Letter to Karl Marx, November 6, 1882

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 6 November 1882


Published in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 46

Dear Moor,

Today I got a note from Laura in which she tells me that the fate of the Egalité will not be decided until tomorrow;[1] prospects, however, are most favourable.

Have you seen today's Standard? Telegram from Frankfurt[2] to the effect that, since Ignatiev's arrival in Paris, there have been renewed attempts — initially, it would seem, of a fairly lukewarm kind — at a Russo-French compromise: if France were to do something more about the extradition of dynamiters,[3] Russia would vigorously back up France in Tunis, Egypt, etc. So that explains the police campaign in France! We shall see if anything of a relevant nature is submitted to the Chambers.

Lafargue has sent me the Proletaire containing the indictment of himself, Guesde, etc., which was read out at St-Etienne.[4] A truly Bakuninist concoction, but otherwise weak: its strongest props are mutually contradictory letters, written on the spur of the moment by Lafargue to Malon, and calmly reproduced by the latter without, it would seem, any fear of the same being done to his letters by Russia and France. Frankfurt, Sunday Night', The Standard, No. 18191, 6 November 1882.

Lafargue. Nor is he wrong; these gentlemen have made opportune use of their material and were Lafargue then to come out with Malon's letters, it would be moutarde après dîner.;[5] I shall send you the thing tomorrow. But you must let me have it back for the sake of Bernstein, against whom I may well make use of it. In place of what I asked for, or along with it, the latter has proposed to send a small library of books about factory legislation, something which I can only hope I have nipped in the bud in good time[6] I expect to get the Swiss Factory Act[7] any day now and shall order for you the latest German trade regulations which contain the provisions for factories.

No other news here.

Your

F. E.

First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 1913

Printed according to the original

Published in English for the first time

199. MARX TO ENGELS[8]

IN LONDON

[Ventnor,] 8 November 1882

Dear Fred,

What do you think of Deprez' experiment at the Munich Electricity Exhibition?[9] It was almost a year ago that Longuet promised to procure Deprez' works for me (notably his demonstration that electricity makes it possible to convey energy over considerable distances by means of a simple telegraph wire).[10] For a close friend of Deprez', Dr D'Arsouval, is a contributor to the Judicat and has published this and that about Deprez' investigations. Longuet, as is his wont, is always forgetting.

I greatly enjoyed looking at the 'paper' you sent in which Sher-

  1. ↑ On December 2, 1851 a counter-revolutionary coup d'état in France was carried out by Louis Bonaparte and his adherents. — 95, 99, 120, 254, 264, 287, 393, 653
  2. ↑ See this volume, p. 359.
  3. ↑ See this volume, p. 359.
  4. ↑ See this volume, p. 359.
  5. ↑ Mustard after dinner, i.e. shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.
  6. ↑ See this volume, p. 359.
  7. ↑ See this volume, p. 359.
  8. ↑ See this volume, p. 359.
  9. ↑ See this volume, p. 359.
  10. ↑ See this volume, p. 359.