AT LE PERREUX 

London, 17 December 1890 

My dear Laura, 

Two pieces of good news. 

First. Your usual box of puddings, cake and sweets, for Mémé and 
brothers, has been sent off yesterday as usual and hope will reach by 
Friday” at latest. Otherwise please apply to the Bureau des Expédi- 
tions Grande Vitesse, Gare du Nord, or at 23 Rue Dunkerque, P. Bi- 
geault or 18 Rue Bergère, chez E. D’Odiardi. 

Second. Louise Kautsky remains here for good. So my troubles are 
settled. She seems to like it better after all than setting other people’s 
children into this world.“ And we get on capitally. She superintends 
the house and does my secretary’s work which saves my eyes and 
enables me to make it worth her while to give up her profession, at 
least for the present. She wishes me to send you her kindest regards. 

Padlewski deserves a monument and a life pension. Not so much 

* of Die Neue Zeit containing Engels’ Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy - 19 Decem- 
ber - © Louise Kautsky studied obstetrics in Vienna. 

for polishing off that vile brute Seliverstov than for delivering Paris 
from the Russian incubus.'°' The change in the Paris press since that 
execution is indeed wonderful and if a voyou" like Labruyere finds it 
to pay him to get Padlewski out of the way, the revulsion of feeling 
generally must be very great indeed. Even the Boulangists and the 
Intransigeant have to follow suit. 

But it’s genuine Parisian. Argument and reason is no use against 
this chauvinistic enthusiasm for the Czar’s” alliance. All at once a fact 
occurs, which lightens up the mental darkness like a flash of lightning. 
Now they see that they are making themselves accomplices of this 
Russian official infamy, and that, if they themselves have not the 
courage to get out of it, a Pole has, and can they assist in sending that 
Pole over to bourgeois ‘justice’? The enthusiasm for the Czar is at 
once transferred to the Poles and Nihilists, and the Czar is in for it, for 
his trouble and his money spent. 

All the same, the effect would hardly have been so great if our peo- 
ple had not so constantly and determinedly attacked the Czar. 

Anyhow, je m’en réjouis.° 

Pumps has all at once come round. Louise and I coaxed her a bit. 
After the talking to I had given her, Percy gave her another, and now 
she is friendliness all over, not only with Louise, but also Annie. Well, 
I hope it will last, and if it does not, it will be her own fault and then 
I shall be in a clear position and act accordingly. This time I can be 
master and I shall. 

How is Paul’s affair with Levraut getting on?!" 

Fortin writes to say that he and Paul wished to publish the /8 Bru- 
maire in the Soczaliste but required my consent. That of course I gave 
him with pleasure.—He also said the Revue Socialiste wanted the 
same and also the Misére de la philosophie for republication. I said as 
to that, Marx would never forgive me if I entrusted any ms. of his to 
the hands of such people who were capable of making all sorts of 
changes in it; as to the Misére, after all the disappointments I had 
with that,'°% I should consent to its republication in book-form only, 
and only after having full guarantees for the execution of the promise. 

What Paul writes about the part of the Rothschilds in the Krach“ 
Baring seems not without foundation.!°* The Barings are rich 
enough to pay all losses and have plenty left. So that the guarantors 
will be perfectly safe. But the Barings cannot remain a first rate firm 

* guttersnipe, hooligan - ” Alexander III's - © Tam glad. - * row 

and cannot therefore continue to be financial agents of the Argentine 
Government. There the Rothschilds will naturally step into the Ba- 
rings’ shoes. And in order to squeeze the Argentine Government into 
compliance, the French and German Argentine committees must re- 
sist the very sensible (in the interest of all parties) proposals of the 
London Committee, and insist upon cash payment of the coupons 
which the Londoners are willing to suspend for 3 years and have the 
amount transformed into a new debt. And the gobemouches* of the 
Paris press, payés comptant,” work hard in the interest of the Roth- 
schilds. 

I am afraid this will be the last long letter you will have for some 
time. I am so overworked that correspondence will have to be con- 
fined to the necessary minimum. I have an urgent quarrel with 
Brentano on my hands (preface, 4th edition of Capital) and those 
sort of things I cannot dictate. 

Love to Mémé. 

Ever yours, 
F. Engels 

Bien des choses & Paul.“