The History Of The Last Trial By Jury For Atheism In England

ides me and Adams. It was a case of felony. He said 'Would I go with him?' i replied 'I would not.' He then asked if I 'objected to go with Adams.' That I ch

a very hard and bitter apple, constituted my supper. The transition from the excitement of the court to the darkness and coolness of

e o'clock Mr. Bransby Cooper and the Rev. Samuel Jones came round. When

y,

o be the same perso

spect was I

submissive, but yesterday there

n court I had to defend my character and liberty. I

aid 'Correct List,' which a turnkey bought for me at my request, and which I still have. On the second morning after my sentence, I was sitting by the (very little) fire in the common room, contemplating, with very critical air, a can of somewhat indifferent gruel, which I had not the slightest disposition to eat, when the prayer bell rung, which did not at all improve my temper. Where the gaol was situated, I enjoyed such a propinquity to dock bells, basin bells, cathedral bells, and gaol bells, that had I be

not hear

aid; 'what

prisoners are g

oor devils go, i

way,' he roared out, in his

that is a mis

know wher

r Gaol, sitting over a

a prisoner?' 'Oh! yes; I

the others do, and y

u must c

t you to th

compliments, and say I'

this colloquy prayers were suspended, and the clergyman was waiting my arrival in order t

, when I met him, 'how is it

that I do not believe in a God, and then you would take me to chapel to pray to one. I ca

s of grace, it might lead you to b

e very sorr

ow can you s

orry to treat those who dif

. It is not you we persec

-it's the rule of the gaol.' 'I must do what I must do, I know; but, if I do that, I must be carried into chapel every morning, and that will not edify the remainder of your congregation. What can I do if I

o supplications, unless I am forced to it? You know the prisoners only go because the turnkey is behind them?' Then I showed him the passage, 'We have done those things which

divine influence in prayer, w

icted by your practice. I will agree to this, that when on Su

ian manner, by saying, 'Well, if you don'

ent. Sometimes I was locked in my sleeping cell, but generally in the day room; but I found it more agreeable than the litany,

own clothes. The answer was, the rules were imperative, and they must enforce them. I inquired whether they had any spare time on their

Take any aggressive step and your gaoler knocks you down, or locks you up in a moment. But if you simply will not do a thing, if without bluster or bravado you leave it to them to make you do it, or to do it

sufficient of the existence of a God?' I answered, that 'when the boundless expanse of the skies had been before me I had been unable to think

to address to me such interrogatories. Indeed it was offensive, and on more than one occasion I told them, that having undertaken to compel my

e weight with me. He brought down the book, summoned the whole class of prisoners, and we stood twelve or eighteen in a row. Proclaiming attention, he said he wished to read to us, and particularly to me, the 14th Psalm. Reading aloud the first verse where David observes 'the fool hath said in his heart there is no God,' Mr. Jones said, 'Now, Holyoake, you complained that we called you a fool-you see David says you are a fool.' The old

to question me before other prisoners, where the discipline of the gaol forbade adequate reply

gaol bringing me refreshments, which his experience assured him I needed. And it was not the least part of my pride on the day of my trial that he sat near me from morning till night, encouraging me by his presence, and assisting me by his wisdom. After my conviction he vindicated me assiduously through the pre

again. But this was not all. Sometimes a companion was filthy as well as wicked. One man sent in among us had the itch, and before I found it out he had h

locked up. He is then shown a cask filled with brimstone, grease, and other mixture, of the consistence of pitch, and quite as offensive to the sight. With this he is made to smear his entire person over; when this is done, he is left locked up in the place. All he finds about him is a bed on which are two blankets, in which hundreds, smeared as he is, have lain

s similar to those on the infected man, I had not kept from the observation of the surgeon while they remained. My habit of daily ablution, and some medicine I procured, saved me from more

noticing the disposition of the authorities, and estimating the treatment t

Holyoake, prisoner for

mes Graham, her Majest

st was sentenced by Mr. Justice Erskine to six month

ur memorialist is allowed the privilege of purchasing, to some extent, better food, but his imprisonment renders this privil

magistrates back to e surgeon, who subsequently has recommended, though not prescribed, better diet: but from the recommendation of it, your memorialist concludes that in that gentleman's opinion it is neces

k through the bars of a gate, and are permitted to stay but a few minutes. As your memorialist is far from his frie

in which he is confined from twelve to fourteen hours, and during the winter he will be so shut up sixteen hours and a half. Thus much time will be lost your m

'Prisoner for Bl

directed my friends

es objected. But if

eferred to be know

than as a pri

vent the suppositio

would be employed

e fatal to th

is retained by the governor, your memor

on to grant what your memorialist asks, had they the power; an

e warmth of debate to express his honest opinion on a religious question, young and inexperienced, he took not the hypocrite's crooned path, nor the dissembler's hidden way, but unwarily uttered language disingenuousness would have concealed or art

Jacob H

t light. For unless I could pay for fire and light, I had to go without. Whether Sir James Graham intended this, I have no means of knowing; he probably expected that the magistrates would not interpret his order as a p

raised on one end. By marking a circle round one of the legs, which I did with a fragment of stone, I determined the place on which the leg would fall when the frame was pulled down. My head once placed on that spot, the great weight of the frame would have sent the narrow leg through th

ke, without their consent-and this consent I always sought from my wife, in any special case which arose. At our marriage, Eleanor very well understood that my life somewhat resembled a soldier's, and that it would often include duties and dangers not compatible with perennial fireside comfort Nor did she object to this, and I have had the sweet fortune always to be left to do whatever I should have done, had I been single and childless. On my saying, on the im

am glad I did not then know that I should never hear that voice again, nor see those bright eyes any more. To turn the attention of mankind in an atheistical direction may do harm to some. The propagation of all new views does harm, more or less. As in commercial speculations much capital is sunk before any returns come in, so in the improvement of the people, you sacrifice some old feeling which is good, before the new opinion, which is better, can be created. But all the new opinions I have at any time imbibed have never produced so much harm in me as the prudential doctrines of Political Economy. The doctrine that it is disreputable in the poor to have children, is salutary, no doubt-but it requires to be enforced under limitation. To regard the existence of you

ase Madeline a winter cloak-it was spent in buying her a coffin. Though of perfect health and agility, she was one of those children who require entire preservation from exposure, want, or fatigue. On ten shillings per week, which was all that the Anti-Persecution Union could provid

is no feeling, not even that of affection and death, respected in a gaol-Ogden knew its contents, and in justice to him I must say he endeavoured, as well as one whose ability lay in his moroseness could, to speak a word of apology and sympathy. The strangeness and awkwardness of the attempt drew my attention to the fatal black border, which gave me sensations such as I never rec

ay them under some tax to contribute to her support. This she could never bear. Offering her hand to one who did not take it, she went home, and nothing induced her to subject herself to such suspicion any more. A quick and enduring sense of independence, which no privation could disturb, was an attribute in her character I had always admired, and this dreadful form of its operation I have never been able to censure. The Roman mother put on the armour of her son as he went out, and saw him brought home dead from the fight without weakness: but in that case, the strife of arms, the glory of victory, the sublimity of duty, and the applause of the senate, were so many supports to the mother's heroism; but harder far is it for a mother to bend over her child day by day and night after night, a

ll their bannered pomp, Have little to compare with. Life's great play Ma

s coming to night, mama,' and then remembering that that could not be, she said 'write to him, mama, he will come to see me;' and these were the last words she utter

the Governor to let him go home for one night to smooth and watch over that dying pillow, and he would

nd desert waste that thy pathway through the world may be unobstructed-who kneel to thee in their dungeon-churches and pour out the incense of life's young warm blood at gibbet-altars: they know thee by thy gory garments dripping with the blood of the father and the tear of the orphan, and the desolation which precedes thy progress. The anthems of thy march are hollow voices from Siberia's mines, and Vinceanes' cells-the wail of women under the Russian knout,

e profitable to contemplate: not a life where an easy faith is regarded as 'easy virtue' is regarded among some men-but a life where those we have loved and lost here are restored to us again-for there, in that Hall where those may meet who have been sacrificed in the cause of duty-where no gross, or blind, or self

her the friends of the deceased would do so? The answer was-'A minister was not desired. 'Then I presume,' the clerk observed, 'yo

in, and when the grave was made up they returned home. Thus Madeline was buried, as became her innocence and her fate, without parade, without priest, or priestly ceremony. Had hesitation been displayed, or previous inquiries been made as to whether what was done could have been permitted, no

e's visit. Mr. Cooper was the first of the magistrates to send a message of condolence on the death of Madeline, and in this instance his kindness was delicate and generous. As on the day Mrs. Holyoake came the magistrates happened to hold a meeting in it, an apology was sent me, and the Lodge placed at my service. No turnkey was sent in, and I was permitted to see my friends with an air of perfec

es his opinion of the impropriety, perhaps his resolution is taken without. He avoids you. His defence is prevention. Renewal of offence, renewal of intercourse, chance of altercation or repetition, is simply impossible. Such was Captain Mason. I watched his manners with pleasure-he governed the gaol like a drawing room, excepting that the desserts were not quite the same. I saw rude men baffled, they could not make out how. Pos

passed through the governor's hands, he wrote under the name the crime and sentence of the writer-a brief and bitter retort. I reenclosed the letter to the writer with a note to Captain Mason, observing that on leaving the gaol I had expressed to him the only opinion I entertained of him, a

d been accustomed, would save him from the frequency of these fits, I procured him some. Smoking it one day in a corner, in a paper pipe made for the purpose out of one of my letters, the governor came upon him through a side door. Upon being asked how he procured it, he answered, 'From a man who had just come in from the Sessions.' This the governor did not believe. At night Ogden made an immense speech at me, in which that luminous functionary inserted several elephantine hints, to the effect that he knew the source whence the aforesaid tobacco came. It was a treat to hear Ogden hint; it was like a hippopotamus putting his paw out, or kicking a man down stairs. As soon as I could get to speak to Upton, I pre

way I asked him if it would be necessary for me to take an oath, before my own bond could be accepted, as I should object to take an oath? He turned round and replied-'Why, Holyoake, as you don't believe in any of the Gods, you could have no objection to swear by them all.' I explained to him that if the Magistrate would regard my oath as a mere ceremony, by which I rendered myself liable to penalties in

pon himself, and, I think, not without utility, for he never afterwards fell into that insensible arrogance of speech

that there

s sufficient reason to b

you have not the temerity t

is one. If it be absurd in me to deny what I cannot demonstrate, is i

you leave the qu

uestion of probability.' 'Ah! the probabi

thout prejudice, or read that written in its favour with

s side, why does he not make it known

it generous in you to taunt him with lack of eviden

so horrible; as Robert Hall has said, 'A

tell you that your principles are horrible, and t

hear you speak so drea

cked to hear what you

olting.' 'But Christia

nds of children.' 'How pernicious is it for Christ

are only

ld be more respectful in their speech if the same language coul

age of the atheist is so sho

d to you that the language of the Chris

their opinions, I allow,

bly when you permit the same rul

lly cannot b

mprisoning me here for being one! If you bel

die you will wish that

berty I claim for myself? If to be capable of looking back with satisfaction on conduct like this is

ischarge of this duty is more serious in my eyes than you suppose; nor do the inducements you picture exist. Do you not see that I am nearly friendless? I am without even the attentions of those from whom I have some right to expect it. Except Mr. Farn, Mr. Watts, and Mr. Campbell, none of my colleagues among the Social Missionaries have written me a friendly word. The editor of the New Moral World, upon whose protection I have some claim, has written no word in my favour. The only public defence for which I am indebted has come from strange papers, and unknown men. Even Mr. Owen, the advocacy of whose opinions involved me in this prosecution, he who occupied the largest share of my veneration, has not even recognised my existence by a single line. This affair may have made some noise, but I am not so young as to mistake noise for popularity, nor so weak as to think popularity the one thing needful. Popularity, is to be won by those who can flatter the public, but that estimation which is alone worth having is only to be won by the service of the people, and that i

r made a few not unfeeling remarks, and

. He paused and asked what I thought of his representations-I answered no word. He seemed to think he was making a favourable impression. He resumed, and came to another peroration, and again besought me to answer-still no motion, no word from me. He began a third time, and touched all serious topics which he could command, and came again to an elaborate peroration on deathbeds; and as I remained still silent and immovable, he said, somewhat perplexed this time, 'Holyoake, won't you speak?' I then answered 'Not while we occupy these places. Do you not preach to me and place me here where prisoners stand? I take this to be a ceremony, and not a conversation.'

a thin copy bound in calf, in pearl type, with marginal references, would be interesting to me, but the dumpling-shaped book he offered, I could never endure in my library. He deliberated-the trade price of the Bible he offered me was about tenpence, that I desiderated would cost him half a guinea. The refl

ss to you my sense of the kindness and consideration shown me by you when Mrs. Holyoake visited me here. It is one of the few things I shall remember with pleasure when again at liberty. You will not, I fear, believe in the possibility of one of my opinions feeling gratit

d the same risk in perusing your theistical book? But, as all in the search after truth must venture through phases of error, I shall not hesitate to comply with your request; and that you may be certain that I do so, you may, when I have ended, put to me any question upon the contents you please.' It happened that m

ou mean?'

d confounded; and on this occasion I showed him, that while Christianity punished as crime the expression of dissentient opinions, Christians were disqualified from seeking the state of

into my hands by the authorities-occupied me till the end of my imprisonment. On the 15th of February, 1843, I was liberated; and three days after (having pa