Lady Crompton’sChorleyBridgnorth27 July 1871My dear Sir

I return you Shith’s (? Smith) letterMöglicherweise Th. Smith an Marx, 18.7.1871.. He is evidently a highly intelligent & well-informed man. I wish I could think that there were many such in his class. Until there are I am afraid we shall move very slowly in England towards a better social state. I think a political revolution may happen at any moment. Lord Salisbury who is a very able man very clear sighted & with a determination not to delude himself but to see things as they really are, told a friend of mine that he did not expect the House of Lords to last ten years & therefore it was not worth while to make any attempt to strengthen & reform it as for instance by life peerages. He is something like Bismarck. He loathes the idea of democratic & social change. He thinks England will not be worth living in when that comes. But he is fully convinced it must come. Only he thinks it may be postponed & he is determined to fight tooth & nail for every inch of the ground. He labours to reconcile & bind together all the propertied classes mercantile as well as territorial, in resistance to the needy.

According to Geddes, whose evidence before the Indian Finance Committee you will find very remarkable, the signal for the grand crash will come from India. We are slumbering on a volcano there. If we do not hasten to withdraw quietly while we can we shall soon be overtaken by appalling disasters. And it is very certain that our constitution will not stand any extra strain. The first great war in Europe or Asia will bring on revolution. I did not mean to trouble you to read all through GuttembergGemeint ist: James Geddes, M. A., Bengal Civil Service: The Month Gutemberg; or, Modern Industry. The Sunday Morning Lecture at the Positivist School. London… on the 1st St Paul, 83 (21st May, 1871). London: Truelove 1871. VII, 56 S.. But I wish you would look at the allusions to Paris. Geddes is a fiery spirit.

I gather from the Times correspondence that the vile Assembly at Versailles is not unlikely to be surprised by a coup d’état from Gambetta, Faidherbe & Chanzy. In that case I hope some of the reactionists may meet with exemplary punishment. Probably it would be very unsafe to attempt anything of the kind till the Prussians are gone.

We shall be staying here some three weeks longer. The country is very delicious now. I expect to be in town the last week in August & then to go to the Seaside for September. I shall try to see you if possible when I am in town.

Yours very trulyE S Beesly