London, 22 May 1886 

Dear Ede, 

I am sending you the (Daily News) report of Thursday’s parlia- 
mentary debate on the Irish Arms Bill °**: Restrictions on the right to 
carry or possess arms, hitherto aimed at the Nationalists in Ireland, are 
now to be extended to the Protestant braggarts in Ulster; rebellion is 

in the offing. Remarkable speech by Lord Randolph Churchill, * 
brother of the Duke of Marlborough, democratising Tory, Secretary 
for India in the last Tory Cabinet, and as such a life member of the 
Privy Councit. In view of our petty-bourgeois socialists’ insipid and 
pusillanimous protests and assurances to the effect that, whatever the 
circumstances, they will pursue their objectives by peaceful means, 
this is surely the moment to point out that English ministers—— 
Althorp, Peel, Morley, and even Gladstone— are advocating the 
right to revolt as a theory consistent with the Constitution, though 
admittedly only for such time as they remain in opposition, as Gladstone’s 
subsequent vapourings have borne out,” though in none of them 
did he dare deny that right as such-——and especially, too, because 
this emanates from England, the land of legality par excellence. 
Our Vierecks could hardly have had shorter shrift. 

I’m glad to see from the Sozialdemokrat’s renewed verve that you 
are in good shape again. 

I’m up to my eyes in the English translation of Capital. Aveling 
fixed up everything with the publishers this morning and the contract 
will be signed in a day or two, after which comes the printing, 5 sheets 
a week minimum. °° Unfortunately I haven’t finished revising it, but 
pp. 1-450 of the original are ready for the press; ditto, almost, 
pp. 450-640. But please don’t make any announcement yet, as 
nothing has been signed so far. 

Our Frenchmen are doing splendidly. Over here, on the other 
hand, everyone is playing about like a bunch of amateurs. The anar- 
chist follies in America °°? may prove advantageous; it is undesirable 
that the American workers, given their present wholly bourgeois level 
of thinking — high wages and short hours—should win victories 
too quickly. That might unduly reinforce the biassed TRADES UNION 
spirit. 

The most powerful rrapes union over here, the Amalgamated Enct. 
nEERS, had to allocate from its reserve funds more than £43,000 for 
its unemployed members, bringing the reserves down from ap- 
prox. £165,000 to approx. £122,000. Not until this fund is exhaust- 
ed, and only then, will it be possible to do something with those 
chaps. 

Your 
F.E. 
@ R. Churchill’s speech in the House of Commons on 20 May 1886 (The Daily News, 

No. 12515, 21 May 1886). - > W.E. Gladstone’s speech in the House of Commons 
on 20 May [886 (The Daily News, No. 12515, 21 May 1886). 

I am sending this to Schliter as I don’t know the new number of 
your house.