On this day on 11th July

On this day in 1832 Richard Carlile explains why the freedom of the press is so important. "The printing press has become the universal monarch and the republic of letters will go on to abolish all minor monarchies, and give freedom to the whole race by making it as one nation and one family."

One of the Six Acts applied the 4d. stamp duty to all journals that sold for less than 6d. As most working people were earning less than 10 shillings a week, this severely reduced the number of people who could afford to buy radical newspapers. The stamp duty was also applied on journals that contained any "public news, intelligence or occurrences, or any remarks or observations thereon, or upon any matter in Church or State." The government announced that it hoped that this stamp duty would stop the publication of newspapers and pamphlets that tended to "excite hatred and contempt of the Government and holy religion."

Other radicals such as Richard Carlile ignored the law and continued to publish his newspaper, the Republican without paying stamp duty. Carlile was found guilty of blasphemy and seditious libel and sentenced to three years in Dorchester Gaol and fined £1,500. Carlile was determined not to be silenced. While he was in prison he continued to write material for the Republican which was now being published by his wife. Due to the publicity created by Carlile's trial, the circulation of the newspaper increased dramatically and was now outselling pro-government newspapers such as The Times.

On this day in 1908 Mary Leigh and Edith New, were sentenced to two months in Holloway, In court the women wore white dresses and were relieved to hear the sentence because they feared it would be a much longer sentence. However, the Manchester Guardian protested in a leading article: "Their stringent imprisonment... violates the public conscience."

Edith New and Mary Leigh were released from prison on 23rd August. They were welcomed on release by a team of women in white dresses who drew their carriage from Holloway to Clements Inn. They were greeted by a brass band and accorded a ceremonial welcome breakfast attended by the two main leaders of the WSPU, Emmeline Pankhurst and Christabel Pankhurst.

On this day in 1942 President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a memorandum to Attorney General Francis Biddle that demanded that Stephanie von Hohenlohe be deported. "Unless the Immigration Service cleans up once and for all the favouritism shown to that Hohenlohe woman, I will have to have an investigation made and the facts will not be very palatable, going all the way back to her first arrest and continuing through her intimacy with Schofield... Honestly, this is getting to be the kind of scandal that calls for very drastic and immediate action."

On 8th December 1941, the day after Japan carried out its surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Princess Stephanie, who had been brought to America by Harold Harmsworth, 1st Lord Rothermere, went to visit friends in Philadelphia. While leaving a cinema, Stephanie was arrested by the FBI. She was refused permission to phone Lemuel Schofield and was taken to the Gloucester Immigration Centre in New Jersey. Soon afterwards US Attorney General Francis Biddle signed an order citing that Princess Stephanie was a potential danger to public security and peace. The FBI searched her home and found the Nazi Party's Gold Medal of Honour given to her by Adolf Hitler in 1938. Her son, Prince Franz Hohenlohe, was also arrested and interned.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was furious when he discovered that Princess Stephanie had not been deported. He wrote to J. Edgar Hoover: "Once more I have to bother you about that Hohenlohe woman. The affair verges not merely on the ridiculous, but on the disgraceful... If the immigration authorities do not stop once and for all showing favour to Hohenlohe, I will be forced to order an inquiry. The facts will not be very palatable and will go right back to her first arrest and her intimacy with Schofield. I am aware that she is interned in the Gloucester centre, but by all accounts she enjoys special privileges there. To be honest, this is all turning into a scandal that requires extremely drastic and immediate action."