ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE*” 

AT LE PERREUX 

[Eastbourne], 1 September 1889 
Sunday 

My dear Laura, 
Yesterday evening late I had news from my bank that the long 
expected dividend of £36 has been paid in and so I hasten to send you 

* Nieuwenhuis — > Edgar and Jean Longuet 

cheque for £30, ten of which are the second half of the money I 
promised Paul for his electioneering expenses and for which he applied 
in a letter, to hand here last Friday, from Cette. His prospects in the 
town seem good but then Cette is but small and the country votes will 
decide—hope I shall hear more from him in a few days. Let’s hope for 
the best. 

Cannot write much being Sunday and our people always in and out, 
moreover have to write to Tussy about the strike? which was in an 
important crisis yesterday. As the dock directors kept stubborn, our 
people were led to a very foolish resolution. They had outstripped their 
means of relief and had to announce that on Saturday no relief could be 
dealt out to strikers. In order to make this go down—that is the way at 
least I take it—they declared that if the dock directors had not caved in by 
Saturday noon, on Monday there would be a general strike—reckoning 
chiefly on the supposition that the Gas works for want of coal or of work- 
men or both would come to a stand and London be in darkness—and this 
threat was to terrify all into submission to the demands of the men. 

Now this was playing va banque, staking £1000 to win, possibly, £10; 
it was threatening more than they could carry out; it was creating 
millions of hungry mouths for no reason but because they had some tens 
of thousands on hand which they could not feed; it was casting away 
wilfully all the sympathies of the shopkeepers and even of the great mass 
of the bourgeoisie who all hated the dock monopolists, but who now 
would at once turn against the workmen; in fact it was such a declaration 
of despair and such a desperate game that I wrote to Tussy at once:* if 
this is persisted in, the Dock Companies have only to hold out till 
Wednesday and they will be victorious. 

Fortunately they have thought better of it. Not only has the threat 
been ‘provisionally’ withdrawn, but they have even acceded to the 
demands of the wharfingers (in some respect competitors of the docks), 
have reduced their demands for an increase of wages, and this has again 
been rejected by the Dock Companies. This I think will secure them the 
victory. The threat with the general strike will now have a salutary effect, 
and the generosity of the workmen, both in withdrawing it and in acced- 
ing to a compromise, will secure them fresh sympathy and help. 

On Friday? we shall return to London. Shorlemmer has left about a 
fortnight ago for Germany, where he is now, what he is doing and what 
his intentions are, I don’t know. 

4 on 6 September 

372 Letters ~— 1889 

As to Boulanger his weakness is shown in his electoral proceedings: 
he takes Paris and leaves to the monarchists all the provinces. That 
ought to disabuse his most obstinate adherents if they pretend to be 
Republicans. Paul writes to me that a Marseilles Boulangist has owned 
to him that Boulanger has had from the Russian government 15 
millions. That explains the whole dodge. The Russian dynasty, now 
allied by Denmark to the Orléans,‘ wishes for an Orléans restauration 
and one brought about by Russia; for then the Orléans would be its 
slaves. And only with a monarchical France can the Czar* have a sincere 
alliance, such as he requires for a long war with dubious chances. To 
bring this about, Boulanger is put forward as the tool. If he is success- 
ful as a stepping stone to monarchy, he will, at the proper time, be 
bought off or in case of need put out of the way, for the Russian govern- 
ment will not have in that case the scruples which our Socialists have; 
‘denn die abzumurksen ist uns Wurscht’ is their motto. As to Millerand 
I believe you are right. In his paper there is, for all its attempted radi- 
calism, a tone of weakness, half-despondency, and above all so much of 
the milk of human kindness! (stale as it is, it has not the stuff in it to 
turn sour) that compared even with La Justice as I have once known 
that paper, it inspires pity mingled with a drop of contempt. And these 
be the successors of the old French Republicans, les fils des héros de la 
rue Saint-Méry! 

Ever yours 
dag Os 

Love from Nim and all the lot here.