Letter to Karl Kautsky, January 15, 1891

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 15 January 1891


MECW vol 49

Dear Baron,

You will see from the accompanying corrected proofs,[1] that I a not inhuman and have even gone so far as to inject some soothing morphine and bromide into the introduction[2] which no doubt will have a sufficiently anodyne effect on the melancholy mood of our friend Dietz. I shall only write to Babel today.[3] I didn't mention the matter to him before since I had no desire to place him in a false position vis-à-vis Liebknecht. He would have been honneur bound to speak to the latter about it and Liebknecht, who has made extracts from the ms., as is evident from his speech on the programme in Halle,[4] would have raised heaven and earth to prevent its being published.

If the passage "to attend to his religious as well as his bodily needs]" cannot very well stand, delete the five words underlined and insert dots. The allusion will then gain in subtlety and still be sufficiently comprehensible. In which case it will not, I trust, give rise to misgivings.

For the rest I have obliged you and Dietz by doing everything you wanted and more, as you will see.

The Mendelssohns have arrived here from Paris. On his release the magistratate forbade him to leave France. The Minister, Constant, on the other hand, enjoined him to leave voluntarily, failing which he would be expelled.[5] Constant entrusted Labruyère, who is notoriously hand in glove with the police, with the task of spiriting Padiiewski away. Had Padlewski appeared before a jury, the intrigues with the Russian monarchist[6] in Paris could not have been concealed from the court and Padlewski might have been acquitted. Consequently he was an enormous embarrassment to the government and had to go. Ask La- fargue to write an article for you on the disruption by Padlewski of the Russo-French alliance.[7] Liebknecht has got hold of completely the wrong end of the stick, as he always does where foreign affairs are concerned.

The Mendelssohns arrived here without any addresses and fell into the hands of Smith Headingley and Hyndman who took them to a meeting.,[8] etc. Finally they came to my house and I gave them Ede's address; on my paying them a formal return visit for diplomatic reasons, who should come in at the door but Mr Smith Headingley. This gave me an opportunity to treat him with icy disdain in front of the Poles, which seemed to have the desired effect. They were here on Sunday[9] and today they, the Edes and Avelings are coming to dine at my house. This will doubtless frustrate the intrigues set in train in the interests of Brouse, Hyndman & Co. Pity you won't be there. We start off with oysters.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ police spies. — See this volume, pp. 123, 129. — 11 January
  2. ↑ K. Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme. — Preface to Karl Marx's Critique of the Gotha Programme. — While preparing the ms. for the press Engels for reasons of censorship replaced the word Natur used by Marx by the word Bedeutniss and put it in italics (see square brackets) (cf. present edition, Vol. 24, p. 98).
  3. ↑ First published in full in Aus der Frühszeit des Marxismus. Engel: Briefwechsel mit Kautsky, Prag, 1935
  4. ↑ Published according to the original Published in English for the first time
  5. ↑ 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
  6. ↑ The term refers to supporters of the Russian monarchy, often associated with conservative or reactionary political forces during the 19th century.
  7. ↑ Refers to the diplomatic tensions between Russia and France during the mid-19th century, particularly concerning alliances and foreign policy.
  8. ↑ Smith Headingley was a British socialist activist involved in early Marxist circles.
  9. ↑ Sunday likely refers to January 11, 1891, based on the letter's date.