London, 12 March 1887 
122 Regent’s Park Road, N.W. 
Dear Mrs Bebel, 

I am taking the liberty of writing to you today in the hope that you 
will be able to give me news of how my friend Bebel is getting on at the 
charitable institution in Zwickau. I have heard nothing further of Bebel 
since Singer was over here in December. I know, of course, that deten- 
tion will have no effect whatever on his intellectual powers, but I should 
also be very glad to learn that it is not adversely affecting his physical 

health. He must have found it very hard to be behind bars with nothing 
to do during the election campaign, but that is all the more reason why 
he should have been pleased with the results; they tally exactly with the 
prediction he gave me months ago: a big gain in votes but a drop in 
mandates.!> The latter is not only easily borne—only Liebknecht’s 
absence is a real loss—but in many ways is also an advantage. Indeed this 
is now being admitted by people of whom one would least expect it; 
people who themselves took a quiet pleasure in parliamentarism are now 
loudly proclaiming to all and sundry what a good thing it is that the 
party and, in particular, the parliamentary group should no longer be in 
danger of lapsing into parliamentarism! All to the good if grapes are sour 
now and again. On the other hand, the 225,000 new votes we have 
gained, despite the most cruel oppression, are a step forward which has 
made itself felt throughout Europe and America and has even soured the 
momentary triumph of the gentlemen in power. This very lack of undue 
haste, this measured but nonetheless inexorable advance, has about it 
something tremendously impressive which cannot but arouse in the 
rulers the same sense of dread as was experienced by the prisoners of the 
state inquisition in that room in Venice where the walls moved inwards 
an inch each day, so that as time went on they were able to estimate the 
day on which the walls must squash them. 

Throughout the past autumn and winter Russian and Prussian diplo- 
macy has been at pains to engineer a localised war and prevent a 
European one. The Russians would have liked to crush Austria alone, 
the Prussians France alone, while the rest were supposed to look on." 
Unfortunately these well-intentioned endeavours were mutually incom- 
patible in that whoever attacked first would have provoked a world war. 
That the days of localised wars were over was, of course, obvious to any 
child, but not to the clever men who govern Europe; only now are the 
great statesmen finding this out and they really are somewhat afraid of a 
world conflagration, for its effects would be incalculable and more than 
even the Prussian and Russian armies could cope with. And so far as I’m 
concerned herein lies the only remaining guarantee of peace we have. 

Would you please be kind enough to tell Bebel when you see him that 
the first edition of the English translation of Das Kapital* was sold out 
in 2 months and that the second is printing. And this before any of the 
bigger papers had devoted an article to the book! 

4 Volume I 

Trusting you will be so good as to let me have early news of how 
Bebel is getting on, 

Tam, 
Yours very truly, 
F. Engels