London, 7 December 1885 

Dear Ede, 

Here too we’ve had a storm in our socialist tea-cup. Kautsky will 
already have written and told you something about it; 2 Echoes (Lib- 
eral) enclosed herewith. Also some other stuff, and a document (letter 
from Bland, based on the minutes of the Executive of the Social, Demo- 
cratic Federation, sent you by Aveling), which will give you the sub- 
stance. #9 

This time Hyndman has given himself the coup de grace. He 
took money from the Tories for socialist candidatures in order to 
filch votes from the Liberals. He has admitted to taking £340, but 
since the official expenses of the 3 candidatures amounted to about 
£600, it must have been something in the region of £1,000, if not 
more. 

Taking money from another party may, in certain circumstances 
and by way of an exception, be admissible if, 1) the money is given 
unconditionally and 2) the transaction does not do more harm than 
good. In this instance the very opposite was the case. 1) The condi- 
tion was that socialist candidates be put up in districts where they 
could only be made to look ridiculous—as, indeed, happened: Wil- 

liams, 27 votes out of 4,722, Fielding, 32 out of 6,374; only Burns got 
598 votes out of 11,055 in Nottingham. 2) Hyndman, however, knew 
that to take money from the Tories would spell nothing less than irrep- 
arable moral ruin for the socialists in the eyes of the one and only 
class from which they could draw recruits, namely the great, radical 
working masses. It’s almost a replica of the Stoecker alliance against 
the Party of Progress once proposed in Berlin. +9’ 

Well, not content with this heroic deed, Hyndman already saw 
himself as a second Parnell holding the scales between the two parties, 
though forgetting that, unlike Parnell, he does not command 80 votes 
in Parliament and 200,000 Irish votes in the elections in England and 
Scotland. ” He got the Executive of the Federation to empower him 
to go to Birmingham with Champion and call on Chamberlain, the 
leader of the Radicals. *!5 With Tory money in his pocket, he offered 
the latter his support if he, Chamberlain, would cede him a seat in 
Birmingham, assure him of Liberal votes and agree to introduce an 
Eight Hours’ Bill. Not being such a mug as the Tories, Chamberlain 
showed him the door. 

In the meantime the affair, arranged on the qt by the Federation’s 
Executive, became known in the branches and caused a great furore. 
Of which more in Bland’s letter; it was written for publication, but 
you should not mention the fact that it is based on the minutes. A gen- 
eral meeting is to be called and whether the Federation will survive 
it seems doubtful; not, at any rate, as a viable organisation. 

Herewith Hunter Watts’ statement in The Pall Mall Gazette.+°* 
It was written with Hyndman’s connivance, yet he had to let 
the expression ‘111-apvisep’, used of himself, stand. By contrast, Wil- 
liams’ statement in The Echo is nothing less than a slap in the face, 
its attitude being, and not without reason, one of outright hostility to 
all socialist middle-class MEN. So that’s what Mr Hyndman has brought 
about with his pushfulness. The man is nothing but a caricature of 
Lassalle, totally indifferent to the nature of the means even when not 
conducive to the end, provided Hyndman himself gets something out 
of it; add to that his perpetual craving for instantaneous success, so 
that he kills the goose that lays the golden egg; and finally, the way he 
considers himself the centre of the universe, being utterly incapable of 
seeing the facts in any light other than that which is gratifying to him. 

And, for good measure, a political adventurer comme il faut.* All 
Lassalle’s bad points magnified, and not a single one of his good 
ones. 

What do things look like in your parliamentary tea-cup? 

Your 
F.E.