Hence there are only two possibilities. Either the French Government opened and seized your letters and your packet. In which case return the enclosed addresses. We will then not only initiate proceedings against the French Post-Office but, at the same time, publicise this fact in all the opposition papers. In any event it would be better if you addressed all packets to a French bookshop. However, we do not believe that the French Government has perpetrated the kind of infamy which so far only the Austrian Government has permitted itself. There thus remains the second possibility, that your Bluntschli and associates have played this police-spy trick. If this is so, then (1) You must bring proceedings against the Swiss and (2) M urer as a French citizen will protest to the Ministry. As far as the business itself is concerned, it is now necessary: If your Swiss people have perpetrated the infamy I will not only attack them in the R forme, the National, the D mocratie pacifique, the Siecle, Courrier, La Presse, Charivari, Commerce and the Revue ind pendante, but in the Times as well, and, if you wish, in a pamphlet written in French. These pseudo-Republicans will have to learn that they are not dealing with young cowhands, or tailors' apprentices. As to the office, I will try to acquire one along with the new lodging into which I intend moving. This will be convenient from the business and financial viewpoint. Please excuse this scraggy letter. I can't write for indignation. Yours, Marx In any case, whether the Paris doctrinaires or the Swiss peasant lads were responsible for the trick, we will get Arago and Lamartine to make an intervention in the Chamber. If these gentlemen want to make a scandal, ut scandalum fiat. Reply quickly for the matter is pressing. Since M urer is a French citizen, the plot on the part of the Zurichers would be a violation of international law, with which the cowhands shall not get away.
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