as is generally the case with the "great unpaid"; but Mr. Lickfold
promptly intervened, and his lordship, seeing the necessity of
carefulness, then held that it would be advisable to adhere to the
one case that morning, and to take out fresh summonses for the other
numbers. Mr. Maloney then proceeded to deal with the numbers before
the Court. There were numerous blasphemies which, if we were committed
for trial, would be set forth in the indictment, but he would "spare
the ears of the Court." One passage, however, he did read, and it
is well to put on record, for the sake of those who talk about our
"indecent" attacks on Christianity, what a prosecuting barrister
felt he could rely on to procure our committal. It was as follows:
"As for the Freethinker, he will scorn to degrade himself by going
through the farce of reconciling his soul to a God whom he justly
regards as the embodiment of crime and ferocity." Those words were
not mine; they were from an article by one of my contributors; but
I ask any reasonable man whether it is not ludicrous to prate about
religious freedom in a country where writers run the risk of
imprisonment for a sentence like that? As Mr. Maloney ended the
quotation his voice sank to a supernatural whisper, he dropped the
paper on the desk before him, and regarded his lordship with a look
of pathetic horror, which the worthy magistrate fully reciprocated.
As I contemplated these two voluntary augurs of our national faith,
and at the same time remembered that far stronger expressions might
be found in the writings of Mill, Clifford, Amberley, Arnold, Newman,
Conway, Swinburne, and other works in Mudie's circulating library,
I could scarcely refrain from laughter.

The witnesses for the prosecution were of the ordinary type--
policemen, detectives, and lawyer's clerks--with the exception of
Mr. Charles Albert Watts, who by accident or design found himself