Kotzebue was, in fact, commissioned by the Russian government to furnish it with full reports on the political affairs and relations of Germany, on the predominant popular opinion, and on its literary transactions. He could, in truth, no more be styled a spy than an ambassador can; but the reports which he delivered--the false and detestable statements regarding Germany which he made in them, deserve the severest condemnation. No one was aware of this secret practice of Kotzebue's, till, through the faithlessness of a copyist, such a bulletin was sent to the well-known historian Luden, then the editor of the Jena "Nemesis," a literary paper. The bulletin contained sixteen paragraphs upon Steffens (a writer on the state of those times), Schmalz, Crome, the Allemannia, an opposition paper, the Nemesis, Jung Stilling, English newspapers, mischievous nature of freedom of the press, and, finally, a sort of apology for serfdom. Monarchy was panegyrized in this bulletin, and Luden was represented as a learned man, who, with others of the learned, longed heartily for a revolution, that they might play their parts as popular speakers, deputies, and representatives. Luden, enraged at these calumnies, published the bulletin in the Nemesis, and commented on it in the most amusing manner. Kotzebue, who had immediate information of this fact, procured an order from the Weimar government for the seizure of these sheets, at the moment they should be ready for issue: but Wieland, the editor of the opposition paper, had already received proof-sheets of the article, and caused it to appear at the same time in the People's Friend, which he edited, with still more biting remarks; since Luden, in the Nemesis, had expressed some doubts whether Kotzebue were really the author of these malicious calumnies. A long legal process took place between Kotzebue and the learned editors, and proceedings were laid before the Spruch Collegium--College of Arbitration of the University of Leipsic. These gentlemen were declared by this tribunal, guilty of a literary robbery upon Kotzebue, since the bulletin was not intended or delivered out by him for publication; but after the death of Kotzebue in the following year, they were declared free from all penalty by the High Court of Appeal in Weimar.