Item 28 - Letter from J. Sully to Nora Sidgwick

1 letter plus envelope.

States that he forgot to mention in his last letter [Add.MS.b.71/27] that Henry Sidgwick signed a petition drawn up by him [Sully] and Leslie Stephen in 1883 to the Home Secretary [Sir William Harcourt] asking him 'to reduce the sentence of a year's imprisonment passed on a man P[ ], an avowed Atheist, for blasphemy.' States that some, including Sir F. Pollock, believed that the sentence was not excessive, but that he [Sully] and others thought that it was, and they 'mustered a fair number of good names, including Prof. Huxley, Rev. [ ] Davies, Mr C[ ] [ ], and others.' Adds that Home Secretary acknowledged in the House of Commons that he had received the petition, but stated that he did not intend to act upon it. States that some days previously he came across the empty envelope in which Henry Sidgwick had enclosed his signature [included with letter, Add.MS.b.71/27a].