the case of the _Freethinker_ and other papers now published and
circulated in England." Sir William Harcourt repeated the answer
he gave to Mr. Freshfield, and added that it would not be discreet
to say whether the Government had power to seize obnoxious publications.

Mr. Redmond's question was a fine piece of impudence. Assuming
that he represented all the voters in New Ross, his constituents
numbered two hundred and sixty-one; and they could all be conveyed
to Westminster in a tithe of the vehicles that brought people to
Holloway Gaol to welcome me on the morning of my release. The
total population of New Ross, including men, women and children,
is less than seven thousand; a number that fell far short of the
readers of the _Freethinker_ even then. Representing a mere handful
of people, Mr. Redmond had the audacity to ask for the summary
suppression of a journal which is read in every part of the
English-speaking world.

Nothing further of an exciting nature in connexion with my case
occurred until early in May, when a prosecution for Blasphemy was
instituted at Tunbridge Wells against Mr. Henry Seymour, Honorary
Secretary of the local branch of the National Secular Society.
This Branch had been the object of continued outrage and persecution,
chiefly instigated, I have reason to believe, by Canon Hoare. The
printed announcements outside their meeting-place were frequently
painted over in presence of the police, who refused to interfere.
Finally the police called on all the local bill-posters and warned
them against exhibiting the Society's placards. Stung by these
disgraceful tactics, Mr. Seymour issued a jocular programme of an
evening's entertainment at the Society's hall, one profane sentence
of which, while it in no way disturbed the peace or serenity of the