We note that Mr. Edmund Geese, in a letter to
the Times of Thursday, seems much perturbed about the practical steps proposed by the Deputation. We have tried to allay hia fears by giving elsewhere a verbatim report of the speech of the introducer of the Deputation. We may here deal with his objection that the Deputation did not include authors. It did not for the very good reason that the object of the Deputation was to convince the Home Secretary that the trades which have most to do with the distribution of books—. the publishers, distributors, the circulating and publie libraries, and the newspapers who advertise and review books—believe that more activity is required on the part of the police, but that such activity ought only to be applied to books which are clearly obscene. Books which do not come under this description, even though they may be demoralizing in their tendency, ought, the Deputation declared in the most emphatic) terms, to be dealt with solely by public opinion. It was in fact a deputation of business men, and therefore authors were not invited to join it. We agree, however, entirely with Mr. GOSBO in thinking that the authors' point of view ought to be listened to with the closest attention, and we would urge most strongly upon him that, feeling as he does, it is his duty to organize a deputation of authors to wait upon the Home Secretary and state their views. Such a deputation could not but prove very useful, and could not be in better hands than those of Mr. Gosse.
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