As audiences in the East were used to science finding fantastic new things, it hardly seemed impossible to a person in the 19th century that the country had once been inhabited by giants, or that ancient, incredible civilizations could still lie undiscovered in the vast west. Some newspaper writers were more than happy to simply make great discoveries up, and readers just as happy to take them at their word.
The “Great Sedition Trial” uncovered shocking connections at the time with the German reich that we were fighting, and challenged the idea that the nation was of a single mind during the war. It also challenged exactly how far the national commitment to freedom of speech and opinion reached, especially in extraordinary times.