Letters of Marx and Engels 1848
First published: in Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, 1934.
The editorial department is in receipt of your letter and accepts the correction dated Frankfurt [’stieber’, Neue Rheinische Zeitung, 30 December 1848, supplement]. As to your threat of a libel action, this only reveals your ignorance of the Code pénal, whose paragraph relating to libel does not apply to the report appearing in No. 177. [247] Moreover, to set your mind at rest be it said that this report was sent to us by a Frankfurt Deputy before the Neue Preussische Zeitung divulged the same news. Your earlier activities in Silesia did not seem to us to belie the contents of the said report, although we did, on the other hand, think it strange that you should exchange your more remunerative and honourable post in Berlin for one which, albeit legal, is precarious and equivocal.
As to your protestations regarding your activities in Silesia [Neue Preussische Zeitung, 20 December 1848], we shall endeavour to place material at your disposal, either publicly or in private, as you wish.
On the grounds of their novelty, we shall excuse the lectures on democracy and democratic organs contained in your letter.