Letter to Friedrich Engels, August 9, 1881

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MARX TO ENGELS

AT BRIDLINGTON QUAY

[Argenteuil,] 9 August 1881

DEAR FRED,

Have just received your letter. I am registering this one; Longuet says that, while there can be no question of Stieberian tampering with letters, registered ones, especially at little places like Argenteuil, are handled with greater despatch.

On Saturday we took my wife to Paris; she watched it go by from an open carriage, which pleased her much (on myself it made the impression of a foire perpétuelle^b). A few pauses, of course, and SITTING DOWN BEFORE cafés. On the way back she felt momentarily sick, but wants to go there again.

Her condition is, as usual, sometimes too much to bear, sometimes better for hours on end. She grows steadily thinner and at the same time weaker. Yesterday there was slight cutaneous bleeding which the doctor considers a symptom of debility. I told him we must seriously consider going home; he said we could wait a day or two before finally deciding. She herself, after I had spoken to her about leaving at the end of this week, played a trick on me by sending out a mass of washing which will not be returned until the beginning of next week. At all events I shall let you know by telegraph when we are leaving (should there not be time SIMPLY to notify you beforehand by letter). Oddly enough, though I get damned little rest at night and my days are racked with worry, everyone tells me how well I look — as is, indeed, the case.

Jennychen's asthma is bad, the house being a very draughty one. The child is heroic, as always.

On Sunday I was to show Helen round Paris. I wrote and advised Hirsch of it beforehand — and IN THE NICK OF TIME. He was just on the point of leaving for Germany (to the intense annoyance of Kaub and the chagrin of his wife). He wants to show the party leaders in Germany that there's nothing out of the way about exposing oneself to apprehension by the police. He made off yesterday.

A pleasant couple, Jaclard and his Russian wife,^g came to déjeuner^g here yesterday. Today we expect, for the same PERFORMANCE, Lissagaray and our doctor's wife (along with her sister).

From Jaclard we learned that he had attended an election meeting at Batignolles where the following put themselves up as candidates: Henry Maret, our Dr Regnard and — Pyat, who turned up — SELF-UNDERSTOOD with the permission of the police — suddenly and unexpectedly. Pyat was frightfully jeered at. When he mentioned the Commune there was a general cry of ' Vous l'avez lâchée!^a Regnard fared no better. In order to appear paradoxical and profound, the idiot opened with the declaration: Je suis contre la liberté!^b GENERAL HOWLING! His subsequent declaration that it was liberté des congregations^c he had meant availed him nothing. The champion of anticlericalism '72 was a flop, likewise Henry Maret.

It may be that the extreme left will slightly increase its numbers, but the chief upshot of this will PROBABLY be victory for Gambetta. Things being what they are in France, the shortness of the election period will decide the issue in favour of faiseurs^d with numerous 'strongholds' in their possession, prospective bestowers of places in the machinery of government, and the men who control the 'exchequer', etc. The 'Grévystes'^e could have licked Gambetta if, after the latter's recent FAILURES, they had had the energy to throw his appendages, Cazot, Constans and Farre, out of the cabinet. Since they didn't, the place-hunters, speculators on the Bourse, etc., etc., are saying to themselves, 'GAMBETTA IS THE MAN! THEY HAVE NOT DARED TO ATTACK HIM IN HIS STRONGHOLDS, YOU CANNOT RELY UPON THEM.' The general onslaughts daily made upon him in the radical and reactionary press CONTRIBUTE TO ENHANCE HIM DESPITE ALL HIS TOMFOOLERIES. On top of which the peasants regard Gambetta as the nec plus ultra^f in possible republicanism.

At the same time as this letter, another will go off to Tussychen, telling her what to do. I shall need a little more money, since this time the journey is going to cost a lot (the doctor thinks, moreover, that a few days in Boulogne might do the patient good because of the sea air), we shall have to meet a large doctor's bill and also make some compensation to Jennychen for all the expenses we have put her to.

So Gumpert is founding a 3rd (or is it 2nd?) family? Good luck to him. It seems a sensible thing for a doctor to do. My wife has heard a number of people extolling the Böcker woman of Manchester.

Salut.

Your

Moor

^a You deserted it. - ^b I am against liberty. - ^c liberty of the congregation - ^d humbugs - ^e Jules Grévy's followers - ^f the last word - ^g Anna Korvin-Krukovskaya - ^g luncheon

Beesly is making ever more of an ass of himself. Weiler ought to put a stop to the glorification of Max Hirsch in The Labour Standard.