London, 9 May 1890 

Dear Bebel, 

Thank you for your news from Zurich—I am glad that we should 
have arrived at the same opinion in regard to this point too. Your 
corroboration was of particular importance to me, the likes of us being 
so dependent in matters of this sort upon conclusions that are inade- 
quately founded as to feel reluctant to use those unreliable conclusions 
as a basis for further inferences, let alone actions, without corroboration 
from an authoritative quarter. 

My hearty congratulations to you and your wife on your daughter’s 
engagement.* The fact that it will eventually mean her emigrating to 
America is certainly most unpleasant for you, though for me it might 
have the agreeable consequence of our some day making a trip together 
across the Atlantic. What do you feel about it? I am firmly convinced 
that you would get over your sea-sickness within 2 or 3 days and quite 
possibly for good and all. And a sea voyage of that kind is an invaluable 
antidote to wear and tear—even now, almost two years later, I can still 
feel the beneficial effects of my jaunt. Moreover, Zadek claims to have 
discovered a sure remedy for sea-sickness (anti-pyrin is said to be excel- 
lent) and, according to medical opinion, only 2 or 3 per cent of all human 
beings are unable to get used to the motion within 2 or 3 days. So 
consider the matter. 

If you find my article’ wanting in logic, the fault lies probably more 
with me than with Blos. To compress such a lengthy and complex matter 
into less than 2 printed sheets is a difficult feat and I am aware that there 
are all too many passages in which the thread gets lost and the reasoning 
is inadequate. In the event of my going into the subject—which is of the 
greatest importance to us—in rather more detail, some critical notes 
from you would be very welcome indeed just brief indications as to 
where you lost the thread and how you think it got snarled up. 

4 Frieda Bebel — > F. Engels, The Foreign Policy of Russian Tsardom 

Letters ~— 1890 493 

Well, no doubt the bourgeoisie will everywhere have had time enough 
to sweat out the fear inspired in them by the First of May and to wash 
the linen they dirtied in consequence. The Daily News correspondent in 
Berlin, one of the most vociferous Jeremiahs, complained on the First of 
May that the workers had made April fools of all and sundry, nor, until 
4 days later, did the truth dawn on him that, despite the workers having 
insistently declared beforehand that all they wanted was a peaceable 
demonstration, no one had believed them. 

You did perfectly right in so arranging things as to preclude the possi- 
bility of clashes. After 20 February” there is no longer any need for the 
German workers merely to kick up a row. Under the circumstances 
Germany was bound to make a more modest showing on the First of 
May than the others did, and no one thought the worse of you for that, 
either here or in France. But there is, I think, one lesson to be drawn 
from the Schippel business,°* namely the need to ensure that, next time 
there’s an interregnum between the general elections and the convoca- 
tion of the Reichstag, the leadership of the parliamentary group is either 
empowered to continue functioning as before, or is expressly reinstated 
in office by the newly elected representatives for the period of the inter- 
regnum. It could then confidently intervene and also act, if necessary, 
while the gentlemen in Berlin, who would like to behave Paris-fashion, 
as though they were natural party leaders, would not be given the 
opportunity of throwing their weight about prematurely. Always 
providing that, after 1 October, the organisation stays as it is. 

Over here the demonstration on 4 May was quite overwhelming, as 
the entire bourgeois press actually had to admit. I was on platform 4 (a 
heavy goods waggon) and could only see part—a fifth, say, or an 
eighth—of the crowd, but it was one vast sea of faces, as far as the eye 
could reach. Between 250,000 and 300,000 people, about 3/4 of them 
demonstrating workers. Aveling, Lafargue and Stepniak spoke from my 
platform—I was just an onlooker. Lafargue, with his mixture of south- 
ern vivacity and excellent English—if spoken with a strong French 
accent—elicited a storm of applause. So did Stepniak, while Ede, who 
was on the same platform as Tussy, was accorded a stunning reception. 
Each of the 7 platforms was 150 metres away from the next, the last ones 
being 150 metres from the edge of the park,* so that ovr meeting (the one 
in favour of international legal enforcement of an 8 hours working day) 

4 Hyde Park 

occupied an area more than 1,200 metres in length and at least 400-500 
metres in breadth, the whole being absolutely jam-packed, while beyond 
it were the 6 platforms of the Trades Council>*’ and the 2 of the Social 
Democratic Federation, but with audiences barely half the size of ours. 
All in all, the biggest meeting that has ever been held here. 

And, what’s more, a stunning victory, particularly for us. You will 
have read the details in Ede’s report in the Volksblatt.“ The Trades 
Council and the Social Democratic Federation had, or so they thought, 
done us out of the park for that day, but they were bilked. Aveling 
persuaded the Commissioner of Public Works to allow us to have 7 plat- 
forms in the park as well, though this was, in effect, contrary to regula- 
tions. But luckily the Tories were in power and he succeeded in intimi- 
dating them by saying that our people would otherwise storm the other 
lot’s platforms. And our meeting was the biggest, the best organised and 
the most enthusiastic. The vast majority here are already in favour of an 
eight hours law. Aveling and, even more so, Tussy organised the whole 
thing, and their position in the movement is now altogether different 
from what it was. The Union of Gasworkers and General 
Labourers—by far the best of the new trade societies—supported 
them manfully nor, without them, would the thing have been possible. 
Now it behoves us to keep together the committee that organised our 
meeting—delegates of Trades Unions, and of radical and socialist 
clubs—and to make it the centre of the movement over here.™? The first 
moves towards this end will probably be made tonight. Of one thing we 
may be certain: the workers, the bourgeoisie, the heads of the old, rotten 
Trades Unions and of the many political and social sects and sub-sects, 
and the careerists, place-seekers and men of letters intent on exploiting 
the movement, are well aware that the real socialist mass movement 
began on the fourth of May. Now the masses are at last on the move and, 
after a few battles and a certain amount of wavering to and fro, will, just 
as it happened in Germany, put an end to the personal ambitions and 
attempts at exploitation of the careerists and to the rivalries of the sects, 
and will relegate every man to his proper place. And since an interna- 
tional mentality will evolve very strongly in the process, you will soon 
discover what stuff your new allies are made of. All that the English do 
in the way of action, agitation or organisation shows that they are much 
more akin to us than the French, and once everything has got going 
along the right lines here and the internal friction, unavoidable at the 
start, has been overcome, you will be able to march alongside these 
people in truly fine style. What wouldn’t I give for Marx to have 

witnessed this awakening, he who, on this self-same English soil, was 
alive to the minutest symptom! You people can have no conception of 
the pleasure I have experienced during the past fortnight. And things are 
coming thick and fast. First Germany in February, then the First of May 
there and in America, and now this Sunday when, for the first time in 40 
years, the voice of the English proletariat rang out once again. I carried 
my head a couple of inches higher as I climbed down from the old goods 
waggon. 
Regards to your wife* and Singer, 

Your 

Pk