Autobiographical sketches / by Annie Besant.

  • Besant, Annie, 1847-1933.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Autobiographical sketches / by Annie Besant. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and women are admitted, with members in all European countries. Another result of the prosecution was the accession of “ D.” to the staff of the National Reformer. This able and thoughtful writer came forward and joined our ranks as soon as he heard of the attack on us, and he further volunteered to conduct the journal during our imprison- ment. From that time to this—-a period of eight years— articles from his pen have appeared in our columns week by week, and during all that time not one solitary diffi- culty has arisen between editors and contributor. In public a trustworthy colleague, in private a warm and sincere friend, “D.” has proved an unmixed benefit be- stowed upon us by the prosecution. Nor was “D.” the only friend brought to us by our foes. I cannot ever think of that time without remem- bering that the prosecution brought me first into close intimacy with Mrs. Annie Parris—the wife of Mr. Touzeau Parris, the Secretary of the Defence Committee through- out all the fight—a lady who, during that long struggle, and during the, for me, far worse struggle that succeeded it, over the custody of my daughter, proved to me the most loving and sisterly of friends. One or two other friendships which will, I hope, last my life, date from that same time of strife and anxiety. The amount of money subscribed by the public during the Knowlton and succeeding prosecutions gives some idea of the interest felt in the struggle. The Defence Fund Committee in March, 1878, presented a balace-sheet, showing subscriptions amounting to £1,292 5s. 4d., and total expenditure in the Queen v. Bradlaugh and Besant, the Queen v. Truelove, and the appeal against Mr. Vaughan’s order (the last two up to date) of £1,274 10s. This account was then closed and the balance of £17 15s. 4d. passed on to a new Fund for the defence of Mr. True- love, the carrying on of the appeal against the destruction of the Knowlton pamphlet, and the bearing of the costs incident on the petition lodged against myself. In July this new fund had reached £196 16s. 7d., and after paying the remainder of the costs in Mr. Truelove case, a balance of £26 15s. 2d. was carried on. This again rose to £247 15s. 2^d., and the fund bore the expenses of Mr. Brad- laugh’s successful appeal on the Knowlton pamphlet, the