University Hall13 June 1871My dear Sir

I know very well that you are radically opposed to us Positivists nor do I suppose it to be at all likely that you will ever alter your views. The one point we & you have in common is our indignation against the individualist theories of the propertied classes and their anti-social conduct. We both believe that the working class suffer terrible wrongs at the hands of the middle class & that the social question is more important than the political.

You are quite wrong in supposing that my attitude differs in any respect from that of my co-religionists – Harrison at bottom agrees with me, though in writing he is inclined to be too diplomatic, in my opinion, & to spare the susceptibilities of the middle class. But Congreve (our director) & Bridges have warmly approved all I have written. Congreve though suffering from great prostration stood up at our weekly meeting before many strangers & declared that History would look back on the burning of the public buildings in Paris as a solemn symbolical protest against material magnificence & the worship of wealth. Our members in Paris though hostile to Communism have not intrigued against or opposed the Commune but have frankly served it & risked their lives for it. All the English Positivists have been ardent supporters of it from the 18th of March.

No doubt when ever it becomes a practical question whether private property is to be abolished you will find us opposed to you firmly. But it is likely that long before then we & you shall have been crushed side by side by our common foe.

I will let you know if we have need to avail ourselves of your kind offer to take messages from us to Paris. But I rather think we can write to Dr Robinet now. He has emerged from concealment & has not as yet been meddled with. A friend just returned from Paris saw him on Sunday.

Yours sincerelyE S Beesly.