of honesty.

One reason why I have striven to be exact is that my record may be of
service to the future historian of our time. It is always rash to
appeal to the future, as a posturing English novelist did in one of his
Prefaces; and it is well to remember the witticism of Voltaire, who,
on hearing an ambitious poeticule read his Ode to Posterity, doubted
whether it would reach its address. But it is the facts, and not
my personality, that are important in this case. My trial will be a
conspicuous event in the history of the struggle for religious
freedom, and in consequence of Lord Coleridge's and Sir James Stephen's
utterances, it may be of considerable moment in the history of the
Criminal Law. It is more than possible that I shall be the last prisoner
for blasphemy in England. That alone is a circumstance of distinction,
which gives my story a special character, quite apart from my
individuality. As a muddle-headed acquaintance said, intending to be
complimentary, Some men are born to greatness, others achieve it, and I
had it thrust upon me.

Prosecutions for Blasphemy have not been frequent. Sir James Stephen was
able to record nearly all of them in his "History of the Criminal
Law." The last before mine occurred in 1857, when Thomas Pooley, a poor
Cornish well-sinker, was sentenced by the late Mr. Justice Coleridge to
twenty months' imprisonment for chalking some "blasphemous" words on
a gate-post. Fortunately this monstrous punishment excited public
indignation. Mill, Buckle, and other eminent men, interested themselves
in the case, and Pooley was released after undergoing a quarter of his
sentence. From that time until my prosecution, that is for nearly a
whole generation, the odious law was allowed to slumber, although tons
of "blasphemy" were published every year. This long desuetude induced
Sir James Stephen, in his "Digest of the Criminal Law" to regard it as
"practically obsolete." But the event has proved that no law is obsolete
until it is repealed. It has also proved Lord Coleridge's observation
that there is, in the case of some laws, a "discriminating laxity," as
well as Professor Hunter's remark that the Blasphemy Laws survive as a
dangerous weapon in the hands of any fool or fanatic who likes to set
them in motion.

In the pamphlet entitled _Blasphemy No Crime_, which I published during
my prosecution, and which is still in print if anyone is curious to
see it, I contended that Blasphemy is only