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.