AT LE PERREUX 

London, 9 November 1891 

My dear Laura, 

Victotre' Though hidden in one of its most desolate corners, 
amongst the paragraphs that help to make up columns, The Daily 
News did inform us that Paul had beaten Depasse (who now would do 
well to change the a of his name, source of so many calembours, into 
2) by 1,400 or thereabouts.* So the two toasts, in Port and Claret, of- 
fered up yesterday by us, were not without effect. Well, that’s so 
much gained. And what is worth more than the victory itself almost, 
is the way in which it was won and which turns a common by- 
election into a great political action, a cause of incalculable effects. 
Paul may well back his Constans against the roi de Prusse as an invo- 
luntary promoter of Socialism; but the real likeness lies between Con- 
stans and Bismarck, as it laid between Bismarck and Louis Bonapar- 
te— they all partake of that short-sighted cleverness and Dumm- 
schlauheit of the ordinary merchant and speculator who aims at one 

* See this volume, p. 269.-” William I-° low cunning 

thing, and by miscalculating causes and effects, arrives at effecting 
the very opposite. 

Anyhow Constans’ stupidity has resulted not only in Paul’s elec- 
tion, which gives a tremendous élan to Socialism all over France, but 
also in loosening the coalition for the maintenance of the ministry 
which was formed against Boulangism at the Rue Cadet.??% I don’t 
think the mass of the Clémencist Radicals will as yet fall away from 
the ministry, they are held too tightly. But the old feeling of security 
does no longer exist since the Roche-debate. And some, the more 
consistent elements like Millerand, can hardly keep within the minis- 
terial alliance. That, and the personal ambitions and intrigues within 
the ministry will be sufficient to bring on a change— and every change 
loosens the bonds between the Czar“ and French Chauvinists, and 
thus is in favour of peace. By the bye, what an irony of history that 
the Russian government, after having spent millions on Boulanger, 
must now spend fresh millions on the very people who upset Boulan- 
ger! 

It was a nice exciting time and I have to thank you very much for 
enabling me to follow all the pérpéties of it in the Paris press. What 
a miserable helpless political ass that Ranc has become. J/ doit étre en 
train de s’enrichir, celui-la! 

I have sent a few lines of humorous congratulations to Paul direct, 
so that M. le directeur de la prison might have the perusal of them.!5° 
If he should confiscate them I will send you a copy. But I hope and 
trust there will be more respect shown to M. le dépuié. 

I am anxious to see what Constans and the Chambre will do now. 
If they try to keep Paul in Ste-Pélagie, it will be all the worse for 
them. 

It strikes me Mother Crawford is not far wrong in saying the 
strength of the present ministry is its having brought about outward 
signs of the French and Russian entente; and that this makes the Radi- 
cals'!*’ fear a dissolution.‘ But if, as is probable, internal dissensions 
break up the ministry, taking advantage of another such doubtful vic- 
tory as that on Saturday week,‘ then everything changes. First, the 
Russian entente becomes very vapoury as soon as the instability of gov- 
ernments is evidenced again, and secondly, if the Cabinet splits up, 

* Alexander III- He must be getting rich now, that man.-° Engels has in mind E. 
Crawford’s ‘The French Ministry’ in The Daily News, 9 November 1891. -“ 31 October 

either fragment will claim the merit of that entente. And thirdly, after 
a split nobody can tell either what the reconstruction may turn out to 
be, or how long it may last. 

I have looked at the Justice of Clemenceau lately again more often, 
and it strikes me that at the bottom of the antiboulangist Alliance 
must have been the idea that there was only one way of taking the 
wind out of the sails of any present or future Boulanger, and that is: to 
close with Russia at any price and then hasten on the guerre de re- 
vanche.* That is the only conclusion I can draw from the tone of the 
Justice: soyons plus patriotes que Boulanger!” And no doubt that plan 
would suit them all: settle the account with Germany, raise France 
again to a position of supremacy (which Russia might allow them to 
show of, provided France gave her the reality) and then, but not be- 
fore, settle our internal republican party quarrels. Unless that is the 
fact, I cannot make out either the language or the action of the Radi- 
cals. They may be fools, but there is a limit to all folly, outside the 
madhouse at least. 

Louise is going to write a few lines, so I close with love 

Ever yours, 
F. E. 

My dear Laura, 

I am very proud that my definition of the letters M. P.43° turned out right at last 
though you have been right before and are right as long as the things last. The notice 
about M.P. (in your sense) election was underneath a paragraph ‘The murder of 
a wealthy widow’; General found it out, as I did not know, that the election of a Social- 
ist ranges itself under the impression of a bourgeois...°