London, 25 October 1891 

Dear K.K., 

My congratulations on the acceptance of your draft programme at 
Erfurt and on the deletion of ‘one reactionary mass’.* I have not yet 
had time to compare your draft in detail with the programme as fi- 
nally accepted. 

I have proposed to Dietz that the fee for the 2nd edition of The 
Poverty of Philosophy be divided equally between all 5 concerned — 
240 M for the 3 heirs and 160 M for the 2 translators, assuming 400 M to 
be the total, or pro rata if not. I hope you will agree to this so that we 
can get the business settled once and for all. The heirs are not entitled 
to the whole fee for this edition. 

I have also asked Dietz to hand you on my behalf a copy of the new 
edition” of the Origin, etc., a bound copy, that is. 

Everything went off really splendidly at Erfurt.*°! Auer’s and Fi- 
scher’s speeches in particular caused us a great deal of merriment. But 
those two thoroughly deserved a chance to vent their wrath on the 
‘opposition’. Pit a Bavarian against a Berliner and there'll be damned 
little left of the Berliner at the finish. But the behaviour of these gen- 
try, like that of Vollmar, shows how greatly that little crew had over- 
estimated their own power. Retreats such as these are quite unheard 
of. But it could not fail to make an impact abroad, and over here it has 
meant a resounding defeat for Hyndman who first took Gilles pub- 
licly under his wing and obviously believed his boasts about the col- 
lapse of the German party — he would now like to disassociate him- 
self from the scoundrel if he could. Incidentally, Gilles has been elevat- 
ed in Figaro to the status of great man! 

You may, if you wish, put an announcement in the Neue Zeit to the 
effect that the following will be coming out in Swan Sonnenschein’s 
& Co.’s Socian Series: 1. my Condition of the Working-Class“ in la Wisch- 

“ See this volume, pp. 261-62.-> the fourth German edition-° The Condition of the 
Working-Class in England in 1844 

newetzky’s translation, 2. my Entwicklung des Sozialismus* trans- 
lated by Aveling. 3. Ede’s introduction to Lassalle translated by Tus- 
sy.334 

Louise has suggested to me that it might be in the interest of the 
Neue Keit to send a copy regularly to the editor of The Review of Re- 
views, W.T. Stead, Mowbray House, Norfolk Street, Strand, Lon- 
don, W.C. The thing has a sale of over 100,000 copies and prints 
extracts from reviews from all over the world together with the con- 
tents (titles of articles) of all of them, no less than 23 of these are from 
Germany, including the Deutsche Revue, Ueber Land und Meer, Garten- 
laube, Nord und Süd, Preußische Fahrbiicher, etc., etc. From the Economic 
Journal our draft programme’s demands. Since Stead is a thoroughly 
mad sort of chap, albeit a brilliant businessman, it may well be of 
benefit to us and, on occasion, prove enormously effective if you were to 
send him copies — for whenever there’s a chance of creating a sensa- 
tion, he ruthlessly seizes on it, irrespective of the source. The thing 
would also be enormously useful to you people, costs only 6d. 
a month and contains a tremendous amount. It would save your 
reading any other English revue. 

Now I must go out for a spot o’ fresh air; the Avelings and Edes” 
will be arriving for luncheon shortly. 

Your 

F.E. 

Monday. I am sending you a copy of The Review of Reviews in 
which Stead butters up Mother Besant with the intention of instruct- 
ing her in Christianity.* He obviously wants to win fame as the 
man who led her back to Jesus. There’s one way to do that. For 
Mother Besant invariably shares the religion of the man who downs 
her.— Ede and Tussy agree to my proposal about the distribution 
of the fee. 

Lafargue obtained 5,005 votes in Lille, the two Opportunists 4,174 
together and the Radical, Roche, 2,272; the latter stepped down in 
favour of Lafargue. Hence, if an Opportunist is to get in, 3,000 ab- 

* Socialism: Utopian and Scientific-” Eduard and Regina Bernstein-‘ 26 October - 
* ‘Character Sketch: Mrs Annie Besant: — Portraits of the Leading Officials of the 
Theosophical Society’, The Review of Reviews, Vol. IV, No. 22, October 1891. 

Engels to Laura Lafargue. 27 October 189] 275 

staining Monarchists will have to support him in the second ballot. 
A most satisfactory position, therefore.*?°