children, prostitution and so forth. The paid officials of these
societies, in their anxiety to produce plenty of evidence of
their activity in the annual reports which go out to the
subscribers, do not always discriminate between an obscene
postcard and an artistic one, or to put it more exactly, between
a naked figure and an indecent one. They often combine a narrow
but terribly sincere sectarian bigotry with a complete ignorance
of art and history. Even when they have some culture, their
livelihood is at the mercy of subscribers and committee men who
have none. If these officials had any power of distinguishing
between art and blackguardism, between morality and virtue,
between immorality and vice, between conscientious heresy and
mere baseness of mind and foulness of mouth, they might be
trusted by theatrical managers not to abuse the powers of the
common informer. As it is, it has been found necessary, in order
to enable good music to be performed on Sunday, to take away
these powers in that particular, and vest them solely in the
Attorney-General. This disqualification of the common informer
should be extended to the initiation of all proceedings of a
censorial character against theatres. Few people are aware of the
monstrous laws against blasphemy which still disgrace our statute
book. If any serious attempt were made to carry them out, prison
accommodation would have to be provided for almost every educated
person in the country, beginning with the Archbishop of
Canterbury. Until some government with courage and character
enough to repeal them comes into power, it is not too much to
ask that such infamous powers of oppression should be kept in
responsible hands and not left at the disposal of every bigot
ignorant enough to be unaware of the social dangers of
persecution. Besides, the common informer is not always a