London, 2 September 1891 

Dear Sorge, 

I have shown your letter about Mrs Schliiter to Louise Kautsky 
who may be relied on implicitly and is acquainted with the circum- 
stances. She takes the view that Mrs Schliiter has simply fired a warn- 
ing shot and that she’ll come back to him all right, providing Schliiter 
refuses to be intimidated. Nor does she believe that a third party 
would be required to nudge her into a decision of this kind. She did 
the same thing several times in Zurich — or something like it. Admit- 
tedly Schliiter’s repeated infidelities have given her cause to rebel, 
but she regularly forgives him and the only people to suffer are those 
who take her wrath and her fulminations seriously. Louise is the last 
person to side with Schliter in this affair or even excuse him— she 
and all of us know exactly what to expect of him in this respect — his 

* of Capital-° Engels’ conspiratorial pseudonym -* Anna Schliiter 

cock regularly runs away with him. But, though his wife invariably 
threatens to leave him, she nevertheless falls into his arms again when 
it comes to the point—-and thus there’s nothing left for a third party 
to do. 

The Bernsteins return from Eastbourne today. Sanial and Mac 
Vey are here and will be calling on me tomorrow. I was in Ryde ?°* 
for a month staying with Pumps and accompanied by Schorlemmer 
who, however, is now back in Manchester. Every time he has a cold 
he goes extremely deaf and is no good for anything; otherwise there’s 
nothing wrong with him. I am keeping well but shall have to get out 
and about a bit more if I am to bring myself fully up to the mark 
again. Adler from Vienna and also Bebel were here for 3 days, very 
cheerful and satisfied with the Congress.'** 

I have sent you a pile of documents as well as the Weekly Dispatch 
containing the interview Mother Crawford had with Liebknecht in 
Paris.?9? That interview will cause a rumpus; at any rate Liebknecht 
talked a great deal of nonsence. From all I hear he has-grown quite 
thin! He looks rotten and is apparently at loggerheads with everyone; 
in Brussels he kept himself quite apart from the Germans and Au- 
strians. Again, the best of our chaps are amazed at the disagreement 
that exists between him and the vast majority of the party on vir- 
tually every point. His editing of the Vorwdrts has been quite deplor- 
able, he has done nothing himself, has got Geiser to write leading ar- 
ticles for it, and has propounded the most peculiar views, in short 
there’s the making of a catastrophe here and it may come all the 
sooner as a result of that interview. 

The old dispute with the Broussists,* etc., has fizzled out; the 
Broussists were not represented at all in Brussels, nor did Hyndman 
dare go, while the people he did send squabbled and made asses of 
themselves; he now seeks a prop in Nieuwenhuis who has gone off his 
head, but that won’t get him anywhere. In matters of principle as of 
tactics the Marxists have been victorious all along the line; the intri- 
guing will still go on behind the scenes and their attacks on me, the 
Avelings, etc., in Justice will, I trust, continue as before, but there is 
no longer any public opposition to us as a whole. 

The Volks-Tribüne’s account of the Congress is the most detailed.’ 

I have already read 6 proof-sheets of the new edition of the Origin of 

* ‘Internationaler sozialistischer Arbeiter-Kongreß’, Berliner Volks-Tribüne, supple- 
ments, Nos. 34, 35; 22 and 29 August 1891. 

the Family, etc.’ Besides the new introduction, there will be many ad- 
ditions in Chapter 2? (‘Family’) and also a few later on. 

The Brussels Congress'*° has again ratified the Hague resolu- 
tions 2°* in that it too has thrown out the anarchists. That ought to be 
emphasised in the press over there. On the other hand it has left the 
door wide open to the English rraprs unions and no doubt the better 
ones among them will walk in through it before long. These are the 
two most important resolutions. It’s delicious that the English should 
now be the most reactionary of all, and that for their sake things have 
to be toned down! But we can afford to do so, for it is now merely 
a question of months, or at most a year or two, before they come 
round. True, the next Trapes Uxions Congress will try to overturn the 
Lecat Eicut Hours resolution passed at Liverpool?’ but even if this 
succeeds—— with the help of the textile workers who swear by 10 
hours —it will only add more fuel to the flames. Things are mov- 
ing —there’s nothing more for us to do. 

Kind regards to your wife. 

Your 
F.E.