, it further appeared, had actually
played the part of an amateur detective, by setting street policemen to
watch Mr. Bradlaugh's entries and exits from his publishing office.

On the following Friday, July 21, the hearing of our case was resumed.
We were all committed for trial at the Old Bailey, with the exception of
Mr. Whittle, the printer, against whom the prosecution was abandoned on
the ground that he had ceased to print the _Freethinker_. This was an
unpleasant fact, and alas! it was only one of a good many I shall have
to relate presently.

Before our committal I essayed to read a brief protest against the
prosecution, which I had carefully prepared. In defiance of the statute,
the Lord Mayor refused to hear it. An altercation then ensued, and I
should have insisted on my right unless stopped by brute force; but
on his lordship promising that a copy should be attached to the
depositions, I yielded in order to let Mr. Bradlaugh have a full
opportunity of stigmatising Sir Henry Tyler, who had left his
questionable business at Dashwood House during a part of the day, to
gloat over the spectacle of his enemy in a criminal dock.

Some portions of my half-suppressed protest ought not to be omitted
in this history. After dealing in a few lines with the origin of the
Blasphemy Laws, censuring the conduct of Sir Henry Tyler, and alluding
to Sir. William Harcourt's reply to Mr. Freshfield, I expressed myself
as follows:

"What, indeed, do the prosecutors hope or expect to gain?
Freethought is no longer a weak, tentative, apologetic thing;
it is strong, bold, and aggressive; and no law could now suppress
it except one of extermination. Every breach made in its ranks
by imprisonment would be instantly filled; and as punishment
is not eternal on this side of death, the imprisoned man would
some day return to his old place, fiercer than ever for the fight,
and inflamed with an unappeasable hatred of the religion whose
guardians prefer punishment to persuasion, and supplement the
weakness of argument by the force of brutality.

"Blasphemy is a very general offence if we take even the lenient
definitions of Sir James Stephen in his 'Digest of the Criminal Law.'
All who publicly advocate the disestablishment of the Church
are guilty under one clause, and half the leading writers of
our age are guilty under another. It is difficult to find a