London, 16-17 April 1885 

My dear Laura, 

It has struck me, since I wrote last, * that something might be done 
in the matter of Lawroffs Russian friends, if they are willing to risk 
some money on preliminary expenses. 1) If the man died in London 
and the date of his death, locality, etc., is approximately known, these 
particulars might enable some one to trace the authentic record of the 
death. 2) Having that, it will be easy to ascertain at the Court of 
Probate whether there was a will proved, or whether some one, and 
who, took out letters of administration and appropriated the gold the 
man is supposed to have left. 

These two steps will in any case be the first two steps that have to 
be taken, and will put the inquiring parties in a position where they 
can better judge whether it is worth while proceeding any further. 
I think Percy might be entrusted with this preliminary part of the 
matter, and I would see that his charges are no more than what is 
usual. They would depend, of course, upon the amount of trouble he 
would be put to. 

* See this volume, pp. 264-66. 

How is poor old Lawroff getting on with his eyesight? It must be 
terrible for him to be debarred from the use of his books. 

Here is another patient: old Harney has been hovering about all 
parts of England and Scotland ever since July last and everywhere 
persecuted by articular rheumatism and bad weather— and now at 
last turned up in London. He has gone through all sorts of semi- 
quack treatments — Turkish baths, brine-baths, magnetic belts, etc., 
and all of course no use, and now has put himself again in the hands 
of an advertising ‘specialist’ who exploits the uric-acid-gout theory 
(which in itself is quite correct) in what looks to me an extremely 
quackish way. However I'll hope the best, and the poor old fellow is 
much in want of it. He is shaky enough in arms, hands, legs and feet, 
and of course much reduced by the treatment he has undergone. 
I saw him this afternoon (he stays somewhere near the Brecknock) 
and he speaks of nothing but his sufferings, though here and there 
with a dash of his old dry humour. His treatment has of course cost 
him an awful lot of money and he seems to dread the necessity of re- 
turning to America. From all this you see how much eight months of 
continuous pains and gradually sinking hopes of relief have brought 
the old chap down. I hope the spring weather which anyhow must 
come sometime, will bring him at least some relief. 

It’s nothing but patients today. Tussy may have informed you that 
Edward fell ill about 10 days ago and that Donkin says it is a calculus 
in the kidney — he is at Ventnor at present and rest, we hope, will al- 
lay the irritation. Of course, there are a good many people loafing 
about with such a thing in their kidney but it is not pleasant cer- 
tainly. 

The next patient is not so bad, but it is Nim, she had a severe cold, 
and as one could not keep her out of the kitchen, it turned into a— 
so far slight — attack of bronchitis. Anyhow I got her to consult the 
doctor today who told her the shortest way to get over it at once 
was to go to bed, so there we got her with a fire in the room and 64 
degrees Fahrenheit and hope she will be able to get up about 
Monday. 

So now I have come to an end of my sick-list, it is the longest I have 
had for some time and a mighty pleasant subject to write about, and 
more pleasant still for the reader! 

Paul’s article for Kautsky goes in German into the Neue Zeit* and in 

* [P. Lafargue, ‘Die Krisis in Frankreich. Der Krieg in Tongking’,] Die Neue Zeit, 
No. 5, 1885. 

English into next Commonweal.* I do not know whether you get this 
regularly. The business arrangements are as usual awfully defective, 
everything is put upon Edward’s shoulders and as he cannot super- 
vise every detail, nobody knows whether the paper is really forward- 
ed to all those people abroad who ought to have it. The whole 
Socialist League **° is now in an awful excitement about the Afghan 
scare — they see not only war, but England defeated, India in revolt 
and last, revolution at home, Socialism triumphant— hooray! Poor 
Bax was going to write in this style but Tussy told him he had better 
see me about it, and I have done my best to cool him down a bit. 378 
Whenever an Englishman does get free of Jingoism thoroughly, he 
seems to get a positive hatred of his own nationality. This is not such 
a bad quality, only rather misplaced in the case of a war with the 
Russian Tsar.” The Socialist League will not as yet set England in 
a blaze, but the Russian Nihilists °* may Russia — with the help of 
an unsuccessful war. 

You will have seen the stupid proclamation of the German deputies 
in the Sozialdemokrat.*’* The petit-bourgeois element has decidedly 
got the majority among the deputies, as I feared from the beginning. 
This is owing to the Socialist Law °7 which gives them exceptional fa- 
cilities in pushing their candidatures. But they will soon find out their 
mistake, if they have not already done so. J am rather glad they have 
come out so soon and so stupidly. The separation from this element 
which has been pushed and cajoled principally by friend Lieb- 
knecht-—— with the usual best intentions, of course — will come, but 
I do not want to provoke it while the Socialist Law is in force, because 
that prevents us from fighting it out. It gives these people a certain 
advantage but that we must put up with for the time being. And I do 
not think they will push things to a crisis. 

Now a word for Paul.?7° No doubt lex‘ is derived from legere 
and vOp03° from vépo,' and so a certain connection can be estab- 
lished between agricultural and political terms. And this cannot be 
otherwise. The first social regulations which were put in force, neces- 
sarily referred to production and the means of getting the livelihood. 
That this is confirmed by the development of the language, rien de 
plus naturel.* But now to go further, and to work the derivation of 
legere and Véu@ into a complete system, cannot lead but to fanciful 
2 P. Lafargue, ‘The Tonkin War and Socialism’, The Commonweal, No. 4, May 

1885.-° Alexander III-° law-4 to gather-* pasture-' tending grazing 
cattle- nothing more natural 

results — if only for the reason that we do not know at what time each 
particular derivate was formed and still less at what time it received 
the meaning at which it was handed down to us. And moreover, old 
etymologists like Vico are bad guide, i/ex has the root z/, and noth- 
ing to do with lex. Etymology like physiology and any other -ology 
must be learned, cannot be invented. And this leads me to the 
Roshers. You recollect Charley went in for a new railway carriage by 
which in case of a collision you could get smashed in a new way. Well, 
that is exploded. But Charley’s younger brothers (one 20, the other 
18) have invented a new carriage, have patented it, and old Rosher 
does not seem much disinclined to go in for this thing! What a family 
of geniuses! 

Sur ce,* I shut up. Kind regards to Paul. Hope ‘better news next 
time’. 

Affectionately yours, 
F.E. 

17th April. The doctor has been. Nim is better, and can get up in 
a couple of days.