officer attached to Scotland Yard, you know the prisoner. Will you tell his lordship and the jury how you made his acquaintance?

MR. ANDREW SLYMAN: In consequence of instructions we received from the Commissioner of Police I went to the prisoner's shop in Booksellers Lane, where he keeps a large stock of books new and second-hand, also of photos and engravings. I asked the prisoner to supply me with a copy of Cecil's book entitled Sexual Selection and Human Marriage.

SIR RICHARD BULLY: Did you inform the prisoner of your identity?

MR. ANDREW SLYMAN: No, of course not; I bought the book as a customer interested in the subject of "Sexual Selection."

SIR RICHARD BULLY: Was the book concealed, or was it on an open shelf accessible to inspection to every comer?

MR. ANDREW SLYMAN: It was amongst other books on a shelf. The prisoner took it down, and I paid ten shillings for the copy. I asked him if he had sold many copies of the same book, and he said, “Yes, heaps of them, it is a very important work." Then I asked him if the contents were spicy or risky. Oh no, not at all, he said, purely scientific.

SIR RICHARD BULLY: Then there was no attempt of concealment, every young man or girl could have obtained a copy of the book?

MR. ANDREW SLYMAN: Yes, I am sure of it, the prisoner seemed quite unconscious of the danger hidden in this book, and of the danger he was running in selling it.

SIR RICHARD BULLY: A few days later you arrested the prisoner on a warrant and you searched his shop. Did the prisoner make any remark then?

MR. ANDREW SLYMAN: When I read the warrant to him he burst out laughing, and after a pause he said, "Well, a nice job, man, do you mean to say that the prudes in dear old England will dare to indict Darwin, and Huxley, and Westermarck? Ha, ha!

I suppose the next move will be to arrest Herbert Spencer. Fancy evolution tried at the Old Bailey. A splendid joke." Well, I said, it will not be a joke to you anyhow, six weeks in Holloway will change your views entirely, and two years hard labour may follow if you remain obstreperous. But he continued to laugh at the idea, and I took him to Bow Street.

SIR RICHARD BULLY: How many of these books did you seize, and what did you find besides the books?

MR. ANDREW SLYMAN: About three dozen copies, and I found the portfolio containing twenty indecent photographs which I also took to Bow Street Police Station. The photos were in a large portfolio, the same which is on the solicitors' table.

MR. MACINTOSH WOOD (for the defence): Mr. Slyman, why did you seize these photos, and how could you consider yourself a judge of their character, indecent or otherwise?

MR. ANDREW SLYMAN: Because they represented men and women perfectly nude.

MR. MACINTOSH WOOD: Oh, I see; would you then consider a picture of Adam and Eve in Paradise, perfectly nude, an indecent picture, and would you seize a Bible containing such a picture?

MR. ANDREW SLYMAN: That's a different thing, I would never seize the Bible, but these are Greek gods and goddesses, a Venus as they call her, and a Psyche, and other immoral persons.

MR. MACINTOSH WOOD: Oh, immoral persons are they. Take this picture, one out of the portfolio; do you know what it represents?

MR. ANDREW SLYMAN: No, sir, there are three nude men, an old one and two young ones and a snake.

MR. MACINTOSH WOOD: Do you really mean to say that you do not know that this is a representation of one of the greatest works of art, Laocoon, and do you mean to say that you have never seen this second photograph before, the Apollo of the Belvedere, and this third one, the Dying Gladiator; you see nothing in these

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sculptures but nude men, designed to corrupt the morals of Her Majesty's subjects?

MR. ANDREW SLYMAN: I see nothing but nude figures, but these you name are all males; there are plenty of females amongst these photos.

MR. MACINTOSH WOOD: Oh indeed, I suppose you consider the nude female more indecent than the nude male; well we will come to that question later on. Tell me, Mr. Slyman, did the reading of this book corrupt your morals, and did it create lustful desires?

MR. ANDREW SLYMAN: Yes, sir, it did, I was disgusted and shocked.

MR. MACINTOSH WOOD: That is what I wanted to know; if you were disgusted and shocked it cannot have affected your morals.

SIR RICHARD BULLY: But did not the book create lustful desires in your mind, which you only suppressed by moral force?

MR. ANDREW SLYMAN: Yes, sir, of course it did, I read the book twice.-(Laughter in court.)

SIR RICHARD BULLY: I will now call the other detective, Mr. Gordon Sweetley, who bought another copy of the book. Mr. Sweetley, you went to the prisoner's shop two days after Mr. Slyman bought the copy of Sexual Selection; whom did you find

there?

MR. GORDON SWEETLEY: The prisoner was out, and the housekeeper, Mrs. Hockey, was in the shop with her daughter, Psyche, a young girl of seventeen, who sold me the copy of the book and took the money.

SIR RICHARD BULLY: Who handed you the book?

MR. GORDON SWEETLEY: The girl did, she smiled when she took it down from the shelf.

THE RECORDER: Do you suggest that this girl of seventeen sold this book to you knowing its contents?

MR. GORDON SWEETLEY: I am not certain, your lordship, but I

B

believe she did, because she looked at me so funnily, as if she was thinking I wanted to get information about matrimony. I know the girl, and she knows that I am engaged, or rather that I was engaged.

MR. MACINTOSH WOOD: Tell us, Mr. Sweetley, did you read this book, and did you understand a word of its contents, and were your morals really corrupted by the study of this work?

MR. GORDON SWEETLEY: Yes, sir, I read every bit of it, and I understand a good deal, not all of course. As to my morals I am sure I do not know, but since I have read this book I have broken off my engagement to marry, because I have found out that the young lady was not the proper sexual selection for me.-(Loud laughter in court.)

THE RECORDER: This laughter is very unseemly, and I will have the court cleared if it should be repeated.

SIR RICHARD BULLY: Mrs. Lizzie Hockey, you are the housekeeper at the prisoner's house in Booksellers Lane. What do you know of the prisoner?

MRS. LIZZIE HOCKEY: Oh, sir, he is a very nice and quiet gentleman, he pays my wages very punctually, and never stays out at night, never, and he is a hard-working man, always reading and studying them books, and caterlogging them, and writing letters, and thinking, thinking, thinking from morn to night.

SIR RICHARD BULLY: That will do, Mrs. Hockey. Did you sell books for Mr. Gilbert, and did your daughter Psyche sell books for him?

MRS. LIZZIE HOCKEY: I never sells books, but Psyche does. But, sir, honly hexceptionally, when his clerk is ill, and Mr. Gilbert is out for lunch. Psyche is often in the shop, she knows all them books, and she reads a good many of them.

THE RECORDER: Mrs. Hockey, tell me, has your daughter, as far as you know, read the book which she sold to Mr. Sweetley, and do you mean to say that the prisoner allowed her to read such books?

MRS. LIZZIE HOCKEY: I do not know, I am sure, but very likely she has read it, 'cause she spoke about the serlections, sectional serlection I believe it is.

THE RECORDER: Shocking!

THE LORD MAYOR: Shocking!

MRS. LIZZIE HOCKEY: Why, gentlemen, Psyche is the most hinnocent gal you ever saw, and them blessed books have not hurt her morals, I am sure, yes I am.

SIR RICHARD BULLY: We dare not call this girl of seventeen as a witness for fear to trespass on her modesty. The jury must form their own opinion whether the prisoner has placed this book into the hands of Psyche.

MR. MACINTOSH WOOD: Oh no, the jury will do nothing of the sort, we shall call Psyche as a witness for the defence.

THE LORD MAYOR: Scandalous!

(The Recorder, the Foreman of the Jury, and Sir Richard Bully shake their heads in astonishment.)

SIR RICHARD BULLY: Mr. Christopher Whitfield, you are a clergyman of the Church of England. In March last you ordered from Alexander Gilbert, the prisoner, a book; what book was it you ordered, and what book did you receive?

THE REV. CHRISTOPHER WHITFIELD: I ordered a copy of the Bible, but I got a book with the title, Sexual Selection and Human Marriage. I returned this book, and I received the copy of the Bible in the end. The bookseller wrote that the parcels had been mixed up, and the wrong book had been sent by mistake, but I assure you, I did not believe the story.

SIR RICHARD BULLY: Did you read the book Sexual Selection and Human Marriage before you returned it?

THE REV. CHRISTOPHER WHITFIELD: No, certainly not, the title indicated the contents, and besides the sheets were uncut.