Writs for penalties have been served, and suits of all kinds have been taken against me.

On Monday last the House of Lords cleared me from the whole of one set, and, gentlemen, I ask you to-day to clear me from another.

Three times I have been re-elected by my constituents, and what Sir Henry Tyler asks you to do is to send me to them branded with the dishonour of a conviction, branded not with the conviction for publishing heresy, but branded with the conviction, dishonourable to me, of having lied in this matter.

I have no desire to have a prison's walls closed on me, but I would sooner ten times that, than that my constituents should think that for one moment I lied to escape the penalties.

I am not indicted for anything I have ever written or caused to be written.