ENGELS TO FRIEDRICH ADOLPH SORGE*” 

London, 12 May 1894 
122 Regent’s Park Road, N. W. 

Dear Sorge, 

Yesterday we sent to you through G.W. Wheatley & Co (New York AD- 
DRESS, U.S. Express Co., 49, Broadway) a parcel containing Morris-Bax and 
the Berlin Lassalle in fifty parts, which I trust will reach you before long. 
CARRIAGE P4ID. On the same day the remainder of the ms. of Volume II I° 
went off to Hamburg, thereby removing a heavy load from my mind. The 
two final sections made me ‘sweat good and proper’. There will be sixty 
sheets of which twenty have already been set up in type. 

I was greatly relieved to hear that the Holy Family had safely returned into 
your keeping after its strange Odyssey.’ On the other hand the news about 
your eyes is most distressing. I hope you will consult a good specialist, for a 
lot can be done if steps are taken in good time. For the past fifteen years I too 
have had trouble with my eyes off and on. Having taken medical 

“'W. Morris and E. B. Bax, Socialism, its Growth and Outcome, London, New York, 1893; F. 
Lassalle, Reden und Schriften, Bd. 1-3, Berlin, 1892-1893 - of Capital- ° See K. Marx, Capital, 
Vol. ILI, Ch. 37-42 and 48-52 - ‘ See this volume, pp. 250, 272, 282 

advice I have again reached the stage at which the thing no longer bothers 
me at all, provided only that I don’t write too much by lamplight. 

Not long ago I caught a cold, which left me in no doubt that I am now an 
old man at last. On this occasion, what I had previously been able to treat as a 
minor annoyance, pretty well laid me low for a week and kept me under 
draconian medical supervision for a whole fortnight after that. Even now, I 
am expected to take care of myself for another fortnight, no less. It was a 
mild form of bronchitis which is not to be taken lightly in the case of the 
elderly, especially when, like myself, they have continued to tipple away 
merrily. Needless to say, I find this business of taking care of myself 
thoroughly distasteful, but Freyberger was, after all, quite right to prescribe it 
for me and, as to seeing that I carry it out, that is the province of Argus-eyed 
Louise who has doubled and tripled her vigilance. I think I have already 
written and told you * that we left our domestic arrangements as little 
changed as possible when we took in the young husband as a boards and 
lodger. All very nice and jolly, it is true, but only, alas, so long as one is in 
good health. Never in my born days have I been so plagued with medical 
attention as during this past month and I can only console myself with the 
thought that it was all done for my own good. 

Dietzgen and wife were here for an hour or two on Sunday afternoon but 
unfortunately missed Tussy. I have given him recommendations to Bebel 
and Kautsky. They were very nice people. 

I hope that your son” has since found a situation. With his knowledge of 
business, and having by now doubtless rid himself of a good many illusions 
as a result of practical experience, a bright young man like that should 
always fall on his feet in America. 

Things are little changed over here. There is no chance of achieving any 
kind of unity amongst the labour leaders. But the masses are nevertheless 
moving ahead, Slowly it is true, and only now striving to acquire 
consciousness, yet the process is unmistakeable. It will be the same here as 
in France and, before that, in Germany: Unification will be forced upon them 
as soon as a number of independent working men (especially those who have 
been elected without the help of the Liberals) secure seats in Parliament. 
This the Liberals are doing their utmost to prevent. They are not 1. extending 
the franchise to the people who—on paper—already have it, but are, on the 
contrary, 2. ensuring that the registers of electors 

* See this volume, p. 284 —?° Adolph Sorge 

will involve the candidates in greater expense than hitherto, since they are 
now to be compiled twice a year, the cost of compiling a correct register 
being borne by the candidates or the representatives of the political parties 
and not by the state. They have categorically rejected the principle of 3. 
electoral expenses being borne by the state or the municipality, also 4. of 
parliamentary salaries and 5. of second ballots. The retention of all these old 
abuses amounts to the outright disqualification of the labour candidates in at 
least three-quarters of the constituencies. Parliament is to remain a rich man’s 
club. And this at a time when the rich, because content with the status quo, 
are all turning Conservative, while the Liberal Party is slowly dying, and 
becoming ever more dependent on the Labour vote. The Liberals, however, 
insist that the working man should only vote for a bourgeois and not for a 
working man, let alone an independent working man. 

This will be the undoing of the Liberals. Their lack of courage is 
alienating the country’s Labour voters, dissipating their small majority in 
Parliament, and, unless they make some very bold moves at the eleventh 
hour, they will probably be done for. Thereupon the Tories will take the helm 
and carry out what the Liberals intended—not merely to promise—actually 
to do. And in that case an independent Labour party is pretty well assured. 

The Social Democratic Federation “* over here and your German- 
American Socialists **’ share the distinction of being the only parties that 
have contrived to reduce Marx’s theory of development to a rigid orthodoxy 
which the working man is not expected to arrive at by virtue of his own class 
consciousness; rather it is to be promptly and without preparation rammed 
down his throat as an article of faith. Hence they have both remained mere 
sects, having come, as Hegel puts it, from nothing by way of nothing to 
nothing." I have not yet had time to read Schliiter’s controversy with your 
Germans, but shall tackle it tomorrow. Judging by the Volkszeitung’s earlier 
articles, it would seem that the right note has been struck. 

Give my warm regards to your wife and let us have some better news 
from you soon. Warm regards. 

Yours, 
F.E. 

“G. W. F. Hegel, Wissenschaft der Logik 

Warm regards from Louise.