AT LE PERREUX 
London, 19 January 1895 
41 Regent’s Park Road N. W. 
My dear Lohr, 

Your last letter has indeed startled me. **’ I have tried, not very success- 
fully, to recollect the terms used in my letter to you of December 29th’; still, 
in what I do remember there is not a word which ought to offend you. And 
indeed, if there is anything in the tone of that letter which you think strange, 
it is there entirely against my will and intention. 

It never could occur, nor has it ever occurred to me for a moment to 

* See this volume, pp. 394-96 

doubt the right or the propriety, on your part, of inquiring at any time what 
steps I had taken or intended to take in order to secure the return, at the time 
of my death, to you, the rightful owners, of those papers of Mohr’s which you 
have entrusted to me. Nor have I ever found anything to object to in the terms 
in which you spoke of that subject to Tussy. It seems, therefore, so 
exceedingly strange to me that I should have written to you in a tone that 
ought to give you reason to complain. 

I did indeed feel nettled at the way Tussy caused the question to be 
submitted to me, and, under the circumstances, thought I was bound to speak 
to her about it. When I did, I told her, not once, but three or four times over, 
that I had not one word to say against your letter, neither as to the subject 
matter, nor as to the terms used. Anyhow, Tussy and I had an explanation, 
which as far as I know, settled everything connected with that subject, and 
left us as good friends as before; and I should regret very much if, through 
any unguarded words of mine, or through some other circumstance, that little 
incident had thrown its shadow as far as Le Perreux. 

In the meantime things have come to a crisis in your neighbourhood. I 
intended to write at some length about that, but Bebel all at once asked me 
for historical materials as to the various and pretty frequent riots here in 
England which are settled without ever attempting to encumber the Statute 
Book with increased penal laws or exceptional legislation. He is in the 
Committee on the Umsturzvorlage *** and wants it for them, so I had to leave 
everything else alone and get it off by this day’s post before the usual 
Sunday delays in postal communication retard it. 

Anyhow our 50 French Socialist members are in luck. In less than 18 
months they have upset three ministries and one president. “* That shows 
what a Socialist minority can do in a parliament which, like the French or 
English, is the really supreme power in the country. A similar power our men 
in Germany can get by a revolution only; still, the break-up of the Centre 
party ’' would make them the arbiters of the house and give them the balance 
of power. 

What a miserable retreat is that of Casimir’s*! After the brag with which 
he came in, to skedaddle at the first serious difficulty! *“° It looks as if our 
bourgeois heroes had individually degenerated quite as much as their class 
has done collectively. 

* Casimir-Périer 

In Germany it looks as if the same principle was prevailing; Bebel does 
not seem to think von KGller and Co. the men likely to carry through a coup 
d’état to the end; it seems everywhere the story of Béranger’s old fool who 
courted Babette and found out too late that his courting days were past and 
gone.” 

The greatest success, however, seems to me to be this, that the scandalous 
affairs of the opportunist majority have been again exposed, that Raynal has 
been nailed down, and that it seems impossible to have the subject burked 
again. “*’ The evidence of the corruption of all other parties must work 
wonders in favour of ours, especially in France, and ought to secure us 
immense and unhoped for successes at the next general election which 
cannot be very distant now, for who can govern with the present Chamber? 

Ca chauffe!’ and neither Félix Faure nor young William will be able to 
put out the fire. 

I shall write to Paul as soon as ever I get a moment’s time. Thanks for the 
papers which I have sent on to Tussy after using them. 

Ever yours, 
F. Engels