criminal charge--how a criminal trial should be conducted."

His lordship did not interrupt me again. During the whole of my long
defence he leaned his head upon his hand, and looked steadily at me,
without once shifting his gaze.

To put the jury in a good frame of mind I told them that two months
before I fell among thieves, and congratulated myself on being able to
talk to twelve honest men. In order, also, that they might be disabused
of the idea that we were being treated as first-class misdemeanants, I
informed them of the discipline we were really subjected to; and I saw
that this aroused their sympathy.

Those who wish to read my defence _in extenso_ will find it in the
"Three Trials for Blasphemy." I shall content myself here with a few
points. I quoted heretical, and, as I contended, blasphemous passages
from the writings of Professor Huxley, Dr. Maudsley, Herbert Spencer,
John Stuart Mill, Matthew Arnold, Lord Amberly, the Duke of Somerset,
Shelley, Byron, James Thomson, Algernon Swinburne, and others; and
I urged that the only difference between these passages and the
incriminated parts of my paper consisted in the price t which they were
published. Why, I asked, should the high-class blasphemer be petted by
society, and the low-class blasphemer be made to bear their sins, and
driven forth into the wilderness of Holloway Gaol?

Lord Coleridge, in his summing up, supported my view, and his admission
is so important that I venture to give it in full.

"With regard to some of the others from whom Mr. Foote
quoted passages, I heard many of them for the first time.
I do not at all question that Mr. Foote read them correctly.
They are passages which, hearing them only from him for the
first time, I confess I have a difficulty in distinguishing
from the incriminated publication. They do appear to me to
be open to exactly the same charge and the same grounds of
observation that Mr. Foote's publications are. He says--and
I don't call upon him to prove it, I am quite willing to take
his word--he says many of these things are written in expensive
books, published by publishers of known eminence, and that
they circulate in the drawing-rooms, studies, and libraries
of persons of position. It may be so. All I can say here is--
and so far I can answer for myself--I would make no distinction
between Mr. Foote and anybody else; and if t