ews_ printed a leading
article on the case, calling on the Home Secretary to remit the rest of
our sentence. The _Times_ published a long and admirable report of my
defence, as well as of Lord Coleridge's summing-up, and predicted
that the trial would be historical, "chiefly because of the remarkable
defence made by one of the defendants." A similar prediction appeared in
the Manchester _Weekly Times_, according to which "the defendant Foote
argued his case with consummate skill." Across the Atlantic, the _New
York World_ said that "Mr. Foote, in particular, delivered a speech
which, for closeness of argument and vividness of presentation, has not
often been equalled." Even the grave and reverend _Westminster Review_
found "after reading what the Lord Chief Justice himself characterises
as Mr. Foote's very striking and able speech, that the editor of the
_Freethinker_ is very far from being the vulgar and uneducated disputant
which the _Spectator_ appears to have supposed him." Other Liberal
papers, like the _Pall Mall Gazette_ and the _Referee_, that had at
first joined in the chorus of execration over the fallen "blasphemer,"
now found that my sentence was "monstrous."

So true is it that nothing succeeds like success! I did not let these
compliments turn my head. My speeches at the Old Bailey were little,
if anything, inferior to the one I made in the Court of Queen's Bench.
There was no change in me, but only in the platform I spoke from. The
great fact to my mind was this, that given an impartial judge, and a
fair trial, it was difficult to convict any Freethinker of "blasphemy"
if he could only defend himself with some courage and address. This fact
shone like a star of hope in the night of my suffering. As I said in
one of my three letters from prison: "For the first time juries have
disagreed, and chances are already slightly against a verdict of Guilty.
Now the jury is the hand by which the enemy grasps us, and when we have
absolutely secured the twelfth man we shall have amputated the _thumb_."

On May 1 the following letter from Admiral Maxse appeared in the _Daily
News_:

"TO THE EDITOR OF THE 'DAILY NEWS.'

SIR,--Foote's brilliant defence last week will probably have
awakened some fastidious critics to their error in having depicted
him as a low and coarse controversialist, while Lord Coleridge's
judgment will have convinced the public that had Lord Coleridge
occu