20. K. Marx. The Trials at Cologne. To the Editor of The Morning Advertiser
Sir,— I beg to offer you my best thanks for the generous protection you have afforded to the cause of my friends, the prisoners at Cologne.[3] While the defence will bring to light the series of unscrupulous acts committed by the agents of the Prussian police, even during the progress of this trial, I wish to inform you of the last trick that has been had recourse to, in order to prove a criminal correspondence between myself and the Cologne prisoners. According to the report of the Kölnische Zeitung, of October 29, Mr. Stieber, the councillor of police, has produced another of his documents—a ridiculous letter, purport-ing to be in my handwriting, in which I am made to recommend one of my pretended agents "to push under the doors of acknowledged democrats, at Crefeld, 50 copies of the Red Catechism,h and to choose for the execution of commission the midnight-hour of June 5, 1852."c
For the sake of my accused friends, I hereby declare,—
1. That the letter in question is not written by myself. 2. That I learned its existence only from the Kölnische Zeitung of 29th inst.
3. That I never saw the so-called Red Catechism. 4. That I never caused any copies of the "Red" to be circulated, in whatever manner.
The reference is to the statement in defence of the Cologne prisoners published by The Morning Advertiser (see this volume, pp. 378-79).— Ed.
This declaration, made also before the magistrate in Marlborough Street, and consequently as valid as an oath, I have sent by post to Cologne. By your inserting it in the columns of your paper, you will the more oblige me, as that would be the most effective means of preventing the Prussian police from intercept-ing the document.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Dr. Charles Marx London, October 30, 1852— 28, Dean Street, Soho
Published in The Morning Advertiser, November 2, and The People's Paper, No. 27, November 6, 1852
Endnotes
[3] Serfdom was abolished in the territories along the left bank of the Rhine annexed to France during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, as were the privileges of the nobility and the clergy, and the church estates.