prohibit all such plays with complete certainty that there will
be a chorus of "Quite right too" sufficient to drown the protests
of the few who know better. The Achilles heel of the censorship
is therefore not the fine plays it has suppressed, but the
abominable plays it has licensed: plays which the Committee
itself had to turn the public out of the room and close the doors
before it could discuss, and which I myself have found it
impossible to expose in the press because no editor of a paper or
magazine intended for general family reading could admit into his
columns the baldest narration of the stories which the Censor has
not only tolerated but expressly certified as fitting for
presentation on the stage. When the Committee ruled out this part
of the case it shook the confidence of the authors in its
impartiality and its seriousness. Of course it was not able to
enforce its ruling thoroughly. Plays which were merely
lightminded and irresponsible in their viciousness were
repeatedly mentioned by Mr Harcourt and others. But the really
detestable plays, which would have damned the censorship beyond
all apology or salvation, were never referred to; and the moment
Mr Harcourt or anyone else made the Committee uncomfortable by a
move in their direction, the ruling was appealed to at once, and
the censorship saved.


A COMIC INTERLUDE

It was part of this nervous dislike of the unpleasant part of its
business that led to the comic incident of the Committee's sudden
discovery that I had insulted it, and its suspension of its
investigation for the purpose of elaborately insulting me back