Ax   th'.-  time  of  Mr.  Fuote's  imprisonment  (1883)  far


ADVMNTURBS  ARE  NOT  COUNTED  POSSIBLE.    269

hetcfodoz  prooeedingi  Dr.  Avding  wrote  to  me  to  lign  a
petitkm  '^hiimbly  praying  mercy''  for  Mr.  Foote.  As  this
was  contnuy  to  English  traditions  of  Freethoiq^  il  was  not  in
my  wqr  tosign  tt,  unless  the  person  for  whom  ^  mercy ''was
aiked  wanted  it  Then  my  signature  was  at  his  oonunand,  as
I  never  made  my  sense  of  pride  or  duty  the  mte  of  another.
When  I  was  imprisoned,  I  should  have  treated  him  as  my
wofst  enemy  who  put  upon  me  the  outrage  of  asking  for
*mer^"  in  my  name,  without  my  knowledge  or  consent.
Soch  a  petition  implies  the  renunciation  of  doing  the  same
thing  again.  It  was  to  assume  Mr.  Foote  to  be  a  coward  with-
out our  knowing  it,  and  to  act  upon  the  ignominious  assump-
tlon.  In  any  other  way,  on  ground  of  injustice,  needlessnessi
or  ezoessiveness  of  the  sentence,  I  would  sign  any  petition,  and
said  so.  Yet  Mr.  M.  D.  Conway  went  to  a  public  meeting  at
St.  James's  Hall,  and  described  me,  amid  outcries,  as  the  only
person  who  would  not  sign  a  petition  on  Mr.  Foote's  behalL
Mr.  Conway,  not  being  an  Englishman,  might  know  nothing
of  the  traditions  of  Freethought  among  us,  and  therefore  could
not  be  expected  to  share  our  sense  of  freethinking  honour,
which  might  be  mistaken,  but  stood  up  for  what  it  took  to  be
truth — ^never  explained  itself  away,  and  never  supplicated  for
mercy.
