XII. Appendices

• • 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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1. Schily's Expulsion from Switzerland

A letter from Schily about his expulsion from Switzerland which exemplifies the treatment meted out to non-parliamentary refugees can unfortunately only be printed in extract, owing to lack of space. The letter begins by recounting how two German refugees, B. and I., both friends of Schily, left Geneva, were arrested during their journey through Switzerland and, having been liberated by Druey, returned again to Geneva.

"At their request," Schily continues, "I went to Fazy to find out whether anyone was looking for them and he reassured me by saying that there was no reason at Cantonal level to disturb their incognito and that no inquiries about them had reached him at Federal level either. I would do well, however, to have an interview with the chef du département de justice et de police, M. Girard, mentioning his name and what he had told me. This I did, with more or less the same success and leaving my address behind in case there were any Federal inquiries. A few weeks later I was visited by a police officer who requested me to give him the address of B. and I. I refused, hurried around to the aforementioned Girard and upon being threatened by him with expulsion unless I gave him the address, I explained to him that according to our previous agreement I could be appealed to as an intermédiaire, but not as a dénonciateur. To which he replied: 'Vous avez l'air de vouloir vous interposer comme ambassadeur entre moi et ces réfugiés, pour traiter de puissance à puissance.' I replied: Je n'ai pas l'ambition d'être accrédité ambassadeur près de vous.' And in fact I was then dismissed , without any of the ceremony to which ambassadors are entitled. On my way home I learnt that B. and I. had just been discovered, and that they had been arrested and led off, so that I could regard Girard's threat as superseded by events. But I had reckoned without April 1, for on this ominous day in 1852 I was requested by a police officer, in the middle of the street, to accompany him to the Hôtel de Ville, where some questions were to be put to me. Once arrived there it was explained to me by State Councillor Tourte, the Genevan Commissar for the expulsion of refugees and ad latus to Trog, his counterpart at Federal level, who happened to be in Geneva at the time, that I was expelled and that he must send me to Berne without delay; all of this to his greatest regret, since there was no complaint against me at Cantonal level, but the Federal Commissar insisted on my expulsion. To my request to be allowed to see the latter he replied: 'Non, nous ne voulons pas que le commissaire fédéral fasse la police ici.' This statement, of course, contradicted his earlier one and in general he now abandoned his role of Genevan State Councillor, which consisted in resisting Federal demands for expulsion with liberal prudery, in yielding only to force, sometimes also yielding, with pleasure or resignation, to the application of gentle pressure. Another feature of this role was to noise it abroad that the person expelled was a spy and that it had been necessary to remove him in the interests of the 'good cause'.... Thus Tourte told the refugees afterwards that he had had to get rid of me because I was in league with the Federal Commissar, together with whom I had sought to frustrate his (Tourte's) measures to protect the refugees, i.e. that I was in league with the same Commissar who, much to his regret, had given orders to expel me. Quelles tartines!What lies and contradictions! And all for a little aura popularis! Of course, wind is what that gentleman uses to keep his balloon airborne. Grand Councillor and State Councillor of Geneva, member of the Swiss Council of States or National Council, a born Counsellor of Confusion, he needs only to become a member of the Federal Council to ensure that Switzerland will enjoy peaceful days in accordance with the saying: Providentia Dei et confusione hominum Helvetia salva fuit."

On arriving in London Schily sent a letter of protest about Tourte's slander to the Genevan Indépendant, which was under the influence of Raisin, whom we shall mention later, and which had shortly before printed a scathing attack on the assinine slanderous fabrications with which "the liberal faiseurs were driving the refugees out of Switzerland". His letter was not published.

"From the Hôtel de Ville in Geneva," Schily continues, "I was transferred to gaol, and on the following day I was sent by mail coach to Berne with a police guard. There M. Druey held me in close confinement for two weeks in the so-called Old Tower...."

In his correspondence with the imprisoned Schily, which we shall refer to in due course, Druey placed all the guilt on the Canton of Geneva, while for his part Tourte had asserted that the entire responsibility lay with the Federal authorities, since there was no complaint against him on the part of the Canton of Geneva. He had received a similar assurance shortly before from Raisin, the Genevan examining magistrate. Schily has this to say, among other things, about the latter gentleman:

"On the occasion of the Federal Shooting Competition which was held in Geneva in the summer of 1851, Raisin had taken over the editorship of the Journal du tir fédéral, which appeared in French and German. He engaged me to work on the paper, promising me a fee of 300 francs in exchange for which I was supposed inter alia to record flagrante delicto the opening and closing speeches in German of the President of the Committee Tourte. I owe a debt of gratitude to Tourte for having made my task much easier by his habit of addressing more or less the same enthusiastic words to the various deputations of marksmen, varying his phrases slightly according to whether he was eulogising the Bear of Berne, the Bull of Uri, or other members of the Confederation. In particular, when he would come to the refrain 'But if the moment of danger ever arrives, then we shall, etc.', I would calmly lay down my pen and when Raisin asked why, I could answer: c'est le refrain du danger, je le sais par coeur, Instead of my hard-earned fee of 300 francs, I managed only to extract 100 from Raisin, and only with the greatest difficulty although he did open up the prospect of collaborating on a political review he intended to establish in Geneva in order to be independent of all the existing parties and be able to oppose any side and especially the then 'liberal' government of Fazy and Tourte, even though he belonged to it himself. He was the very man for such an enterprise—able, as he used to boast, 'd'arracher la peau à qui que ce soit'.... Accordingly, he commissioned me to establish contacts for this journal in the course of a journey through Switzerland which I undertook after my Federal Shooting labours. I did so and on my return I drew up a written report on the results achieved. In the meantime, however, the wind had begun to blow from another direction and he found himself returning full sail from his expedition of piracy into the peaceful harbour of the existing government. J'en étais donc pour mes frais et honoraires, for which I vainly pestered him and continue to do so to this day, and have still received nothing even though he is now a wealthy man.... Shortly before my arrest he asserted categorically that there was no question of my being expelled, his friend Tourte had himself assured him that it was not necessary for me to take any preventive measures with regard to Girard's threats, etc. ... In reply to a letter which I sent him de profundis, from my old prison tower, asking him for a small instalment of the money he owed me and for an explanation of the incident (my arrest, etc.), he preserved a stubborn silence, even though he assured the person who brought him the message that he would comply with all my requests....

"A few months later I received a letter from K., a reliable, unprejudiced man, informing me that my expulsion had been the work of the refugee parliamentarians, and this was confirmed mordicus by a few lines written by Ranickel, which he enclosed. This view was also confirmed by many experienced observers with whom I later had an opportunity to discuss the matter.... Yet I did not hate the parliamentarians like that hyena Reinach, who used to drag the late-lamented Imperial Regent Vogt, day after day, from the Imperial tomb to the dinner table in Berne where Vogt sat like the reincarnation of the 'chained Prometheus', and then, entre poire et fromage, would savagely devour both his mummy and the reincarnated form to the horror of those present. It is true that I was no admirer of the parliamentarians' deeds, quite the reverse! But is it likely that these gentlemen intended to punish me for this by an Imperial ban—regarding ding Switzerland as part of the Empire because both the Imperial Constitution and the most recent resolution of the Imperial Diet lie buried there? I think it more likely that the presumption of their persecution of myself is connected with the parliamentary rebellion mentioned in my previous letter against the Geneva Refugee Committee formed by myself, Becker and a number of Genevan citizens.... Why these gentlemen wished to usurp the right to distribute the refugee funds was a matter about which even they differed among themselves. Some of them, among them Dentzel from the little Chamber of Baden, preferred, contrary to our practice of giving aid above all to penniless workers, to wipe away the tears of professional sufferers, heroes of the revolution, patriotic sons of the nation, who had seen better days.... Is fecit cui prodest, as the saying goes in the trade, and since my activities were, it is true, inconvenient to these gentlemen, the suspicion arose that they had made use of their influence in important places to bring about my removal. It was known that they had the aurem principis or, at any rate, they were close enough to it to whisper something or other about my restiveness, and that princeps Tourte especially had frequently gathered them around himself...."

Having described how he was moved from the Old Tower in Berne to Basle and then over the French frontier, Schily continues:

"As far as the expense entailed in expelling refugees is concerned, I cherish the hope that the costs were defrayed not by the Federal Treasury, but by that of the Holy Alliance. For one day a considerable time after our entry into Switzerland, Princess Olga was sitting at luncheon in a Berne restaurant with the Russian chargé d'affaires there. Entre poire et fromage (sans comparaison to the terrible Reinach) Her Highness remarked to her table companion: 'Eh bien, Monsieur le baron, avez-vous encore beaucoup de réfugiés ici?' 'Pas mal, Princesse,' he replied, 'bien que nous en ayons déjà beaucoup renvoyé. M. Druey fait de son mieux à cet égard, et si de nouveaux fonds nous arrivent, nous en renverrons bien encore.' This was overheard and passed on to me by the waiter on duty, a quondam volunteer in the Imperial campaign where he served under my august command."

During Schily's removal his travel-effects vanished mysteriously and irretrievably.

"It has remained a mystery to this very day how my effects could have vanished in Le Havre from the chaos of bundles accompanying a German émigré train (into which we had been incorporated in Basle by Klenk, the emigration agent, whom the Federal authorities had hired to transport us to Le Havre, with the result that all the luggage belonging to the refugees and emigrants had become hopelessly confused), unless it had been achieved with the aid of a list of the refugees and their baggage. Perhaps the Swiss Consul in Le Havre, the merchant Wanner, to whom we were sent for further transportation, knows more about it. He promised that we would be fully compensated. Druey later confirmed this promise in a letter which I sent to Advocate Vogt in Berne to enable him to pursue the matter in the Federal Council. However, I have not been able to get it back from him up to now, nor have I ever received a reply to any of the letters I wrote to him. On the other hand, in the summer of 1856 my complaint was rejected by the Federal Council and I was warned to keep the peace, without being given any reasons for this decision....

"All this and all the expulsions involving so many gendarmes, handcuffs, etc., are mere trivia, however, compared to the peculiarly cosy good-neighbourly arrangement of sending home the so-called less serious offenders of the Baden campaign, providing them with special travel passes and directing them to report on their arrival to the local authorities where, instead of being allowed to resume their occupations, as they had been led to expect, they were subjected to all sorts of unexpected penances. The silent sufferings of all those extradited in this way (for extradition is the correct word) are still waiting for their chronicler and avenger.

"The Swiss Tacitus speaking of Switzerland says that it does a man credit 'if his faults may be mentioned without detracting from his greatness'. There is no lack of materials for praise of this kind; to praise Switzerland in this manner does not spoil its figure ... qui aime bien châtie bien. And in fact I for my part have an irrepressible love for Switzerland by and large. I like both the country and the people. Keeping a gun as part of his household equipment, always ready and skilful in using it to protect historical traditions of good repute and modern achievements of good quality, the Swiss in my eyes definitely deserves respect. He is entitled to the sympathies of others because he himself feels sympathy for others who struggle to improve their situation. 'I would rather that God had lost his best pair of angels,' a Swiss farmer said in his annoyance at the failure of the South German uprising. He might not have been prepared to risk a team of his horses for it, but he would have been more likely to risk his skin and his gun. In his heart of hearts the Swiss is not neutral, even if he practises neutrality because of, and in order to preserve, his inherited possessions. Incidentally the old crust of neutrality which cloaks his better nature will probably soon burst asunder with all these foreign feet trampling on it—for that is after all the essence of neutrality—and there will be a big bang and that will clear the air."

Thus far Schily's letter. In the Prison Tower in Berne he was not able to arrange a personal meeting with Druey, but he did manage to exchange letters with that gentleman. In reply to a letter from Schily inquiring into the reasons for his arrest and asking permission to consult his lawyer, Herr Wyss in Berne, Druey wrote on April 9, 1852:

"... L'autorité genèvoise a ordonné votre renvoi du Canton, vous a fait arrêter et conduire à Berne à la disposition de mon département, parce que vous vous êtes montré un des réfugiés les plus remuants et que vous avez cherché à cacher I. et B., que vous vous étiez engagé à représenter à l'autorité. Pour ce motif et parce que votre séjour ultérieur en Suisse nuirait aux relations internationales de la Confédération, le Conseil fédéral a ordonné votre renvoi du territoire suisse, etc.... Comme votre arrestation n'a pas pour but un procès criminel ou correctionnel, mais une mesure de haute politique ... il n'est pas nécessaire que vous consultiez l'avocat. D'ailleurs, avant de ... autoriser l'entrevue que vous me demandez avec M. l'avocat Wyss, je désire savoir le but de cette entrevue."

The letters which Schily was permitted, after numerous complaints, to write to his friends in Geneva had all to be submitted beforehand to M. Druey to inspect. In one of these letters Schily used the expression "Vae victis". Druey wrote to him about it in a letter dated April 19, 1852:

"Dans le billet que vous avez adressé à M. J., se trouvent les mots: vae victis... Cela veut-il dire que les autorités fédérales vous traitent en vaincu? S'il en était ainsi, ce serait une accusation mensongère, contre laquelle je devrais protester."

Schily replied to the mighty Druey in a letter dated April 21, 1852:

"Je ne pense pas, M. le conseiller fédéral, que cette manière de caractériser les mesures prises à mon égard puisse me valoir le reproche d'une accusation mensongère; du moins un pareil reproche ne serait pas de nature à me faire revenir de l'idée que je suis traité avec dureté; au contraire, adressé à un prisonnier, par celui qui le tient en prison, une telle réponse me paraîtrait une dureté de plus."

Towards the close of March 1852, shortly before Schily's arrest and the deportation of other unparliamentary refugees, the reactionary Journal de Genève published all sorts of wild gossip about communist plots among the German refugees in Geneva: Herr Trog was said to be busy cleaning out a nest of German communists with a brood of 84 communist dragons inside it, etc. Alongside this reactionary Genevan paper a scribbler in Berne who belonged to the parliamentary gang—it must be assumed that it was Karl Vogt since he repeatedly claims in the "Magnum Opus" that it was he who had rescued Switzerland from the clutches of the communist refugees—was busy spreading similar news in the Frankfurter Journal over the initials "ss". For example, he wrote that the Genevan Committee to aid German refugees, a committee consisting of communists, had been overthrown because of its inequitable distribution of the available funds, and that it had been replaced by upright men (namely parliamentarians) who would soon put an end to these evil practices. He wrote further that the dictator of Geneva seemed at last to be prepared to comply with the ordinances of the Federal Commissars, since two German refugees belonging to the communist faction had shortly before been put under arrest and brought from Geneva to Berne, etc. The Schweizerische National-Zeitung, which appears in Basle, published an answer from Geneva in its issue No. 72, of March 25, 1852, in which it said inter alia:

"Every unbiassed person knows that just as Switzerland is concerned only with the consolidation and constitutional development of its political achievements, so too the feeble remnants of the German emigration in this country are occupied entirely with earning their daily bread and other perfectly harmless pursuits, and that the fairy-tales about communism are the product of hallucinations on the part of philistines or else are concocted by politically or personally interested informers."

After the Berne parliamentary correspondent of the Frankfurter Journal had been described as one of these informers—the article concludes:

"The refugees here are of the opinion that in their ranks there are a number of so-called 'decent men' on the pattern of the former 'Biedermen and Bassermen of the Empire' who, driven by nostalgia for the flesh-pots of home, seek to pave the way for their own pardon at the hands of their native rulers by reactionary expectorations of this kind. We should like to send them our best wishes for a speedy departure as they will then cease to compromise the refugees and the government that gives them asylum."

Schily was known to the refugee parliamentarians as the author of this article. It appeared in the Basle National-Zeitung on March 25, and on April 1 Schily's wholly unmotivated arrest took place. "Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?"

2. The Revolutionary Congress in Murten

After the Murten scandal the German refugees in Geneva, with the exception of the. refugee parliamentarians, issued a protest addressed "To the Supreme Department of Justice and the Police of the Confederation", from which I print the following passage:

"... The monarchs did not rest content with their previous diplomatic gains. They rattled their sabres all around Switzerland and threatened military occupation so as to make a clean sweep of the refugees. The Federal Council at any rate has expressed its concern about this danger in an official document. And lo and behold! There were further deportations, justified this time by the notorious assembly in Murten and the claim that traces of political and propagandistic activities had been uncovered by the investigation following it. As far as the facts are concerned this claim must be categorically rejected.... From the legal point of view, however, it is important to bear in mind that wherever the rule of law obtains, actions proscribed by the law can only be punished by penalties laid down by the law, and this holds good for deportation too, if it is not to appear as the arbitrary action of the police. Or was perhaps here too the intention to play off diplomacy against us and to say: we have been forced to act thus out of consideration for foreign powers, in the interests of international relations? Very well, then, if this is the position, the cross of the Confederation should hide its head in shame before the Turkish crescent, which, when the myrmidons searching for refugees knock on the Porte, shows its horns and does not eat humble pie. If this is the position, then give us our passports so that we can go to Turkey and when the door has closed behind us, hand over the keys to the Swiss bastion of liberty to the Holy Alliance as a feudum oblatum, and hold them in future as the insignia of chamberlains of the Holy Alliance, with the motto: Finis Helvetiae!"

3. Cherval

I realised from Joh. Ph. Becker's letter that the "associate of Marx" or the "associates" of Cherval mentioned by the Vogt of the Empire could only be Herr Stecher, now resident in London. Up to that time I had not had the honour of making his personal acquaintance, although I had heard many complimentary descriptions of his great and many-sided artistic talents. In consequence of Becker's letter we met for the first time. The following is a letter from my "associate" to me.

"17 Sussex St., London W. C. October 14, 1860

"Dear Herr Marx,

"I am glad to be able to give you some information about Nugent (Cherval-Crämer) who was mentioned in Vogt's pamphlet of which you were kind enough to send me an extract. In March 1853 I came to Geneva after a trip to Italy. Nugent arrived in Geneva at around the same time and I made his acquaintance in a lithography workshop. I had myself just taken up lithography and since Nugent had a thorough knowledge of it, and since he was extremely agreeable, energetic and industrious by nature, I accepted his proposal to share an atelier with him. What Vogt says about Nugent's activities in Geneva is roughly the same as what I heard for myself at the time, if you discount the usual exaggerations to be expected from journalists or pamphleteers. There was very little success. I knew only one of the group, a good-natured and hard-working, but otherwise imprudent and light-minded young man. And since he was one of the leaders it must be presumed that N. was everything in the group and the others nothing but curious listeners. I am convinced that neither stone nor copper plates were ever engraved, although I heard N. talk of such matters. My own acquaintances were mainly Genevans and Italians. I was aware that Iater on I was thought to be a spy by Vogt and other German refugees, whom I did not know. But I took no notice of it—the truth will always out. I was not even offended; it was so easy to arouse suspicion as there were spies aplenty and to discover who they were was not always a simple matter. I am almost certain that Nugent did not correspond with anyone in Geneva after he had been expelled from there. I later received two letters from him inviting me to join him in Paris to help him with a project on medieval architecture, which I did. In Paris I found Nugent to be utterly remote from politics and correspondence. All this of course suggests that I myself could be 'the associates of Marx' since I neither saw nor heard of anyone else whom Nugent had induced to come to Paris. Of course Herr Vogt could not know that I had never had any contact with you, either direct or indirect, and that I probably never would have had, if I had not moved to London where by chance I have had the pleasure of meeting you and your esteemed family.

"With best wishes to you and your ladies, H. Cal. Stecher"

4. The Communist Trial in Cologne

In this section I wish to make public information concerning the Prussian Embassy in London and its correspondence with Prussian authorities on the Continent during the Cologne trial. This information is based on the confessions of Hirsch which were published by A. Willich in April 1853 in the New-Yorker Criminal-Zeitung under the title "Die Opfer der Moucharderie, Rechtfer tigungsschrift von Wilhelm Hirsch". Hirsch, who is at present in a Hamburg gaol, was the principal tool of Police Lieutenant Greif and his agent Fleury. It was on instructions from them and under their direction that he forged the false Minute-Book submitted as evidence by Stieber in the course of the communist trial. I give here a number of excerpts from Hirsch's memoirs.

(During the Great Exhibition) "the German associations were kept under surveillance by a police triumvirate: Police Superintendent Stieber for Prussia, a Herr Kubesch for Austria and Police Commissioner Huntel of Bremen".

Having volunteered to act as an informer, Hirsch had an interview in London with Alberts who was Secretary at the Prussian Embassy. He gives this account of their first meeting:

"The meetings of the Prussian Embassy in London with its secret agents take place at a public house well fitted for the purpose. The Cock, in Fleet St., Temple Bar, is so unobtrusive that but for a golden cock pointing to the entrance the casual passer-by would hardly notice it. I went through a narrow passage leading to the interior of this old English tavern and asked for Mr. Charles, whereupon a corpulent personage introduced himself to me with such an amiable smile that anyone seeing us would have taken us to be old friends. The Embassy agent (for this is what he was) seemed to be in very high spirits and his mood was still further improved by brandy and water. He enjoyed it so much that for a long time he seemed to have completely forgotten the purpose of our meeting. Mr. Charles at once revealed that his true name was Alberts and that he was the Embassy Secretary. To begin with, he informed me that in fact he had nothing to do with the police but that he would act as an intermediary in this case... A second meeting took place at his home in 39 Brewer St., Golden Square, and it was here that I made the acquaintance of Police Lieutenant Greif. Greif looked the true policeman: medium height, dark hair and a beard of the same colour cut in the regulation style, with the moustache meeting the side-whiskers and the chin left shaven. His eyes looked anything but intelligent and they protruded fiercely in a permanent glare, apparently the result of frequent association with thieves and rogues.... Like Herr Alberts, Herr Greif introduced himself to me by the pseudonym of Mr. Charles. The latest Mr. Charles was at least in a more serious mood and he even felt it was necessary to test me.... Our first meeting ended with his instructing me to give him an accurate report on all the activities of the revolutionary émigrés.... On the next occasion Herr Greif introduced me to what he called 'his right hand', namely 'one of his agents', he added. This turned out to be a tall elegantly dressed young man who also gave his name as Mr. Charles. The whole political police seems to have adopted this pseudonym and I now had three Charleses to deal with. The latest specimen seemed to be the most remarkable. He said that 'he too had been a revolutionary but that all things were possible and I had only to go along with him'"

Greif left London for some time and parted from Hirsch

"expressly commending me to the latest Mr. Charles who, he said, acted always on his instructions. I should not hesitate to confide in him. Moreover, even if certain things should appear strange to me I should not be surprised. To make this clearer he added: 'The Ministry sometimes requires various things, chiefly documents; if these are unobtainable we should find some way out!'"

Hirsch states further that the latest Charles was Fleury.

"He had earlier been employed in the office of the Dresdner Zeitung, which was edited by L. Wittig. When he was in Baden, he was, as a result of recommendations he had brought from Saxony, sent by the provisional government to the Palatinate to take in hand the organisation of the Landsturm, etc. When the Prussians occupied Karlsruhe he was taken prisoner, etc. He suddenly reappeared in London towards the end of 1850 or early in 1851; from the outset he went here by the name of de Fleury and was known by this name in refugee circles. He was hard up, at least he seemed to be, stayed in the refugee barracks set up by the Refugee Committee and drew subsidies. Early in the summer of 1851 his position suddenly improved; he moved into a respectable apartment and at the end of the year he married the daughter of an English engineer. He turned up later in Paris as a police agent.... His real name is Krause and he is the son of Krause the cobbler who was executed some 15 or 18 years ago in Dresden together with Backhof and Beseler for the murder of Countess Schönberg and her maid.... Fleury-Krause told me many times that he had been working for different governments since he was 14."

It is this same Fleury-Krause whom Stieber admitted in open court in Cologne to be a secret Prussian police agent working directly under Greif. In my Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne I wrote of Fleury:

"Fleury is not indeed the Fleur de Marie of the police prostitutes, but he is a flowerand he will bear blossom, albeit only fleurs-de-lys."

This prophecy has in a sense been fulfilled; some months after the communist trial Fleury was sentenced in England to several years in the hulks for forgery.

"As the right-hand man of Police Lieutenant Greif," Hirsch writes, "Fleury dealt directly with the Prussian Embassy during Greif's absence."

Fleury was in contact with Max Reuter who stole the letters. from Oswald Dietz, that time archivist of the Schapper-Willich League.

"Stieber," says Hirsch, "had learned from the agent of the Prussian Ambassador in Paris Hatzfeldt, the notorious Cherval, of the letters written by the latter to London. Stieber got Reuter to find out where they were, whereupon Fleury stole them on Stieber's orders and with Reuter's aid. These are the stolen letters which Herr Stieber was not ashamed to exhibit 'as such' to the jury in Cologne.... In autumn 1851 Fleury had been in Paris with Greif and Stieber after the latter had, through the mediation of Count Hatzfeldt, made contact with Cherval, or more correctly, Joseph Crämer with whose assistance he hoped to engineer a plot. With this end in view consultations were held in Paris between Messrs. Stieber, Greif, Fleury, two other police agents, Beckmann and Sommer, and the famous French spy Lucien de la Hodde (who went by the name of Duprez) and they gave Cherval directions according to which he was to tailor his correspondence. Fleury often laughed in my presence over the scuffle he had provoked between Stieber and Cherval. And the man called Schmidt who in the guise of secretary of a revolutionary league in Strasbourg and Cologne had gained admission to the society founded at the behest of the police by Cherval, was none other than M. de Fleury.... Fleury was undoubtedly the sole agent of the Prussian secret police in London and all proposals and offers that the Embassy received went through his hands.... Messrs. Greif and Stieber were accustomed to relying on his judgment."

Fleury informed Hirsch:

"Herr Greif has told you what has to be done.... At Police Headquarters in Frankfurt they are themselves of the opinion that our primary aim must be to make the position of the political police secure; the means we use to achieve this are immaterial; the September Plot in Paris is already one step in this direction."

Greif returned to London and expressed satisfaction with Hirsch's work but demanded more. In particular he wanted reports on "the secret meetings of Marx party".

"At all costs," the Police Lieutenant concluded, "we must draw up reports on the League meetings. Do it any way you wish as long as you don't overstep the limits of credibility. I am too occupied to attend to it myself. M. de Fleury will work with you as my representative."

Greif's occupation at that time consisted, as Hirsch states, in a correspondence via de la Hodde-Duprez with Maupas concerning the arrangements for the mock escape of Cherval and Gipperich from the St. Pélagie gaol. On being assured by Hirsch that

"Marx had not founded any new central organisation of the League in London ... Greif agreed with Fleury that in the circumstances we should for the time being prepare reports on meetings of the League ourselves. He, Greif, would vouch for their authenticity, and in any case his submissions would be accepted".

So Hirsch and Fleury set to work ."The content" of their reports on the secret meetings of the League I held

"was provided", Hirsch states, "by reports of discussions that took place from time to time; the admission of new members, the founding of new sections in obscure corners of Germany, or a new organisation; speculation to the effect that in Cologne Marx's imprisoned friends did or did not have any prospects of being released; letters that had come from this person or that, and so on. On this last point Fleury usually took care to mention people in Germany who had become suspect as a result of political investigations or who had been involved in some political activity or other. Very often, however, we had to have recourse to our imagination and then we would report on the activities of a non-existent member of the League. But Herr Greif said that the reports were excellent and that anyway we had to have them at all costs. Some of the writing was done by Fleury alone but mostly I had to help him as he was unable to describe the smallest detail without errors of style. In this way the reports came into being and without a moment's hesitation Herr Greif declared his willingness to vouch for their authenticity".

Hirsch then describes how Fleury and he visited Arnold Ruge in Brighton, and Eduard Meyen (of Tobian memory) and stole letters and lithographed material from them. Not content with this, Greif-Fleury rented a lithographic press from Stanbury Press, Fetter Lane, and together with Hirsch began to produce "radical pamphlets". That "democrat", F. Zabel, could learn a lesson or two here. Let him take note of this:

"The first pamphlet I" (Hirsch) "wrote was entitled An das Landproletariat at Fleury's suggestion; and we managed to make a few good copies of it. Herr Greif sent these copies as documents emanating from the Marx party. To make it seem more plausible we included in the reports of the so-called League meetings, which came into being in the manner described above, a few words about the dispatch of such a pamphlet. One other product of this kind was fabricated; its title was An die Kinder des Volkes and I do not know under whose auspices Herr Greif sent this one in. We later abandoned this trick chiefly because it was so costly."

At this point Cherval arrived in London after his mock escape from Paris and was attached to Greif at a weekly salary of £1 10s.,

"in return for which he was required to make reports on the contacts between the German and French émigrés".

Publicly exposed and expelled from the Workers' Society as a spy,

"Cherval very understandably described the German émigrés and their organs as being as insignificant as could be—since he found it quite impossible to get hold of any information on the subject which he could pass on. By way of compensation he compiled a report for Greif on the non-German revolutionary party which put Munchausen's tall stories in the shade".

Hirsch now returns to the Cologne trial.

"Herr Greif had already been questioned a number of times about the contents of the League reports prepared at his instance by Fleury in so far as they had any bearing on the Cologne trial.... There were also particular commissions in connection with the trial. On one occasion Marx was alleged to be corresponding with Lassalle via an 'ale-house' and the Public Prosecutor required further information.... Rather more naïve was the Public Prosecutor's request asking for precise information about the financial assistance that Lassalle in Düsseldorf was allegedly sending to the defendant Röser in Cologne ... it was believed that the true source of the money was in London."

I have already recounted in Section III, 4 how Fleury, acting on instructions from Hinckeldey, was to find someone in London who would be willing to appear before the jury in Cologne in the guise of H., the witness who had disappeared, etc. After a detailed account of this incident Hirsch goes on:

"Herr Stieber had meanwhile urgently requested Greif to supply him, if at all possible, with the original minutes of the League meetings that he had been reporting on. Fleury was of the opinion that he could produce an original minute-book if only the requisite people were available. Above all, however, he would need specimens of the handwriting of some of Marx's friends. I made use of this last remark in order to extricate myself from the whole undertaking; Fleury alluded to the topic only once again and after that he said nothing more. Around this time Stieber suddenly appeared in Cologne with a Minute-Book of the League's central organisation in London.... I was even more astonished when I found that the minutes as reported in extract in the papers were absolutely identical with the reports concocted by Fleury at Greif's behest. It was evident that Herr Greif or Herr Stieber himself had had a copy made somehow or other, for the minutes in this allegedly original document bore signatures while those submitted by Fleury had none. From Fleury himself I learned about this miracle only that 'Stieber can contrive anything, it will be a sensation!'"

As soon as Fleury heard that "Marx" had had the handwriting of the ostensible signatories of the minutes (Liebknecht, Rings, Ulmer, etc.) witnessed in a London Police Court he wrote the following letter:

"To the Royal Police Presidium in Berlin; dated from London.

"It is the intention of Marx and his friends here to discredit the signatures on the League Minutes by having handwriting specimens legally authenticated. These specimens are to be produced in the Court of Assizes as the really authentic ones. Everyone familiar with the English laws knows that on this point they can be manipulated and that a person who vouches for the authenticity of a thing does not actually give any true guarantee. The person who gives you this information does not recoil from giving you his name in a matter like this where the truth is at stake. Becker, 4, Litchfield St." "Fleury knew the address of Becker, a German refugee living in the same house as Willich. It might very easily happen later on that the suspicion of authorship would fall on the latter who was an opponent of Marx.... Fleury looked forward eagerly to the scandal that would result. The letter would be read out in court, but of course too late, he thought, for any doubts about its authenticity to arise before the trial was over.... The letter, signed by Becker, was addressed to the Police Presidium in Berlin, however it went not to Berlin but to 'Police Officer Goldheim, Frankfurter Hof in Cologne', and an envelope for this letter arrived at the Police Presidium in Berlin with a note stating that 'Herr Stieber in Cologne would give a complete explanation as to its use....' Stieber made no use of this letter; he was unable to do so because he was forced to drop the whole Minute-Book"

With regard to the Minute-Book Hirsch says that

"Herr Stieber declared" (in court) "that he had had the Minute-Book in his hands for two weeks but had scrupled to produce it; he declared further that it had come to him by a courier called Greif.... Hence Greif had personally delivered his own work. How can this be reconciled with a letter of Herr Goldheim's in which he informed the Embassy that 'the Minute-Book was produced so late only in order to avoid scrutiny as to its authenticity....'"

On Friday, October 29, Herr Goldheim arrived in London.

"As Herr Stieber had to face the fact that it was not possible to uphold the authenticity of the Minute-Book he sent a deputy to negotiate with Fleury about it on the spot. At issue was the question whether a proof could not be obtained after all. His discussions were fruitless and he returned without any decision having been reached. Fleury was left in a state of despair for Stieber was now resolved to expose him rather than compromise the police chiefs. But I did not realise that this was the cause of Fleury's disquiet until Herr Stieber made his declaration soon afterwards. In panic, M. Fleury now resorted to his last expedient. He brought me a specimen of handwriting for me to use to copy out a declaration, sign it 'Liebknecht' and take an oath before the Lord Mayor of London that I was Liebknecht.... Fleury told me that the handwriting was that of the person who had written the Minute-Book and that Herr Goldheim had brought it with him" (from Cologne). "But if Herr Stieber had received the Minute-Book per Greif, the courier from London, how was it possible for Herr Goldheim to bring a specimen of the handwriting of the alleged Minute-Book writer from Cologne at the very moment when Greif had just arrived back in London?.... What Fleury gave me consisted of a few phrases and a signature...." Hirsch "copied the handwriting as closely as he could and wrote that the undersigned, i.e. Liebknecht, declared that the signature of Liebknecht legally witnessed by Marx and Co. was false and that this, his signature was the only genuine one. When I had finished and had the handwriting in my hands" (i.e. the specimen given him by Fleury to copy), "which, fortunately I still possess, I told Fleury, who was not a little taken aback, that I had had second thoughts and would not go through with it. Inconsolable at first, he then announced that he would swear to it himself.... For safety's sake he would have the writing countersigned by the Prussian Consul; and he went to the Consulate at once. I waited for him in a tavern; when he got back he had the countersignature and he next went to the Lord Mayor to swear the oath. But the plan fell through as the Lord Mayor wanted further guarantees and Fleury could not give them—so the oath remained unsworn.... Late in the evening I saw M. de Fleury again, and for the last time. That very day he had been unpleasantly surprised to read Herr Stieber's declaration concerning him in the Kölnische Zeitung. 'But I know that Stieber could not have acted differently, otherwise he would have had to compromise himself,' M. de Fleury said very truly by way of consoling himself.... 'There will be a great explosion in Berlin if the Cologne prisoners are convicted,' M. de Fleury said to me at one of our last meetings".

Fleury's last meetings with Hirsch took place at the end of October 1852. Hirsch's confessions are dated the end of November 1852; and at the end of March 1853 came the "explosion in Berlin" (the Ladendorf conspiracy).

5. Slanders

When the communist trial in Cologne was over, Vogt-like calumnies about my "exploitation" of the workers were busily disseminated, especially in the German-American press. Some of my friends living in America—Messrs. J. Weydemeyer, Dr. A. Jacoby (a practising doctor in New York and one of the defendants in the Cologne communist trial) and A. Cluss (an official in the U.S. Navy Yard in Washington)—published a detailed refutation of these absurdities dated New York, November 7, 1853. Their article contained the comment that I was in the right to preserve silence about my private affairs insofar as it was a matter of gaining the approval of the philistines. "But when faced by the hostility of the mob, the philistines and the degenerate idlers, it does harm to the cause in our view and so we break that silence."

6. The War Between Frogs and Mice

In my pamphlet The Knight, etc., from which I quoted above, I wrote on p. 5:

"...On July 20, 1851 the 'Agitation Union' was founded, and on July 27, 1851 the German 'Émigré Club'. From that day ... dates the struggle on both sides of the ocean between the 'Émigrés' and the 'Agitators', the great war between frogs and mice.

Now who will give me words and who the tongue,

To sing of such brave deeds in sonorous sounds!

For ne'er was strife upon this earth begun

More proudly fought on bloodier battle grounds;

Compared to this all other wars are roses.

To tell of it my lyric art confounds

For on this earth there ne'er was seen such glory

Or noble valour bright as in this story.

(After Boiardo, Orlando innamorato, Canto 27.)"

Now it is by no means my intention to go into the details of "the story" of this strife or into the agreement entitled, verbotenus,"The Preliminary Agreement about the Treaty on the Alliance" (under which name it was publicised throughout the entire German-American press), which was reached between Gottfried Kinkel in the name of the Émigré Club, and A. Goegg on behalf of the "Revolutionary League of the Two Worlds", on August 13, 1852. I would only remark that with a few exceptions the entire parliamentary emigration joined in the farce on one side or the other. (Of course, names like K. Vogt were at that time avoided by every party if only for propriety's sake.)

At the end of his revolutionary pleasure and fund-raising tour of the United States, Gottfried Kinkel, the passion flower of German philistinism, wrote a "Denkschrift über das deutsche Nationalanlehn zur Förderung der Revolution", dated Elmira, N. Y., February 22, 1852, in which he gave vent to views which at least possess the merit of great simplicity. Gottfried believes that engineering a revolution is much like making a railway. Once the money is there, the railway, or the revolution will follow in due course. Whereas the nation should cherish a longing for revolution in its heart, the makers of revolution should have cash in their pockets, and everything therefore depends on "a small well-equipped band of men with a plentiful supply of money". It is remarkable into what bizarre byways of thought even melodramatic minds are driven by England's commercial wind. Since everything here, even public opinion, is organised with the aid of shares, why not float a joint-stock company "for the promotion of the revolution"?

In a public meeting with Kossuth, who was also engaged at that time on a revolutionary fund-raising campaign in the United States, Gottfried expressed himself in highly aesthetic terms:

"Even from your clean hands, Governor, the gift of freedom would be a bitter pill, and I would moisten it with the tears of my shame."

Hence Gottfried, having looked the gift-horse so sharply in the mouth, assured the governor that if the latter should present to him "the revolution in the east" with his right hand, he, Gottfried, would present to him "the revolution in the west" in return. Seven years later, in the Hermann, a paper he had founded himself, the very same Gottfried assured his readers that he was a man of rare consistency, and that having proclaimed the Prince Regentas Emperor of Germany before the military court in Rastatt, he had always kept this as his motto. Count Oskar Reichenbach, one of the three original regents and the Treasurer of the Revolutionary Loan, published the accounts in London on October 8, 1852, together with a statement in which he dissociated himself from the enterprise. At the same time he declared that "in any event I neither can nor will hand the money over to citizens Kinkel, etc." Instead he invited the shareholders to hand in their provisional loan certificates in exchange for the money in his hands. His own resignation as treasurer, etc., he said,

"was motivated by political and legal considerations.... The assumptions on which the idea of the loan was based have not been realised. The sum of 20,000 dollars which had to be raised before the loan could be proceeded with, has therefore not been acquired.... The proposal to found a periodical and to promote agitation found no echo. Only political charlatans or revolutionary monomaniacs could deem the loan to be practicable at present and imagine that an equitable, and hence impersonal, actively revolutionary use of the money by all party groups is possible at this moment."

But Gottfried's faith in revolution could not be shaken so easily and so he procured a "resolution" that allowed him to carry on the business under another name. Reichenbach's statement of the accounts contains some interesting data.

"The Trustees," he says, "cannot be held responsible for contributions which may have been made later by the committees to persons other than myself, and I would ask the committees to take note of this when calling in the certificates and settling accounts."

According to his computations £1,587 6s. 4d. was received, of which London, had contributed £2 5s., and "Germany" £9. The expenditure amounted to £584 18s. 5d. and was broken down as follows: Kinkel's and Hillgärtner's travel expenses: £220; other travel expenses: £54; lithographic press: £11; cost of provisional certificates: £14; lithographed correspondence, stamps, etc.: £106 1s. 6d. On Kinkel's instructions, etc.: £100.

The Revolutionary Loan ended up with £1,000, which Gottfried Kinkel keeps in the Westminster Bank as earnest money for the first German provisional government. And despite all this, there is still no provisional 'government. Perhaps Germany believes that 36 actual governments are quite sufficient.

Certain American loan funds which were not incorporated into the central London Treasury were at least employed here and there for patriotic purposes. Such was the case with the £100 which Gottfried Kinkel gave to Karl Blind early in 1858 to transform into "radical pamphlets", etc.

7. Palmerston-Polemic

"Council Hall, Sheffield, May 6th, 1856

"Doctor, "The Sheffield Foreign Affairs Committee instruct me to convey to you an expression of their warm thanks for the great public service you have rendered by your admirable exposé of the Kars-Papers published in the People's Paper.

"I have the honour, &c.

Wm. Cyples, Secretary

"Dr. Karl Marx"

8. Statement by Herr A. Scherzer

Herr A. Scherzer, a man who has played a praiseworthy role in the workers' movement since the 1830s, wrote to me from London on April 22, 1860:

"Dear Citizen, "I cannot let the occasion pass without protesting about a passage in the monstrous tissue of lies and the infamous calumnies of Vogt's pamphlet which concerns me personally. I am referring to the statement in Document No. 7, printed in the supplement to the Schweizer Handels-Courier, No. 150, of June 2, where it says: 'We know that at this very time fresh efforts are being made from London. Letters signed by A. Sch... are being sent from there to both associations and individuals, etc.' These 'letters' appear to be the reason why Herr K. Vogt wrote elsewhere in his book: 'At the beginning of this year (1859) a new arena for political agitation seemed to be opening up. The opportunity was seized in a moment so as to regain some influence if possible. The tactics have not altered in this respect for years. A committee about which "no-one knows nothing", as it says in the old song, circulates letters through an equally unknown president or secretary, etc., etc. Having reconnoitred the terrain in this manner, a number of "travelling brethren" turn up in the country and at once start to organise a secret league. The association which is to be compromised learns nothing of these goings-on which remain the work of a number of sectarian individuals. For the most part even the correspondence conducted in the name of the association remains quite unknown to it, but the letters refer always to "our association", etc., and the inquiries of the police, which follow inexorably, and are based on documents that have fallen into their hands, always affect the association as a whole, etc.'

"Why did Herr K. Vogt not print the whole letter which he alludes to in Document No. 7? Why not 'reconnoitre' the source he has relied on for his information? It would have been easy for him to discover that the public Workers' Educational Society in London chose its correspondence committee, to which I had the honour to be elected, in open session. When Herr Vogt speaks of unknown secretaries and the like, I am very pleased to be unknown to him, but am happy to be able to say that I am known to thousands of German workers, who have all derived benefit from the erudition of the men whom he vilifies now. Times have changed. The period of secret societies is past. It is ridiculous to talk of secret leagues or sects, when problems are dealt with openly in a workers' society, where strangers attend as visitors at every meeting. The letters signed by me were so formulated that it was impossible for anyone to come to harm in consequence. We German workers in London had only one interest at heart and that was to learn about the mood of the workers' associations on the Continent, and to found a newspaper which would represent the interests of the working class and which would do battle with writers in the pay of the enemy. It naturally did not occur to a single German worker to act in the interests of a Bonaparte, a thing of which only a Vogt or people of his kind are capable. We undoubtedly hate the despotism of Austria with a far deeper loathing than Herr Vogt, but we do not seek its defeat in the victory of another despot. Every people must liberate itself. Is it not striking that Herr Vogt arrogates for himself the very means which he accuses us of having used against his own activities? Herr Vogt asserts that he is not in the pay of Bonaparte, and that he only received money to set up a newspaper from democratic sources. In saying this he hopes to exonerate himself, but how can he be so obtuse, with all his learning, to cast suspicion on workers, and hurl accusations at them for concerning themselves with the well-being of their country and for making propaganda about the need to establish a newspaper?

"With my most sincere respects, A. Scherzer"

9. Blind's Article in The Free Press of May 27, 1859

"The Grand Duke Constantine to be King of Hungary

"A Correspondent, who encloses his card, writes as follows:—

"Sir,—Having been present at the last meeting in the Music Hall, I heard the statement made concerning the Grand Duke Constantine. I am able to give you another fact:—

"So far back as last summer, Prince Jérôme-Napoléon detailed to some of his confidants at Geneva a plan of attack against Austria, and prospective rearrangement of the map of Europe. I know the name of a Swiss senator to whom he broached the subject. Prince Jérôme, at that time, declared that, according to the plan made, Grand Duke Constantine was to become King of Hungary.

"I know further of attempts made, in the beginning of the present year, to win over to the Russo-Napoleonic scheme some of the exiled German Democrats, as well as some influential Liberals in Germany. Large pecuniary advantages were held out to them as a bribe. I am glad to say that these offers were rejected with indignation."

10. Herr Orges' Letters

"Dear Sir, "I heard today from Herr Liebknecht that you would be kind enough to put a legal document at our disposal, relating to the origins of the pamphlet against Vogt. May I ask you urgently to send it to us as quickly as possible, so that we can produce it in court. Please, send the document against a receipt and charge us for any expenses you may have incurred. Incidentally, my dear Sir, the liberal party sometimes misjudges the Allgemeine Zeitung. We (the editors) have gone through fire and water and have passed all the tests of political commitment. If you do not consider the separate piece of work, the individual article, but our whole activity you will probably come to realise that no German newspaper strives as we do, without haste, but without rest, for unity and freedom, power and culture, for spiritual and material progress, for greater patriotic awareness and higher moral standards of the German nation, and that no paper achieves more than ours. You should judge our deeds by their effects. Asking you once more most urgently to grant my request, and assuring you of my greatest respect,

"Yours sincerely, Hermann Orges

"Augsburg, 16/10"

The second letter, dated the same day, was only an extract of the first, and was posted, as Herr Orges states, "only for safety's sake". In it he likewise requests "the most urgent dispatch of the document about the origins of the well-known pamphlet against Vogt, a document which, as Herr Liebknecht writes, you have been so kind as to put at our disposal".

11. Circular Against K. Blind

I include here only the concluding section of my circular against Blind of February 4, 1860, which was written in English:

"Now, before taking any further step, I want to show up the fellows who evidently have played into the hands of Vogt. I, therefore, publicly declare that the statement of Blind, Wiehe and Hollinger, according to which the anonymous pamphlet was not printed in Hollinger's office, 3, Litchfield Street, Soho, is a deliberate lie. First, Mr. Vögele, one of the compositors, formerly employed by Hollinger, will declare upon oath that the said pamphlet was printed in Hollinger's office, was written in the hand-writing of Mr. Blind, and partly composed by Hollinger himself. Secondly, it can be judicially proved that the pamphlet and the article in Das Volk have been taken off the same types. Thirdly, it will be shown that Wiehe was not employed by Hollinger for eleven consecutive months, and, especially, was not employed by him at the time of the pamphlet's publication. Lastly, witnesses may be summoned in whose presence Wiehe himself confessed having been persuaded by Hollinger to sign the wilfully false declaration in the Augsburg Gazette. Consequently, I again declare the above said Charles Blind to be a deliberate liar.

Karl Marx"

From the London "Times", February 3rd.

"Vienna, January 30th.—The Swiss Professor Vogt pretends to know that France will procure for Switzerland Faucigny, Chablais, and the Genevese. the neutral provinces of Savoy, if the Grand Council of the Republic will let her have the free use of the Simplon."

12. Vögele's Affidavit

"I declare herewith: that the German flysheet Zur Warnung (A Warning) which was afterwards reprinted in No. 7 (d.d. 18th June 1859) of Das Volk (a German paper which was then published in London) and which was again reprinted in the Allgemeine Zeitung of Augsburg (the Augsburg Gazette)—that this flysheet was composed partly by Mr. Fidelio Hollinger of 3, Litchfield Street, Soho, London, partly. by myself, who was then employed by Mr. Fidelio Hollinger, and that the flysheet was published in Mr. F. Hollinger's Printing office, 3, Litchfield Street, Soho, London; that the manuscript of the said flysheet was in the handwriting of Mr. Charles Blind; that I saw Mr. F. Hollinger give to Mr. William Liebknecht of 14, Church Street, Soho, London, the proofsheet of the flysheet Zur Warnung; that Mr. F. Hollinger hesitated at first giving the proofsheet to Mr. W. Liebknecht, and, that, when Mr. W. Liebknecht had withdrawn, he, Mr. F. Hollinger, expressed to me, and to my fellow workman J. F. Wiehe, his regret for having given the proofsheet out of his hands.

"Declared at the Police Court, Bow Street, in the County of Middlesex, the eleventh day of February 1860, before me, Th. Henry, one of the Police Magistrates of the Metropolis.

"L.S.

A. Vögele"

13. Wiehe's Affidavit

"One of the first days of November last—I do not recollect the exact date—in the evening between nine and ten o'clock I was taken out of bed by Mr. F. Hollinger, in whose house I then lived, and by whom I was employed as compositor. He presented to me a paper to the effect, that, during the preceding eleven months I had been continuously employed by him, and that during all that time a certain German flysheet Zur Warnung (A Warning) had not been composed and printed in Mr. Hollinger's Office, 3, Litchfield Street, Soho. In my perplexed state, and not aware of the importance of the transaction, I complied with his wish, and copied, and signed the document. Mr. Hollinger promised me money, but I never received anything. During that transaction Mr. Charles Blind, as my wife informed me at the time, was waiting in Mr. Hollinger's room. A few days later, Mrs. Hollinger called me down from dinner and led me into her husband's room, where I found Mr. Charles Blind alone. He presented me the same paper which Mr. Hollinger had presented me before, and entreated me to write, and sign a second copy, as he wanted two, the one for himself, and the other for publication in the Press. He added that he would show himself grateful to me. I copied and signed again the paper.

"I herewith declare the truth of the above statements and that:

"1) During the 11 months mentioned in the document I was for six weeks not employed by Mr. Hollinger, but by a Mr. Ermani. 2) I did not work in Mr. Hollinger's Office just at that time when the flysheet Zur Warnung (A Warning) was published. 3) I heard at the time from Mr. Vögele, who then worked for Mr. Hollinger, that he, Vögele, had, together with Mr. Hollinger himself, composed the flysheet in question, and that the manuscript was in Mr. Blind's handwriting. 4) The types of the pamphlet were still standing when I returned to Mr. Hollinger's service. I myself broke them into columns for the reprint of the flysheet (or pamphlet) Zur Warnung (A Warning) in the German paper Das Volk published at London, by Mr. Fidelio Hollinger, 3, Litchfield Street, Soho. The flysheet appeared in No. 7, d. d. 18th June 1859, of Das Volk (The People). 5) I saw Mr. Hollinger give to Mr. William Liebknecht of 14, Church Street, Soho, London, the proofsheet of the pamphlet Zur Warnung, on which proofsheet Mr. Charles Blind with his own hand had corrected four or five mistakes. Mr. Hollinger hesitated at first giving the proofsheet to Mr. Liebknecht, and when Mr. Liebknecht had withdrawn, he, F. Hollinger, expressed to me and my fellow workman Vögele his regret for having given the proofsheet out of his hands.

"Declared and signed by the said Johann Friedrich Wiehe at the Police Court, Bow Street, this 8th day of February, 1860, before me Th. Henry, Magistrate of the said court.

"L.S.

Johann Friedrich Wiehe"

14. From the Trial Papers

"Gouvernement Provisoire

République Française. Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.

Au nom du Peuple Français

"Paris, 1 Mars 1848

"Brave et loyal Marx,

"Le Sol de la république française est un champ d'asile pour tous les amis de la liberté. La tyrannie vous a banni, la France libre vous rouvre ses portes, à vous et à tous ceux qui combattent pour la cause Sainte, la cause fraternelle de tous les peuples. Tout agent du gouvernement français doit interpréter sa mission dans ce sens. Salut et fraternité.

Ferdinand Flocon, Membre du gouvernement provisoire"" Bruxelles, le 19 Mai 1848

"Mon cher Monsieur Marx,

"J'entends avec un grand plaisir par notre ami Weerth que vous allez faire paraître à Cologne une Nouvelle Gazette Rhénane dont il m'a remis le prospectus. Il est bien nécessaire que cette feuille nous tienne au courant en Belgique des affaires de la démocratie allemande, car il est impossible d'en rien savoir de certain ici par la Gazette de Cologne, la Gazette Universelle d'Augsbourg et les autres gazettes aristocratiques de l'Allemagne que nous recevons à Bruxelles, non plus que par notre Indépendance Belge dont toutes les correspondances particulières sont conçues au point de vue des intérêts de notre aristocratie bourgeoise. M. Weerth me dit qu'il va vous joindre à Cologne pour contribuer à l'entreprise de la Nouvelle Gazette Rhénane: et il me promet en votre nom l'envoi de cette feuille en échange du Débat social que je vous enverrai de mon côté. Je ne demande pas mieux aussi que d'entretenir avec vous une correspondance sur les affaires communes à nos deux pays. Il est indispensable que les Belges et les Allemands ne restent pas trop étrangers les uns aux autres, dans l'intérêt commun des deux pays: car il se prépare en France des événements qui ne tarderont pas à mettre en jeu des questions qui toucheront les deux pays ensemble. Je reviens de Paris où j'ai passé une dizaine de jours que j'ai employés de mon mieux à me rendre compte de la situation de cette grande capitale. Je me suis trouvé, à la fin de mon séjour, juste au milieu des affaires du 15 mai. J'assistais même à la sèance où s'est passé le fait de l'irruption du peuple dans l'assemblée nationale.... Tout ce que j'ai compris, à voir l'attitude du peuple parisien et à entendre parler les principaux personnages qui sont en ce moment dans les affaires de la république française, c'est qu'on s'attend à une forte réaction de l'esprit bourgeois contre les événements de février dernier; les affaires du 15 mai précipiteront sans doute cette réaction. Or, celle-ci amènera indubitablement dans peu de temps un nouveau soulèvement du peuple... La France devra bientôt recourir à la guerre. C'est pour ce cas-là que nous aurons à aviser, ici et chez vous, sur ce que nous aurons à faire ensemble. Si la guerre se porte d'abord vers l'Italie nous aurons du répit... Mais si elle se porte sur-le-champ vers ce pays-ci je ne sais pas trop encore ce que nous aurons à faire, et alors nous aurons besoin du conseil des Allemands... En attendant j'annoncerai dans le Débat social de dimanche la publication prochaine de votre nouvelle feuille... Je compte aller à Londres vers la fin du mois de juin prochain. Si vous avez occasion d'écrire à Londres à quelques amis, veuillez les prier de m'y faire accueil. Tout à vous cordialement,

L. Jottrand, Avt."

"Bruxelles, 10 Février, 1860

"Mon cher Marx,

"N'ayant pas de vos nouvelles, depuis très longtemps, j'ai reçu votre dernière avec la plus vive satisfaction. Vous vous plaignez du retard des choses, et du peu d'empressement de ma part de vous répondre à la question que vous m'aviez faite. Que faire: l'âge ralentit la plume; j'espère cependant que vous trouverez mes avis et mon sentiment toujours les mêmes. Je vois que votre dernière est tracée à la dictée par la main de votre secrétaire intime, de votre adorable moitié: or Madame Marx ne cesse de se rappeler du vieux hermite de Bruxelles. Qu'elle daigne recevoir avec bonté mes salutations respectueuses.

"Conservez-moi, cher confrère, dans vos amitiés. Salut et fraternité.

Lelewel"

"5, Cambridge Place,

Kensington, London,

February 11th, 1860

"My dear Marx,

"I have read a series of infamous articles against you in the National-Zeitung and am utterly astonished at the falsehood and malignity of the writer. I really feel it a duty that every one who is acquainted with you, should, however unnecessary such a testimony must be, pay a tribute to the worth, honour and disinterestedness of your character. It becomes doubly incumbent in me to do so, when I recollect how many articles you contributed to my little magazine, the Notes to the People, and subsequently to the People's Paper, for a series of years, utterly gratuitously; articles which were of such high value to the people's cause, and of such great benefit to the paper. Permit me to hope that you will severely punish your dastardly and unmanly libeller.

"Believe me, my dear Marx, most sincerely, yours,

Ernest Jones

"Dr. Karl Marx"

"Tribune Office,

New York,

March 8th, 1860

"My dear Sir,

"In reply to your request I am very happy to state the facts of your connection with various publications in the United States concerning which I have had a personal knowledge. Nearly nine years ago I engaged you to write for the New York Tribune, and the engagement has been continued ever since. You have written for us constantly, without a single week's interruption, that I can remember; and you are not only one of the most highly valued, but one of the best paid contributors attached to the journal. The only fault I have had to find with you has been that you have occasionally exhibited too German a tone of feeling for an American newspaper. This has been the case with reference both to Russia and France. In questions relating to both, Czarism and Bonapartism, I have sometimes thought that you manifested too much interest and too great anxiety for the unity and independence of Germany. This was more striking perhaps in connection with the late Italian war than on any other occasion. In that I agreed perfectly with you: sympathy with the Italian people. I had as little confidence as you in the sincerity of the French Emperor, and believed as little as you that Italian liberty was to be expected from him; but I did not think that Germany had any such ground for alarm as you, in common with other patriotic Germans, thought she had.

"I must add that in all your writings which have passed through my hands, you have always manifested the most cordial interest in the welfare and progress of the labouring classes; and that you have written much with direct reference to that end.

"I have also at various times within the past five or six years been the medium through which contributions of yours have been furnished to Putnam's Monthly, a literary magazine of high character; and also to the New American Cyclopaedia, of which I am also an editor, and for which you have furnished some very important articles.

"If any other explanations are needed I shall be happy to furnish them. Meanwhile I remain, yours very faithfully,

Charles A. Dana, Managing Editor of the N. Y. Tribune

"Dr. Charles Marx"

15. Dentu Pamphlets

I have shown that the Dentu pamphlets are the source from which the German Dâ-Dâ derives his wisdom about world history in general and "Napoleon's salutary policy" in particular. The "salutary policy of Napoleon" is a phrase from a recent leading article by "democrat" F. Zabel. What the French themselves think and know about these pamphlets can be seen from the following extract from the Paris weekly, the Courrier du Dimanche, No. 42, of October 14, 1860.

"Pour ce qui regarde le moment actuel, prenez dix brochures au hasard, et vous reconnaîtrez que neuf au moins ont été pensées, élaborées, écrites ... par qui? par des romanciers de profession, par des chansonniers, par des vaudevillistes, par des sacristains!

"Parle-t-on dans les gazettes de mystérieuses entrevues entre les puissances du Nord, de la Sainte-Alliance qui ressuscite? Vite voilà un faiseur agréable de couplets assez littéraires, et même (jadis) passablement libéraux, qui court chez l'inévitable M. Dentu et lui apporte sous ce titre ronflant: La coalition, une longue et fade paraphrase des articles de M. Grandguillot. L'alliance anglaise semble déplaire parfois à M. Limayrac? Vite, un M. Châtelet, chevalier de l'ordre de Grégoire le Grand, et qui doit être sacristain quelque part, si j'en crois son style, publie ou republie un long et ridicule factum: Crimes et délits de l'Angleterre contre la France. Déjà l'auteur du Compère Guillery (Edmond About) avait jugé à propos de nous édifier sur les arcanes politiques de la monarchie prussienne, et avait donné du haut de ses chutes théâtrales, des conseils de prudence aux chambres de Berlin. On annonce que M. Clairville va prochainement élucider la question de l'isthme de Panama, si fort embrouillée par M. Belly; et sans doute quelques jours après la conférence royale du 21 Octobre, on verra paraître à toutes les vitrines de nos libraires une splendide brochure rose qui portera ce titre: Mémoire sur l'entrevue de Varsovie par le corps de ballet de l'Opéra.

"Cette invasion, en apparence inexplicable, des questions politiques par les dii minores de la littérature, se rattache à bien des causes. Nous en citerons ici une seule, mais qui est la plus immédiate et la plus incontestable.

"Dans le marasme presque universel d'esprit et de coeur, ces messieurs, qui font le triste métier d'amuseurs publics, ne savent plus par quel moyen secouer et réveiller leurs lecteurs. Les vieilles gaîtés de leurs refrains et de leurs anecdotes leur reviennent sans cesse. Eux-mêmes se sentent aussi mornes, aussi tristes, aussi ennuyés que ceux qu'ils entreprennent de dérider. Voilà pourquoi à bout de ressources, ils se sont mis, en désespoir de cause, à écrire les uns des mémoires de courtisanes, les autres des brochures diplomatiques.

"Puis, un beau matin, un aventurier de la plume, qui n'a jamais fait à la politique le sacrifice d'une heure sérieuse d'étude, qui n'a pas même au coeur le semblant d'une conviction, quelle qu'elle soit, se lève et se dit: 'J'ai besoin de frapper un grand coup! Voyons! que ferai-je pour attirer sur moi l'attention générale qui me fuit d'instinct? Écrirai-je un opuscule sur la question Léotard ou sur la question d'Orient? Révélerai-je au monde surpris le secret de boudoirs où je n'entrai jamais, ou celui de la politique russe qui m'est plus étrange encore? Dois-je m'attendrir en prose voltairienne sur les femmes éclaboussées ou en prose évangélique sur les malheureuses populations maronites traquées, dépouillées, massacrées par le fanatisme mahométan? Lancerai-je une apologie de mademoiselle Rigolboche ou un plaidoyer en faveur du pouvoir temporel? Décidément, j'opte pour la politique. J'amuserai encore mieux mon public avec les rois et les empereurs, qu'avec les lorettes.' Cela dit, notre surnuméraire de la littérature bohème compulse le Moniteur, hante quelques jours les colonnades de la Bourse, rend visite à quelques fonctionnaires et sait enfin de quel côté souffle le vent de la curiosité à la ville, ou celui de la faveur à la cour; il choisit alors un titre que ce vent puisse enfler d'une façon suffisante et se repose content sur ses lauriers. Aussi bien son oeuvre est faite désormais; car aujourd'hui, en matière de brochure, il n'y a que deux choses qui comptent, le titre et les relations que l'on suppose entre l'écrivain et 'de hauts personnages'.

"Est-il nécessaire de dire, après cela, ce que valent les brochures qui nous inondent? Ramassez un jour tout ce que vous avez de courage, tâchez de les lire jusqu'au bout et vous serez effrayés de l'ignorance inouïe, de la légèreté intolérable, voire même de l'amoindrissement de sens moral qu'elles décèlent dans leurs auteurs. Et je ne pane pas ici des plus mauvaises... Et chaque année nous courbe plus bas, chaque année voit apparaître un nouveau signe de décadence intellectuelle, chaque année ajoute une honte littéraire nouvelle à celles dont il nous faut déjà rougir. De telle sorte que les plus optimistes se prennent quelquefois à douter de demain, et se demandent avec angoisse: Sortirons-nous de là?"

The phrase "the salutary policy of Napoleon" quoted above was taken from the National-Zeitung. Strangely enough the Paris correspondent of the Manchester Guardian which is regarded throughout England as a paper publishing mostly reliable news—has reported the following curiosity:

"Paris, November 8.... Louis-Napoleon spends his gold in vain in supporting such newspapers as the National-Zeitung." (Manchester Guardian of November 12, 1860.)

However, I think that the normally so well-informed correspondent of the Manchester Guardian is mistaken this time. For F. Zabel is said to have gone over to the Bonapartist camp to prove that he is not in the pay of Austria. At any rate, this information reached me from Berlin and it fits well into the—Dunciad.

16. Postscript

a) K. Vogt and La Cimentaire

While the last of these pages were being printed, I accidentally came across the October issue (1860) of the Stimmen der Zeit. A. Kolatschek, the former publisher of the Deutsche Monatsschrift, the organ of the refugee parliamentarians, and hence, in a manner of speaking, the literary superior of the "fugitive Regent of the Empire", tells the following story about his friend Karl Vogt on p. 37:

"The Geneva joint-stock company, La Cimentaire, which numbered none other than Herr Karl Vogt himself among its directors, was founded in 1857. By 1858 the shareholders were down to their last farthing and the public prosecutor immediately put one of the directors in gaol on charges of fraud. At the time of the arrest Herr Vogt happened to be away in Berne; he returned in haste, the man who had been arrested was set at liberty, the charges were suppressed 'for fear of causing a scandal', but the shareholders lost everything. But after such an example as this it cannot really be maintained that property is very well protected in Geneva and the error of Herr Karl Vogt in this respect is all the stranger since he was, as we have mentioned, one of the directors of the company concerned. And even in France in similar cases it is customary to search for the culprits among the directors, to put them into gaol and to use their property to satisfy the civil claims of the shareholders."

This should be compared with the account given by Joh. Ph. Becker in his letter (in Chapter X) about the bank incident which drove M. James Fazy into the arms of the Decembrists. Such details as this are a great help in solving the riddle of how "Napoléon le Petit" became the greatest man of his age. As is well known "Napoléon le Petit" himself had to choose between a coup d'état and—Clichy.

b) Kossuth

The following excerpt from a memorandum of a conversation with Kossuth proves incontrovertibly that Kossuth knows perfectly well that it is Russia that constitutes the greatest threat to Hungary. The memorandum comes from one of the most celebrated radical members of the present House of Commons.

"Memorandum of a conversation with M. Kossuth on the evening of May 30th, 1854, at....

"... A return to strict legality in Hungary (said he, viz. Kossuth) might renew the union of Hungary and Austria, and would prevent Russia from finding any partisan in Hungary. He (Kossuth) would not offer any opposition to a return to legality. He would advise his countrymen to accept with good faith such a restoration, if it could be obtained, and would pledge himself not in any way to be an obstacle to such an arrangement. He would not himself return to Hungary. He would not him-self put forward such a course for Austria as he had no belief in Austria's return to legality, except under pressure of dire necessity. He gave me authority to say, such were his sentiments, and if appealed to, he would avow them, though he could not commit himself to any proposal, as he could not expect Austria to abandon her traditional scheme of centralisation till forced to do so.... He would have consented in 1848 to Hungarian troops being sent to resist attacks of the Piedmontese" (M. Kossuth went much further in 1848 since he ensured that Hungarian troops would be sent against the Italian "rebels" by delivering a violent speech in the Imperial Diet in Pest), "but would not employ them to coerce Austrian Italy, as he would not consent to foreign troops in Hungary."

The mythopoeic power of popular fantasy has always shown itself in the creation of "great men". Simon Bolivar is undeniably the most convincing illustration of this. As for Kossuth, he is, for example, celebrated as the man who abolished feudalism in Hungary. Nevertheless he is in no way connected with the three great measures: universal taxation, the abolition of the feudal burden of the peasantry and the abolition without compensation of the tithes paid to the Church. The motion for universal taxation (the nobility having previously been exempt) was put by Szemere; the motion to do away with corvée, etc., by Bonis, the deputy for Szabolcz, and the clergy itself, acting through Jekelfalussy, a deputy and a canon, voluntarily relinquished its rights to raise tithes.

c) Edmond About's La Prusse en 1860

At the end of Chapter VIII I expressed the opinion that E. About's pamphlet La Prusse en 1860, or as it was originally called, Napoléon III et la Prusse, was a retranslation into French of an excerpt of Dâ-Dâ Vogt's German compilation of the Dentu pamphlets. The only objection to this view was the total ignorance of the German language on the part of that unsuccessful comedy writer, E. About. But was it out of the question for the compère Guillery to have discovered a commère allemande somewhere or other in Paris? Who this commère was remained a matter of conjecture. La Prusse en 1860 was known to have been published as a vademecum for Louis Bonaparte's trip to Baden-Baden; it was designed to foreshadow his request to the Prince Regent and to make it clear to Prussia that in the December 2 Empire Prussia possessed, in the concluding words of the pamphlet, an "allié très utile qui est peut-être appelé à lui" (Prussia) "rendre de grands services, pourvu qu'elle s'y prête un peu". E. About had already revealed in French (see Chapter IX, "Agency") in L'Opinion Nationale as early as the spring of 1860 that "pourvu qu'elle s'y prête un peu" translated into German means: "on the condition that Prussia sells the Rhine Province to France". In view of these aggravating circumstances I could not name anyone as the German prompter of E. About, the unsuccessful comedy writer and Dentu pamphletist, simply on the basis of a conjecture. But I am now justified in declaring that the German commère of the compère Guillery is none other than Vogt's gentle Kunigunde—Herr Ludwig Simon of Trier. This was hardly suspected by the German refugee in London who penned the well-known answer to About's pamphlet.