Henry Bonner, who had been convicted of blasphemous libel at
the Central Criminal Court, attended the Court last Saturday, and, after giving certain undertakings, was bound over on his own recognisances in £50 to come up for judgment if called upon, and released. The original undertaking being in the Judge's opinion insufficient, the defendant, after con- sulting with his counsel, submitted another affirmation, which was accepted. In this, after expressing regret for his conduct, he promised that he would not "at any meeting in public attack Christianity or the Scriptures" in the language for which he had been found guilty, "or in any similar language, or in any language calculated to shock the feelings or outrage the belief of the public." The Judge stated that he wanted to make it quite clear—not to the defendant, for he had given his promise, but to other people—that any future case would not be treated with this leniency.
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