HISTORICAL 33 



allowed to circulate freely. In 1876 a Bristol bookseller, Cook by- 

 name, was condemned to two years' imprisonment for selling an 

 illustrated edition of Knowlton's work Soon after another book- 

 seller was also fined. Thereupon Mr. Bradlaugh and Mrs. Besant 

 determined to take up the subject and fight for what they con- 

 sidered to be the right of freedom of discussion in these matters. 

 They had an edition of the Fruits of Philosophy printed, and took 

 a small shop where it was openly exposed for sale. A prosecution 

 followed. In 1877 thev were tried before Sir Alexander Cockburn, 

 the Lord Chief Justice ; the Attorney-General prosecuted. The 

 summing-up was distinctly in favour of the accused ; the jury, 

 however, returned a verdict of guilty, adding a rider to the effect 

 that they considered the defendants to be innocent of any immoral 

 intention. Judgement was reserved. But in the interval Mr. Brad- 

 laugh and Mrs. Besant continued to sell the book, and the result 

 was that, instead of merely being bound over, as had been the 

 intention of the judge, they were condemned to six months' 

 imprisonment and to a fine of six hundred pounds. The judgement 

 was subsequently quashed in a higher court. 



The trial was a huge advertisement for Neomalthusianism. For 

 some years spasmodic efforts to punish the sale of Neomalthusian 

 books only served to encourage the propagandists. In 1877 the 

 * Neomalthusian League ' was founded and a vigorous propaganda 

 was carried on. The activity of the league in England gradually 

 declined, but not before the movement had spread to foreign 

 countries. Propaganda in other countries followed a very similar 

 course ; in 1888 there was a trial in Australia which is as famous 

 in that country as the Bradlaugh-Besant trial in England. Prosecu- 

 tions occurred in India and in America. In 1891 a remarkable 

 dispute took place in Norway, and a law was finally passed to 

 prohibit the sale of Neomalthusian books. As lately as 1908 

 a Belgian doctor was condemned to imprisonment for spreading 

 the knowledge of Neomalthusian methods.^ 



10. With this notice of the history of the development of 

 Neomalthusianism we may leave this side of the subject. The 

 history of speculation regarding evolution has been so often 

 described that there is no need to go into the facts here. 



* Still more recently prosecutions have taken place in the United States. The 

 publications of the eminent Danish economist Pierson may be consulted for an 

 able advocacy of Neomalthueian methods put forward at a time when birth- 

 control received little scientific sujjport. See Principles of Economics, vol. ii, p. 107. 



2499 r 



