Cologne, March 12. The high anointed and unanointed lords want 
to revenge themselves for their sufferings in March 1848 by 
redoubled joy in March 1849. To this end they have moved heaven 
and earth so that on the various anniversary dates of the March 
events in the German fatherlands disturbances will take place in as 
many parts of Germany as possible thus offering the counter- 
revolutionaries new opportunities for acts of violence. For weeks 
past, therefore, the constitutional and aristocratic newspapers have 
daily concocted stories about enormous preparations for March 
insurrections, about repeated incursions of republican volunteer 
bands across the French and Swiss frontiers —in Switzerland there 
are about 15'/2 German republicans; and on each occasion alarm 
has been aroused in the breasts of worthy philistines by hot air from 
“reliable sources”, ‘‘indubitable indications”, and ‘authentic re- 
ports”. But the jokers endowed with divine grace sit calmly behind 
the scenes, rejoicing at the effects of their reports a la Santa Claus 
which are being systematically spread by the whole of the servile 
press, and they smile in a superior manner when the stupid 
philistines take these calculated cries of alarm au sérieux. 

In this respect, Baden, i.e. Bekk, had to open the ball. Thereupon 
the hireling journalists began at once to repeat faithfully this whole 
litany about incursions, putsches and other foolishness. Then 
Wurttemberg and Bavaria had to hasten to perform similar services. 
Huckstering, venal Frankfurt, which has sold itself, this arrogant and 
worthless imperial city could not and did not want its “daily press” to 
lag behind. Hessians also, both the blind and the sighted,’ as well as 

the Sttive-dominated Hanoverians, and the Brunswick makers of 
long sausages, and all the other hosts of passion martyrs among the 
imperial peoples of Germany —they all had to play the same tune. 
This was performed best of all by most worthy Wrangel-Manteuffel. 
Four hundred false passports for German refugees in Besancon 
were prepared, and in addition orders on how to behave and emis- 
saries were dispatched to all corners of the black-and-white territo- 
ry? in order to raise the loudest possible hullabaloo in the press and 
by oral propaganda about the approaching republican March insur- 
rectionists. 

However, many of those Christian-Germanic organs of the press, 
taking no notice of the very wily directives, made much too loud a 
noise at the very beginning. They then attempted to correct this 
mistake by a still stronger beating of drums and still more shameless 
lies. 

Of course, Herr Hansemann, too, immediately and most willingly 
gave his support to this vociferous company in his new newspaper.” 
While apparently belonging to the opposition in the First Chamber, 
he makes up for this delusive appearance by printing in his 
newspaper, as a loyal shield-bearer of Manteuffel-Brandenburg, the 
most absurd information and correspondents’ reports about the 
threatening March insurrections. We shall give only one example. 
He prints the following fabrication from Cologne as the very latest 
news: 

“For some days we have been living —so to speak —in a state of complete anarchy. 
One has only to go into the streets to find that even in broad daylight there are crowds of 
workers strolling about, partly begging, partly robbing; the ale-houses and tobacco 
shops in particular are subject to numerous attacks. Matters have gone so far that for 
several days our town hall had to be guarded by a large force of soldiers. At night no 
one can feel safe in the streets. The worst feature in all this is that the mood of the 

workers is being artificially stimulated so as to bring about a full-scale insurrection 
on March 18.” 

Here in Cologne it suffices to reprint this article to expose all its 
perfidiousness and absurdity. 

What could be seen here in broad daylight, and to an increased 
extent at night, were incessant bloody fights between troops of different 
branches of the armed forces. The intention, it seems, is to drown 
interpellations about “My glorious army”  by calumnies against the 
workers. 

The governments are openly preparing for coups d’état which are 

intended to complete the counter-revolution. Consequently, the 
people would be fully justified in preparing for an insurrection. But 
it knows perfectly well that the complicated situation in France, and 
especially in Hungary and Italy, will inevitably in the near future 
provide an opportunity for a rising. It will not therefore allow itself 
to be decoyed into a clumsily laid trap.