Sir,— The undersigned call your attention to the attitude of the 
Prussian Press, including even the most reactionary papers, such 
as the Neue Preussische Zeitung, during the pending trial of the 
Communists at Cologne, and to the honourable discretion they 
observe, at a moment where scarcely a third part of the witnesses 
have been examined, when none of the produced documents have 
been verified, and not a word has fallen yet from the defence. 
While those papers, at the worst, represent the Cologne prisoners 
and the undersigned, their London friends, in accordance with the 
public accuser, as “dangerous conspirators who alone are responsi- 
ble for the whole history of Europe of the latter four years, and 
for all the revolutionary commotions of 1848 and 1849”—there 
are in London two public organs, The Times and The Daily News 
which really have not hesitated to represent the Cologne prisoners 
and the undersigned as a “gang of sturdy beggars,” swindlers, 
etc." The undersigned address to the English public the same 
demand which the defensors of the accused have addressed to the 
public in Germany—to suspend their judgment, and to wait for 
the end of the trials. Were they to give further explanations at the 
present time, the Prussian government might obtain the means of 
baffling a revelation of police-tricks, perjury, forgery of docu- 
ments, falsification of dates, thefts, etc., unprecedented even in the 
records of Prussian political justice. When that revelation shall 
have been made in the course of the present proceedings, public 
opinion in England will know how to qualify the anonymous 

scribes of The Times and Daily News, who constitute themselves the 
advocates and mouthpieces of the most infamous and _subaltern 

government spies. 

We are, Sir, yours fraternally, 

London, October 28th 

F. Engels 
F. Freiligrath 
K. Marx 
W. Wolff 

Karl 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.* 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 Kolnische 
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,” and to choose for the execution of commission the 
midnight-hour of June 5, 1852.’* 

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 Kolnische 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. 

This declaration, made also before the magistrate in Marl- 
borough 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