one thing of which I feel certain is that 800 children 
is a lot.  I don’t know over how many years these 
practices were supposed to have spread.  As I think 
you must all feel sure by now, I know nothing what-
ever of my subject. 
But scientific experiment in those days was 
always a very prolonged operation.  They thought 
nothing of exposing some unknown substance to 
the rays of the sun and moon for periods of three 
months at a time, in the hope that in some mysterious 
way the first stage of some dimly-visaged operation 
might be satisfactorily accomplished.  And even if 
they sacrificed a child every day, it would have 
taken a matter of two and a half years to dispose of 
800 children.  Besides, it must have taken more than 
a few minutes to kidnap a child with the secrecy 
obviously required.  Did the disappearance of the 
first four hundred, say, put no parents on their 
guard ? 
I think, at the best, it is a case of little Tommy 
who told his mother that there were millions of cats 
on the wall of the back garden, but under cross-
examination, in the style made popular by the 
dialogue of Lot with Almighty God, admitted that 
it was “ Tom and another.” 
Of course, it will be obvious to you by this 
time that I have been seduced by Jewish gold, and the 
only way that I can think of to disarm your suspicions 
is to bring forward another case of the same kind, 
little more then a century old, with which Jews 
had nothing to do. 
There was a poet laureate—I am not quite 
sure what this species of animal is—but his name 
was Robert Southey, and he lived, if you can call it