London, 29 November 1887 

Dear Mrs Liebknecht, 

Thank you and Liebknecht very much indeed for your good wishes 
on the occasion of my birthday, which we celebrated yesterday. A whole 
lot of people foregathered; there had first been, in the evening, a 
rehearsal in a public house of a French play adapted by Aveling, in which 
he and Tussy both acted and met with great applause, as did the play 
itself, which has been accepted by a popular actress and hence is now 
more or less assured of success. Afterwards, the whole company 
repaired to my house; Lenchen had made some doughnuts and pretzels 
and Mrs Kautsky a Viennese apple-tart, while midnight ushered in 
Aveling’s birthday, so that we were able to celebrate that as well. 

Percy? would undoubtedly have come to see you in Leipzig, but he was 
making only a brief business trip to Dresden and Berlin and had to get 
back as soon as possible because his buttonholing machine was to figure 
in an exhibition here which was remaining open only until last Saturday. 
He arrived in Leipzig in the middle of the night, had to stop there a few 

4 Percy Rosher 

hours after missing his connection and left again that same morning for 
Dresden. Otherwise he would not have failed to pay you his respects. 

As far as Mrs Schack is concerned, she has, to my knowledge, 
declared on three separate occasions that all the German deputies in our 
party are corrupt and, on two of those occasions, expressly included the 
names of Liebknecht and Bebel.* After she had done this, it was impos- 
sible for me to have any further dealings with her, even if she herself had 
made the first move, which was certainly not the case. Bebel had an 
opportunity of seeing her in her new role and seemed in no way edified 
thereby. Liebknecht likewise had that opportunity at St Gallen,!”* she 
having had the, to my mind, unbelievable impertinence to go there. 
What she told him while there I, of course, don’t know, but it cannot 
alter the fact that she spoke about him over here in such a way as, in my 
eyes, to constitute a complete breach. The creature is absolutely deter- 
mined to cut a figure and if, after what has happened, Liebknecht should 
help her in any way, whether direct or indirect, to do so, or if he should 
allow his behaviour to be governed by the moderate attitude you have 
described, there would be a danger that his enviers, of whom we all have 
our fair share, would look for other motives for his actions. Of course, 
you and Liebknecht must know best what attitude you should adopt 
towards the woman. I, for my part, am glad to be rid of her. 

In her conflict with the powers that be, Tussy came to no harm, unlike 
her coat and hat which were irretrievably damaged. As a matter of fact she 
wasn’t attacked; rather it was she who did the attacking. Now the rumpus 
is virtually over and, while some trifling incident may be staged in Trafalgar 
Square, it will only be for fun. But the government will have something to 
think about. Were old Disraeli to know what dunderheads his successors 
were, he’d rise up out of the grave and lambast them good and proper. 

I am tolerably well again and so is Lenchen. She and the Roshers, 
ditto the Kautskys and Avelings, send you and your husband their 
cordial regards. 

Very sincerely yours, 
F. Engels