the case of this "insignificant" and "stunted" boy. Let us suppose for a
moment that your statement about him is entirely accurate. What does it
prove? Simply this, that it is not impossible for an Atheist to commit
a murder. But who ever said it was? Who asserts that Atheists are
absolutely free from the passions and frailties of human nature? Has
your lordship never heard of a Christian murderer? Is it not a fact that
Jesus Christ himself could not select his apostles without including a
villain? "Twelve of you have I chosen," he said, "and one of you is a
murderer." Is not one in twelve a large percentage? Why, then, is the
world to be alarmed, and invited to subscribe to Christian Missions,
because one Atheist out of all the thousands in England commits a murder
--and that one an "insignificant" and "stunted" boy, apparently bred in
poverty and hardship?

Mind you, I am not admitting that George Mason _was_ an Atheist, or
the _son_ of an Atheist. I say that has to be proved. I am taking
your lordship's account of the matter as true merely for the sake of
argument.

Let me draw your attention to some _facts_. So many of the clergy in
your own Church "went wrong" that you were compelled to obtain a special
Act of Parliament to enable you to get rid of them. Is it not true,
also, that the greatest swindlers of this age have been extremely pious?
What do you make of Messrs Hobbs and Wright? What do you think of
Jabez Balfour? Are not such scoundrels a thousand times worse than
a passionate boy like George Mason? Were not the "Liberator" victims
fleeced and ruined by professed Christians? What have you to say about
Mr. Hastings, Captain Verney, and Mr. De Cobain, who were all convicted
of bad crimes and expelled from Parliament? Have you ever heard of the
text, "Physician heal thyself"?

Here is another fact. A few months ago an Irish clergyman, the Rev.
George Griffiths, deliberately shot his own mother for the sake of
what cash he could find in her desk. He was tried, found guilty, and
sentenced to be hung. Would you think me justified in saying that the
Rev. George Griffiths committed a murder because he was a Christian?
Why, then, do you pretend that George Mason committed a murder because
he or his father was an Atheist?

Lay your hand upon your heart, and answer this question honestly. Do you
really believe that an Atheist has a special proclivity to murder? What
is there in Atheism to make men hate each other?