ABSTRACT
Quite early in Mrs Annie Besant’s career as a Freethought propagandist there occurred an event which compelled her to make up her mind on a question of such great social importance and delicacy that it amounted to a final parting of the ways. She took the right decision, and this undoubtedly helped to hold her to her Freethought convictions, as well as gaining for herself the admiration and affection of thousands of people throughout the country, and indeed throughout the civilized world. Bradlaugh and Mrs Besant at once took action. They removed their publishing from Charles Watts’s hands, and decided, as a test case, to republish Dr Charles Knowlton’s pamphlet. Bradlaugh and Mrs Besant then appealed, the case coming before Lord Justices Bramwell, Brett, and Cotter, who on various technical grounds reversed the judgement of the lower court, and so the two defendants went free. Mrs Besant made witty play with the mysterious identity of the prosecution.
