London, 13 June 1891 

Dear Kautsky, 

Article on Peru ??4 received with thanks. Perhaps you would allow 
me to keep it here until I have completed the new edition” of the Ori- 
gin. In another article on Negro customs in East Africa © I came across 
a note to the effect that out there a woman’s clitoris is cut off before 
marriage; Sam Moore wrote and told me that this peculiar custom is 
observed along the River Niger for a distance of more than a hundred 
miles, though not in zs locality where he has satisfied himself as to the 
presence of the said organ. 

* Katharina Sorge-> the fourth German edition-* A. Fleischmann, ‘Rechtszustande 

in Ost-Afrika’, Das Ausland, Nos. 42, 43; 20 and 27 October 1890. 

The introduction* to the new edition of the Origin is ready and 
I shall send it off to you next week in case you might wish to use it be- 
forehand for the Neue Zeit. If so, please let me have the proofs —in 
fact, three lots —, the third will go to Ravé for the French translation 
which is finished so far as the old edition goes. Incidentally, Ravé 
doesn’t know enough German, Strasbourger though he may be. He 
has made atrocious howlers, thereby involving Laura Lafargue in 
a colossal amount of work. I’m only surprised that she took it on 
at all.” 

So you can inform Dietz that he won’t have to wait much longer. 
But he might let me know the number of the new edition. The chaps 
have gone ahead so fast with the 5,000 copies printed in Zurich that 
I no longer have the slightest idea where I am. Is this the 2nd, 3rd, 
4th or which edition? 

The fee for Marx’s article received with thanks and already dis- 
tributed. With regard to the payment for the new edition of the Pover- 
ty of Philosophy (and similarly for the first edition as well—for which 
we asked nothing at the time), perhaps you would be so good as to 
make provisional arrangements with Dietz. If, having done so, you 
then tell me what percentage of the total fee for the new edition ought 
to be allocated to yourselves, i.e. to you and Ede, and what percent- 
age to Marx’s heirs, I shall be able to form a better opinion. But the 
pair of you mustn’t lose by it. 

A stop ought to be put to Grillenberger’s machinations, or at any 
rate he should be made to pay the fees. If he publishes Marx’s speech 
on free trade‘ in your joint translation, you and Ede, not to mention 
Clara Zetkin, must protest and I should then do the same on behalf of 
the heirs— —_ as a matter of principle. 

As regards the Origin, I have been much delayed through having 
had to consult all the relevant literature. There is no bigger mutual 
assurance society than the specialists in prehistory. They’re a bunch 
of scoundrels who indulge in camaraderie and cliquish boycotting on 
an international scale made possible by their relatively small num- 
bers. Now, however, a new element has entered upon the scene in the 

* The reference is to the preface to the fourth German edition of The Origin of the Fa- 
mily, Private Property and the State published in Die Neue Zeit, 9. Jg. 1890/91, 2. Bd., Nr. 
4] under the title ‘Zur Urgeschichte der Familie (Bachofen, McLennan, Morgan)’ be- 
fore the publication of the book. See also this volume, pp. 201, 204, 215-16, 232- 
33.- See this volume, pp. 141, 144.-° Critique of the Gotha Programme-“ K. Marx, 
‘Speech on the Question of Free Trade’ (see present edition, Vol. 6, pp. 450-65). 

shape of comparative jurisprudence and, while it has its bad aspects, 
it may well break up the old ring. 

Yesterday Ede showed me Bebel’s letter to you. You gave Simon 
his deserts. °° Things never turn out particularly well if one aims at 
‘moderation’; a punch, however, hits home. Odd the way this chap 
behaves as though 100° of medical men were on his side instead of 
perhaps 1%. 

Your ‘Emancipation of the 4th Volume is nothing by compari- 
son with the ‘liberation from feudal seats they inflicted on me in the 
Berlin edition of the Entwicklung des Sozialismus.° Imagine what the 
evolution of socialism would look like had it happened‘ in Berlin! 

Just let the chaps get on with their programme.?°’ Bebel will make 
sure all right that none of the old Liebknechtian vulgar democratic 
and vulgar socialist catchwords find their way into it. It’s quite 
a good thing that the people in Berlin should first discuss the subject 
amongst themselves; what they suggest can only be an improvement 
on the old programme and will still be open to discussion. The disen- 
chantment of our friends who, after a 13 years’ interval, are now ob- 
liged to meet Liebknecht face to face again and work with him, is 
really too comical. While the Anti-Socialist Law '! was in force, he 
remained ensconced in Borsdorf, concerning himself with nothing save 
his correspondence. Now, 13 years later, the chaps find him com- 
pletely changed. On the contrary, fe has remained as he was; it is they 
who have progressed and are now aware that a great chasm exists. 
Now nothing happens without there being a rumpus, now they find 
that Liebknecht is editing the paper * out of existence. He did no bet- 
ter by the Volksstaat, etc., but then he was helped by the others to 
keep the paper afloat; now they have other things to do and now they 
have a Liebknechtian paper (out pur,‘ i.e. Liebknecht and family! 

Lafargue’s interpretation of the Bible is very pretty — callow but 
original, marking the final break with the now outmoded, German- 
rationalist philological method. As a beginning it’s all one could ask 
for. 8 

The omntgus strike has been won! *5* At any rate on the main issue. 
London without omnibuses was and is an odd sort of place. Ede 

> 

* Band (volume); misprint for Stand (estate).-> Sessel (seat); misprint for Fessel 
(bonds or shackles).-° Socialism: Utopian and Scientific-' In the original: vorjefallen 
(Berlin dialect).-* Vorwdrts- pure and simple -% P. Lafargue, ‘Der Mythus von Adam 
und Eva. Ein Beitrag zur vergleichenden Mythologie’, Die Neue Zeit, 9. Jg. 1890/91, 2. 
Bd., Nr. 34, 35. 

ought to send you a description of it for the feuilleton; I shall tell him 
so tomorrow. He is enduring his grass widowhood with manly resig- 
nation, assisted by us. 

Kindest regards. 

Your 
F.E.