Kmflett's Blog

Engels lived in Regents Park Rd close to Hampstead Heath

….We are expecting Burns here today and thus, for the first time in history,
three Socialist members of parliament from Germany, France and England
will come together. That such a meeting should be possible, a meeting of the
three deputies of the three leading parliaments of Europe—three Socialist
Party leaders representing the three dominant nations of Europe—is in itself
proof of what enormous advances we have made. I only wish that Marx were
alive to witness it.

Well, now it is also time to remind you of your promise to visit us here in
the summer and take me back with you to Germany. True, August is
afraid that a possible dissolution of the Reichstag might upset everything, but
that is something I cannot see, for if there is in fact a dissolution, it will
happen this month, i.e. in April (which will be upon us tomorrow), while the
elections will be held in June at the latest, in which case a holiday will be
more necessary than ever—for August as well as for yourself—and if you
were to see the fine weather we have here and all the greenness of spring
which also brings with it a mass of flowers that lasts until the end of June,
you would assuredly come, dissolutions and fresh elections or not. So, as
always, I shall count on your keeping your word and shall also accompany
you to Berlin, for since last autumn our respective trips have been
indissolubly linked.

Engels to Julie Bebel March 31st 1893

John Burns, (1858-1943) was a socialist, then Liberal MP for Battersea

Paul Lafargue (1842-1911) was a French socialist MP, the first to be elected

August Bebel (1840-1913) was a German socialist MP