London, 7 December 1885 

My dear Lafargue, 

I shall speak to Tussy about Davitt. She may be able to get you 
what you want. 

In opposition to your Social Studies Group !7° the good Malon 
and the no less celebrated Elie May have just set up a Republican 
Social Economy Society with ready-made rules. °°° Let’s hope this 
‘research group’ will be confined to Malon who will do his research in 
May’s bosom, and to May who will do his research in Malon’s 
heart. They are petty panjandrums whom you, would be well ad- 
vised to ignore completely; that would infuriate them most of all. It’s 
Karl Blind to the life. 

Why are you making such a splash in the Socialiste with Williams 
and the Social Democratic Federation? °°! You ought to know what 
attitude to take with respect to Hyndman, and this time you have fallen 
into a fine old trap. In the first place, Hyndman has contrived to 
make his party a laughing-stock second to none. Williams collected 27 
votes out of 10,000, Fielding in North Kensington 32 out of 10,000, 

* proper 

Burns in Nottingham 598 out of 11,000.* Whereupon the liberal press 
kicked up an almighty fuss, alleging that the money needed for these 
foolish candidatures had been provided by the Tories, and that the 
socialists had so lowered themselves as to do that party’s dirty work 
for it. Williams then wrote to The Echo on 5 December *°° saying that 
all this had been arranged while he was in Liverpool, that they had 
recalled him by telegram without giving details, that he had been 
treated by the leaders as a mere tool and that he now saw 

* ‘that we cannot trust the middle class men of our movement any longer. I am not 
prepared to be made the tool of middle class men. I call upon my fellow wage-slaves to 
meet me as soon as possible and to say good-bye to the middle class men and to shut 
them out from what must be a real working men’s organisation’, * etc. 

--in short he has now adopted a stance directly opposed to 
Hyndman, Champion, etc. 

Now for what has been happening in the Socia, Democratic Federa- 
TION (by the same post you will be getting a letter via Aveling from 
Bland, one of its members). Hyndman was given money by the Tories 
to put up candidates against the Liberals — £340 has been admitted. 
But it must have been in the region of £1,000, since the official ex- 
penses of the 3 candidates amounted to more than £600.— With the 
exception of Burrows, the Executive Committee sanctioned Hynd- 
man’s action. However opposition arose within the main body of the 
federation. But before this could make itself felt, Hyndman, already 
seeing himself in the role of political arbitrator @ da Parnell, left with 
Champion for Liverpool to offer his services to— Chamberlain, the 
Radical leader *!*! The proposal they made the latter was that they 
would support the Liberals if Chamberlain was prepared to with- 
draw a Liberal candidate in Birmingham in favour of Hyndman and 
thus secure him the Liberal vote. Chamberlain showed them the 
door. 

Opposition within the federation is increasing. At the last Com- 
mittee meeting, at which many other members of the federation were 
present, the correspondence relating to the Tory money was read out, 
despite opposition from Hyndman who wished to suppress it. Great 
rumpus. Why had the sections not been consulted on so vital a mat- 

* Cf. the relevant figures in the previous letter. 

ter? In short there is to be a general meeting and we shall have to see 
whether the federation survives it. 

Obviously one may accept money from another party if that 
money is given unconditionally and if it does not do more harm than 
good. But Hyndman has acted like an idiot. In the first place he 
ought to have known that his candidatures couldn’t help but manifest 
the ridiculous weakness of socialism in England. Again, he ought to 
have known that, by accepting money from the Tories, he has 
damned himself once and for all in the eyes of the radical working 
men who form the vast majority and to whom alone socialism can look for 
support. In short, if one does such things, one advertises them, one 
boasts about them, but one doesn’t make a secret of them. Hyndman, 
however, is a caricature of Lassalle; to him all means are good, even if 
not conducive to an end. He is in such a hurry to play the political 
panjandrum that he has no time to consider his real position. He 
combines all the bad qualities of your English Professional POLITI- 
CIAN—— your ADVENTURER — with a quality common enough in France 
but rare over here, of seeing facts not as they are but as he would like 
them to be. 

All this has come so soon after his infamous behaviour towards 
Aveling °°? that he has not yet been forgiven— even within his own 
party —and he is bound to have a pretty hard time of it if he is to 
survive the affair. In any case, if the Social Democratic Federation 

continues, it will no longer have any substance. 
A kiss for Laura. 

Yours ever, 

F.E.