For some: time past, we, the undersigned German refugees 
residing in this country, have had occasion to admire the attention 
paid to us by the British Government. We were accustomed to meet, 
from time to time, some obscure servant of the Prussian Ambas- 
sador, not being “registered as such according to law”; we were 
accustomed to the ferocious spouting and to the rabid proposals of 
such agents provocateurs, and we knew how to treat them. What we 
admire is, not the attention the Prussian Embassy pay us—we are 
proud to have merited it; it is the entente cordiale which seems to be 
established, as far as we are concerned, between Prussian spies and 
English informers. 

Really, Sir, we should have never thought that there existed in this 
country so many police-spies as we have had the good fortune of 
making the acquaintance of in the short space of a week. Not only 
that the doors of the houses where we live are closely watched by 
individuals of a more than doubtful look, who take down their notes 
very coolly every time any one enters the house or leaves it; we 
cannot make a single step without being followed by them wherever 
we go. We cannot get into an omnibus or enter a coffee-house 
without being favoured with the company of at least one of these 
unknown friends. We do not know whether the gentlemen engaged 
in this grateful occupation are so “on her Majesty’s service”; but we 
know this, that the majority of them look anything but clean and 
respectable. 

Now, of what use can be, to any one, the scanty information thus 
scratched together at our doors by a lot of miserable spies, male 

prostitutes of the lowest order, who mostly seem to be drawn from 
the class of common informers, and paid by the job? Will this, no 
doubt exceedingly trustworthy information, be of such value as to 
entitle any one to sacrifice, for its sake, the old-established boast of 
Englishmen, that in their country there is no chance of introducing 
that spy system from which not one country of the Continent is free? 

Besides, we always have been, and are now, ready to give any 
information respecting ourselves the Government may desire, as far 
as this will be in our power. 

We know, however, very well what is at the bottom of all this. The 
Prussian Government have taken occasion of the late attempt on the 
life of Frederick William IV? to open another campaign against their 
political enemies in Prussia and out of Prussia. And because a 
notorious madman has fired a shot at the King of Prussia, the 
English Government are to be entrapped into enforcing the Alien 
Bill against us; although we are at a loss to conceive in what respect 
our presence in London can possibly come into collision with “the 
preservation of the peace and tranquillity of these realms”. 

Some eight years ago, when we, in Prussia, attacked the existing 
system of government, the official functionaries and press replied, 
why, if these gentlemen do not like the Prussian system, they are 
perfectly at liberty to leave the country. We left the country, and we 
knew the reason why. But after leaving it, we found Prussia 
everywhere; in France, in Belgium, in Switzerland, we felt the 
influence of the Prussian Ambassador. If, through his influence, we 
are to be made to leave this last refuge left to us in Europe, why,then 
Prussia will think herself the ruling power of the world. 

England has hitherto been the only obstacle in the way of the Holy 
Alliance, now reconstructing under the protection of Russia; and the 
Holy Alliance, of which Prussia forms part and parcel, aim at 
nothing more than at entrapping anti-Russian England into a home 
policy of a more or less Russian cast. What, indeed, would Europe 
think of the late diplomatic notes and Parliamentary assertions of the 
British Government, if commented by an enforcement of the Alien 
Bill called forth by nothing but the revengeful instances of foreign 
reactionary governments? 

The Prussian Government declare the shot fired at their King to 
be the result of widespread revolutionary conspiracies, the centre of 
which is to be sought in London. In accordance with this, they firstly 
destroy the liberty of the press at home, and secondly demand the 

English Government to remove from this country the pretended 
chiefs of the pretended conspiracy. 

Considering the personal character and qualities of the present 
King of Prussia, and those of his brother, the heir to the throne,* 
which party has a greater interest in the speedy succession of the 
latter—the Revolutionary party or the ultra-Royalists? 

Allow us to state, that a fortnight before the attempt was made at 
Berlin, persons whom we have every reason to consider as agents 
either of the Prussian Government or the ultra-Royalists, presented 
themselves to us, and almost directly engaged us to enter into 
conspiracies for organising regicide in Berlin and elsewhere. We 
need not add, that these persons found no chance of making their 
dupes of us. 

Allow us to state, that, after the attempt, other persons of a similar 
character have tried to force themselves upon us, and spoken in a 
similar manner. 

Allow us to state, that Sefeloge, the sergeant who shot at the King, 
was not a Revolutionist, but an ultra-Royalist. He belonged to section 
No. 2 of the ultra-Royalist society, the Treubund. He is registered 
under number 133 on the list of members. He has been for a time 
supported with money by this society: his papers were deposited at 
the house of an ultra-Royalist Major employed at the War Office. 

If ever this affair should come to be tried in open court, which we 
doubt, the public will see clear enough whether there have been any 
instigators to the attempt, and who they have been. 

The ultra-Royalist Neue Preussische Zeitung was the first to 
denounce the refugees in London as the real authors of the attempt.“ 
It even named one of the undersigned,* whom already before it had 
stated to have been in Berlin during a fortnight, while, as scores of 
witnesses can prove, he never for a moment left London. We wrote 
to M. Bunsen, the Prussian Ambassador, requesting him to furnish 
us with the numbers in question of that paper.© The attention paid to 
us by that gentleman did not go so far as to cause him to comply with 
what we had expected from the courtoisie of the Chevalier.’ 

© The Neue Preussische Zeitung No. 117, May 25, 1850.— Ed. 

We believe, Sir, that under these circumstances, we cannot do 
better than bring the whole case before the public. We believe that 
Englishmen are interested in anything by which the old-established 
reputation of England, as the safest asylum for refugees of all parties 
and of all countries, may be more or less affected. 

We are, Sir, your most obedient servants, 

Charles Marx, Editors of the Neue Rhewnische 
Fred. Engels, | Zeitung of Cologne 

Aug. Willich, Colonel in the Insurrectionary 
Army of Baden 

Written on June 14, 1850 Reprinted from the newspaper and 

June 15, 1850