Prisoner for Blasphemy

ncluded in a new document which was served on all of us. I have lost our

SEY, of 28 Stonecutte

ownlow Street, Dalst

LLIAM FOOTE, of 9 So

y of Middlesex; EDWA

, Clerkenwell, in the

, of 20 Circus Road,

ex, and 28 Stonecutte

Lon

s day been charged be

City of London, bein

in and for the said

Tyler, of Dashwood Hou

that you, in the sai

procure to be publishe

called the Freethink

-that is to say, on t

d and 30th days of Ap

8th days of May, 1882

e, 1882, against

to command you, in

me, on Monday, the 17

ck in the forenoon,

said City, or befor

ace for the same City

id charge, and to b

o law. Here

and seal, this 12th

82, at the Mansion

res

LLIS, Lord M

iderately allowed us seats on hearing that the case would occupy a long time, a piece of attention which he might also have displayed on the previous Tuesday. It seems extremely unjust that men who are defending themselves, who need all thei

high Christian morality of our prosecutors. Mr. Maloney had obtained an illegal order from the Lord Mayor to inspect Mr. Bradlaugh's bank account, and armed with this order, which, even if it were legal, would not have extended beyond the limits of the City, this enterprising barrister had overhauled the books of the St. John's Wood Branch of the London and South-Wester

h the exception of Mr. Whittle, the printer, against whom the prosecution was abandoned on the ground that he had ceased to p

ued, and I should have insisted on my right unless stopped by brute force; but on his lordship promising that a copy should be attached to the depositions, I yielded in order to let Mr. Bradlaugh ha

ng in a few lines with the origin of the Blasphemy Laws, censuring the conduct of Sir Henry Tyle

he prosecutors hope

nger a weak, tentati

nd aggressive; and no

ermination. Every br

d be instantly fille

is side of death, th

old place, fiercer th

unappeasable hatred

ishment to persuasio

ument by the fo

general offence if we

s Stephen in his 'Diges

ocate the disestabli

clause, and half th

under another. It i

cientist or thinker w

ks on Christianity a

bury has patheticall

oduce high-class mag

are nearly sure to co

these propagators of

perilous to touch th

those who are unpr

expensive books for

cheap publications f

he one is flattered

at any moment to be

is always at the mer

s political animosit

private

ly a matter of opini

ety in another. Prog

n affair of taste. T

d laws, which are on

d as obsolete, is to

to violate that liber

d 'the foundation of

forced on people's a

ions which are sold,

ch must be deliberate

nless they contain i

immunity from molesta

height of gratuit

of Genesis, to use Huxley's expression, contains the beginning and the end of sound science. It thus appears that a Christian magistrate may subscribe (or, which is quite as pious and far more economical, induce others to subscribe) for the confutation of heretics, and afterwards send them to gaol for not being confuted. What a glorious commentary on the great truth that England is a free country, and that Christianity relies entirely on the force of persuasion! Fortunately, however, our case was not tried at the Old Bailey. Mr. Bradlaugh obtained a writ of certiorari removing the indictment to the Court of Queen's Bench, where our case was put in the Crown List, and did not come on for hearing until two months after I was imprisoned on another indictment. Mr. Bradlaugh obtained the writ on July 29, 1882. It was during the long vacation, and we had to appear before more than one judge in chambers, Mr. Justice Stephen being the one who granted the writ. I remember roami

Even that was better than nothing; anything being preferable to lowering the flag in the heat of battle. But alas! fate is stronger than gods or men. I was foiled at the last moment, just as victory seemed within my grasp; how I forbear to explain, although the incidents of that eventful day would form an interesting chapter of my Autobiography. Enough copies were pulled to constitute a legal issue of the paper, and one of these is safely deposited in the British Museum; but none were printed for the market, and it was everywhere reported that the Freethinker was dead. Christian Evidence lecturers joyously announced the fact at their meetings, and Mr. Maloney ironically alluded t

ts. Below the text I inserted the following notice: "As the bigots object to our Comic Bible Sketches, we shall publish a few Serious Bible Sketches, copied accurately from old Bibles of the ages of faith, to show what the Christians have done t

few words from my pen at that time may not be altogether superfluous. In an a

blasphemy, and so w

be if the Freethinke

e crime as the preac

versity makes us ac

fel

ns, we will not quai

gels, but trust in

l not yield to the

r pray that the cup

forsaken; for our so

cannot be taken awa

of right, and a spir

n who fought before

ll not break our spi

stian mob clamor as

fy him!' They will

ver all the tumult, a

iberty, bearing in he

ight hand the sword

r conquest to bring

all the din we hear

spiring hope, and inf

ery n

ubscribed to throughout the country, several working men putting by a few pence every week for the purpose; and as I travelled up and down on my lecturing tours I experien

of covert attack on Freethinkers in danger. Mrs. Besant joined in the fray anonymously, and a letter appeared also from my own pen. There were articles on the subject in the provincial newspapers, and amongst the London journals I must especially commend the Weekly Dispatch, which never wavered in fai

the publishing office of the Freethinker. About the same time I issued a pamphlet entitled "Blasphemy no Crime," a copy of which was sent to every newspaper in the United Kingdom. It traversed the whole field of discussion, and gave a brief history of past prosecutions for Blasphemy, as well as the principal facts of our own case. In November I announced the preparati