Part 7 (1/2)
”We republish this pa the happiness of the people, whether they be theological, political, or social, fullest right of free discussion ought to be maintained at all hazards We do not personally endorse all that Dr
Knowlton says: his 'Philosophical Proem' seems to us full of philosophical mistakes, and--as we are neither of us doctors--we are not prepared to endorse his h discussion, and no discussion is possible where differing opinions are suppressed, we claiht to publish all opinions, so that the public, enabled to see all sides of a question, er to which this defiance of the authorities exposed us, but it was not the danger of failure, with the prison as penalty, that gave us pause It was the horrible ht arise; the odious imputations on honour and purity that would follow Could we, the teachers of a loftyould be technically described as an obscene book, and risk the ruin of our future, dependent as that was on our fair fah it meant, as he felt, the almost certain destruction of his Parlia by his own hands of a weapon that in the hands of his foes would be well-nigh fatal To ood nauarded--scandal the most terrible a woman could face But I had seen thefor bread; the wages of the workht or ten they could not ainst the helping of these? Did it matter thatremedy to this otherwise hopeless wretchedness of thousands? What orth all ht to the test, I failed?
So, with heart aching but steady, I ca intellectually, and blundered in the reht morally in the will to sacrifice all to help the poor, and I can rejoice that I faced a storm of obloquy fiercer and harder to bear than any other which can ever touch ments from without that were not endorsed by conde that folloas a splendid school for the teaching of endurance
The day before the pamphlet was put on sale we ourselves delivered copies to the Chief Clerk of the Magistrates at Guildhall, to the officer in charge at the City Police Office in Old Jewry, and to the Solicitor for the City of London With each pamphlet was a notice that ould attend and sell the book fro day, Saturday, March 24th This we accordingly did, and in order to save trouble we offered to attend daily at the shop from 10 to 11 am
to facilitate our arrest, should the authorities determine to prosecute The offer was readily accepted, and after so which a deputation froe the Tory Governainst us and ere arrested on April 6th
Letters of approval and encourage their writers General Garibaldi, the well-known econoreat French constitutional lawyer, Eether with letters literally by the hundred fro us for the stand taken
Noticeable were the nuymen's wives, and wives of ministers of all denominations
After our arrest ere taken to the police-station in Bridewell Place, and thence to the Guildhall, where Alder, before e duly appeared, while in the back of the court waited what an official described as ”a regular waggon-load of bail”
We were quickly released, the preli fixed for ten days later--April 17th At the close of the day the nisances, without bail; and it was so fully seen on all sides that ere fighting for a principle that no bail was asked for during the various stages of the trial Two days later ere committed for trial at the Central Crih moved for a writ of _certiorari_ to remove the trial to the Court of Queen's Bench; Lord Chief Justice cockburn said he would grant the writ if ”upon looking at it (the book), we think its object is the legitie on a matter of human interest,” but not if the science were only a cover for impurity, and he directed that copies of the book should be handed in for perusal by hiranted the writ
The trial coland and a special jury, Sir Hardinge Giffard, the Solicitor-General of the Tory Govern ourselves The Lord Chief Justice ”su paper said; he declared that ”ain the way of a prosecution was probably never brought into a court of justice,” and described us as ”two enthusiasts who have been actuated by a desire to do good in a particular department of society” He then went on to a splendid state our straightforwardness and asserting Knowlton's honesty of intention
Every one in court thought that we had won our case, but they had not taken into account the religious and political hatred against us and the presence on the jury of such men as Mr Walter, of the _Times_
After an hour and thirty-five minutes of delay the verdict was a compromise: ”We are unanimously of opinion that the book in question is calculated to deprave public morals, but at the same time we entirely exonerate the defendants fro it” The Lord Chief Justice looked troubled, and said that he should have to translate the verdict into one of guilty, and on that soreed--we heard later from one of them--that if the verdict were not accepted in that forainst convicting us; but the foreman, as bitterly hostile, ju a conviction, and none of those in our favour had the courage to contradict him on the spur of the e set us free, on Mr Bradlaugh's recognisances to coment that day week
On that day we moved to quash the indictround and partly on the ground that the verdict, having acquitted us of wrong ainst us On this the Court did not agree with us, holding that the part of the indict corrupt motive was superfluous Then came the question of sentence, and on this the Lord Chief Justice did his best to save us; ere acquitted of any intent to violate the laould we submit to the verdict of the jury and promise not to sell the book? No, ould not; we claie pleaded, argued, finally got angry with us, and, at last, compelled to pass sentence, he stated that if ould have yielded he would have let us go free without penalty, but that as ould set ourselves against the law, break it and defy it--a sore offence froe's point of view--he could only pass a heavy sentence on each of six nisances of 500 for two years, and this, as he again repeated, upon the assumption ”that they do intend to set the law at defiance” Even despite this he made us first-class h stated that we should h's recognisance for 100, the queerest comment on his view of the case and of our characters, since ere liable jointly to 1,400 under the sentence, to say nothing of the imprisonment But prison and money penalties vanished into thin air, for the writ of error was granted, proved successful, and the verdict was quashed
Then ensued a so; were our opponents equally resolved to prosecute us? We could not tell I wrote a pauments which had convinced radation entailed on fa and the lack of the necessaries of life, pleading for early ht be destroyed, and liht be avoided; finally, giving the infore without these evils possible This pa our view of the subject, and we again took up the sale of Knowlton's Mr Bradlaugh carried the war into the eneainst the police for the recovery of some pamphlets they had seized; he carried the action to a successful issue, recovered the pamphlets, bore them off in triumph, and we sold them all with an inscription across them, ”Recovered from the police” We continued the sale of Knowlton's tract for some time, until we received an intimation that no further prosecution would be attempted, and on this we at once dropped its publication, substituting for it my ”Law of Population”
[Illustration: CHARLES BRADLAUGH MP]
But the worst part of the fight, for me, was to come Prosecution of the ”Law of Population” was threatened, but never coainst ust, 1875, to depriveher ahen she went on her annual visit of one month to her father, but I had pro to issue a writ of _habeas corpus_ Noas felt that the Knowlton trial ed against ed with effect I received notice in January, 1878, that an application was to be h Court of Chancery to deprive me of the child, but the petition was not filed till the following April Mabel was dangerously ill with scarlet fever at the tih this fact was communicated to her father I received a copy of the petition while sitting at her bedside The petition alleged that, ”The said Annie Besant is, by addresses, lectures, and writings, endeavouring to propagate the principles of Atheism, and has published a book entitled 'The Gospel of Atheism' She has also associated herself with an infidel lecturer and author na books and paion is iion inculcated”
It further alleged againstof the ”Law of Population” Unhappily, the petition cae Jessel, a otry, to which he had added the ti morality of a ”man of the world,”
sceptical as to all sincerity, and contemptuous of all devotion to an unpopular cause The treatment I received at his hands on my first appearance in court told me what I had to expect I had already had soentleness of the Lord Chief Justice, the perfect inified courtesy of the Lords Justices of Appeal My astonishined when, in answer to a statement by Mr Ince, QC, that I appeared in person, I heard a harsh, loud voice exclaim:
”Appear in person? A lady appear in person? Never heard of such a thing! Does the lady really appear in person?”
As the London papers had been full ofin person in the other courts and had contained the high compliments of the Lord Chief Justice on e Jessel's pretended astonishment seemed a little overdone After a variety of si tones and in the roughest e Jessel tried to obtain his object by browbeating me directly ”Is this the lady?”
”I am the respondent, my lord, Mrs Besant”
”Then I advise you, Mrs Besant, to employ counsel to represent you, if you can afford it; and I suppose you can”
”With all subht of arguing my case in person”
”You will do so if you please, of course, but I think you had ive you notice that, if you do not, you must not expect to be shown any consideration You will not be heard by th than the case requires, nor allowed to go into irrelevant ue their own cases usually do”