London, 5 December 1885 

Dear Old Man, 

As it’s so long since I heard from you, I am reminding you of my 
existence by advising you of the despatch of a £ 5 money order which 
I hope will arrive at the same time as this letter and perhaps help to 
lighten the transition from the old year to the new. I trust you are still in 
the best of health and that you will send me a line or two before long 
acknowledging receipt. 

I have been slogging away hard of late, as no doubt you will learn 
from the Zurich booksellers’ publishing side, and in particular have 
seized the opportunity of reviving various pieces from the golden days 
ofour youth in 1848-49. *9% This is damned important, for the younger ge- 
neration, which has forgotten all about it, if indeed it ever knew, is be- 
ginning to want to find out what went on at that time and, in view of 
the many inaccurate sources and accounts, it’s important to provide 
them with as much accurate information as possible. What is abso- 
lutely vital is that you should finish your memoirs; years ago the Neue 
Welt published some really charming pieces.* You’re a wonderfully 
skilful narrator and on top of that your memory goes back at least 10 
or 15 years further than mine and embraces the period 1830-40, 
which is also very important where later developments are con- 
cerned. Some money might also be made out of it, and that’s not 
to be sneezed at. 

I still have to revise the Peasant War ?'3 which is badly in need of it 
and shall then go on to Volume III of Capital, this having now been 
dictated in the rough from the original draft and set down in a legible 
hand. It will be the devil of a task, but a splendid one. Unfortunately 
a mass of translations into French, English, Italian and Danish keep 
intervening, which I have to go over—all too necessary in most 

2 J. Ph. Becker, ‘Abgerissene Bilder aus meinem Leben’, Die Neue Welt, Nos. 17-20, 23, 
24, 26, 28 and 29; 22 and 29 April, 6 and 13 May, 3, 10 and 24 June, 8 and 15 July 
1876. 

cases. *9* Fortunately my knowledge of Russian, let alone Polish, 
doesn’t extend to this sort of job, otherwise it would never end. But 
from that you will see how extensive is the international field our 
communism has now conquered and it is always a pleasure when one 
can do one’s bit towards extending that field still further. 

I hope the wretched business in the Balkans **> will pass off peace- 
fully. We are making such splendid progress everywhere that a world 
war would be inopportune just now — too late or too early. But ulti- 
mately it would also work in our favour by putting an end to milita- 
rism once and for all— at the cost of the massacre of 1'/,; million men 
and the squandering of 1,000 billion francs. After that there could be 
no more war. 

The elections in France have provided the Radicals with the imme- 
diate prospect of coming to power and have thus been of considerable 
help to us, too. **” The elections over here have temporarily made the 
Irish masters of England and Scotland; without them neither party 
can govern.? There are still about 100 results to come in, but 
they’ll make little difference to the outcome. Thus the Irish question 
will at last be settled —if not at once, at any rate in the immediate fu- 
ture and then the decks will be cleared over here as well. Some 8 or 10 
working men have likewise been elected — some of them bought by the 
bourgeoisie, others trade unionists pure and simple—who will 
doubtless make thorough fools of themselves and be of enormous as- 
sistance in the creation of an independent labour party by banishing 
the inherited self-deceit of the workers. History moves slowly over 
here, but move it does. 

Warm regards. 

Your old friend 

F. Engels