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

Dear Sir, 

A thousand apologies for having been so thoroughly remiss in 
answering the inquiry in your esteemed letter of 15 April.*°° Contrary 
to my intentions I have got involved in the debate over the international 
congress and have thus taken upon myself a great deal of work, corre- 
spondence, running about, etc., which unfortunately has meant my 
neglecting a mass of other things, among them many letters, which 
remain unanswered. 

So as not to keep you waiting a moment longer, I must inform you 
that I have not seen the pamphlet in question? since the time it appeared 
in Cologne, nor, to my knowledge, is there a copy among Marx’s papers. 
The pamphlet came out shortly before the trial began and I have never 
heard of a second part. Something of that kind would probably have 
been advertised in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung but all I can find there is 
the announcement, which first appeared on 9 July 1848, of this one 
pamphlet, described as Part I; the proceedings began on 5 August. There 
are no advertisements for a second part in the intervening numbers and 
I feel sure it never appeared. After his acquittal Lassalle would have had 
no cause to continue with a critique whose sole purpose had been to 
secure that acquittal.’ 

4 Lassalle [Ferdinand], Der Criminal-Prozef wider mich wegen Verleitung zum 
Cassetten-Diebstahloder: Die Anklage der moralischen Mitschuld 

I am most anxious to see that piece of yours,* which has found a berth 
at last. I shan’t be able to read the article on Kant in the Vossische until 
after the post has gone, so for the present I can do no more than say how 
very grateful I am to you for sending it. 

If you join the Vossische and are required to belabour the East, the 
Standard is the only paper I would commend to your attention. Of all 
the London and, possibly, European, papers (a few in Hungary 
excepted), none is better informed on the East in so far as Russia’s inter- 
ests are concerned. A day or two ago, for example, it was first with the 
news of Russia’s little scheme, which has now re-emerged into the light 
of day, for a greater Serbian empire under the Prince of Montenegro—a 
little scheme whose furtherance has, for the present, been entrusted by 
the Russian government to the pan-Slav Comité so that, depending on 
circumstances, the former can either itself pursue it, or shelve it again for 
a while; 2., with the news of the secret agreement between Tsar and 
Shah‘ whereby Persia would not grant railway, shipping, etc., conces- 
sions without Russia’s approval and, in case of war, would place 
Khorassan at the Russians’ disposal (i.e. make possible their strategic 
encirclement of Afghanistan). Months often go by without anything of 
this kind appearing in the Standard, but then the disclosures usually 
come thick and fast. The Standard is supplied with the stuff by 
Russophobes in the Conservative Party, the army and the Indian Civil 
Service. 

I fear that, once Russia has fixed up the conversion of her debt**4 and 
acquired thereby a financial status she has never enjoyed before, the pan- 
Slav party on the one hand and, on the other, the need to provide 
employment for the army (whose younger, educated officers are without 
exception constitutionalists,*” hence far in advance of the Prussians), 
thus keeping its mind off political conspiracies, will precipitate the 
Russian government into war. What will happen then, no one can tell; 
the old oracle of Delphi comes to mind: Croesus by crossing the Halys 
will ruin a mighty realm. 

In any event much will be destroyed in the process, including, 
perhaps, the German army, provided a certain conceited young rascal¢ is 
given a bit of time to disorganise it. 

Meanwhile there has also been the splendid business of the coalminers’ 

@ Conrad Schmidt, Die Durchschnittsprofitrate auf Grundlage des Marx’schen 
werthgesetzes —» Alexander III — ¢ Nasr-ed-Dir ~ 4 William II 

Letters ~— 1889 341 

strike,*° which illuminated the whole situation like a flash of lightning. 

That’s three army corps that have come over to us. 
So until my next and with best wishes, 

Yours sincerely, 

F. Engels