London, 10 January 1888 

Dear Liebknecht, 

As regards expatriation, things are unlikely to move very rapidly. 
However contemptible the German bourgeoisie may be, such 
cowardice calls for a modicum of courage and in my view it will take 
Bismarck a year to knock that courage into them. But quite a lot can 
happen in a year. By intriguing against the Crown Prince,* Monsieur 

@ Frederick William (later Frederick II) 

Bismarck has tripped up badly and if, after the old man? has pegged 
out, the Crown Prince’s turn lasts only six months, it will be enough to 
throw everything into confusion and thoroughly undermine the philis- 
tine’s confidence in the permanence of the Bismarckian system. After 
that the insolent lad William is welcome to take his turn; he’! do far 
more good than he can do harm. So I trust that your visit to America 
next year will only be a temporary one*”? and that we shall see you 
here both on the way out and on the way home. You will find plenty 
of work to do in America for, as you say, the chaps over there have 
bungled things badly.??? The Americans themselves are still too new to 
the movement as a whole and too unfamiliar with it not to perpetrate 
a series of stupendous blunders. But we can also come to their assis- 
tance and in such a case a man like you, who is familiar with the 
English movement and capable of handling an English audience, would 
be exceedingly useful. 

There’s nothing new to report here. The old Communist Society 
going steadily downhill, being now in the hands of the rascally Gilles; it 
is becoming increasingly chummy with the anarchists whose headquar- 
ters are now in London. The Trafalgar Square affair**4 is being celebrated 
afresh with the wholesale sentencing—both in the magistrates’ and in the 
criminal courts—of those who took part in the demonstration. Graham 
and Burns are to appear shortly. If they too are sentenced, the London 
juryman will, by his action, have passed a vote of thanks to Warren and 
the police, which can only further the split between the classes. The 
workingmen have an enormous hatred of the police and at the next elec- 
tion the stupid Tories will have cause to be aware of it. 

I wish you belatedly a Happy New Year and let’s hope there will be 
peace both internally and externally. I have no wish either for war or for 
attempted coups. Everything is going much too famously for that. 

106 is 

Your 
F. Engels