pied the place of Justice North, the defendant would have
escaped with a mild penalty. In the meantime, Mr. Foote continues
to undergo what is virtually 'solitary confinement' in a cell,
and is condemned to this punishment for a year. A more wicked
sentence, or a more wicked law, than the one which Mr. Foote
and his companions suffer from, is, in my opinion, impossible
to conceive, that is to say in a country which professes to
enjoy religious liberty. His crime consisted in caricaturing
a grotesque representation of a religion which has certainly
a higher side. People who are truly religious should be obliged
to Mr. Foote, if he managed to shock some people concerning any
feature of religion which is gross and degrading to that religion.
I know something of Mr. Foote, and I am quite certain he would
not say anything to shock a refined interpretation of religion.
Refined Christians are anxious themselves to get rid of the
excrescences of their creed. The question at issue really is
as to whether a coarse picture of religion, and of one religion
only, is to be protected by the State from caricature, and from
caricature alone; because it seems to be granted that an
intellectual absurdity may be intellectually impeached. It is
impossible such a monstrous doctrine as this can stand. It will
pass away, and probably in a few years it will be remembered
with some astonishment; but oppressive and persecuting laws
are only got rid of by the spectacle of an impaled victim.
'By the light of burning heretics Christ's bleeding feet I track.'
The impaled victim is now Mr. Foote. It is a disgrace to England
that his solitary confinement--twenty-three out of the twenty-four
hours are solitary--or indeed, that any punishment whatever is
possible for a man's style in religious controversy; and to a
Liberal it is profoundly humiliating that such a proceeding
takes place under a Liberal Government and without one word of
remonstrance in the House of Commons. Where are the Radicals?--
Yours obediently, FREDK. A. MAXSE.
"April 30th."

Let me take this opportunity of thanking Admiral Maxse for his
courageous generosity on my behalf. Directly he heard of my infamous
sentence he wrote me a brave letter, which the prison rules forbade my
receiv