London, 1 December 1891 

Dear August, 

At last, after three exuberant days, my birthday mood may per- 
haps have subsided sufficiently for me to write a moderately rational 
letter again. First, then, the Lafargue affair has been settled. | have 
today heard from Laura—-Lafargue has gone to Lyons,? having 
only been in Paris for a couple of hours on Saturday to attend to his 

scrutiny — who says: 

“Paul authorises me to say, |. that he confirms his letter to you’ (see below); 2. ‘that 
the meeting at which he spoke in Bordeaux was private’,— a closed meeting for mem- 
bers of the Workers’ Party—‘that no reporters had been admitted and no official re- 

cord exists; 3. the incriminating statements are the invention of a reporter brodant sur le 
texte d@un article publié par Ranc (embroidering on the text of an article by 
Ranc); 4. ‘the words used by Paul were as follows: “If I insisted upon the war being 
continued, this was because the information at my disposal led me to believe that Ger- 
many was not in a position to hold out for very much longer.”’ 

She adds: 

‘There was no question of plans obtained by Germans or through their agency; in general 
Paul declares that, throughout the war, he received no communications of any kind from Germany. 
And Paul also says that he subscribes to_your demands, and not only subscribes to them but 
challenges any refutation of his above statement.’ 

(Le Perreux, 28 November; only reached me today.) *°° 

In his letter to me (Lyons, 26 November), Lafargue says that the 
purport of his speech had been such and such, that in 1870 the Inter- 
national in all countries had considered it its duty to prevent the 
crushing of the French Republic by Bismarck’s troops, and that while 
the other Internationals had fought under Garibaldi, the Germans 
had protested against the continuation of the war and the rape of Al- 
sace-Lorraine. 

My demands to which he subscribes were for the repudiation, 
without reservation or qualification, of the statements ascribed to him 
and of their purport. These you now have and may use as you think fit. 

So that’s one weight off my mind, I’m glad to say. Thanks to the 
colossal stupidity of our enemies, they have lost this opportunity for 
a scandal, and now it is gone for ever. Should anything be brought up 
now, you will be forearmed and your assailants will look foolish in the 
extreme. But while the uncertainty lasted we over here were in 
a muck sweat, I can tell you, for fear that some reptile °°* or other 
should get his fangs into the thing before we knew what answer to 
make and how to give him the lie. But what idiots they are! As Tussy 
said only last Sunday, if we had got hold of some information like that 
about our enemies, what wouldn’t we have done with it! 

I missed the incident at Potsdam involving William II; what was 
it 365? The affair would certainly seem to be assuming a growing 
pace, and every such straw in the wind is.of interest. According to the 
papers over here, your Emperor intends to relinquish all the hono- 
rary colonelships he holds in the Russian army because of the impo- 
lite way in which Alexander travelled across his domains.*5* I should 
say that the Russians are trying to inveigle him into untimely esca- 
pades so that he may appear to be a disturber of the peace whilst they, 
who are pretty well unassailable, can afford to play for the highest 
stakes and allow him to purchase peace at the price of further conces- 

sions. That they really intend war seems to me impossible. The failure 
of the French loan °°?—instead of £20 million a bare £12; famine of 
unprecedented dimensions and intensity; the winter crops virtually 
destroyed by lack of seed and unfavourable weather; the wholesale 
death or slaughter of cattle and horses in the most fertile regions for 
lack of fodder, so that agriculture will be paralysed for years to 
come—all these are things which, in a semi-barbarous country like 
Russia, will deprive the army of any prospect of successful action. But 
despite all this, the Russians are not deterred from behaving politi- 
cally as though they were deliberately heading for war; this they can 
permit themselves because of their strategic position and their exper- 
tise in betraying their friends. Of course, their little plan may always 
go awry — hence mobilisation and troop concentrations on a massive 
scale which, if things go off peacefully, can also serve as an instrument 
of diplomatic pressure. 

Wonderful. France and Russia are confronting the Triple Alli- 
ance,?°% based ‘on the existing status quo’, with a Dual Alliance ? 
which has “a far loftier principle, namely the maintenance of the trea- 
ties!’ Or so the papers say. Thus France, wishing to break the Treaty 
of Frankfurt, declares itself desirous of supporting it with the help of 
Russia, while Russia, which customarily breaks all treaties, enters 
into alliance with this self-same France because of the latter’s stead- 
fast demeanour. How stupid men such as these must consider the pub- 
lic to whom they address themselves. 

Your budget speech was brilliant —to judge by the Vorwérts. 
Do let us have the stenographic report. The allusion to our soldiers 
could not have been more apt. Why keep one’s mouth shut about 
things our enemies know as well as we do? 

The fact that Carl Hirsch isn’t coming is not, to my mind, a disas- 
ter.* I didn’t like to say anything once matters had been settled, but 
over here I at once remarked that it wouldn’t work out. Hirsch is not 
only pig-headed but also embittered without reason, believing as he 
does that he was unfairly excluded from the editorship of the Sozzal- 
demokrat; in fact, I believe that his resentment was directed more 
against Marx and myself than against you people.? For, as you will 
remember, what he wanted was that we should press him to accept, 
which had never ever crossed our minds. At all events he thereupon 
ceased to play any active role and has since accumulated such a mass 

* See this volume, p. 299. 

Engels to Bebel. | December 1891 309 

of grievances and crotchets that, if for no other reason, it might, 
1 think, be better were he to void his costiveness elsewhere, after 
which he will gradually return to a more normal frame of mind and 
thus again become capable of doing something worthwhile. But I feel 
sure that Liebknecht and he would not have endured six weeks of 
each other’s company without falling out. Schoenlank, too, has cer- 
tain bees in his bonnet; so far as I can judge he hasn’t nearly enough 
guts to put up the necessary resistance and will soon chalk up so many 
sins of omission as to make his chief editor his chief im real earnest. 
Well, we shall have to wait and see how things go— they can’t get 
very much worse. 

You are always comparing the situation in Germany with that of 
1787-88; it is far more like that of 1847 in France and the scandals 
which brought about the downfall of Louis Philippe: Teste, the venal 
minister, the duc de Praslin, who murdered his wife, an equerry to 
the king who was caught cheating at cards in the Tuileries, or Fould 
who paid bribes in high places to get into the Légion D’Honneur, etc., 
etc. What’s odd is the way people in Germany carry on about a bank 
crisis; for the few tin-pot firms that have gone to the wall are quite 
outside international trade as such — money brokers to civil servants, 
officers, landed aristocracy, petty bourgeoisie to everyone in fact 
except wholesalers. If Anhalt & Wagener, Diskonto-Kommandit, 
Deutsche Bank, etc., were to put up their shutters, then it might be 
permissible to speak of a bank crisis. But even so, things aren’t so 
dusty and, if the cloak falls, the Duke will soon come tumbling after.* 

What you tell me about the kind of ‘comrades’ who are now pre- 
senting themselves is most interesting and also significant so far as the 
situation is concerned.? They have noticed that we are, to use a rep- 
tilian expression, becoming a ‘factor’ in the state and, since the Jews 
have more intelligence than the other bourgeois, they are the first to 
notice this— especially under the impulsion of anti-Semitism — and 
the first to come over to us. We can only be glad of the fact but, pre- 
cisely because these chaps are brighter and have, as it were, been thrown 
back on and schooled in careerism by centuries of oppression, one has 
to be rather more on the qui vive. 

Please will you convey my best thanks to the parliamentary group 
for their kind telegram of the 28th. As soon as I get the photo- 

@ Paraphrased from Schiller’s Die Verschwérung des Fiesco zu Genua. 

310 Engels to Bebel. | December 1891 

graphs I shall endeavour to pay back in kind all the testimonies of 
friendship I have received. 

Ede tells me you had suggested that he should spend more time at 
the Society.*° I am firmly convinced that every minute he spends 
there would not only be completely wasted but would also discredit 
the party. He would have to consort with Gilles there and that is 
completely out of the question. But what he ought to do is frequent 
the English, get to know the chaps personally and enlighten them 
about things in Germany by conversing with them; as it is, he sits at 
home and forms an opinion of local affairs from the accounts he reads 
in one or at most two newspapers, there being no coffee houses or read- 
ing-rooms in his district. 

Finally, let me assure you— as expressly requested — that Louise 
has executed her commission with a dignity worthy of a president of 
the Reichstag — at the very least; she had no opportunity for making 
bad jokes since I invariably forestalled her with some of my own. In 
other respects we were, however, exceedingly merry during the time 
in question, not least on account of your ostensible admirer *7° who, 
on the last page, revealed himself to be a ‘Junger’ 3°! desirous of plac- 
ing you on the shelf. The fellow is really priceless, with his ultra-High 
German. 

Warm regards to Mrs Julie* and yourself from Louise and 

Your 
F.E.