London, 9 January 1895 
41 Regent’s Park Road, N. W. 

Dear Victor, 

My only real reason for writing to you today is to advise you that on 
Sunday evening* Louise sent off in a wrapper a ms. containing three items 
addressed to the Editor, Arbeiter-Zeitung, 10 Schwarzspanierstrasse; these 
contain: 

1. Something about the cotton industry. 

“6 January 1895 

2. Something about the activities of the Parliamentary Committee of the 
Trades Union Congress ~** (already to some extent anticipated in the A rbeiter- 
Zeitu ng) 

3. An extract from Mrs Crawford’s Paris Correspondence. *° As you have 
previously had trouble over manuscripts sent in a wrapper, I believe this 
notification to be pertinent. 

Should another attempt be made to charge you excess postage after the 
event on the pretext that the package has been handled as a letter, it will be 
high time to lodge a complaint. According to the official excerpt (cited in 
inverted commas) in the English Post Office Guide, ‘MANUSCRIPT OF BOOKS 
OR OTHER LITERARY PRODUCTIONS’ may be sent in a wrapper at a cost of a 
ha’penny for two ounces anywhere within the area covered by the 
International Postal Union. It must surely be possible to get this enforced in 
Austria too, or is the Arbeiter-Zeitung prepared of its own free will to pay a 
surcharge at twenty times the proper rate 2'/, for a '/; oz)? 

Another thing. From Russia we hear that the December issue of the 
European Messenger (Vestnik Yevropy)* contained an article on Alexander II 
I of extreme and, indeed—censorship in that country being what it is— 
unprecedented acerbity. Since your wife” has a perfect command of Russian, 
might it not be worth your while to have a look at and, perhaps, make use of 
it? It really would be a capital joke if the Arbeiter-Zeitung were also to steal a 
march on the bourgeois press in this particular field. 

Up till now, Nos | and 3-8 of the Arbeiter-Zeitung have arrived here, all of 
them addressed to Ludwig Freyberger, as well as a copy of No. | addressed 
in your hand to myself. So far as the arrangement of the material is 
concerned, the change-over from a twice-weekly to a daily paper *”’ is not yet 
quite complete, but one can see that it is under way and that the Thursday 
evening and Sunday numbers are distinct from the others in that each has its 
own particular character to suit a particular reading public. That you should 
not at present have time to spare for leading articles is understandable; Marx 
fared likewise with the Neue Rheinische Zeitung—in the entire first month 
only two were by him, and throughout the whole of the first quarter five, if 
that. At the outset the editor-in-chief is kept busy enough organising the 
thing, than which nothing is 

“ [name in Russian], Vol. VI, Book 12, December 1894, section [in Russian] (Internal Review). -° 
Emma Adler - ° Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Organ der Demokratie. 

more important, All in all, the paper has turned out very well considering this 
is its first week; such shortcomings as it has will all be overcome in the end. 

We gave your message to Vandervelde on 1.1., when he called in here for 
a moment. *”° 

I have passed on to Laura as much as was necessary of your letter* but 
have heard nothing about this since. Perhaps Lafargue has written to you 
direct. 

I cannot supply you with very much material on ‘Marx in Vienna in 1848’. 
Some time I shall search through the Neue Rheinische Zeitung for facts and 
also see if I can find anything more about Becher. *’’ Our Vienna 
correspondent was one Müller-Tellering from Koblenz, like all Koblenzers, 
fanatical and an inveterate trouble-maker. After returning to Germany at the 
end of 1849, he first came to Cologne and picked a quarrel with red Becker.” 
His next port of call was London where he promptly fell out with us over a 
trifling personal matter (which, with a little less contrariness on his part, 
could have been settled in a few minutes’ conversation) and instantly 
produced a pamphlet, Vergeschmack der Diktatur von Marx und Engels.‘ 
Next he went to America and tried to stir up trouble against us, but very soon 
disappeared from the scene. His reports from Vienna before the advent of 
Windischgratz showed an undue bias towards violent revolution which, at a 
time when reaction was everywhere gathering strength, was not unwelcome 
to us. In those days we could not, from a distance, assess the value of his 
pronouncements on personalities, but he was doubtless strongly influenced 
by personal inclination. In such turbulent times we had to allow our 
correspondents a great deal of responsibility and a corresponding amount of 
latitude. 

And now for another piece of political news which might be of use to you 
should such matters crop up again: On the evening before last we heard 
political rumours of a ministerial crisis here, according to which Harcourt, 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was proposing to resign. At the same time, 
however, he denied this, saying that the allegation, AS MADE, was completely 
unfounded. It was improbable that the Chancellor of the Exchequer alone 
should resign at a moment when he had a surplus of three million pounds and 
was thus in a position to present a first class 

* See this volume, p. 395 - Hermann Becker - ° A Foretaste of the Dictatorship of Marx and 
Engels. 

budget. But the real facts of the case are as follows: Harcourt favours the 
introduction of salaries for M.P.s before the dissolution and is encountering 
strong opposition in the Cabinet—and probably also from the Queen.* He 
had apparently threatened to resign, thus obtaining concessions in regard to 
the afore-said question. At all events everything has returned to normal for 
the time being. You can see how unstable things are in official circles over 
here. 

All the necessary steps have been taken as regards the money. You will, I 
think, be hearing more about this in a few days’ time when, I trust, you will 
also get the cash.” 

Louise wishes to append a line or two. She and Ludwig send their regards, 
as do I, to you and your wife 

Yours 
F. Engels 

On the 5" of this month we sent you three copies of the English Socialist 
papers, Clarion, Justice and Labour Leader (Keir Hardie) and shall be 
sending sundry other issues thereof from time to time to enable you to decide 
which you like best. Please take a look at them. 

(Postscript from Louise Frey berger) 

Dear Victor, 

Now that the matter of finance is all but settled, the money should shortly arrive in 
Vienna. I have one further request to make, namely that you get a certificate of identification 
made out for Ludwig and myself. Ludwig is applying for temporary membership of the 
National Liberal Club, the leading club of its kind over here, close to the Houses of 
Parliament, and frequented by all the Liberal and Radical M.P.s and by journalists of all 
shades of political opinion. In this country, credentials have to be produced for everything, 
and it couldn’t do you any harm. Much love from the three L.L.L.s.°