il _after_ they had been criticised by Mr.
Caldwell? From the _Christian Life_ I clip a few lines which are
important as bearing upon this point:--

(1.) The Attorney-General at Washington advised, _after_ reading
the Harman criticism, to place the case in the hands of the
District Attorney. (2.) The case was known to the
Postmaster-General and to Mr. Comstock, and these men were
appealed to in vain to stop the prosecution. (3.) Mr. Comstock,
in a letter to the _Woman's Journal_, characterized the mailing
of _Christian Life_ as violation of the law, _and this before the
trial occurred_.

If Mr. Comstock, as his letter to the Woman's Journal indicates,
regarded the mailing of _Christian Life_ a violation of the postal
laws, why was no notice taken of it by him or his Chicago agent for
almost a year? _Why this culpable dereliction of duty_ until _after_
the anti-vice society and the postal department had been criticised by
Mr. Caldwell? It matters not, for the point I wish to emphasize,
whether the persecution of Mr. Caldwell, was, as appearances would
lead one to infer, a retaliatory stroke in punishment for presuming to
criticise the postal department and anti-vice society, or whether the
censorship was asleep for the space of ten months and only chanced to
wake up after the editor pointed out the iniquity of their proceedings
in a case where they had shown _uncalled-for vigilance_. The fact as
shown forth indicates the power and possibilities for evil inherent in
an enactment which _permits_ any censorship to wield such power
without _attaching severe penalties in the event of its being unjustly
wielded_, for sooner or later, unless these safeguards are present,
evils of the gravest character will follow.

The other serious evil which this case most signally emphasizes,
cannot be too frequently or strongly stated, and that is, the cruel
wrong, the great injustice which a citizen of this republic may
suffer, when perfectly innocent, while those who have persecuted him
and are guilty of a serious offence before the moral law, escape
unscathed. Thus, we find in this case, after many months of weary
suspense, months of harassment and anxious thought, and after being
put to an expense which to one in Mr. Caldwell's circumstances was
very large, when his case came up for trial before one of the ablest
judges in the city, it was promptly dismissed, the judge ruling that
the defendan