Manchester, 27 October 1852 

D. M., 

When I wrote yesterday,’ I had only cursorily read Stieber’s 
statements and was therefore most agreeably surprised today when 
your document* gave a turn to the case which now no longer 
makes me despair of the acquittal of all the accused. En effet, 
Stieber will be utterly discredited. I made a further copy of the 
thing and dispatched it to Cologne by 2 different and very good 
routes”*; I also did what should already have been done in 
London, namely affixed the 2 notes in Hirsch’s handwriting” to 
the original with sealing-wax, at the same time recording the fact 
by appending my signature so that, if the worst comes to the 
worst, they cannot be detained unless the whole thing is detained. 
I have now discovered several more ways of communicating with 
Cologne and, although there is a 99% chance that the things will 
reach Schneider safely and on the same day by the first two routes 
(which, however, cannot be used again), it might be advisable for you 
to send me a 3rd copy, authenticated by you, with fresh samples of 
Hirsch’s handwriting, which I could then send by yet another route. 
Anyway, the Prussians cannot detain this thing; it would mean 
criminal proceedings against those involved. 

4 See previous letter. - > Indeed 

Your letter received today had been tampered with, not all 4 
corners of the envelope being properly secured by the seal. 
Whether the one to St.* had also been tampered with is difficult to 
say, for the firm had opened the outer cover. But it proved so 
easy to open that I am inclined to assume that here too someone 
had already been at it. So the Steinthal address is no longer any 
good either. Write to our old friend, James Belfield, Golden Lion, 
Deansgate, Manchester, with ‘F. E., no more, on the inside 
envelope. In the case of very important and dangerous things, do 
as I am now doing: Make up a parcel of anything with your letter 
inside it, and send it to my house per Pickford & Co.; 
alternatively, per Chaplin, Horne & Carver, addressed to me at 
Ermen & Engels, unstamped. That is perfectly safe. But see that 
the addresses, particularly if sent by post, are written by turns in 
different hands and, when parcels are sent by carrier, don’t have 
them always taken to the office from the same place by the same 
person. Then the latter way will be perfectly safe. So you must 
either give me a safe address in London to which I can send 
things in this way, or get someone with an unsuspicious landlord 
to assume a false name, a la Williams, or let me know whether 
Lupus is still at 4 Broad Street and Dronke at the Model Lodging 
House, and where any of our other reliable people live so that I 
can use different addresses. 

By employing all these methods alternately we shall achieve 
adequate security. In addition, to make it less conspicuous, you 
should send letters containing matters of no consequence direct by 
post, and I shall do the same. 

Copying out the document has made such demands on my time 
that I really don’t know whether I shall be able to keep my word 
in the fullest sense as regards Dana and Friday’s” steamer. At all 
events, something will be forthcoming. You might bear in mind 
that a lengthy spell of more or less uninterrupted chaste living is 
again causing me to burgeon like mad at a certain spot, and at 
times prevents me from sitting down; il faut que cela finisse“ 

The statement made by old Justizrat- Miller will have put 
Stieber into a blue funk over his original minutes.” It also reveals 
how incensed. jurists over there must be by the infamies of the 
police which Stieber, in his old-Prussian ignorance of Rhenish law, 
judicial procedure and Rhenish public opinion, is so unashamedly 

2 Steinthal, see this volume, p. 217. - > 29 October. Engels had in mind the 
translation of Marx’s two articles: ‘Political Parties and Prospects’ and ‘Attempts to 
Form a New Opposition Party’. - © this must cease 

proclaiming from the house-tops with childish glee at his own 
cleverness. C’est de bonne augure.* 

It’s a pretty state of affairs: the police steal, forge, break into 
desks, perjure themselves, give false evidence and, withal, claim 
this privilege vis-a-vis communists who are hors la société”! This, 
and the way in which the police, at their most rascally, are 
usurping all the functions of the prosecution, pushing Saedt into 
the background, and submitting unauthenticated scraps of paper, 
mere rumours, reports and hearsay, as things legally proven, as 
evidence— c'est trop fort!* It’s bound to have an effect. 

Your 
F. E.