition), 
otherwise there would have been absolutely no sense in it. 7° 

The cards for Nim you ask about have not yet turned up. 

Your 
F.E.