In concluding my introductory address I said: "I promise the readers of the _Freethinker_ that they shall, so far as my powers avail, find no diminution in the vigor and vivacity of its attacks on the shams and superstitions of our age.
Not only the writer's pen, but the artist's pencil, shall be busy in this good work; and the absurdities of faith shall, if possible, be slain with laughter.

Priests and fools are, as Goldsmith said, the two classes who dread ridicule, and we are pledged to an implacable war with both." The artist's pencil! Yes, I had resolved to repeat what I was punished for.

I left written instructions against the publication of Comic Bible Sketches in the _Freethinker_ during my imprisonment; but although I would not impose the risk on others, I was determined to face it myself.
A fortnight after my release the Sketches were resumed, and they have been continued ever since.

My reasons for this decision were expressed at a public banquet in the Hall of Science on March 12.

I then said: "Mr.Bradlaugh has said that the Freethought party--which no one will dispute his right to speak for--looks to me, among others, after my imprisonment, to maintain with dignity whatever position I have won.