The History of the Last Trial by Jury for Atheism in England: A Fragment of Autobiography Submitted for the Perusal of Her Majesty's Attorney-General and the British ClergyHolyoake, George Jacob
Philosophy
The History of the Last Trial by Jury for Atheism in England: A Fragment of Autobiography Submitted for the Perusal of Her Majesty's Attorney-General and the British Clergy
Holyoake, George Jacob
Atheism -- England; Holyoake, George Jacob, 1817-1906 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Blasphemy) -- England
'Akin to the want of better food, was the want of exercise, and no want
of damp. The yard in which I walked was so small, that I always became
giddy, through the frequent turnings, before I became refreshed. The
governor sometimes permitted the "Fines-Class" in which I was, to walk
in his garden; but the occasions came seldom and lasted not long--and
I was previously so enervated by confinement, that the unusual exercise
thus taken, threw me into a slight fever. Generally speaking, the
place in which I was confined was miserably humid, and, although I took
perpetual care, I had almost a perpetual cold.
'An application for a trivial favour often brought down upon me ruthless
treatment. The visiting magistrates would come, and before the other
prisoners denounce me as the "worst felon in the gaol, and the most
atrocious of criminals." I was directed to ascribe this to the petulance
of age and the rancour of orthodoxy; but I thought it proceeded from bad
taste and worse feeling.
'From first to last, every newspaper sent me was detained; every letter
from me was perused, and every one to me was broken open and read--and
the very seals, if they happened to be heterodox, were interdicted. Thus
the privacy of affection and friendship were violated, and mind as well
as body laid under one restraint.
'When I saw friends it was but for a few minutes, and then through the
bars of a gate; to shake hands was a privilege, and to converse unheard,
impossible. To me it was a momentary satisfaction made an enduring
mortification. To the public it may seem a light matter that nothing can
be spoken to a visitor unheard by officers, but it is no light matter to
a prisoner. The commissioners inquired--"Can you make no communication
to your friends without its passing under the eyes of the governor, or
through the ears of the turnkey?" I answered--"None; and that it was not
prudent for a prisoner to mention openly what affected persons in whose
power he was put--that no prisoner must calculate on gaolers being
generous, for they owned few virtues not written in their rules." I
spoke from experience, and gave them cases in point.*
'During the latter portion of my time all my friends were denied access
to me, which, though it interfered with the supply of my wants, I did
not, for the reasons stated, much regret. But this I did regret--all
my letters were detained, and I was refused the privilege of writing a
single letter to my family. The reason assigned by the governor for this
was the enforcement of new rules, but I know that they were enforced
without proper authority, and I believe applied only to me.***
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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