ad convicted me, and your lordship had felt
obliged by the 'unpleasant law' to inflict upon me some measure of
punishment, I could still have kissed the hand that dealt the blow.

"I know how repulsive flattery must be to a nature like yours,
but your lordship will pardon one who is no sycophant, who
seeks neither to avert your frown nor to gain your favor, who
has no sinister object in view, but simply speaks from the
fulness of a grateful heart. And you will pardon me if I say
that my sentiments are shared by thousands, who hate your creed
but respect your character. They watched you throughout my
trial with the keenest interest, and they rejoiced when they
saw in you those noble human qualities which transcend all
dogmas and creeds, and dwarf all differences of opinion into
absolute insignificance."

Lord Coleridge also deserves my thanks for the handsome manner in which
he seconded my efforts to repudiate the odious charge of "indecency,"
which had been manufactured by the bigots after my imprisonment. These
are his lordship's words:

"Mr. Foote is anxious to have it impressed on your minds that
he is not a licentious writer, and that this word does not fairly
apply to his publications. You will have the documents before
you, and you must judge for yourselves. I should say that he
is right. He may be blasphemous, but he certainly is not licentious,
in the ordinary sense of the word; and you do not find him
pandering to the bad passions of mankind."

I ask my readers to notice these clear and emphatic sentences, for we
shall recur to them in the next chapter.

The jury retired at twenty minutes past twelve. At three minutes past
five they were discharged, being unable to agree. It was a glorious
victory. Acquittal was hopeless, but no verdict amounted practically to
the same thing. Two juries out of three had already disagreed, and as
the verdict of Guilty by the third had been won through the scandalous
partiality and mean artifices of a bigoted judge, the results of our
prosecution afforded little encouragement to fresh attacks on the
liberty of the press.

I have since had the pleasure of conversing with one of the jury.
Himself and two others held out against a verdict of Guilty, and he told
me that the discussion was extremely animated. My informant acted
on principle. He confessed he did not like my caricatu