nk bed, the oakum picking, the wretched diet, and the horribly
monotonous life. My chief feeling on hearing this sad tale was one
of indignation at the thought that a man of honest convictions and
blameless life should be subjected to such privations and indignities.
It did not weaken my resolution; it only deepened my hatred of the
system which sanctioned such iniquities.

From America, however, came a piece of bitter-sweet news. Mr. D. M.
Bennett, editor of the New York _Truthseeker_, had just died. His
end was hastened by the heart-disease he contracted while undergoing
imprisonment for an "offence" similar to that of Mr. Truelove. Yet
almost at the moment of Mr. Bennett's death, another jury had found
another publisher of the very same work Not Guilty. I learned from the
New York papers that the acquittal was partly due to the impartiality
of the judge, partly to the progress the public mind had made on the
population question, and partly to the fact that the accused publisher
conducted his own defence. Here was a gleam of hope. I also might
meet with an impartial judge, I also might find a jury reflecting an
enlightened public opinion, and I also was resolved to defend myself.
Alas! I did not know that I was to meet with the most bigoted judge
on the bench, and to plead to a jury exactly calculated to effect his
vindictive purpose.

On Thursday, December 7, 1882, we published our second Christmas Number
of the Freethinker. I will deal with its contents presently, when I have
narrated how it led to our second prosecution. Let it here suffice
to say that it was undoubtedly a very "warm" publication, and well
calculated to arouse the slumbering Blasphemy Laws. Some Freethinkers
even were astonished at its audacity. A few belonging to an
old-fashioned school, and a few more who were assiduously courting
"respectability," resented our action; although, as the vast majority
of our party were of an opposite opinion, they refrained from expressing
their reprobation too loudly. In reply to their murmurs I wrote an
article in my paper on "Superstitious Freethinkers." It appeared in the
number for December 31, and thus appropriately closed a year of combat.
A few passages are, perhaps, worth insertion here.

"It has been said of Robert Burns that, although his head and
heart rejected Calvinism, he never quite got it out of his blood.
There is much truth in this metaphor. Burns was, in religious
matters