Part 14 (1/2)
”Mr. P. A. TAYLOR asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he had received memorials from many thousands of persons, including clergymen of the Church of England, Nonconformist ministers, and persons of high literary and scientific position, asking for a mitigation of the sentences of George William Foote and William James Ramsey, now imprisoned in Holloway Gaol on a charge of blasphemy; whether they have already suffered five months' imprisonment, involving until lately confinement in their respective cells for twenty-three hours out of every twenty-four, and now involving twenty-two hours of such solitary confinement out of each 24; and whether he will advise the remission of the remainder of their sentences.”
Thereupon Sir William Harcourt reared his unblus.h.i.+ng front and gave this answer:
”Sir WILLIAM HARCOURT--The question of my hon. friend is founded upon misconception of the duties and rights of the Secretary of State in reference to sentences of the law, which I have often endeavoured to remove, but apparently with entire want of success.
It is perfectly true that I have received many memorials on this subject, most of them founded on misconception of the law on which the sentence rested. This is not a matter I can take into consideration, either upon my own opinion or upon that of 'clergymen of the Church of England, Nonconformist ministers, and persons of high literary and scientific position.' I am bound to a.s.sume that until Parliament alters the law that law is right, and that those who administer the law administer it rightly. If I took any other course, outside my opinion--if I had one upon this subject--I should be interfering with the making and with the administration of the law, and transferring it from Parliament to the Executive and to a Minister of the Crown. I am quite sure my hon. friend would not like that course. It has been said, ”Oh, but you can deal with sentences.”
(Hear, hear.) Sentences must be dealt with not upon the a.s.sumption that the law was wrong, and that the jury and judge were wrong, but upon special circ.u.mstances applicable to the particular case which would justify a Minister in recommending to the Crown a remission of sentence. What are the circ.u.mstances? n.o.body--I do not care whether legal persons or belonging to the cla.s.ses mentioned in this question--who has not seen the publication can judge of the matter. I have seen it, and I have no hesitation in saying that it is in the most strict sense of the word an obscene libel.
It is a scandalous outrage upon public decency. (Opposition cheers.) That being so, the law has declared that it is punishable by law.
I have no authority to declare that the law shall not be obeyed; nor do I think that within less than half the period of the punishment awarded by the Court, if I were to advise the Crown to remit the sentence, I should be discharging the responsibility which rests upon me with a sound or sober judgment. (Opposition cheers, and murmurs below the gangway.)”
The Tory cheers which greeted this malicious reply suffice to condemn it. Sir William Harcourt has told many lies in his time, but this was the most brazen of all. He knew we were not prosecuted for obscenity; he knew there was not a suggestion of indecency in our indictment; and he had before him the distinct language of the Lord Chief Justice of England, exonerating us from the slander. Yet he deliberately libelled us, in a place where his utterances are privileged, in order to conciliate the Tories and please the bigots. Some of the Radical papers protested against this wanton misrepresentation, but I am not aware that a single Christian journal censured the lie which was used to justify persecution.
Freethinkers have not forgotten Sir William Harcourt, nor have I. Some day we may be able to punish him for the insult. Meanwhile, I venture to think that if the member for Derby and the editor of the _Freethinker_ were placed side by side, an unprejudiced stranger would have little difficulty in deciding which of the two was the more likely to be b.e.s.t.i.a.l.
Poor Mr. Ramsey, not knowing his man, innocently pet.i.tioned the Home Secretary from prison, pointing out that he was tried and imprisoned for _blasphemy_, asking to be released at once, and offering to supply Sir William Harcourt with fresh copies of our Christmas Number for a new trial for _obscenity_. Of course he received no reply.
My counsel, Mr. Cluer, gallantly defended my reputation in the columns of the _Daily News_, and he was supported by one of the Jury, who wrote as follows:
”SIR,--From the reference in your short leader on the subject, it appears that the Home Secretary, in answer to Mr. Taylor, declined to consent to the release of Messrs. Foote and Ramsey, on the ground that they had published an obscene libel. On the late trial before the Lord Chief Justice, certain numbers of the _Freethinker_, on which the prisoners were being tried, were charged by the prosecution with being (_inter alia_) blasphemous and indecent. The judge in the course of his remarks said, the articles inculpated might be blasphemous, but a.s.suredly they were not indecent. The opinion of Sir William Harcourt, consequently, though in harmony with that of the junior counsel for the prosecution, is altogether opposed to that of Lord Coleridge, who was the judge in the case.”
The _Daily News_ itself put the matter very clearly. ”Mr. Foote and Mr. Ramsey,” it said, ”were sent to prison by Mr. Justice North for publis.h.i.+ng a blasphemous libel. Sir William Harcourt declines to release them on the ground that they have published an obscene libel. It is not usual to keep Englishmen in gaol on the ground that they committed an offence of which they have not been convicted, and against which they have had no opportunity of defending themselves.” But Sir William Harcourt thought otherwise, and kept us in prison, acting at once as prosecutor, witness, jury and judge.
Mr. Gladstone was appealed to, but he ”regretted he could do nothing,”
presumably because we were only Englishmen and not Bulgarians. An answer to this piece of callous hypocrisy came from the London clubs. One resolution pa.s.sed by the Combined Radical Clubs of Chelsea, representing thousands of working men, characterised our continued imprisonment as an indelible stigma on the Liberal Government.
CHAPTER XVI. A LONG NIGHT.
Feeling there was no prospect of release, and resigned to my fate, I settled down to endure it, with a resolution to avail myself of every possible mitigation. Colonel Milman included us among the special exercise men, and we enjoyed the luxury of two outings every day; our solitary confinement being thus reduced to twenty-two hours instead of twenty-three. By finessing I also managed to get an old feather pillow from the store-room, which proved a comfortable addition to the wooden bolster. The alteration in our food I have already mentioned.
Sir William Harcourt did absolutely nothing for us, but the Secretary of the Prison Commissioners gave instructions that we were to be treated as kindly as possible, so that ”nothing might happen” to us. One of the upper officers, whom I have seen since, told me we were a source of great anxiety to the authorities, and they were very glad to see our backs.
Mr. Anderson called on me in my cell and asked what he could do for me.
”Open the front door,” I answered.
With a pleasant smile he regretted his inability to do that.
”Well then,” I continued, ”let me have something to read.”
”Yes,” he said, ”I can do that. There are many books in the prison library.”
”But not one,” I retorted, ”fit for an educated man to read. They are all selected by the chaplain.”
”Well,” he answered, ”I cannot give you what we haven't got.”
”But why not let me have my own books to read?” I asked.
Mr. Anderson replied that such a thing was unheard of, but I persisted in my plea, which Colonel Milman generously supported.
”Well,” said Mr. Anderson, ”I suppose we must. Your own books may be sent in, and the Governor can let you have them two at a time. But, you know, you mustn't have such writings as you are here for.”