III. Police Matters

• • Introduction and preface
  • I. The Brimstone Gang
  • II. The Bristlers
  • III. Police Matters
  • IV. Techow's Letter
  • V. Imperial Regent and Count Palatine
  • VI. Vogt and the Neue Rheinische Zeitung
  • VII. The Augsburg Campaign
  • VIII. Dâ-Dâ Vogt and his Studies "Sine Studio"
  • IX. Agency
  • X. Patrons and Accomplices
  • XI. A Lawsuit
  • XII. Appendices

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III. Police Matters

"Welch' Neues Unerhörtes hat der Vogt

Sich ausgesonnen!"

(Schiller)

"I say quite bluntly," says Vogt, striking the gravest pose of which such a buffoon is capable, "I say quite bluntly: Everyone who engages in political machinations with Marx and his associates will sooner or later fall into the hands of the police. For these machinations are no sooner under way than they are made known and betrayed to the secret police and hatched out by them as soon as the time appears to be ripe" (these machinations are eggs, it would seem, and the police are the broody hens that hatch them out). "The instigators, Marx & Co., are of course sitting in London out of reach" (while the police are sitting on the eggs). "I would not be at a loss to provide proofs of this assertion" ("Magnum Opus", pp. 166, 167).

Vogt is not "at a loss" [verlegen], Falstaff was never "at a loss" either. As "mendacious" [verlogen] as you please, but "at a loss"? Come, your "proofs" [Belege], Jack, your. "proofs".

1. Confession

"Marx himself says on p. 77 of his pamphlet Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne , published in 1853: 'After 1849 just as before 1848, only one path was open to the proletarian party—that of secret association. Consequently after 1849 a whole series of clandestine proletarian societies sprang up on the Continent, were discovered by the police, condemned by the courts, broken up by the gaols and continually resuscitated by the force of circumstances.' Marx," Vogt declares, "here euphemistically describes himself as 'circumstance'" ("Magnum Opus", p. 167).

Marx says, then, that "the police have discovered a whole series of secret -societies since 1849" that were restored to life by the force of circumstances. Vogt says it was Marx and not the "circumstances" that "resuscitated the secret societies". Thus Vogt has furnished proof that whenever Badinguet's police discovered Marianne, Marx in collusion with Pietri set it up again.

"Marx himself says." I shall now quote what Marx himself says in its proper context:

"With the defeat of the revolution of 1848-49 the party of the proletariat on the Continent lost use of the press, freedom of speech and the right to associate, i.e. the legal instruments of party organisation, which it had enjoyed for once during that short interval. The social status of the classes they represented enabled both the bourgeois-liberal and the petty-bourgeois democratic parties to remain united in one form or another and to assert their common interests more or less effectively despite the reaction. After 1849 just as before 1848, only one path was open to the proletarian party—that of secret association. Consequently after 1849 a whole series of clandestine proletarian societies sprang up on the Continent, were discovered by the police, condemned by the courts, broken up by the gaols and continually resuscitated by the force of circumstances. Some of these secret societies aimed directly at the overthrow of the existing state. This was fully justified in France.... Other secret societies aimed at organising the proletariat into a party, without concerning themselves with the existing governments. This was necessary in countries like Germany.... There is no doubt that here too the members of the proletarian party would take part once again in a revolution against the status quo, but it was no part of their task to prepare this revolution, to agitate, conspire or to plot for it.... The Communist League, therefore, was no conspiratorial society..." (Revelations, etc., Boston edition, pp. 62, 63).

But our merciless Land-Vogt regards even "propaganda" as a crime, except of course for the propaganda organised by Pietri and Laity. Our Land-Vogt will even condone "agitation, conspiracy and plotting", but only when its central office is in the Palais Royal with Hearty Harry, Heliogabalus Plon-Plon. But "propaganda" among proletarians! Fie!

After the above-quoted passage, so significantly mutilated by our Examining Magistrate Vogt, I continue in the Revelations as follows:

"It is self-evident that a secret society of this kind" (like the Communist League) "[...] could have had but few attractions for individuals who on the one hand concealed their personal insignificance by strutting around in the theatrical cloak of the conspirator, and on the other wished to satisfy their narrow-minded ambition on the day of the next revolution, and who wished above all to seem important at the moment, to snatch their share of the proceeds of demagogy and to find a welcome among the quacks and charlatans of democracy. Thus a group broke off from the Communist League, or if you like it was broken off, a group that demanded, if not real conspiracies, at any rate the appearance of conspiracies, and accordingly called for a direct alliance with the democratic heroes of the hour; this was the Willich-Schapper group. It was typical of them that Willich was, together with Kinkel, one of the entrepreneurs in the business of the German-American Revolutionary Loan" (pp. 63, 64).

And how does Vogt translate this passage into his "euphemistic" police mumbo-jumbo? Listen:

"As long as both" (parties) "cooperated, they worked, as Marx himself says, to create secret societies and to compromise societies and individuals on the Continent" (p. 171).

Our fat rascal forgets only to quote the page in the Revelations where Marx "of course saysthis himself".

"Egli è bugiardo e padre di menzogna."

2. The revolutionary congress in Murten

"Charles the Bold", our "bold Charles", vulgo Karl Vogt, now delivers his account of the defeat of Murten.

"Large numbers of workers and refugees were cajoled and bullied"—namely by Liebknecht —"until finally [...] it was agreed that there should be a revolutionary congress in Murten. The delegates of the branch societies were to assemble there in secret in order to confer about the final organisation of the League and the exact moment for the armed uprising. All preparations were made in absolute secrecy, the summonses were conveyed only by Liebknecht's trusted friends and correspondents. The delegates converged on Murten from all sides, on foot, by boat and by carriage, and were immediately welcomed by gendarmes, who knew in advance about the whats, the whys and the hows. The whole company that had been arrested in this manner was detained for a while in the Augustinian monastery in Fribourg and then transported to England and America. Herr Liebknecht was treated with quite exceptional consideration" ("Magnum Opus", p. 168).

"Herr Liebknecht" had taken part in Struve's putsch in September 1848, then was kept in Baden gaols until the middle of May 1849, was freed as a result of the military insurrection in Baden, served as a common soldier in the Baden People's Artillery, was incarcerated once more as a rebel in the casemates in Rastatt by Vogt's friend Brentano; having been freed again during the campaign for the Imperial Constitution he joined the division commanded by Johann Philipp Becker and finally crossed the French border with Struve, Cohnheim, Korn and Rosenblum from where they made their way to Switzerland.

At the time I knew even less about "Herr Liebknecht" and his Swiss "revolutionary congresses" than about the drinking-meetings with mine host Benz in Kessler Street in Berne where the assembled parliamentarians regaled each other with the speeches they had made in St. Paul's Church, counted and distributed future posts of the Empire among themselves, and helped to while away the hard night of exile by listening to the lies, farces, ribaldry and rodomontades of Charles the Bold who, not without a touch of humour, awarded himself the letters patent of "Imperial Wine Bibber" in honour of an old German lay.

The "lay" begins with these words:

"Swaz ich trinken's hân gesëhen,

daz ist gar von kinden geschëhen:

ich hân einen swëlch gesëhen,

dem wil ich meisterschefte jëhen.

"Den dûhten becher gar entwiht,

ër wolde näpf noch kophe niht.

ër tranc ûz grôzen kannen.

ër ist vor allen mannen

ein vorlauf allen swëlhen

"von ûren und von ëlhen

wart solcher slünd nie niht getân."

But to return to the "revolutionary congress" in Murten. "Revolutionary congress"! "Final organisation of the League"! "Moment for the armed uprising"! "Absolutely secret preparations"! "Very secret meeting converging from all sides on foot, by boat and by carriage"! "Charles the Bold" evidently did not study my analysis of Stieber's methods in the Revelations without profit.

The facts of the matter are simply these: Liebknecht was—early in 1850—the President of the Geneva Workers' Association. He proposed a union of all the hitherto unconnected German workers' associations in Switzerland. The proposal was accepted. Whereupon it was decided to send a circular to twenty-four different workers' associations, inviting them to Murten to discuss the problems of the intended organisation and of establishing a joint newspaper. The debates in the Geneva Workers' Association, the circular, the discussions of the latter in the other twenty-four workers' associations—all this was done in public and the congress at Murten was likewise arranged in full view of the public. Had the Swiss authorities desired to ban it they could have done so four weeks before it was due to be held. But the liberal Herr Druey, who was on the look-out for a victim he could devour and thus placate the sabre-rattling Holy Alliance, preferred to have his police stage a coup de théâtre. Liebknecht, who as President of the Workers' Association had signed the document proclaiming the congress, was accorded the honour of being regarded as one of the chief ringleaders. He was separated from the other delegates, was granted free lodging in the uppermost turret of the tower in Fribourg, from where he enjoyed a fine view of the surrounding country, and he even had the privilege of walking for an hour each day upon the battlements. The only special feature of the way he was treated was the fact of solitary confinement. His repeated request to be allowed to join the other prisoners was repeatedly rejected. Vogt, however, knows full well that the police do not put their "moutons" in solitary confinement, but place them as "agreeable companions" among the mass.

Two months later Liebknecht, together with a certain Gebert, was transported by the Fribourg Chief of Police to Besancon, where both he and his companion received a compulsory French passport to London, with the warning that if they deviated from the prescribed route they would be deported to Algiers. As a - result of this unexpected journey Liebknecht lost most of the personal effects he had in Geneva. Apart from this, however, Messrs. Castella, Schaller and the other members of the then Fribourg Government are to be commended for their humane treatment of Liebknecht and the other prisoners of Murten. These gentlemen were mindful of the fact that they themselves had been captive or on the run but a few years before and they openly expressed the disgust they felt at being obliged to execute the orders of the Grand Cophta Druey. The captive refugees were not given the kind of treatment that the refugee "parliamentarians" had expected. A certain Herr H., an associate of the parliamentarians who is still in Switzerland, felt it incumbent on himself to publish a pamphlet in which he denounced the prisoners in general and Liebknecht in particular for upholding "revolutionary" ideas that exceeded the limits of parliamentary reason. And it seems that "Charles the Bold" is still inconsolable about the "quite exceptional consideration" accorded to Liebknecht.

Plagiarism is a general characteristic of all the concoctions of our "bold hero", and this one is no exception. For the Swiss liberals invariably "liberalised" their acts of expulsion by accusing their victims of spying. After Fazy had expelled Struve he denounced him publicly as a "Russian spy". Likewise Druey, who accused Boichot of being a French mouchard. Tourte slandered Schily in a similar manner after he had suddenly had him arrested in the street in Geneva and sent to the tour des prisons in Berne. "Le commissaire maire fédéral Monsieur Kern exige votre expulsion" was the reply of the high and mighty Tourte when Schily asked the reason for the brutal treatment meted out to him. Schily: "Alors mettez-moi en présence de Monsieur Kern". Tourte: "Non, nous ne voulons pas que M. le commissaire fédéral fasse la police à Genève". The logic of this reply was altogether worthy of the letter this same Tourte, who was then Swiss Ambassador in Turin, wrote to the President of the Confederation informing him that Cavour was working with might and main to prevent the cession of Savoy and Nice at a time when this cession was already a fait accompli. But it is possible that certain diplomatic railway connections were responsible for the failure of Tourte's normal discernment at the time. Scarcely was Schily locked up in the severest solitary confinement in Berne when Tourte began to "liberalise" his police brutality by whispering in the ears of German refugees (Dr. Fink, for example) that "Schily had secretly been in contact with Kern and had sent him information about refugees in Geneva, etc." The Geneva paper Indépendant itself included among the notorious sins of the Geneva Govern ment of the day "the systematic calumniation of the refugees, which has been raised to the level of a principle of state". (See Appendix 1.)

At the very first representations of the German police, Swiss liberalism violated the right of asylum by driving out the so-called "leaders"—and this right of asylum had just been granted on condition that the remnant of the revolutionary army would refrain from fighting a last battle on Baden soil. But later, after the "leaders'', it was the turn of the "misguided led". Thousands of Baden soldiers were given passports for home on false pretences and when they arrived there they were immediately welcomed by gendarmes, who knew in advance about "the whats, the whys and the bows". Then came the threats of the Holy Alliance and with them the police farce in Murten. But even the "liberal" Federal Council did not venture to go as far as the "bold Charles", Nothing at all about "revolutionary congress", "final organisation of the League", "exact moment for the armed uprising". The investigation which for propriety's sake had to be started, vanished into thin air.

"Threats of war'' from abroad and "political-propagandistic tendencies", that was all the "embarrassed" Federal Council could stutter by way of excuse in its official report. (See Appendix 2.) The grand police actions of "Swiss liberalism" *did not cease with the "revolutionary congress in Murten". On January 25, 1851 my friend Wilhelm Wolff ("Parliamentary Wolf" as he was known among the "Parliamentary Sheep") wrote to me from Zurich:

"The recent measures taken by the Federal Council have reduced the number of refugees from 11,000 to 500, and the Council will not rest until the remnant has been harried out of the country too, leaving only those who possess either a considerable fortune or powerful connections."

The refugees who had fought for. the revolution stood in the most natural opposition to the heroes of St. Paul's Church who had talked it into the grave. The latter did not scruple to deliver their opponents into the hands of the Swiss police. Vogt's loyal follower, the Ranickel monstrosity, himself wrote to Schily after the latter's arrival in London:

"Try to keep a few columns open in one of the Belgian newspapers for explanations, and do not fail to make the life of those rascally German dogs (the parliamentarians) in America miserable for having sold themselves to that goitrous diplomat (Druey)."

It is now apparent what "Charles the Bold" meant when he said:

"I was labouring with all my strength to set limits to all these revolutionary antics and to provide the refugees with shelter, either on the Continent or overseas."

The following description was to be found, long ago, in No. 257 of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung dated

"Heidelberg, March 23, 1849: Our friend Vogt, 'champion' of the Left, imperial jester of the moment, imperial Barrot of the future, the 'faithful warner' against revolution—he has joined forces with—some like-minded people? By no means! But with a few reactionaries of the deepest dye ... and for what purpose? In order to convey or to deport to America all those 'characters' living in Strasbourg, Besancon and elsewhere on the German frontier.... What Cavaignac's iron rule imposes as a punishment these gentlemen would like to mete out in the name of Christian charity.... Amnesty is dead, long live deportation! And of course this was accompanied by the pia fraus that the refugees had themselves expressed the desire to emigrate, etc. But now the Seeblätter receives word from Strasbourg that these intentions to deport them have unleashed an angry storm of protest among all the refugees, etc. [...] In fact they all hope to return to Germany soon, even at the risk (as Herr Vogt touchingly remarks) of having to join some 'mad escapade'."

But enough of "Charles the Bold's" revolutionary congress in Murten.

3. Cherval

"The virtue of this jest will be the incomprehensible

lies that this same fat rogue will tell us."

In my Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne an entire chapter is devoted to the Cherval plot. In it I show that Stieber with Cherval (a pseudonym for Crämer) as his instrument, and Carlier, Greif and Fleury as midwives, brought the so-called Franco-German September plot in Paris into the world, with the intention of providing the prosecution with just that "factual evidence of an indictable offence" against the Cologne prisoners the lack of which the "Indictment Board of Cologne" had criticised.

So decisive were the proofs I delivered to the defence during the Cologne trial, so convincing the demonstration of a total lack of connection between Cherval, on the one hand, and the accused at Cologne and myself, on the other, that Stieber, who had sworn by Cherval on October 18 (1852), forswore him again on October 23, 1852 (Revelations, p. 29). Driven into a corner he abandoned the attempt to link Cherval and his plot with us. Stieber was Stieber, but even Stieber was a far cry from Vogt.

I think it is quite unnecessary for me to repeat here the information I gave in the Revelations about the so-called September plot. At the beginning of May 1852 Cherval returned to London, from where he had moved to Paris on business in the early summer of 1850. The Paris police let him escape from them a few months after he was sentenced in February 1852. In London he was greeted at first as a political martyr and welcomed into the German Workers' Educational Society, from which my friends and I had resigned as early as mid-September 1850. But this delusion was short-lived. The truth about his deeds of heroism in Paris soon became known and during that same month, May 1852, he was publicly expelled from the Society for his infamous conduct. The accused in Cologne, who had been imprisoned early in May 1851, were still in detention awaiting trial. I realised from a notice sent from Paris by the spy Beckmann to his paper, the Kölnische Zeitung, that the Prussian police were attempting retrospectively to forge a link between Cherval, his plot and the accused in Cologne. I accordingly kept on the look-out for reports about Cherval. It so happened that in July 1852 the latter offered his services as an Orleanist agent to M. de R., a former Minister during Louis Philippe's reign and a well-known eclectic philosopher. The connections which M. de R. retained in the Paris Prefecture of Police enabled him to obtain extracts from their dossier on Cherval. In the French police report Cherval was referred to as Cherval nommé Frank, dont le véritable nom est Crämer. For a long time he had worked as an agent for Prince Hatzfeldt, the Prussian Ambassador in Paris; he was the betrayer of the complot franco-allemand and was now simultaneously a spy for the French, etc. In the course of the Cologne trial I gave these reports to one of the counsel for the defence, Herr Schneider II, and empowered him to name my source if need arose. When Stieber said under oath during the session of October 18 that the Irishman Cherval, who on Stieber's own testimony had served a gaol sentence in Aachen in 1845 for forging bills of exchange, was at that moment still under arrest in Paris, I informed Schneider II by return of post that, under the pseudonym of Cherval, the Rhenish Prussian Cramer was "still" in London, was in daily communication with Greif, the Prussian lieutenant of police, and that, as he was a condemned Prussian criminal, the English would extradite him as soon as they received an application from the Prussian Government. To have brought him to Cologne as a witness would have overthrown the entire Stieber system.

Under pressure from Schneider II Stieber finally remembered on October 23 having heard that Cherval had fled from Paris, but he swore high and low that he had no knowledge of the present whereabouts of the Irishman or of his alliance with the Prussian police. In fact at that time Cherval was attached to Greif in London by a fixed weekly salary. The debates about the "Cherval mystery" at the Cologne Assizes, that had been provoked by my reports, drove Cherval from London. I heard that he had gone on a police mission to Jersey. I had long lost sight of him when by chance I came across a report from the Geneva correspondent of the Republik der Arbeiter, which appears in New York, stating that Cherval had turned up in Geneva in March 1853 under the name of Nugent, and that he had vanished from there once more in the summer of 1854. He visited Vogt in Geneva,. then, a few weeks after my Revelations with the compromising statements about him had been published in Basle by Schabelitz.

Let us now return to the Falstaffian travesty of history.

According to Vogt, Cherval arrived in Geneva immediately after his fictitious escape from Paris and before that he was allegedly "sent" by the secret Communist League from London to Paris "a few months" prior to the discovery of the September plot (loc. cit., p. 172). Hence while the interval between May 1852 and March 1853 thus disappears altogether, the interval between June 1850 and September 1851 shrinks to "a few months". What wouldn't Stieber have given for a Vogt who could have testified on oath before the Assizes at Cologne that the "secret Communist League in London" had sent Cherval to Paris in June 1850, and what wouldn't I have given to see Vogt sweating on the witness stand next to his Stieber! What a fine company they make: the swearing Stieber with his bird, the Greif [griffin], his Wermuth [vermouth], his Goldheimchen [golden cricket] and his Bettelvogt [beadle]. Vogt's Cherval brought with him to Geneva "recommendations to all friends of Marx & Co., from whom Mr. Nugent soon became inseparable" (p. 173). He "took up his quarters with the family of a correspondent of the Allgemeine Zeitung" and gained access to Vogt probably as the result of my recommendations (in the Revelations). Vogt employed him as a lithographer (loc. cit., pp. 173[-74]) and entered with him so to speak into a "scientific intercourse" as he had done earlier with Archduke John and was to do later with Plon-Plon. One day, while he was working in the "office" of the Imperial Regent, "Nugent" was recognised by an "acquaintance" as Cherval and accused of being an "agent provocateur". In fact Nugent was not only working for Vogt in Geneva but was also busily engaged in "founding a clandestine society".

"Cherval-Nugent presided, kept the minutes and corresponded with London" (loc. cit., p. 175). He had "taken a few not very discerning but otherwise worthy workers into his confidence" (ibid.), however "among the members there was also an associate of the Marx clique known to everyone as a suspect minion of the German police" (loc. cit.).

"All the friends" of Marx, from whom Cherval-Nugent "became inseparable", are now suddenly transformed into "one associate", and this one associate promptly dissolves again into "the associates of Marx who had remained behind in Geneva" (p. 176), with whom Nugent later "continues to correspond from Paris" and whom he magnetically "attracts to himself" in Paris (loc. cit.).

Yet another instance, then, of his favourite "transformation" of the buckram "cloth" of Kendal green !

What Cherval-Nugent purposed with his society was the

"mass production of forged banknotes and treasury bills which when put into circulation were expected to undermine the credit of the despots and ruin their finances" (loc. cit., p. 175).

Cherval, it seems, was trying to emulate the celebrated Pitt who, as is well known, set up a factory not far from London during the war against the Jacobins to produce false French assignats.

"Various stone and copper plates had already been engraved for this purpose by Nugent himself; the gullible members of the -secret league had already been selected to go to France, Switzerland and Germany with packets of these"—stone and copper plates?—no—" these counterfeit banknotes " (the banknotes were, of course, put into packets before they were printed) (p. 175),

but Cicero-Vogt was already standing behind Cherval-Catiline with his sword drawn. A peculiar characteristic of all Falstaff s is that as well as big bellies they also have big mouths. Just look at our Gurgelgrosslinger who has already set limits to "revolutionary antics" in Switzerland and arranged for whole shiploads of refugees to find a livelihood overseas, look how he postures, how melodramatically he acts, how he magnifies Stieber's Paris skirmish with Cherval (see Revelations)! Here he lay, and thus he bore his point!

"The plan of the whole conspiracy" (loc. cit., p. 176) "had been monstrously conceived." "All the workers' associations were to have Cherval's project laid at their door." There had already been "some confidential inquiries from foreign embassies", they were already on the point of "compromising Switzerland, especially the Canton of Geneva".

But the Land-Vogt was vigilant. He carried out his first rescue of Switzerland, an experiment he later repeated several times with steadily increasing success.

"I cannot deny," the weighty man exclaims, "I cannot deny that I contributed a substantial part in frustrating these devilish plans ; I cannot deny that I made use of the police of the Geneva Republic for this purpose; I regret to this day" (disconsolate Cicero) "that the zeal of some deluded enthusiasts served to warn the wily ringleader and enabled him to evade arrest" [p. 177].

But at all events, Cicero-Vogt had "frustrated" the Catiline conspiracy, rescued Switzerland, and "contributed" his substantial part (wherever he carries that). According to him Cherval reappeared in Paris a few weeks later and there "he made no attempt to hide himself, but showed himself in public like other citizens" (loc. cit., p. 176). And we all know how public is the life of the citizens of Paris in the counterfeit Empire.

While Cherval thus gads about in Paris "in public", poor Vogt always has to hide in the Palais Royal under Plon-Plon's table when he visits Paris!

I rather regret that after Vogt's powerful Zachariad I must now give the following letter from Johann Philipp Becker. A veteran of the German emigration, active as a revolutionary from the Hambach Festival to the campaign for the Imperial Constitution, in which he fought as commander of the 5th Army Division (the Berlin Militär-Wochenschrift, a voice that is by no means partial, testified to his military achievement), Johann Philipp Becker is too well known to require any recommendation from me. I need only say, therefore, that his letter was written to R., a German businessman in London with whom I am on friendly terms, that I do not know Becker personally and that he has never been connected with me politically. Finally, I should note that I have omitted the opening section of his letter which deals with business matters as well as most of the passages referring to the "Brimstone Gang" and the "Bristlers" since we are already familiar with the material they contain. (The original of the letter is in Berlin along-with other documents connected with my suit.)

"Paris, March 20, 1860

"...I recently saw Vogt's pamphlet against Marx. I found its contents very distressing, all the more so since, as I was living in Geneva at the time, I am perfectly familiar with the history of the so-called Brimstone Gang and the notorious Cherval. It is evident that the events have been totally distorted and with an utter disregard for justice have been falsely connected with the political activities of the economist Marx. I do not know Herr Marx personally, nor have I ever had any association with him whatever, but I have known Herr Vogt and his family for upwards of twenty years and am bound to him by much closer bonds of affection. I must bitterly deplore and unreservedly repudiate the frivolous and unscrupulous manner in which Vogt has entered the lists on this occasion. It is unworthy of a man to include distorted and even imaginary facts as weapons in his armoury. It is really very painful to see that Vogt unthinkingly, and apparently suicidally, destroys his congenial field of activity, compromises his position and stains his own reputation; and this would be the case even if he could be wholly acquitted of the charge of being in the pay of Napoleon. On the other hand, how gladly would I have seen him use every honest means to clear his name of such grave accusations. As it is, his behaviour hitherto in this unedifying business impels me to give you a description of the so-called Brimstone Gang and the worthy Herr Cherval so that you may judge for yourself the extent to which Marx may be held responsible for their existence and their activities.

"A word, then, about the rise and fall of the Brimstone Gang, for scarcely anyone is in a better position than I am to give you this information. During my stay in Geneva at that time I had an opportunity to observe the activities of the emigrants not only thanks to my position; but in addition, as an older man and always mindful of the general cause, I had a particular interest in closely following their every move so as to be able whenever possible to forestall and prevent the occasional foolish ventures which were so forgivable in people whom misfortune had so harassed and even reduced to despair. My 30 years' experience had taught me only too well how richly every emigration is endowed with illusions."

(What follows has been largely anticipated in the letters of Borkheim and Schily.)

"...This company, essentially a company of idlers, was referred to jestingly and mockingly as the Brimstone Gang. It was a club which consisted, as it were, of a motley crowd brought together by chance; it had neither president nor programme, neither statute nor dogma. There is no question of its having been a secret society, or of its having had any political or other goal to pursue systematically; they merely wanted to show off and that with an openness and frankness that knew no bounds. Nor did they have any connection with Marx, who for his part could certainly have known nothing of their existence and whose socio-political views moreover diverged widely from theirs. And in addition these fellows evinced a strong urge to be independent that verged on self-conceit and it is extremely unlikely that they would have been willing to subordinate themselves to any authority either in theory or in practice. They would have laughed Vogt's paternalistic admonitions out of court, no less than they would have ridiculed Marx's policy instructions. I was in a position to obtain very precise information about everything that went on in those circles since my eldest son used to meet the Big White Chiefs every day.... In all, the whole farce of this gang, devoid of any ties, scarcely outlasted the winter of 1849-50; the force of circumstances scattered our heroes to the winds.

"Who would have thought that after ten years' slumber the long-forgotten Brimstone Gang would be set alight. once more by Professor Vogt in order to ward off imagined aggressors by spreading a foul stench which was then transmitted by obliging journalists with great enthusiasm acting as it were as electromagnetic-sympathetic conductors. Even Herr von Vincke, that liberal par excellence , mentioned the Brimstone Gang in connection with the Italian question and used it as an illustration in the modest Prussian Chamber. And the otherwise blameless citizens of Breslau in their sancta simplicitas have in honour of the Brimstone Gang prepared a carnival jest and fumigated the whole city with sulphur fires as the symbol of their loyalty.

"Poor innocent Brimstone Gang! After your blessed end you had willy-nilly to turn into a veritable volcano, to become the bogy that frightens timid subjects into a wholesome respect for the police, to vulcanise all the fat-heads of the world and blacken every overheated brain down to its roots—just as Vogt, in my opinion, has burnt his fingers for ever.

"Now then, as for Crämer, vulgo Cherval . This socio-political and common scoundrel came to Geneva in 1853, pretending to be an Englishman by the name of Nugent. This was in fact the surname of the woman who accompanied him, ostensibly as his wife, and who really was English. He spoke both French and English fluently and for a long time carefully avoided speaking German for he seemed to be doing everything in his power to pass for a native Englishman. Being competent in both lithography and chromolithography, he boasted of having introduced this latter art into Geneva. In society he was very adept, he knew how to make his presence felt and to show himself to advantage. He soon obtained a sufficient amount of work, drawing objects from nature and antiquity for professors of the Academy. At first he lived a retired life and later, when he did seek company it was exclusively in the circle of French and Italian refugees. At that time I founded an office de renseignements and a daily paper Le Messager du Léman and I had an assistant called Stecher, a refugee from Baden who had formerly been headmaster in a secondary school. He was a talented draughtsman and strove to improve his standing by studying chromolithography. He found a teacher in the Englishman Nugent. Stecher was now full of stories about this skilful, kindly and generous Englishman and about the pleasant and graceful Englishwoman. Stecher also taught singing in the Workers' Educational Association and he occasionally brought his teacher Nugent with him. It was there that I first had the pleasure of meeting him and that he condescended to speak German; he spoke it so fluently and with such a command of the Lower Rhenish dialect that I said to him: 'But you can't possibly be an Englishman!' He persisted in his assertion, however, explaining that his parents had placed him in a school in Bonn when he was very young and that he had remained there until his eighteenth year, during which time he had got used to the local dialect. Stecher, who remained enchanted by the 'nice' man almost to the last, helped to make the belief that he was an Englishman more credible. But this incident made me rather distrustful of the would-be son of Albion and I urged caution on my fellow-members in the Association. Some time later I met the Englishman in the company of some French refugees and approached just as he was boasting of his heroism during the Paris uprisings. This was the first occasion on which I learned that he was also interested in politics. This made him all the more suspect so I made fun of the 'leonine bravery' he claimed to have displayed, to give him the chance to exhibit it against me in the presence of the Frenchmen. But as he answered my biting mockery by cringing like a cur I judged him contemptible from that moment on.

"From then on he avoided me whenever he could. In the meantime, with Stecher's aid, he organised evening dances in the bosom of the German Workers' Association, enlisting additional musical talent free of charge in the shape of an Italian, a Swiss and a Frenchman. At these balls I again met the Englishman, this time as a veritable maître de plaisir and completely in his element; uproarious merriment and pleasing the ladies suited him much better than his leonine bravery. However, he was not politically active in the Workers' Association, where he did nothing but hop, skip and jump, drink and sing. In the meantime however I heard from Fritz, a goldsmith from Württemberg, that our 'intrepid revolutionary Englishman' had founded a League consisting of him (Fritz), another German, a few Italians and Frenchmen, making seven members in all. I implored Fritz to have nothing to do with this political tightrope-walker, at any rate as far as serious matters were concerned, and begged him both to resign from the League at once and induce his associates to do likewise. Some time later my bookseller sent me a pamphlet by Marx dealing with the communist trial in Cologne and in this Cherval was unmasked as Crämer and sharply attacked as a scoundrel and a traitor. At once I began to suspect that Nugent might be Cherval, above all because, according to the pamphlet, he came from the Rhineland and this corresponded to his accent. Also he was alleged to be living with an Englishwoman, which was the case here too. I at once told Stecher, Fritz and others of my suspicions and circulated the pamphlet to this end. Mistrust of Nugent spread quickly; Marx's pamphlet had its effect. Soon Fritz came to me explaining that he had resigned from the 'League' and that the others would follow his example. He also revealed to me the League's secret aim. The 'Englishman' intended to destroy the credit of the nations by manufacturing government securities and using the profits that would be gained in this manner to start a European revolution, etc. At about this time a French refugee called Laya, who had formerly been a lawyer in Paris, was giving lectures on socialism. Nugent attended them and Laya, who had defended him at his trial in Paris, identified him as Cherval, and told him so. Nugent implored Laya not to betray him. I learned of it from a French emigrant friendly with Laya and I spread the news at once. Nugent had the effrontery to appear once again in the Workers' Association whereupon he was exposed as the German Crämer and the Frenchman Cherval and was expelled. Ranickel from Bingen is said to have been his most violent assailant on this occasion. To crown it all the Genevan police began to show an interest in him because of the League, but the manufacturer of government securities had disappeared without a trace.

"In Paris he engaged in decorating porcelain and since I was in the same line of trade I met him in the course of business. But I found him the same irresponsible and incorrigible windbag as before.

"But how Vogt could have dared to connect the Genevan activities of this rogue with those of Marx and to describe him as one of his confederates or tools is utterly beyond my comprehension, especially as this was supposed to have been at the very time that he was the object of such a violent attack by Marx in the pamphlet referred to above. It was after all Marx who unmasked him and who drove him from Geneva where, according to Vogt, he was actively engaged on Marx's behalf.

"When I reflect how it was possible for a scientist like Vogt thus to go astray my mind reels. Is it not lamentable to find the praiseworthy reputation brought about by a happy coincidence of events so recklessly destroyed in such a wasteful and sterile fashion! Would it be surprising if after witnessing such deeds the whole world were to receive Vogt's scientific researches with scepticism, suspecting all the while that he might have arrived at his scientific conclusions with the same recklessness and the same lack of scruple, basing them on erroneous notions rather than on positive facts, painstakingly studied?

"If to become a statesman and a scientist nothing but ambition were required even Crämer might become both. Unfortunately, with his Brimstone Gang and his Cherval, Vogt has degenerated into a sort of Cherval himself. And indeed there are intrinsic similarities between the two, brought about by their hankering for material comfort, for the safety of their own persons, for the joys of conviviality and for frivolous trifling with serious matters

.... In anticipation of friendly news from you I send you my warmest greetings.

"Yours,

J. Ph. Becker

"P.S. Glancing once more at Vogt's pamphlet I observe to my further surprise that the 'Bristlers' too have been duly honoured. So I am adding a few words to outline their story....

"Furthermore, I also saw in the pamphlet that he claims that Nugent-Cherval-Crämer came to Geneva on a mission for Marx. I must add therefore that he did not drop the pretence of being an Englishman up to the very last moment in Geneva and that he never gave the slightest indication that he had ever had any contact whatever with any German emigrant, which would in any case have scarcely been reconcilable with his wish to preserve his incognito. Even here and now, when the matter must have lost its former significance for him, he is reluctant to admit his German origin and steadfastly denies all earlier acquaintance with Germans.

"Hitherto I still believed that Vogt had light-mindedly allowed himself to be mystified by others, but now his actions increasingly seem to be motivated by malicious perfidy. I am less sorry for him than before and my sympathy is reserved now for his worthy and good old father who will suffer many a bitter moment because of this business.

"I will not only permit you, I actually request you to make known this information among your circle of acquaintances in the interest of truth and of the good cause.

"With warm greetings, Yours,

J. Philipp B.

" (See Appendix 3.)

4. The communist trial in Cologne

From the "office" of the Regent of the Empire in Geneva to the Royal Prussian Court of Assizes in Cologne.

"In the Cologne trial Marx played an outstanding part." Undoubtedly.

"In Cologne his confederates were on trial." Granted.

The Cologne accused were held in detention for 1½ years pending the trial.

The Prussian police and the Embassy, Hinckeldey with his entire clan, postal and municipal authorities, the Ministries of the Interior and of Justice—all made the most strenuous efforts during these 1½ years to give birth to a corpus delicti.

Here then, in his research into my "activities", Vogt has at his disposal, as it were, the assistance of the Prussian state and he even had authentic material contained in my Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne, Basle, 1853, a copy of which he discovered in the Geneva Workers' Association and which he borrowed and "studied". This time, then, young : Karl really will settle my hash. But no! For once Vogt is "at a loss", he just sets off a few of his home-made smoke-bombs and stink-bombs before beating a hasty retreat, stammering:

"The Cologne trial is of no particular significance for us" ("Magnum Opus", p. 172).

In the Revelations I was compelled to attack Herr August Willichamong other people. Willich commenced his defence in the New-Yorker Criminal-Zeitung of October 28, 1853 by describing my work as "a masterly critique of the savage procedures adopted by the central police of the German Confederation". Jacob Schabelitz fits, the publisher of the pamphlet, wrote to me from Basle on December 11, 1852 after receiving the manuscript:

"Your exposure of the perfidy of the police is unsurpassable. You have erected a permanent monument to the present regime in Prussia."

He added that his judgment was shared by experts, chief among these "experts" being a man who is at present a Genevan friend of Herr Karl Vogt. Seven years after the publication of the Revelations Herr Eichhoff of Berlin, whom I do not know at all, made the following statement in court (it is well known that Eichhoff was on trial, accused of having slandered Stieber):

"He had made a detailed study of the Cologne communist trial and not only adhered to his original opinion that Stieber had committed perjury but had to extend it to assert that everything Stieber said during the trial was false.... The verdict passed on the accused in Cologne was due entirely to Stieber's testimony.... Stieber's whole testimony was perjury from start to finish" (first supplement to the Berlin Vossische Zeitung, May 9, 1860).

Vogt himself admits:

"He" (Marx) "did everything in his power to provide the defence with the materials and instructions necessary for the conduct of their case...."

It is a known fact that "false documents, manufactured by the agents themselves", i. e. Stieber, Fleury, etc., "were presented to the court" (in Cologne) "as 'evidence' and that in general an abyss of perfidy was exposed among this police rabble that makes one shudder to contemplate" ("Magnum Opus", pp. 169, 170).

If Vogt can show his hatred of the coup d'état by making propaganda for Bonapartism, why should not I reveal "my collusion" with the secret police by exposing their abysmal perfidy? If the police had genuine proofs, why manufacture false ones? But, lectures Professor Vogt,

"nevertheless the blow only fell on the members of the Marxian League in Cologne, only on the Marx party".

Indeed, Polonius! Had not the blow fallen on another party earlier on in Paris; did it not also strike another party later on in Berlin (the Ladendorf trial), and yet another in Bremen (League of the Dead), etc., etc.?

As to the verdict passed on the Cologne accused I shall quote a relevant passage from my Revelations:

"The miracles performed by the police were originally necessary to conceal the completely political nature of the trial. 'The revelations you are about to witness, Gentlemen of the Jury,' said Saedt when opening for the prosecution, 'will prove to you that this trial is not a political trial.' But now" (at the conclusion of the case) "he emphasises its political character so that the police revelations should be forgotten. After the 1½-year preliminary investigation the jury needed objective evidence in order to justify itself before public opinion.

"After the five-week-long police comedy they needed 'politics pure and simple' to extricate themselves from the sheer mess. Saedt therefore did not only confine-himself to the material that had led the Indictment Board to the conclusion that 'there was no factual evidence of an indictable offence'. He went even further. He attempted to prove that the law against conspiracy does not require any indictable action, but is simply a law with a political purpose, and the category of conspiracy is therefore merely a pretext for burning political heretics in a legal way. The success of his attempt promised to be all the greater because of the decision to apply the new [Prussian] Penal Code that had been promulgated after the accused had been arrested. On the pretext that this code contained extenuating provisions the servile court was able to permit its retroactive application. But if it was simply a political trial why a preliminary investigation lasting 1½ years? For political reasons" (loc. cit., pp. 71, 72).

"With the unmasking of the minute-book" forged and planted by the Prussian police themselves "the case had advanced to a new stage. The jury was no longer free merely to find the defendants guilty or not guilty; they must either find the defendants guilty—or the government.

"To acquit the accused would mean condemning the government" (loc. cit., p. 70).

That the Prussian Government of the day put a similar construction on the situation is plain from a communication that Hinckeldey sent to the Prussian Embassy in London while the Cologne trial was still in progress. In this he said that "the whole existence of the political police depended on the outcome of the trial". He accordingly asked for a person who could appear in court in the guise of the witness H. (who had disappeared), for which performance he would receive 1,000 talers reward. This person had actually been found when Hinckeldey's next letter arrived:

"The State Prosecutor hopes that thanks to the happy constitution of the jury it will be possible to get a verdict of guilty even without further extraordinary measures, and he" (Hinckeldey) "therefore asks you not to trouble yourselves further." (See Appendix 4.)

It was in fact the happy constitution of the jury in Cologne which inaugurated the Hinckeldey-Stieber regime in Prussia. "A blow will be struck in Berlin if the Cologne accused are condemned" was the view of the police rabble attached to the Prussian Embassy in London, as early as October 1852, even though the police mine (the Ladendorf conspiracy) did not explode in Berlin until the end of March 1853. (See Appendix 4.)

The liberal outcry that follows an age of reaction is all the louder the greater the cowardice displayed by liberals in putting up with the reaction for years on end without protest. Thus at the time of the Cologne trial, all my efforts to expose Stieber's system of deception in the liberal Prussian press were unavailing. The motto of the press, printed on its banner in block letters, ran: Reliability is the first duty of the citizen, and in this sign shalt thou—live.

5. Joint festival of the German Workers' Educational Associations in Lausanne (June 26 and 27, 1859)

Our hero takes to his heels and with undiminished pleasure he retreats to—Arcadia. We meet him again in a "secluded corner of Switzerland", in Lausanne, at a "Joint Festival" of a number of German workers' educational' associations which took place towards the end of June. Here Karl Vogt saved Switzerland for the second time. While Catiline was sitting in London, our Cicero with the gay-coloured jacket thundered in Lausanne:

"Jam, jam intelligis me acrius vigilare ad salutem, quam te ad perniciem reipublicae."

By happy chance there exists an authentic report on the above-mentioned "Joint Festival" and on the deed of valour performed during it by our "well-rounded character". Written by Herr G. Lommel with the collaboration of Vogt, it is entitled Das Centralfest der Deutschen Arbeiterbildungsvereine in der Westschweiz (Lausanne 1859), Geneva, 1859, Markus Vaney, rue de la Croix d'or. Let us compare the authentic report with the "Magnum Opus", which appeared five months later. The report contains Cicero-Vogt's speech "delivered by himself" and in it he begins by explaining the mystery of his presence at this gathering. He appears among the workers, he harangues them, because

"grave accusations have latterly been made against him, accusations which, if they were true, were bound utterly to destroy the confidence placed in him and completely undermine all his political activities". "I have come," he goes on, "I have specifically come here to protest publicly against the" (above-mentioned) "malicious underhand dealings" (Report, pp. 6-7).

He has been accused of Bonapartist intrigues, he has to rescue his political activities and as is his wont he defends his skin with his tongue. After indulging in empty talk for an hour and a half, he recollects Demosthenes' admonition that "action, action and once again action is the soul of eloquence".

But what is action? In America there is a small animal called a skunk which has only one method of defending itself at moments of extreme danger: its offensive smell. When attacked it releases a substance from certain parts of its body which, if it touches your clothes, will ensure that they have to be burnt and, if it touches your skin, will banish you for a period from all human society. The smell is so horribly offensive that when hunters see that their dogs have accidentally started a skunk they will hurriedly take to their heels in greater panic than if they had found that a wolf or a tiger was pursuing them. For powder and lead is an adequate defence against wolves and tigers, but no antidote has been found to the a posteriori of a skunk.

That is what action is, says our orator, a naturalised citizen of the "Kingdom of Animals", and bespatters his supposed persecutors with the following skunk-like effluent:

"But I would like to warn you of one thing above all else, and that is of the machinations of a small group of depraved men whose aims and efforts are all directed towards seducing the worker away from his job, implicating him in conspiracies and communist intrigues, and finally, after living from the sweat of his brow, driving him cold-bloodedly" (i. e. after he has finished sweating) "to his destruction. Now once again this small group is using every possible method" (just keep it as general as possible!) "to ensnare the workers' associations in its toils. Whatever they may say" (about Vogt's Bonapartist intrigues) "you may rest assured that their true aim is to exploit the worker for their own selfish ends and finally to abandon him to his fate" (Report, p. 18. See Appendix).

The shameless impertinence with which this "skunk" accuses me and my friends of "living from the sweat of the workers' brow", when we have always sacrificed our private interests in order to defend those of the working class, and have done this gratis, is not even original. The mouchards of the December Gang hurled similar slanders at Louis Blanc, Blanqui, Raspail, etc. And not only that, for at all times and in all places the sycophants of the ruling class have always resorted to these despicable slanders to denigrate the literary and political champions of the oppressed classes. (See Appendix 5.)

After this action our "well-rounded character" is incidentally no longer able to keep a straight face. The buffoon goes on to compare his "persecutors" who are walking about freely, with the "Russians taken prisoner at Zorndorf". And he compares himself with—who would have guessed it!—Frederick the Great. Falstaff-Vogt remembers that Frederick the Great ran away from the first battle at which he was present. How much greater then is he who ran away without even waiting for the battle.

Thus far the adventures of the Joint Festival at Lausanne according to the authentic report. And "now just look" (as Fischart puts it) "at our clammy-handed, parasitically stout, slovenly cook and pot holder" and see what a fine police purée à la Eulenspiegel he serves up five months later for the benefit of the German philistines.

"They wanted at all costs to create complications in Switzerland ; some sort of blow was to be aimed ... at the policy of neutrality. I was informed that the Joint Festival of the Workers' Educational Associations was to be used to induce the workers to follow a route which they had firmly rejected. It was hoped that the lovely Festival would provide an opportunity for forming a secret committee to enter into communication with like-minded people in Germany and take God knows what steps" (Vogt does not know, even though he was informed). "There were all sorts of dark rumours and mysterious talk about the active intervention of the workers in German political affairs.

I at once, resolved to oppose these intrigues and to exhort the workers anew to turn a deaf ear to all proposals of this sort. At the conclusion of the speech referred to above I gave a solemn warning, etc." ("Magnum Opus", pp. 180 [-81]).

Cicero-Vogt has already forgotten that at the start of his speech he let slip what had brought him to the Joint Festival—not the neutrality of Switzerland but the need to save his own skin. His speech does not contain a single word about the intended plot against Switzerland, the conspiratorial intentions at the Joint Festival, the secret committee, the active intervention of the workers in German politics or proposals of "this" or any other "sort". Not a word about all these Stieberiads. His final warning was nothing but the warning of the honest Sikes in the Old Bailey who warned the jurymen not to listen to the "infamous" detectives who had caught him stealing.

"The events which immediately followed," Falstaff-Vogt declares ("Magnum Opus", p. 181), "confirmed my forebodings."

What does he mean, forebodings! But Falstaff has already forgotten that a few lines before he did not have "forebodings", but that he had been "informed", informed of the plans of the conspirators, and informed in detail! And what, you vengeful angel, were the events which immediately followed?

"An article in the Allgemeine Zeitung imputed tendencies to the Festival and to the life of the workers which these" (i. e. the Festival and the life) "did not in the least have in mind." (Just as Vogt had imputed tendencies to the Murten Congress and the workers' organisations in general.) "This article and a reprint of it in the Frankfurter Journal led to a confidential inquiry from the Ambassador of a South German state in which the Festival was given the importance"—" imputed " to it by the article in the Allgemeine Zeitung and the reprint in the Frankfurter Journal ?—by no means!—"which it ought to have had if the intentions of the Brimstone Gang had not been frustrated."

Ought to have had! Yes indeed! Although the most superficial comparison of the "Magnum Opus" and the authentic report on the Joint Festival is enough to clear up the mystery of Cicero-Vogt's second rescue of Switzer-land, I nevertheless wished to ascertain whether there was any factual basis, however slender, that might have given him the "matter" which provided him with his "energy". I wrote, therefore, to the editor of the authentic report, Herr G. Lommel in Geneva. Herr Lommel must have been on friendly terms with Vogt since he not only collaborated with him on the report on the Joint Festival in Lausanne but also, in a subsequent pamphlet about the Schiller and Robert Blum memorial celebrations in Geneva, he covered up the fiasco that Vogt had brought upon himself there. In his reply of April 13, 1860, Herr Lommel, who is personally unknown to me, wrote:

"Vogt's story that he had frustrated a dangerous conspiracy in Lausanne is the sheerest fairy-tale or lie ; he only went to Lausanne because it was an opportunity to make a speech which he could afterwards print. In the speech, which lasted 1½ hours, he defended himself against allegations that he was in the pay of Bonaparte. I still have the manuscript in safe keeping."

A Frenchman living in Geneva, when asked about the same Vogtian conspiracy, replied bluntly:

"Il faut connaître cet individu" (namely Vogt), "surtout le faiseur, l'homme important, toujours hors de la nature et de la vérité."

Vogt himself declares on p. 99 of his so-called Studien that he "had never laid claim to prophetic gifts". But we know from the Old Testament that the ass could see what the prophet had missed. And so we can understand how Vogt managed to see the conspiracy which in November 1859 he had forebodings of having "frustrated" in June 1859.

6. Miscellany

"If my memory does not deceive me," our Parliamentary Clown writes, "the circular" (i. e. an alleged address to the proletarians dated London 1850) "was indeed written by a follower of Marx's known as Parliamentary Wolf, and it was allowed to fall into the hands of the Hanover police. Here too we find this same channel turning up in the history of the circular 'of the patriots to the men of Gotha'" ("Magnum Opus", p. 144).

A channel turns up! A prolapsus ani, perhaps, you zoological jester? As to "Parliamentary Wolf"—and we shall see later on why, like a bad dream, Parliamentary Wolf weighs so heavily on the memory of our Parliamentary Clown—he published the following statement in the Berlin Volks-Zeitung, the Allgemeine Zeitung and the Hamburg Reform:

"Statement. Manchester, February 6, 1860: I see from the letter of a friend that the National-Zeitung (No. 41 of this year) has brought the following passage to the attention of the public in a leading article based on Vogt's pamphlet:

"'In 1850 another circular was dispatched from London to the proletarians in Germany, written, as Vogt believes he remembers, by Parliamentary Wolf, alias Casemate Wolf. The circular was allowed simultaneously to fall into the hands of the Hanover police.' I have seen neither the relevant issue of the National-Zeitung nor the Vogt pamphlet and would like therefore to direct my answer solely to the passage just cited:

"1. In 1850 I was living not in London but in Zurich, and I did not move to London until the summer of 1851.

"2. I have never in the whole of my life written a circular addressed either to 'proletarians' or to anyone else.

"3. As to the insinuation about the Hanover police I hereby return this shamelessly invented accusation to its author with contempt. If the remainder of Vogt's pamphlet is as full of impudent lies as the part that refers to me it is a worthy fellow to the fabrications of Chenu, de la Hodde & Co.

W.Wolff"

There you are: just as Cuvier could construct the whole skeleton of an animal from a single bone, Wolff has correctly constructed Vogt's whole fabrication from a single fragmentary quotation. Karl Vogt can indeed stand beside Chenu and de la Hodde as primus inter pares. The last "proof" adduced by Vogt, who is still "by no means at a loss", to demonstrate my entente cordiale with .the secret police in general and "my relations with the Kreuz-Zeitung party in particular", consists in the argument that my wife is the sister of the retired Prussian Minister Herr von Westphalen ("Magnum Opus", p. 194). Now how to parry the cowardly stratagem of our fat Falstaff? Perhaps the Clown will forgive my wife the cognate Prussian Minister when he learns of the agnate Scotsman who was beheaded in the market-place in Edinburgh as a rebel in the war of liberation against James II. It is well known that it is only by accident that Vogt still carries his own head around. For at the Robert Blum celebrations of the German Workers' Educational Association in Geneva (November 13, 1859) he reported

"how the Left of the Frankfurt Parliament was for a long time undecided who to send to Vienna, Blum or him. Finally, the matter was decided by lot, by drawing a piece of straw, which fell upon Blum, or rather against him" (Die Schillerfeier zu Genf usw., Geneva, 1859, pp. 28, 29).

On October 13 Robert Blum set out from Frankfurt for Vienna. On October 23 or 24 a deputation of the extreme Left in Frankfurt arrived in Cologne on the way to the Democratic Congress in Berlin. I met these gentlemen, among whom were several Members of Parliament who had close bonds with the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. These parliamentarians, of whom one was summarily shot during the campaign for the Imperial Constitution, a second died in exile, while the third still lives, whispered all sorts of strange and sinister stories in my ear about Vogt's intrigues in connection with Robert Blum's mission to Vienna. However,

Bid me not speak, bid me be silent, To keep the secret I am bound.

The Robert Blum celebrations of November 1859 in Geneva to which we have already referred treated our "well-rounded character" most unkindly. On entering the premises, waddling like an obsequious Silenus at the heels of his patron, James Fazy, a worker was heard to say: There's Harry with Falstaff after him. When he told a delightful anecdote designed to present himself as the alter ego of Robert Blum, it was only with difficulty that some infuriated workers were prevented from storming the podium. And when, finally, forgetting how he had frustrated the revolution in June, he himself "called yet again for the barricades" (Schillerfeier, p. 29) a mocking echo repeated: "Barricades—shmarricades!" Abroad, however, people know so well just what value they are to place on Vogt's revolutionary mouthings that the "confidential inquiry from a South German Ambassador", usually unavoidable, was unforthcoming on this occasion and no article appeared in the Allgemeine Zeitung. Vogt's entire Stieberiad from the "Brimstone Gang'' to the "retired Minister" reveals the sort of Mastersinger of whom Dante says:

Ed egli avea fatto del cul trombetta.