London, 12 April 1886 
Dear Bebel, 

Thank you for the debate on the Anti-Socialist Law—it pleased me 
tremendously.>’! Here again we have something that does credit to 
the movement and this is the impression it gives from beginning to 
end. Even Liebknecht was quite his old self again; competition from 
the French seems to have had a good effect on him.’ I like the spec- 
tacle of the whole gang—or pack of dogs rather—crowding round you 
barking and snapping, only to be beaten off by the lash of a whip. 
What a mercy that, apart from you and Liebknecht, only Vollmar 
spoke a word or two, and that Singer, the victim of a concerted at- 
tack, was compelled to hit back hard, while the tractable majority 
held their tongues. 

The gentlemen’s fears about regicide are too ludicrous. Surely they 
or their fathers have all of them sung: 

Has ever man had such hard luck 
As our poor Burgomaster Tschech, 
He shot at Fatty two paces away 
And yet his bullet went astray. 

@ See this volume, pp. 424-25. 

True, the German bourgeoisie still had some vitality in those days; 
another example of the difference is that 1844 saw the appearance of 
Das Lied von Freifrau von Droste-Vischerg,>’? whereas now the Kultur- 
kampf? is being waged with the most humdrum weapons wielded 
by the most flaccid hands. 

The socialists here have been acquitted.°?8 I am sending you to- 
day’s copy of the highly Conservative Standard (also a Cri du Peuple) 
containing an account of the final hearing.* You will be able to see 
from it how a judge goes about his business in England (though ad- 
mittedly not in /reland!). Translated from legal jargon, what he said 
was: The law on seditious speeches applies to the accused, but the law 
is outdated and invalid in practice. Otherwise you would have to 
convict every radical spokesman and minister. All you have to ask 
yourselves, therefore, is this: Was it, or was it not, the intention of the 
accused that there should be looting on 8 February?” And Cave is one 
of England’s 16 principal judges. 

The verdict is a fine advertisement for Hyndman, but it has come 
too late. He has contrived to ruin his organisation beyond hope of re- 
pair; in London it’s fizzling out, while in the provinces the various or- 
ganisations have adopted a neutral, wait-and-see attitude to the rifts 
down here. Summa summarum the two organisations—FeEperation and 
Leacuge ?—have a combined paid-up membership of less than 2,000 
and their papers a combined readership of less than 5,000—the 
majority being sympathisers in the persons of bourgeois, priests, 
literati, etc. As things are now, it is truly fortunate that these im- 
mature elements are failing to penetrate the masses. They must 
first complete the process of fermentation, after which all may be 
well. 

For the rest, one might almost be back in the days of the Interna- 
tional. Only this morning a whole stack of German, French, Spanish 
and Belgian papers arrived and are taking up time I ought to be de- 
voting to the English translation of Capital. I only hope there isn’t 
a bust-up before ’'ve managed to finish the 3rd volume—after that it 
can come, so far as I’m concerned. 

Things are going splendidly in Decazeville.**> You will see from 
the report (Cri du Peuple) of last Sunday’s meeting“ (a week ago yes- 

* Le Cri du Peuple, No. 888, 4 April 1886. -° See this volume, pp. 403-04, 406- 
08. -° Justice and The Commonweal-* Le Cri du Peuple, No. 888, 4 April 1886. 

terday) which I am sending you today how skilfully those Parisians, 
who have been decried as revolutionary braggarts, contrive without 
relinquishing their revolutionary posture to advocate calm and law- 
fulness during the strike. It is indicative of the progress the French 
have made, thanks to the revolutionary soil on which they stand, that 
in their case there is a complete absence of that mass of sophistries 
and second thoughts which still confuse the minds of so many people 
in Germany. That one should proceed lawfully or unlawfully, depend- 
ing on the circumstances, is taken entirely for granted over there and 
no one sees anything inconsistent in it. As to Paris, it is significant that 
up till yesterday the Cri du Peuple had raised 35,000 frs for Decaze- 
ville, but Rochefort’s Intransigeant less than 11,000. 

Bismarck, who appears to have been in a frightful rage, though ob- 
viously speaking for the benefit of the Crown Prince,* will doubtless 
get a reply from Laura and Tussy to the ludicrous insinuations he 
made about Marx.*’2 Of the other speeches, Hanel’s’ was the best 
from a legal viewpoint; he came out with the absurd demand that 
a citizen should conform to the law not only outwardly but also in- 
wardly—that such a thing should be called for, that the mere intention 
and the public expression thereof, could be held punishable by depri- 
vation of rights shows how debased all middle-class concepts of legal- 
ity have become in Germany—not that they have ever prevailed 
over there save in the case of the oppositional bourgeoisie; what has, 
in fact, always prevailed is the illegality of a police state, which in 
other countries (always excepting Ireland) could only assert itself 
shamefacedly and in the guise of a coup de main. 

Must close because registration time (5 o’clock) draws near. 

Your 
F.E.