London, 20 July* 1852 
98 Dean Street, Soho 

Dear Engels, 

Dronke will be bringing you the manuscript on Gérgey,? 
admittedly a wretched, muddled affair; likewise the Neveu de 
Rameau and Jacques le fataliste in the original. 

Yesterday received a letter from Bermbach in Cologne, the gist 
of which is as follows: 

‘Latterly they have been visiting all sorts of people in various places in an 
attempt to find correspondence from you which, they are convinced, was to be 
conveyed through the agency of these persons to democrats in the Rhineland. Your 
friends in Cologne are at last to be brought before the Court of Assizes. The bill of 
indictment, a most compendious work, has been drawn up, the date for the public 
hearing has been fixed for the 28th of this month, and the usual preliminaries are 
under way. They will be tried according to the Code pénal, since their offence 
antedates the new Prussian Statute Book.!64 As I understand the case they are, 
legally speaking, in an exceptionally good position but, as you will know, before a 
jury the moral standpoint is all important, and in this respect there can be no 
denying the danger for some of the accused. For the principal defendants, Réser, 
Burgers, Nothjung and Reiff, have given away far too much: they have admitted a 
connection with specific tendencies over a definite period; have talked of the 
enrolinent of new members attended by certain formalities and pledges, and other 
such things, which in themselves do not constitute a crime, but may, depending on 
circumstances, have an adverse effect on the jurymen, most of whom have been 
chosen from the peasantry— particularly when there is such evident lack of respect 
for God and landed property. Grave difficulties will also arise in connection with 
the defence; the advocates know nothing about such matters, most are hostile on 
principle and dread the thought of the ten-day sitting fixed for the case. Freiligrath 
will be beheaded in contumaciam. 

‘I have just read the bill of indictment which contains no less than 65-70 pages. 
If they’re convicted, these people have only their own statements to blame. I doubt 
[there] can be any more consummate jackasses than these German working men: 
Reiff made some statements that were regular denunciations, and various others 
behaved no less ineptly. One sees what a dangerous business it is to establish 
connections with working men, when those connections are supposed to be kept 
secret. Small wonder that the fellows were so much harassed; the longer they were 
held in solitary confinement, the more satisfactory statements they made. That 
aside, facts don’t come into it and, if the accused had not for the most part 
themselves talked so readily, there would be nothing whatever to go on. The bill of 

a August in the original. -> B, Szemere, Graf Ludwig Batthyény, Arthur Gérgei, 
Ludwig Kossuth... (reference to a part of the MS). - © by Denis Diderot - 4 for 
refusal to obey the summons 

indictment contains all kinds of incidental details from which it transpires that, with 
the help of spies and intercepted letters, a fairly accurate knowledge has been 
gained of certain persons and relationships.’ 

So much for Bermbach. 

Vis-a-vis Schimmelpfennig, Willich has retracted his statement 
about the B[runingk] woman. Schimmelpfennig has now put it 
about that he was seeking to destroy Mrs Brtiningk’s virtue by 
magnetising her. The vertueux* Willich. . 

A certain Coeurderoy (d’ailleurs trés bon républicain),” who has 
already published a little pamphlet against Mazzini, Ledru, 
L. Blanc, Cabet, etc.,° is about to bring out what amounts to a 
book on the entire French emigration. 

Proudhon is publishing a new work. Religion, the State, etc., 
having become impossible, only ‘individuals’ remain, a discovery 
he has lifted from Stirner.' 

That jackass W[eydemeyer]’s impardonable procrastination has 
put me in such straits that today I can’t even afford a stamp for this 

letter. 
Your 

K. M.