those of England. For in England it was only the shilling edition --
that revised by Paine -- which was suppressed. Symonds, who
ministered to the half-crown folk, and who was also publisher of
replies to Paine, was left undisturbed about his pirated edition, and
the new Society for the suppression of Vice and Immorality fastened
on one Thomas Williams, who sold pious tracts but was also convicted
(June 24, 1797) of having sold one copy of the "Age of Reason."
Erskine, who had defended Paine at his trial for the "Rights of Man,"
conducted the prosecution of Williams. He gained the victory from a
packed jury, but was not much elated by it, especially after a
certain adventure on his way to Lincoln's Inn. He felt his coat
clutched and beheld at his feet a woman bathed in tears. She led him
into the small book-shop of Thomas Williams, not yet called up for
judgment, and there he beheld his victim stitching tracts in a
wretched little room, where there were three children, two suffering
with Smallpox. He saw that it would be ruin and even a sort of murder
to take away to prison the husband, who was not a freethinker, and
lamented his publication of the book, and a meeting of the Society
which had retained him was summoned. There was a full meeting, the
Bishop of London (Porteus) in the chair. Erskine reminded them that
Williams was yet to be brought up for sentence, described the scene
he had witnessed, and Williams' penitence, and, as the book was now
suppressed, asked permission to move for a nominal sentence. Mercy,
he urged, was a part of the Christianity they were defending. Not one
of the Society took his side, -- not even "philanthropic" Wilberforce
-- and Erskine threw up his brief. This action of Erskine led the
Judge to give Williams only a year in prison instead of the three he
said had been intended.

While Williams was in prison the orthodox colporteurs were