[Ryde, 29 June 1891] 

Dear Kautsky, 

I have come down here to take refuge with Pumps for a few 
days ?§* having been inundated with an intolerable amount of work. 
No sooner had I become happily engrossed in group marriage 2°° 
than I was landed with the party programme, which had to be attend- 
ed to. 7° I meant at first to try rewriting the preamble in rather 
more succinct form but want of time prevented my doing so, besides 
which I thought it more important to point out the shortcomings, 

some avoidable, others not, of the political part, as this would provide 
me with an opportunity to lash out at the conciliatory opportunism of 
the Vorwarts and the clean-devout-joyous-free * ‘ingrowing’ of the old 
canker ‘into socialist society’. I have since heard of your proposal that 
there should be a new preamble; so much the better. 

The party is going to print Lassalle’s letters to Marx and myself, 
annotated by me ? (thus precluding all censorship by the party). 
I can attend to this in the autumn, alongside Volume III.” (This de- 
tween ourselves.) 

I have taken refuge here in order to finish off part of my corre- 
spondence; on Thursday‘ I go home, when work on group marriage 
will be resumed. I was getting along so nicely — confound these inter- 
ruptions! 

Poverty of Philosophy — the position is that Dietz is to buy himself 
out for 450 marks, whereupon negotiations will be restricted to the 
four of us, so all is well and we shall be able to sort things out all right. 
But there can be no question of you two refusing to take any remu- 
neration for the 2nd edition. 

Dietz’s plan for a volume of Marx’s minor works won’t do. Long 
ago Liebknecht cherished a pet project of this sort; it was to be put 
into effect by his latest protégé, Paul Ernst, who was also to publish 
other things of Marx’s and, in Fact, to be sent to me for a few months 
so that I could help him in this. The idea was for the thing to be pub- 
lished by the Berlin bookseller under the party’s imprint —i.e. an 
edition of Marx alongside an edition of Lassalle. I turned this down 
categorically, which means that I can do no less where Dietz is con- 
cerned. I have permitted the party to publish a few minor things of 
Marx’s in pamphlet form and as individual items, without notes or 
preface. Nor can I go any further than that. I cannot allow them to 
steal a march on me by bringing out in this piecemeal fashion the 
complete edition to whose ultimate publication J am committed. 

Nor, for that matter, can I now contemplate a new edition of the 
Condition, etc.,“ not, at any rate, until Volume III is completed. I am 
perfectly prepared to negotiate this with Dietz in due course, but the 
chaps have simply got to realise that I can take on absolutely nothing 
more until Volume III has gone to press. While it is in printing, ar- 
rangements can be made for something else. But until then I shall re- 
sist all incitements and pet projects, whether they emanate from 

* Acatchword used by German gymnasts. -” of Capital-‘ 2 July-4 F. Engels, The Con- 
dition of the Working-Class in England. 

Dietz or anyone else. After all, the chaps ought to have sense enough 
to exempt me till then from this sort of thing since it could only in- 
volve me in useless, time-consuming correspondence. As soon as 
I have finished revising the Origin I shall set to work on Volume III 
and then, come rain or shine, I'll carry on regardless. 

Vollmar’s speech 27° with its quite unnecessary concessions to the 
present Establishment and its still more unnecessary, and, what’s 
more, unauthorised assurances that Social-Democrats would play 
their part if the Fatherland were attacked —-i.e. would help defend 
the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine — has caused unmitigated glee 
amongst our opponents over here and in France. If it is allowed to 
pass, our chaps will have to pay very dearly for it in Brussels. '?° The 
Possibilists * and the Hyndmen are quarrying it for notes, after their 
usual fashion, nor can we over here do anything about it in the ab- 
sence of an authentic statement denying Vollmar the right to speak 
in the name of the party. 27! Now, as Hyndman’s man ofstraw, Bax has 
recently written on the subject in Justice; I haven’t seen it yet. ?7? 

The meeting of women in labour in Hyde Park ?’% has caused con- 
siderable merriment here and in London— the English version even 
more than the German because of the play on words in DEMANDING A RE- 
DUCTION OF THE HOURS OF LABOUR Which, more specifically, can mean 
travail: A WOMAN IN LABOUR. 

Rave’s address is Faubourg Rochereuil, Poitiers, France. 

Pumps now lives down here; Percy has taken on an agency for his 
brothers. Their little house, The Firs, is in Brading Road, exactly one 
English mile outside the town. It’s small but pretty and has a garden 
[with] * vegetables and fruit. Old Harney spent four weeks at Vent- 
nor where he had a recurrence of gout and rheumatism. We fetched 
him over here on Saturday; he will probably travel back with me on 
Thursday and return to his headquarters in Richmond. He is terribly 
lame and out of sorts. 

Schorlemmer will probably soon be with us. As you know, he’s 
a very uncommunicative correspondent. While over here, Sam 
Moore has suffered from African malarial fever but is now better 
again. In August or September he will be returning to the Niger. In 
his heart of hearts, I believe, he yearns after the beautiful climate — 
despite the bouts of fever which recur with menstrual regularity. 

* Manuscript damaged. 

How could you possibly imagine I cared a rap about whether or 
not I’m given pride of place in the Neue Zeit? Simply suit yourself. 
Many regards from everyone here. 

Your 
F.E.