On the late trial before the Lord Chief Justice, certain numbers of the _Freethinker_, on which the prisoners were being tried, were charged by the prosecution with being (_inter alia_) blasphemous and indecent.

The judge in the course of his remarks said, the articles inculpated might be blasphemous, but assuredly they were not indecent.

The opinion of Sir William Harcourt, consequently, though in harmony with that of the junior counsel for the prosecution, is altogether opposed to that of Lord Coleridge, who was the judge in the case." The _Daily News_ itself put the matter very clearly.

"Mr.Foote and Mr.Ramsey," it said, "were sent to prison by Mr.Justice North for publishing a blasphemous libel.

Sir William Harcourt declines to release them on the ground that they have published an obscene libel.