London, 14 November 1891 

Dear Sorge, 

A line or two in great haste before the last post goes. You will have 
heard by cablegram about Lafargue’s victory.3°° It was brought 
about by M. Constans, who is as stupidly cunning and doltish as Bis- 
marck, if not more so. |. In a scandalously biassed trial he blamed 
Lafargue for the government’s fusillade at Fourmies 74? and got him 
sentenced to a year’s imprisonment. 2. Having thus made Lafargue 
enormously popular in the Département du Nord, and after the 
latter had been put up for the first seat to become vacant at Lille, 
Constans kept him in prison, contrary to the precedent established 
22 years earlier by the Empire itself, instead of releasing him 
for the period of the election; 3. when, in the first ballot, Lafargue 
polled 5.005 votes, i.e. only 780 fewer than were needed for an 
absolute majority, Constans still did not release him, despite 
being severely rapped over the knuckles by the Chamber. Since 
the Radical candidate,'*”? Roche, who had polled 2,274 votes, then 
proceeded to step down in favour of Lafargue, Lafargue’s victory 
was assured. 

But the best thing about it is taat that idiot Constans further suc- 
ceeded in making Lafargue’s election into an événement,* thereby se- 
riously endangering his own position. For on 31 October, when a de- 
mand for Lafargue’s release was made in the Chamber by Millerand, 
the proposal to go over to the order of the day was carried by 240 
votes against the Radicals’ 160. But only because 170 Monarchists did not 
vote. This was the first time the Radicals had voted against the government since 
the Boulangiade, thus demonstrating that the government can be top- 
pled at any moment by the combined votes of the Radicals and Mon- 

a 

event 

archists. And when, after Lafargue’s election, a motion for his release 
was again tabled on 9 November, it was only the prospect of those 
combined votes that forced the government to abandon its intention 
of opposing the motion. 

But now that the Cabinet is torn by dissension and Freycinet would 
rather obtain his majority through the Radicals, whereas Constans 
would rather do so through the Monarchists and against the Radicals, 
now that Constans has incurred the odium of the workers by his ac- 
tions since May Day and his friend Rouvier is the most notorious and 
corrupt man in the Ministry, while Carnot, for his part, finds. Con- 
stans intolerable because the latter is trying to succeed him, Carnot, 
as President of the Republic, all these parliamentary fluctuations as- 
sume significance. For the recurrence of ministerial instability in 
France is another guarantee of peace, since the Tsar would be chary 
of going to war arm-in-arm with a French government that is liable 
to topple any day. 

Again, these symptoms are significant so far as France’s domestic 
situation is concerned. A large number of Radicals — Millerand, Ho- 
velacque, Moreau, etc.— realise that they simply can’t do without 
the workers and that the government’s duplicity in introducing into 
the Chamber bills ostensibly favourable to labour while ensuring 
that these are thrown out by the Senate, is something that just 
won’t do. But if Lafargue should now get in and the small 7 or 
8 strong socialist group—all of them small fry and incapable of 
any initiative——thus obtain a leader, things might soon begin to 
change. Only on condition, however, that Paul himself doesn’t 
allow his eighth or twelfth part of negro blood to run away 
with him. 

In Germany everything is going swimmingly. In Munich °** itself 
Vollmar suffered an even more decisive defeat than at Erfurt.°°! The 
opposition '* is virtually non-existent, and will soon be completely 
under the wing of the police. Any newspaper reports to the contrary, 
particularly such as are cabled to you, are false——I have seen some 
prime examples of this. 

What will happen about the Vorwdérts I cannot say. It has im- 

proved, but Hirsch isn’t going to join it. Not that I really regard this 
as a misfortune. 
Regards to your wife.’ 

Your 

F.E.