ence of
deity! Surely Omnipotence is as _able_ to punish as Omniscience knows
_when_ to punish. The theologians who, as Matthew Arnold says, talk
familiarly of God, as though he were a man living in the next street,
are modest in comparison with his self-elected body-guard.

Would it not be better for these presumptuous mortals to mind their own
business? It will be time enough for them to supervise their neighbors
when they have reformed themselves. With all their pretensions to
superior piety and virtue, they are notoriously the greatest ring of
public thieves in the world, and they are at present lavishly expending
trust-monies in a desperate endeavor to justify their turpitude and
prolong their plunder.

According to our summons, Mr. Ramsey, Mr. Kemp, and I appeared at the
Mansion House on Friday, February 2, 1883. The Justice Room was thronged
long before the Lord Mayor took his seat on the Bench, and all the
approaches were crowded by anxious sympathisers. All the evidence was of
a purely formal character. It was a foregone conclusion that we should
be committed for trial. We all three pleaded not guilty and reserved
our defence. Before leaving the Court, however, notwithstanding his
lordship's interruption, I protested against the revival of an old law
which had fallen into desuetude, which had not been enforced in the City
of London for over fifty years, and which was altogether alien to the
spirit of the age. My remarks were greeted with loud applause by the
public in Court. Of course his lordship frowned, and the ushers shouted
"Silence!" But the mischief was done. It was obvious that we had
many friends, that we were not going to be tried in a hole-and-corner
fashion.

Our case excited much interest in London. Most of the newspapers
contained a good report of the proceedings at the Mansion House; and
even the Tory _Evening News_, which affirmed that we were three vulgar
blasphemers undeserving of notice, had as the leading line on its
placard "Prosecution of the _Freethinker_: Result!"

The _Freethinker_ for February 11 contained an article from my pen on
the "Infidel Hunt," and a very admirable article by Mr. Wheeler on "The
Fight of Forty Years Ago," narrating the trials of Southwell, Holyoake,
Paterson, and other brave heretics. Mr. Ramsey did not then quite
approve my attitude of defiance, although he has changed his mind since.
He thought it more prudent to bend a little before the storm, instead
of