London, 12 March 1889 
122 Regent’s Park Road, N. W. 

Dear Dr Schmidt, 

You must excuse me for being unable to reply to your note of the 5th 
inst. Until today. I have had a family over here from Germany on a visit 
and there hasn’t been a moment to spare. 

So your academic adventures have been followed by adventures with 
the press.>*? It’s just like it was between 1842 and and you'll now 
have some idea of how we fared then. However, we have made a bit of 
progress since that time and the tricks played by the world of official- 
dom today, even though they may be quite as beastly as they were then, 
are no longer so far-reaching. 

If you approach Meissner, don’t hesitate to refer him straight to me, 
and if he sends me an inquiry, I shall gladly do whatever I can. But I 

3 Sozialdemokrat 

know that he usually rejects pamphlets on principle and it wouldn’t 
surprise me if that is the reason he will give. 

However, I have yet another suggestion: You should write and ask 
Karl Kautsky, whom you know, of course, from the time you were both 
over here—Igelgasse 13/1, Vienna I[V—whether he cannot arrange for 
Dietz in Stuttgart to take the piece. Or again to Dr H. Braun, Munich, 
to see whether he can suggest a publisher. 

If you would like me to send you an introduction to Bebel, Liebknecht 
or Singer while the Reichstag is in session, you are very welcome to one. 

If the thing isn’t too long, Kautsky might possibly take it for the Neue 
Zeit.**4 

So you too live in the Dorotheenstrasse—I myself lived there in 
1841/9! on the south side, a bit to the east of the Friedrichstrasse—it will 
all have changed a great deal by now. 

I was also glad to get your note of 18 January. I trust the plan you 
outlined in it to live by your pen will come off. Obviously you will first 
have to learn the ropes to some extent in this new world and if the 
gentlemen of the press are of the same breed over there as they are here, 
you can hardly fail to make a number of unavoidable, if somewhat unde- 
sirable, acquaintanceships. 

I have taken a look at the Sweating Committee report*—there are two 
fat folio volumes (containing the witnesses’ statements) and hardly 
believe you will feel impelled to work your way through them. 
However, if you want to take a preliminary look at them, you will find 
them in the Reichstag library; one or other of the deputies could get hold 
of them for you, and if you then felt inclined to go into the matter more 
thoroughly, I should be happy to send them to you. 

Meanwhile my sincere regards combined with the request that you 
send me further news of yourself from time to time. 

Yours, 
F. Engels