,transcriber's note3 ,text enclosed by underscores is in italics 7italics74 ,illustration3 ,,charles ,,bradlaugh ,born ,sept4 #bf1 #ahcc ,died ,jan4 #cj1 #ahia ,,charles ,,bradlaugh ,a ,record of ,his ,life and ,work by ,his ,daughter4 ,,hypatia ,,bradlaugh ,,bonner4 ,with an ,account of his ,parliamentary ,struggle ,politics and ,teachings by ,,john ,m4 ,,robertson1 ,m4,p4 ,seventh ,edition ,with ,portraits and ,appendices ,t4 ,fisher ,unwin ,london ,leipsic ,adelphi ,terrace ,inselstrasse #bj #aijh ,all ,rights ,reserved ,,vol4 ,,ii4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,,in ,,the ,,united ,,states ,,again #a ,the ,parthia--,mr ,j4 ,walter1 ,m4,p4--,sumner's opinion of ,mr ,bradlaugh's lecture--,the ,delaware ,clionian ,society--,milwaukee --,chicago--,intense cold--,mrs ,lucretia ,mott--,a third lecturing tour--,dr ,otis--,the currency question--,religious animus--,death of ,henry ,wilson--,in ,st ,luke's ,hospital1 ,new ,york1 with typhoid fever--,moncure ,d4 ,conway--,return4 ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,mrs ,,besant #ab ,a friend lost--,a friend gained--,mrs ,besant and ,mr ,bradlaugh--,ajax--,the ,knowlton pamphlet--,advantages and disadvantages of a dual defence4 ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,the ,,prosecution ,,of ,,mr ,,bradlaugh ,,and ,,mrs ,,besant #bj ,appointment to sell the pamphlet--,arrested on a warrant--,at the ,guildhall--,application for a writ of certiorari--,the ,lord ,chief ,justice--,who was the prosecutor8--,the trial at ,westminster--,the witnesses--,the jury--,the verdict--,the judgment--,execution of sentence stayed--,the ,court of ,appeal quashes indictment--,expenses of defence paid by subscription--,the ,city--,other proceedings--,mr ,truelove's trial and sentence--,effect of the prosecutions4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,an ,,unimportant ,,chapter #cj ,side lights--,man1 whence and how8--,the ,turberville legacy--,from ,turner ,street to ,circus ,road--,selling the ,knowlton pamphlet--,the day of arrest--,at ,westminster--,mr ,g4 ,j4 ,holyoake--,the hearing of the sentence--,a riding accident4 ,,chapter ,v4 ,,more ,,debates #ci ,rev4 ,brewin ,grant--,rev4 ,a4 ,mursell--,mr ,walter ,r4 ,browne--,mr ,robert ,roberts1 a ,christadelphian--,mr ,william ,simpson--,mr ,gordon--,rev4 ,john ,lightfoot--,rev4 ,r4 ,a4 ,armstrong--,rev4 ,w4 ,m4 ,westerby4 ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,,some ,,later ,,lectures #eb ,at ,oxford--,the ,suez ,canal--,carrying consolation--,at ,congleton--,at ,newman ,street1 ,london--,edinburgh--,professor ,flint--,scarborough4 ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,,lunatics #ei ,letters--,a mission from ,god--,john ,sladen and the ,queen4 ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,,the ,,watch ,,story #fc ,the defiance of ,deity an ancient idea--,the ,british ,monarchy--,abner ,kneeland--,emma ,martin--,g4 ,j4 ,holyoake--,charles ,capper1 ,m4 ,p4--,the ,razor--,rev4 ,p4 ,r4 ,jones1 ,m4 ,a41 ,dr ,harrison1 and other clergymen--,the ,christian and other journals--,the ,rev4 ,basil ,wilberforce--,dr ,parker--,the ,british ,empire--,prosecution of ,edgecumbe--,reckless swearing--,a bad plea1 embarrassing and unfair--,edgecumbe missing--,the reward of ,mr ,bradlaugh's forbearance4 ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,,other ,,fables #gf ,the cob of coal--,the old woman--,story narrated by the ,rev4 ,h4 ,w4 ,webb-,peploe--,personal slanders--,the ,world--,action against ,mr ,laker--,poisoning the ,prince of ,wales--,a bagman--,a common accusation4 ,,chapter ,x4 ,,peace ,,demonstrations1 #ahgh #hb ,the ,jingo fever--,meetings in favour of peace--,auberon ,herbert and ,c4 ,bradlaugh in ,hyde ,park--,preparing for difficulties--,the war party--,the fight--,second ,hyde ,park meeting--,mr ,bradlaugh injured--,ill and depressed4 ,,chapter ,,xi4 ,,the ,,national ,,secular ,,society #hf ,the first general association of ,freethinkers--,objects of the ,society--,its ,president--,first secular almanac--,the work of the ,society--,mr ,bradlaugh's resignation4 ,,chapter ,,xii4 ,,the ,,last ,,chapter #ia ,six years of fighting--,a record of injustice--,some who help to find the money to defend the right--,mr ,bradlaugh's habits and surroundings--,his commercial pursuits--,money difficulties--,death of ,alice ,bradlaugh--,mr ,bradlaugh's illness--,plans for the future--,india--,last illness--,memorials4 ,part ,,ii4 ,,by ,,john ,m4 ,,robertson4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,,philosophy ,,and ,,secular ,,propaganda4 #a4 ,meaning of ,atheism #aae #b4 ,bradlaugh's statement of ,atheism #abb #c4 ,materialism and its critics #abg #d4 ,bradlaugh's popular propaganda #aci #e4 ,secularist ethics #aed ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,political ,,doctrine ,,and ,,work4 #a4 ,the ,republican movement #afe #b4 ,the ,neo-,malthusian movement #afi #c4 ,bradlaugh and the land laws #agi #d4 ,bradlaugh and ,socialism #ahe #e4 ,the ,irish question #aia #f4 ,bradlaugh and ,india #aih ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,the ,,parliamentary ,,struggle4 ,chronological ,summary #bjc #a4 ,northampton election of #ahhj #bjh #b4 ,the raising of the oath question #baa #c4 ,bradlaugh's request to be let affirm2 opposition of select committee #baf #d4 ,his first attempt to take the oath2 opposition of select committee #bbd #e4 ,the affirmation question again2 opposition of the ,house #bcd #f4 ,bradlaugh insists on taking the oath2 arrested and released2 at length sits on affirmation #bdj #g4 ,his action in the ,house2 enmity outside #bdh #h4 ,the lawsuit of ,clarke and ,newdegate--,bradlaugh unseated and re-elected 7#ahha7 #bei #i4 ,renewed conflict in ,parliament #bfe #aj4 ,agitation and discussion in the country #bgd #aa4 ,bradlaugh's return litigation against ,newdegate #bgg #ab4 ,insisting on entering the ,house1 is ejected by physical force 7,aug4 #ahha7 #bha #ac4 ,further litigation and discussion #bhi #ad4 ,bradlaugh again at the table of the ,house--takes the oath--the seat again vacated 7,february #ahhb7 #bic #ae4 ,the new election--fresh agitation #cja #af4 ,fresh litigation #cje #ag4 ,outside discussion--,bradlaugh and ,manning #cjg #ah4 ,the ,freethinker blasphemy prosecution #caf #ai4 ,renewal of the constitutional struggle--fresh debating in the ,house #ccd #bj4 ,bradlaugh again takes the oath--again unseated1 and again elected 7#ahhd7 #cdc #ba4 ,continued litigation--end of the struggle #cea #bb4 ,the effect of the struggle on parties #cfb #bc4 ,its constitutional importance #cfe ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,closing ,,years4 #ahhf #cfh #ahhg #cgd #ahhh #chd #ahhi #djd #ahij-ahia #daj ,conclusion--,bradlaugh's personality #dba ,,index #dde ,,charles ,,bradlaugh4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,,in ,,the ,,united ,,states ,,again4 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh had agreed to make a second lecturing tour through the ,states in the autumn of #ahgd1 and he started on it under the most inauspicious circumstances4 ,we have just seen how he was obliged to delay his journey--just as earlier in the year he had been obliged to hasten his return--to contest the election at ,northampton1 where he was once more defeated for the third and last time4 ,he had originally taken his passage by the ,white ,star ,line1 in the ,republic1 leaving on ,september #bdth4 ,at his request the owners obligingly transferred him to the ,baltic1 leaving ,october #ast4 ,unable to get away by this boat1 he forfeited his passage1 and leaving ,northampton on the night of the poll1 he just caught the ,cunard ship the ,parthia at ,queenstown on the #gth4 ,he started on his voyage despondent1 utterly wearied1 and with a tightish sensation about the heart1 for he had hoped and believed until the last half-hour that he was going to win the election4 ,he thought1 too1 that before he had left the town he had succeeded in pacifying his disappointed and angry supporters in ,northampton1 but the receipt of a telegram at ,holyhead1 telling him of the rioting there and the calling out of the military1 depressed him more than ever4 ,when he got on board the ,parthia a curious little incident happened4 ,as he was standing gloomily1 watching the last package carried on board1 he wrote1 ,i was approached by a man1 a steerage passenger1 who1 reverently touching his billycock hat1 said1 ',father1 do you go with us to the other side8' ,for a moment ,i was puzzled2 but seeing that the man was serious1 ,i answered1 ',you are mistaken2 ,i am not a ,father4' ,the man looked dubious1 nervously scratched the deck with a blackthorn held loosely in his left hand1 and rejoined1 ',no offence meant2 ,i ask your reverence's pardon1 but anyhow1 it will be a blessing to have you with us on board1 ,father4' ,that ,i looked clerical ,i had been told by the ,gaulois1 which described me in #ahga1 when attending the ,paris ,courts ,martial1 as dressed like a bishop2 but this man's evidently earnest disbelief in my repudiation of priestly honours1 coupled with his quiet acquiescence1 made me doubt whether ,i was really the man who had been placarded a few hours before in ,northampton as ',bradlaugh the ,blasphemer4' ,the journey began badly1 and continued so until ,new ,jersey was sighted4 ,the sea was rough1 the ,parthia rolled1 and the captain proved a churl4 ,the embarkation of the steerage passengers was managed with an uncouth harshness which was painful to witness2 to threaten to put a man 'in irons' for coming back to give a last wave of his hand to a weeping sweetheart1 commented my father1 was just a little too hard4 ,on the #agth the passengers on board the ,parthia had the mortification of seeing the ,adriatic 7,white ,star ,line71 which had left ,liverpool two days after them1 pass them1 and forge ahead with a speed which soon left the ,parthia behind4 ,everything seemed combined to render his journey unpleasant and vexatious4#a ,footnote #a3 ,in reference to ,mr ,bradlaugh's voyage in the ,parthia ,i append an extract from the ,new ,york ,herald for #gth ,september #ahha1 which purports to be an account of an interview between the reporter of that journal and ,mr ,j4 ,walter1 ,m4,p41 of the ,times3-- ,,the ,,bradlaugh ,,incident4 ',don't you think ,bradlaugh was harshly treated8' ',oh dear1 no1' was ,mr4 ,walter's eager response4 ',that's all nonsense about his having crysipelas1 and having been so brutally treated4 ,he's a perfect ruffian4 ,a fellow-passenger on the ,bothnia told me of ,bradlaugh and some of his comrades violently disturbing some religious services held on board the ,parthia1 so that ,captain ,watson was compelled to threaten him with putting him in irons before he would stop4' ,my father1 of course1 wrote to the ,new ,york ,herald and to ,mr ,walter1 contradicting this1 saying that the statement was monstrously untrue4 ,he made only the one voyage on the ,parthia2 he said3 ,no attempt of any kind was made by any one to disturb religious services during that voyage4 ,there was a disagreement between ,captain ,watson and the passengers as to the singing after dinner in the smoking-room1 but it had not the smallest connection with religious services4 ,the particulars were given in a letter signed by the passengers1 and which was published at the time in several of the ,american papers4 ,i never sang in my life1 and was most certainly not even one of the singers4 ,my father arrived in ,new ,york unfortunately too late for many of his engagements4 ,he was due to speak in ,dartmouth ,college 7,new ,hampshire7 on the #bjth1 and he had barely time to get there4 ,on the way he was delighted to meet ,henry ,wilson in the train4 ,they chatted long together1 enjoying each other's company1 and talking much of ,charles ,sumner1 a man reverenced and honoured by both1 who had died since ,mr ,bradlaugh's last visit to ,america4 ,as it happened1 too1 ,sumner's opinion of my father's first lecture in ,boston had only lately been published in the ,boston papers4 ,it was given in a letter written by ,wendell ,phillips in reply to some inquiries made of him by the ,secretary of a lecture committee at ,winchester1 ,mass4 ,the letter ran3-- ,,dear ,,sir1--,in reply to your note of ,october #ast would say3 ,i heard ,mr ,bradlaugh the first time he spoke in ,boston4 ,what ,mr ,sumner1 who sat near me1 said of that lecture1 will deservedly have more influence and weight than any opinion of mine4 ,while ,bradlaugh was speaking1 ,sumner looked to me and said1 ',this is very fine4' ,at the close of the lecture he remarked1 ',this is1 ,i think1 the most eloquent speech ,i have heard for some years4' ,,wendell ,,phillips4 ,,boston1 ,october #b1 #ahgd4 ,at ,dartmouth ,mr ,bradlaugh lectured to the students in their church1 and the ,rev4 ,dr ,smith1 ,president of the ,college1 presided at his lecture4 ,two days later he was speaking at ,cambridge1 having this time a fine audience of over a thousand persons1 including most of the ,cambridge professors and a strong force from ,harvard ,college4 ,at ,philadelphia on the #beth he won the sympathies of a crowded meeting1 although here he had been publicly preached against1 and people had been warned not to go to his lecture4 ,at ,charlestown 7,mass47 he spoke in the ,trinity ,methodist ,episcopal ,church1 with the pastor1 the ,rev4 ,mark ,trafton1 as president4 ,in ,boston he spoke in the ,rev4 ,james ,freeman ,clarke's ,church of ,disciples1 and at ,winchester in the ,unitarian ,church--and yet1 he said1 miracles are not believed in6 ,on the journey from ,bangor to ,dexter my father1 at the invitation of the engine-driver1 rode part way on the engine1 and he relates how he found himself perched on a nice soft seat in a corner1 with my toes near enough to the furnace to make me forget that a sharp frosty wind was whistling2 engine-driver ,chase turned out to be quite a philosopher1 and ,i had a pleasant time4 ,presently they had to slacken speed2 there are cattle on the track1 three oxen and three full-grown calves4 ,they run on in front1 sometimes crossing the line2 we ring the bell1 whistle furiously1 and puff-puff vociferously1 till at last engine-driver ,chase gets angry and says1 ',it is no use1 those cattle are as stupid as your ,house of ,lords4' ',yes1' ,i answered1 'and will get run down like the ,lords1 if they do not get off the track4' ,senor ,castelar stated after ,mr ,bradlaugh's death that he was shunned by the ladies2 but ,senor ,castelar's ,english was a little at fault4 ,when my father was at ,delaware he was taken by the students to the ,female ,college1 where1 he said1 the president introduced me to the senior ladies' class1 who sang to me the ,american national hymn4 ,i was asked to make them a speech1 and am afraid ,i made myself supremely ridiculous4 ,it is no joke to be suddenly called on to say something to twoscore of extremely good-looking young ladies4444 ,they all looked happy1 and gave me a very pleasant greeting1 one which made me think of my own girls at home4 ,the girls on their side were evidently equally pleased with their visitor1 for just before my father commenced his lecture that evening he received the following note3-- ,the members of the ,clionian ,society1 having made ,mr ,bradlaugh an honorary member of the same1 desire1 if he has no serious objection1 to see him wear their badge this evening4 ,,anna ,c4 ,,long4 ,he did wear the badge in his button-hole1 and very pretty it looked1 and very pretty the donors looked too as they sat in the opera-house in front of me1 he said4 ,in continuing his journey west he lectured at ,chicago1 and this time he was fortunately able to spend some hours with ,hypatia ,carlile and her husband4 ,at ,milwaukee his visit created extraordinary enthusiasm4 ,nearly all the prominent lawyers1 divines1 newspaper men1 merchants1 thinkers1 and writers of the city1 with their wives1 heard his first lecture2 and they applauded at shorter intervals than any lecturer ever was applauded here before4 ,it is rare indeed that such an aggregate of intellect is seen gathered together at one time in this city as was the case on ,thursday1 and that one man receives such approval4#b ,the ,milwaukee people urgently begged for a second lecture1 which a fortunately vacant date in the following week enabled him to give them4 ,footnote #b3 ,chicago ,tribune4 ,iowa was the furthest point west he reached on this visit1 the whole journey covering a distance of more than #dejj miles4 ,when he went west again in the following ,february he met with a terrific snowstorm1 generally described as the worst seen for many years4 ,at ,milwaukee the cold was so severe that at his lecture the audience sat enveloped in furs and rugs1 although the janitor protested that he had used three tons of coal in his endeavour to warm the ,music ,hall4 ,the next time1 commented my father1 ,i hope he will use thirty tons4 ,the cold grew more and more intense1 until at ,fond du ,lac 7,wisconsin7 which he reached on #ajth ,february1 the spirit thermometers registered forty degrees below zero4 ,on leaving ,fond du ,lac there was a wait of ten hours at the station before any train came by which he could get to ,oshkosh1 where he was due that evening2 at which place--reached only just in time--he found a fine audience awaiting him in spite of the weather1 if weather can be looked upon as an adequate term for atmospheric conditions where one thermometer registers forty-five degrees below zero and the others are congealed4 ,the following day he was due at ,madison1 but as traffic was suspended he remained for a short time snow-bound at ,oshkosh4 ,towards the end of ,february his farewell lecture was given at ,chicago to the largest audience he had had that winter4 ,every seat was filled1 the stage was filled1 the aisles were filled1 and even the staircases were alive with people4#c ,on this journey west he did a tremendous amount of travelling2 in one stretch of eight days he was only two nights in bed4 ,footnote #c3 ,he spoke in ,m',cormick's ,hall to an audience of #cfjj persons1 of whom #cejj had paid for admission2 the hall had never been so full before1 and the audience was as enthusiastic as it was large4 ,in the ,eastern ,states he had lectured at ,salem 7,mass471 with ,dr ,loring once more for his host and chairman1 and an audience who gave him a glorious reception1 although1 apart from the warmth of their greeting1 nearly everything was in a state of unmitigated freeziness4 ,at ,bangor 7,maine71 where the snow was six feet deep in drifts1 and was nowhere less than two feet save on the most travelled roads1 the intense cold 7twenty-three degrees7 kept away the audience2 but amongst those who did brave the elements was the ,chief ,justice of the ,supreme ,court of ,maine1 who warmly congratulated ,mr ,bradlaugh at the end of his lecture4 ,at ,lynn 7,mass471 where he gave one of his last lectures in ,new ,england1 in going from the railway station to the hall1 he humorously relates3 ,i sat down twice to reflect on the uncertainty of human progress4 ,to sit down in snow two or three feet deep is not dangerous1 but is cold1 and most certainly is ridiculous1 especially when the sitter is tall and heavy4 ,the second time ,i sat down ,i broke one of my ribs--that is1 one of my umbrella ribs1 and ,i filled my gloves with snow4 ,i was reconciled to my fate when ,i learned that the gentleman sent out to escort me1 and whom ,i had missed1 had sat down three times4 ,at ,philadelphia he spoke before the ,pennsylvania ,peace ,society1 and was delighted to find amongst his auditors ,mrs ,lucretia ,mott4 ,after the lecture ,mrs ,mott1 on the invitation of the chairman1 stood up to speak1 and1 said my father1 ,i felt reverence for the white-haired dame1 which was mingled with astonishment when1 her voice losing the tremor of age noticeable in the first few sentences1 she spoke as clearly and distinctly as though at least thirty years had been taken from the count of her full-spent life4 ,i valued highly the praise she gave me4 ,at ,boston and at ,new ,york he was welcomed as heartily as ever4 ,after his first lecture this time at ,boston it had been noted that for once the great audience1 who1 it was said1 seemed completely under his control1 remained to hear the last word2 after the last it was agreed that his lectures had been the greatest success of the season4 ,his headquarters had been this time in ,boston1 and whenever he returned there from his lecturing journeys receptions were given to him1 and every one seemed eager to show him some kindness or courtesy4 ,not the least valued mementoes of this visit were a complete and finely bound edition of ,sumner's works1 a handsome memorial volume printed in honour of ,sumner1 and three fine photographs of the dead statesman4 ,all these were brought him at different times by the ,hon4 ,joshua ,b4 ,smith1 who idolised the great ,abolitionist4 ,he brought these tokens of ,sumner to my father because1 as he once said1 ,mr ,bradlaugh was the friend of one ,i loved4 ,although he was comparatively little at ,new ,york1 still while he was there he met amongst others ,james ,paxton1 ,e4 ,c4 ,stedman1 the poet1 and ,anna ,e4 ,dickinson1 who greatly charmed him by her apparent sincerity1 her eloquence1 and her clearness of thought4 ,my father returned at the end of ,february1 with the satisfaction of knowing that1 despite its ominous commencement1 his winter's work had been a success in every way4 ,the liabilities incurred by his sudden departure from the ,united ,states the year before1 and his delayed arrival this year1 had been met1 and his indebtedness at home had been cleared to the extent of #ajjj4 ,he came home by the ,city of ,brooklyn1 and met with a very stormy passage4 ,there was a furious gale1 the waves sweeping the decks and bursting the doors4 ,the wheel became unmanageable2 the wheelmen were flung right and left4 ,for five hours and twenty minutes1 wrote my father a week later1 our engines were stopped2 the sea played with our helpless vessel as with a toy1 and the whole of those on board stood near death's gates4 ,captain ,j4 ,s4 ,murray behaved in this terrible emergency with a courage and self-possession for which no praise can be too high4 ,the ,city of ,brooklyn1 too1 proved to be a good sea boat1 and the morning light saw us out of danger2 but in that twenty-four hours we only made ninety-one miles1 and the log recorded a 'violent hurricane with mountainous seas4' ,my father's departure for the ,united ,states for his third lecturing tour1 in the autumn of #ahge1 was very different from that of the year before1 or even that of #ahgc4 ,now1 at last1 ,fortune seemed to smile upon him1 and everything was propitious4 ,he set out in gay spirits and high hopes2 his successes of the last two winters had assured him a welcome when he reached the ,states1 and there was every prospect that by the time he came home again he would be able to lighten that terrible incubus of debt even more substantially than before4 ,he sailed in the ,city of ,berlin1 then one of the largest and most perfectly fitted ,atlantic ,liners afloat4 ,he felt quite at home in her1 for there were several familiar faces amongst the officers1 and the captain was so courteous that the passengers voted him a special vote of thanks4 ,it is rather curious that this resolution should have been signed on behalf of their fellow-passengers by ,dr ,fessenden1 ,n4 ,otis1 and ,mr ,bradlaugh1 because a little later ,dr ,otis proved a friend in need to my father4 ,on the voyage all went well1 the weather was good1 and the ,berlin made a record passage of seven days eighteen hours4 ,after two or three days spent in ,new ,york my father went on to ,boston1 to find that city in the throes of an election for the office of ,governor of ,massachusetts4 ,he attended a ,republican rally at the old ,faneuil ,hall1 and as he sat listening to the speeches of ,henry ,wilson and others1 the influence of the room seemed to grow upon him2 he remembered that it was there that ,otis pleaded against ,lord ,north and ,george ,,iii42 it was there that the ,boston men gathered that very ,december day on which the tea was thrown overboard in ,boston harbour2 it was there that groans accompanied the reading of the ,boston ,ports ,bill4 ,the meeting had the still further interest to him that it was presided over by ,r4 ,h4 ,dana1 the man who had been counsel for ,anthony ,burns4 ,another question was also agitating1 not merely ,boston1 but the whole country1 and dividing parties into hostile camps1 and that was the ,currency question2 and as upon this subject my father and ,wendell ,phillips took opposite views1 their relations were by no means so friendly as heretofore4 ,the religious feeling which had been raised against ,mr ,bradlaugh every time was renewed with special bitterness this winter1 and created quite a panic amongst the managers of lecture courses4 ,it is much to their credit that the ,rev4 ,dr ,miner and the ,rev4 ,dr ,lorrimer had the courage to disregard the outcry1 and invited him to lecture to their congregations as before4 ,at the end of ,october he was feeling very unwell1 but persisted in continuing his work1 and for a week or two seemed rather better4 ,since the friendship which sprang up between them on board the ,city of ,berlin1 ,dr ,otis and my father had not lost sight of one another1 and when he became worse again he consulted ,dr ,otis1 who strongly advised change of scene and climate1 as preparation for the hard work and the cold which would have to be faced on his ,western tour4 ,hence1 in the middle of ,november1 finding himself part way there1 he went on to ,washington4 ,at ,washington he found that almost his only friend in the city1 ,henry ,wilson1 the ,vice-,president of the ,united ,states1 was lying sick unto death in the ,capitol4 ,he called upon him1 but finding him so ill1 simply left his card4 ,mr ,wilson1 on hearing of his visit1 sent his secretary with a note--the last1 ,i believe1 that he ever wrote--asking him to come on the following morning1 but my father never saw him again4 ,he returned to the ,fifth ,avenue ,hotel1 ,new ,york1 sad and ill4 ,dr ,otis saw him professionally and in the report he sent to ,england early in ,december he said he had been suffering from much work and little rest for several days2 later he found him suffering from pleurisy and some threatenings of typhoid4 ,as the fever rapidly developed1 ,dr ,otis suggested that he should go to ,st ,luke's ,hospital1 where he could have the best care--professional and general--and on my father agreeing1 he took him there in his own carriage on #cjth ,november4 ,at ,st ,luke's ,hospital ,mr ,bradlaugh felt that he owed his life to the great skill and generous kindness of ,dr ,leaming1 to the unremitting attentions of ,dr ,abbe1 and to the patient and never-ceasing care of my nurse1 ,william ,shaw4 ,even before he was allowed to leave his bed it was decided he could do no more lecturing that season1 and within four days from leaving his sick-bed he was on board the ,city of ,richmond on his way home4 ,friends said he was rash--that the journey would kill him4 ,he was so weak that he could scarcely stand1 and he shed tears almost directly a kind word was said to him2 but if his body was weak1 his will was strong2 he would go1 and he was sure that he would grow stronger more quickly moving on board ship than inactive in ,new ,york4 ,a copy of ,alice in ,wonderland had been accidentally left in his cabin2 he was so weak that it took him nearly the whole voyage to read this little book2 he laughed over it and delighted in it like a child4 ,afterwards1 he always remembered it with a certain enjoyment1 and was ever ready to quote from it such touching verses as ,you are old1 ,father ,william1 ',tis the voice of the sluggard1 or ,will you walk a little faster8 ,speaking of his sudden return a week or two later1 ,mr ,bradlaugh said3 ,i came back to ,england because ,i was advised that it would have been suicide in my weak state to face the ,western winter4 ,i come back to ,europe reluctantly1 for ,i went to the ,united ,states to earn enough money to pay my debts1 and ,i am compelled to return poorer than ,i left4 ,indeed1 ,i owe it to ,mr ,moncure ,d4 ,conway's assistance that ,i was enabled1 at the moment1 to discharge the obligations my illness had created in ,new ,york4 ,mr ,conway has since told me that when he went to see my father while he lay ill in the ,st ,luke's ,hospital1 my father begged him to make inquiries of nurse and doctors whether he had said or done anything during the time of his illness which could be construed into an alteration of his opinions upon religious subjects4 ,he wished ,mr ,conway1 in the event of his death1 to bear testimony that his convictions had remained unchanged4 ,mr ,conway1 whose own opinions were by no means so heretical as ,mr ,bradlaugh's1 was nevertheless anxious to carry out the wishes of the sick man with the utmost exactitude1 and therefore made the most scrupulous inquiries4 ,but he only learned that ,mr ,bradlaugh had been a most docile1 uncomplaining1 and grateful patient1 and that he had not uttered a single word which could afford the slightest justification for a suggestion of recantation4 ,that my father's dread of the usual infidel deathbed myth was well founded we know by what has happened since #ahia4 ,even as it was1 although he recovered from his illness in ,new ,york1 and was alive to contradict such fables1 it was actually said that he had sent for a minister to pray with him1 and one clergyman was even reported to have specified the minister as a ,baptist6 ,it was long before my father entirely recovered from this illness1 and although formerly a smoker1 after this he lost all desire for a cigar4 ,it was not until a few years before his death that he renewed the habit1 and even then only in a very modest way--a cigar in going to the ,house of ,commons1 a cigar in coming back he enjoyed2 at other times he smoked little4 ,it is worth noting that while ,mr ,bradlaugh was in the ,states1 whenever he had an evening to spare1 wherever he might happen to be1 he generally devoted it to going to hear some lecture or sermon1 or attending some meeting4 ,in this way he heard1 amongst others1 ,parker ,pilsbury1 ,newman ,hall1 ,o4 ,b4 ,frothingham1 ,m4 ,d4 ,conway1 ,horace ,seaver1 and ,dr ,miner4 ,he two or three times attended and spoke at ,women's ,suffrage meetings1 and was invited on at least two occasions to take part in ,masonic festivals4 ,everywhere he went he made careful inquiries into the labour conditions of the locality1 and where possible1 he visited mill and factory1 and talked with both workers and employers4 ,he also specially studied the workings of the liquor laws in the ,states where they obtained1 and the effect of his observations was to decide him against them4 ,on each visit he wrote home weekly letters for the ,national ,reformer1 which were interesting for what they told about his own doings and about persons1 and invaluable to intending emigrants for the information they gave concerning labour in the different ,states which he visited4 ,he afterwards published the result of his investigation into labour questions in ,america as a little booklet entitled ,hints to ,emigrants4 ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,mrs ,,besant4 ,in #ahgd ,mr ,bradlaugh lost a friend and gained one4 ,between himself and the friend he lost the tie had endured through nearly five-and-twenty years1 of which the final fourteen had been passed in the closest friendship and communion1 tarnished neither by quarrel nor mistrust4 ,by the death of ,austin ,holyoake my father lost a trusty counsellor and loyal co-worker1 and the ,freethought movement lost one who for fully twenty years had served it with that earnest fidelity1 high moral courage1 and unimpeachable integrity which were amongst his most striking characteristics4 ,in health and in sickness he toiled incessantly to promote the interests of the cause he had at heart1 and at no time of his life did he shrink from duty or responsibility4 ,austin ,holyoake died in the spring of #ahgd1 and was buried in ,highgate ,cemetery in the presence of a great crowd of sorrowing friends4 ,just before his death he dictated his ,sickroom ,thoughts to his wife1 uttering the last broken paragraph only a few hours before he died4 ,for three years he had known that death was near1 and this final statement of his opinions on death and immortality was purposely deferred until the last moment he deemed it prudent1 so that he might leave a record of his last deliberate opinions1 and as such these ,thoughts provoked very considerable comment4#d ,footnote #d3 ,my mind being free from any doubts on these bewildering matters of speculation1 he said1 ,i have experienced for twenty years the most perfect mental repose2 and now ,i find that the near approach of death1 the 'grim ,king of ,terrors1' gives me not the slightest alarm4 ,i have suffered1 and am suffering1 most intensely both by night and day2 but this has not produced the least symptom of change of opinion4 ,no amount of bodily torture can alter a mental conviction4 ,austin ,holyoake1 like his friend1 lived and died a poor man1 and my father pledged himself to him on his deathbed to raise a sum of #fej to purchase the printing and publishing business hitherto conducted by ,mr ,holyoake in the interests of ,freethought literature4 ,the money raised was to benefit the widow and the two children1 and the business was to be handed over to ,mr ,charles ,watts4 ,a subscription which was started realised rather less than #eej1 and the ,national ,secular ,society determined to make up the balance out of a legacy left to the ,president by a ,dr ,berwick4 ,unfortunately1 however1 ,dr ,berwick's trustee absconded with the money1 and consequently1 as ,mr ,bradlaugh had promised his dead friend that the sum of #fej should be raised1 he paid the deficiency out of his own pocket1 by weekly instalments4 ,austin ,holyoake1 the friend ,mr ,bradlaugh lost1 was steadfast1 loyal1 unassuming1 and unswerving in his opinions2 ,mrs ,annie ,besant1 the friend he gained1 was even more remarkable1 though in a very different way4 99 99 99 99 99 ,having enrolled herself a member of the ,national ,secular ,society in ,august #ahgd1 ,mrs ,besant sought ,mr ,bradlaugh's acquaintance4 ,they were mutually attracted2 and a friendship sprang up between them of so close a nature that had both been free it would undoubtedly have ended in marriage4 ,in their common labours1 in the risks and responsibilities jointly undertaken1 their friendship grew and strengthened1 and the insult and calumny heaped upon them only served to cement the bond4 ,this lasted for many years until ,mrs ,besant's ceaseless activity carried her into paths widely divergent from those so long trodden by her colleague1 paths which brought her into close association with persons strongly inimical to ,mr ,bradlaugh and the aims to which he was devoting his life4 ,for some time before he died1 he had1 as ,mrs ,besant herself has written in her recently published ,autobiography1#e lost all confidence in her judgment2 she had disappointed him1 and it would be unworthy of both not to recognise that the disappointment was very bitter1 though his desire to serve her and shield her always remained unchanged4 ,for thirteen years she had stood upon the same platform with him2 and when she one day said that for ten years she had been dissatisfied with her own teaching1 he felt it very keenly1 but he neither uttered a word of blame himself1 nor would he allow any one else to blame her in his hearing4 ,footnote #e3 ,see page #cbb4 ,every movement1 every cause1 has its ebbs and flows2 there seems to be only a certain amount of activity possible to men in the mass1 and now it flows in one direction1 now in another4 ,the ,freethought movement1 when ,mrs ,besant came into it1 had for some years been slowly but surely increasing in activity and prosperity4 ,the ,national ,secular ,society1 although not so complete an organisation as it was soon to become1 was nevertheless to be found in all the great centres of population4 ,the ,national ,reformer1 the representative organ of ,freethought1 in the five years which lay between #ahfg and #ahgb had nearly doubled its circulation1 and was read in almost all parts of the world4 ,it was sent to the three presidencies of ,india1 the ,united ,states and ,canada1 ,new ,zealand1 ,australia1 the ,cape of ,good ,hope1 the ,west ,indies1 ,egypt1 ,france1 ,belgium1 ,italy1 ,spain1 and ,germany4 ,on its staff there were several very able writers1 and if it was not exactly a profitable property1 it at least paid its way4 ,people have sometimes deliberately asserted that ,mrs ,besant's desertion and ,mr ,bradlaugh's death inflicted an irremediable injury on the cause of ,freethought1 but this is merely an assertion1 and one which will not bear a moment's investigation4 ,happily for the human race1 the growth of public opinion does not depend upon any single man or woman1 however able1 however energetic1 he or she may be4 ,the loss of a leader amongst men may for a moment check the onward movement1 and it may be there is even a temporary reaction--a swing back--but never in the history of the world has the loss of one of its pioneers proved an irremediable injury to the cause of progress4 ,if indeed it should be thought1 and it is a proposition that ,i am not in a position to deny1 that this is a moment of ebb in the tide of ,freethought1 the fact would only be in harmony with the general tendency of the times1 and would prove nothing against the ultimate acceptance of the truths of ,materialism4 ,the growth of population in our great cities has caused the evils of poverty to press more closely upon general attention1 and the public energy is directed towards seeking a solution for these immediately important problems1 rather than for those more abstract theorems arising out of religious speculation4 ,mrs ,besant was herself obeying this tendency when1 in #ahhf she thought she had found in the optimistic dreams of ,socialism a remedy for this most bitter of human ills4 ,this was the point upon which she first diverged from ,mr ,bradlaugh1 and once having separated her thought from his1 the breach swiftly widened4 ,socialism was1 as it were1 the fork in the ,y of their lives4 ,nothing1 ,i think1 will show how far these two had drifted asunder more than that ,mr ,bradlaugh should first learn of ,mrs ,besant's adhesion to the ,theosophical ,society through an article written by her in a weekly paper1 and not from her own lips4 ,mrs ,besant's first contribution to the ,national ,reformer appeared in its issue for #cjth ,august #ahgd1 and with that she entered in good earnest upon the work which was to engross her for many years to come4 ,over the signature of ,ajax she commenced a series of notes1 entitled ,daybreak1 which were to mark the rising of the sun of liberty 444 when men should dare to think for themselves in theology1 and act for themselves in politics1 and these notes were continued weekly for several years4 ,from ,august #ahgd to ,april #ahia ,mrs ,besant remained connected with the ,national ,reformer1 first as contributor1 and then as sub-editor1 becoming shortly afterwards co-editor and co-proprietor4 ,the co-editorship was resigned in ,october #ahhg for reasons set forth by ,mrs ,besant in her ,autobiography1#f and the co-proprietorship ceased with the dissolution of the partnership between herself and ,mr ,bradlaugh1 in ,december #ahij4 ,footnote #f3 ,see p4 #cbj4 ,when my father heard ,mrs ,besant's first lecture in ,august #ahgd1 in the ,co-operative ,society's ,hall1 ,castle ,street1 upon the ,political ,status of ,women1 it impressed him as probably the best speech by a woman he had ever listened to4 ,it was not until the following year1 however1 that ,mrs ,besant started definitely as a lecturer upon the ,freethought platform1 but from that time forward she was indefatigable4 ,she was very fluent1 with a great command of language1 and her voice carried well2 her throat1 weak at first1 rapidly gained in strength1 until she became a most forcible speaker4 ,tireless as a worker1 she could both write and study longer without rest and respite than any other person ,i have known2 and such was her power of concentration1 that she could work under circumstances which would have confounded almost every other person4 ,though not an original thinker1 she had a really wonderful power of absorbing the thoughts of others1 of blending them1 and of transmuting them into glowing language4 ,her industry her enthusiasm1 and her eloquence made of her a very powerful ally to whatever cause she espoused4 ,mrs ,besant had been connected with the ,freethought party for about two and a half years when an incident occurred which was destined to have considerable and lasting results4 ,in the winter of #ahgf a man1 alleged to have an unpleasant reputation as a seller of indecent literature1 was convicted at ,bristol for selling a pamphlet1 written by an ,american physician of repute1 ,dr ,charles ,knowlton4 ,this pamphlet1 entitled ,fruits of ,philosophy3 ,an ,essay on the ,population ,question1 had been on sale in ,england for forty years1 and this was the first time it had been prosecuted4 ,it had been openly sold by ,james ,watson1 a publisher of the highest repute1 who had been dead only a short time2 by ,mr ,g4 ,j4 ,holyoake2 by ,austin ,holyoake up to the time of his death2 and by others both in ,england and ,america4 ,mr ,charles ,watts had bought the plates of this and other works from the widow of ,james ,watson1 and1 acting upon ,mr ,bradlaugh's advice1 ,mr ,watts went to ,bristol1 and declared himself the responsible publisher of the book4 ,he was himself arrested on #hth ,january #ahgg1 and on #abth ,january was committed for trial at the ,central ,criminal ,court4 ,the trial was to be heard on #eth ,february1 but before that day arrived ,mr ,watts came to the conclusion that the pamphlet was indefensible1 and decided to withdraw his plea of not guilty1 and to plead guilty instead4 ,upon learning this1 ,mr ,bradlaugh felt exceedingly angry4 ,if the pamphlet now prosecuted1 he said1 had been brought to me for publication1 ,i should probably have declined to publish it1 not because of the subject-matter1 but because ,i do not like its style4#g ,if ,i had once published it1 ,i should have defended it until the very last4 ,he was strongly of opinion that the matter ought to be fought right through2 and differing so widely on a matter of principle with ,mr ,watts1 he determined to sever all business connection with him4 ,he gave his reasons for this course as follows3-- ,footnote #g3 ,the late ,mr ,grote1 however1 thought sufficiently of this pamphlet to preserve it in his own library4 ,he1 moreover1 presented a copy to the library of the ,london ,university1 where it was at the time of this prosecution4 ,the ,knowlton pamphlet is either decent or indecent4 ,if decent1 it ought to be defended2 if indecent1 it should never have been published4 ,to judge it indecent1 is to condemn1 with the most severe condemnation1 ,james ,watson1 whom ,i respected1 and ,austin ,holyoake1 with whom ,i worked4 ,i hold the work to be defensible1 and ,i deny the right of any one to interfere with the full and free discussion of social questions affecting the happiness of the nation4 ,the struggle for a free press has been one of the marks of the ,freethought party throughout its history1 and as long as the ,party permits me to hold its flag1 ,i will never voluntarily lower it4 ,i have no right and no power to dictate to ,mr ,watts the course he should pursue1 but ,i have the right and the duty to refuse to associate my name with a submission which is utterly repugnant to my nature and inconsistent with my whole career4 ,when ,mr ,watts' case came on for trial he pleaded guilty1 and was released1 on his own recognisances of #ejj1 to come up for judgment when called upon4 ,it was contended at the trial that it was unlawful to publish such physiological details as were to be found in ,dr ,knowlton's pamphlet1 even for a good purpose4 ,mr ,bradlaugh and ,mrs ,besant 7who had now entered into a formal partnership under the style of ,the ,freethought ,publishing ,company7 determined to republish the pamphlet to test the right of publication4 ,a great deal was said at the time by way of blaming ,mr ,bradlaugh for allowing ,mrs ,besant to associate herself with him in this struggle1 and of lauding ,mrs ,besant for her great courage in this defence4 ,many were the unworthy taunts cast at ,mr ,bradlaugh for sheltering himself behind a woman1 though not one of those who sneered stayed to reflect that even if this association had some advantages it also had distinct disadvantages4 ,the gain was both to the principles involved1 and to my father personally4 ,to see a woman brave enough to stand by the side of a man in defence of the free publication of unpopular doctrines1 was an incentive to the public to investigate those doctrines with a view to forming an independent judgment upon them2 it was also an inspiration and a constant spur to the man--had he been the one to need spur or inspiration in such a cause4 ,mrs ,besant's unwearying industry in working up the extra-legal side of the case1 in hunting up in other works statements of physiological fact exactly similar to or stronger than those found in the prosecuted pamphlet1 was invaluable4 ,in the week which intervened between the verdict and the sentence on their own case1 ,mr ,bradlaugh took the opportunity to express his appreciation of ,mrs ,besant's work1 and this despite the fact that her decision to join in the defence was contrary to his wish and advice4 ,he wrote3-- ,i have often faced hard toil1 but ,i have never had to encounter persistent1 wearying1 anxious labour greater than that of the last three months4 ,and here--while my hand is yet free to pen these lines--let me record my deep sense of gratitude to the woman who has shared my fight1 aided me by her help1 encouraged me by her steadfastness1 and strengthened me by her counsel4 ,it is not alone the brilliant eloquence1 patient endurance1 and sustained effort manifested for so many hours in the ,court--qualities displayed by ,mrs ,besant1 which1 coupled with her great tact1 won repeated praise from the ,lord ,chief ,justice1 and congratulations from almost the whole of the barristers who crowded the ,court--so much of ,mrs ,besant's work has been recorded by most of the press in terms of the highest laudation4 ,the personal acknowledgment from myself is more due for the weeks of unrecognised but most wearying and continued drudgery in analysing a mass of scientific works1 searching out authorities1 and generally preparing the huge body of materials required for use on the trial4 ,few can appreciate the enormous labour involved in the careful analysis of medical works1 and their comparison1 line by line1 with the ,knowlton ,pamphlet4 ,yet1 without this labour1 the defence would have been impossible4 ,the disadvantages of the dual defence were considerable1 but they were known to very few1 and were moreover purely personal4 ,upon ,mr ,bradlaugh lay the whole responsibility of the defence2 his was the mind that planned it1 and he had to conduct the fight1 not merely for himself1 but for the woman beside him2 he had to consider two briefs instead of one1 and as ,mrs ,besant was at that time totally unfamiliar with the procedure of the ,law ,courts1 he had to instruct her1 not only in the things it was desirable she should say1 but also in those which were better left unsaid4 ,he was but too well aware that ,mrs ,besant risked not alone imprisonment1 but also the loss of her child2 and in the event of failure1 and the imprisonment of both himself and his colleague1 the problem naturally presented itself1 ,who was to edit the ,national ,reformer1 and to look after the new business8 ,mr ,watts' plea of guilty1 followed by ,mr ,bradlaugh's indignation1 had for the moment produced considerable division amongst former friends1 and there had been hardly time to reckon which were friends and which were foes4 ,nothing could better mark the extent of my father's difficulty than the fact that he had to hand over these onerous duties to us1 his daughters1 two girls fresh from a dreary country life1 and hardly out of our teens4 ,hence1 although he was justly proud that a woman whom he held in such esteem should stand by him publicly at such a moment1 it increased his anxieties and his responsibilities enormously that ,mrs ,besant's risks were so heavy1 and there was thus no trusty colleague free to undertake the burden of a weekly journal1 and the drudgery of the management of the new publishing business4 ,some at least of these difficulties were pointed out to ,mrs ,besant2 friends besought her by every argument they could think of not to risk the loss of her child2 but she had chosen her course1 and she adhered to it in spite of all entreaties4 ,and such is the irony of fate that she lost the society of her daughter for ten years1 and was subjected to the grossest insult from ,sir ,george ,jessel1 as ,master of the ,rolls1 for defending doctrines she now repudiates4 ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,prosecution ,,of ,,mr ,,bradlaugh ,,and ,,mrs ,,besant4 ,on ,friday1 #bcrd ,march1 ,mr ,bradlaugh and ,mrs ,besant went together to the ,guildhall1 to deliver the earliest copy of the new edition of the ,knowlton pamphlet to ,mr ,martin1 the ,chief ,clerk1 with a notice that they would personally attend1 at a certain hour on the following day1 to sell the pamphlet4 ,similar notices were left at the chief office of the ,detective ,department1 and at the office of the ,city ,solicitor4 ,on ,saturday afternoon ,stonecutter ,street was thronged with a crowd of persons anxious to purchase copies of the pamphlet from ,mr ,bradlaugh or ,mrs ,besant1 and amongst these purchasers detectives were easily identified by ,mr ,bradlaugh's quick eye4 ,a few days later the partners were arrested on a warrant--not served with a summons--and marched off to ,bridewell1 after a fruitless search for compromising literature had been made on the ,stonecutter ,street premises4 ,from the ,police ,court1 where ,mrs ,besant had to endure the indignity of being personally searched1 they were conveyed to the ,guildhall4 ,mr ,alderman ,figgins heard the charge1 and remanded the case until the #agth of ,april4 ,a defence committee was formed1 which soon included the names of many well-known men and women1 both in ,england and abroad1 and a fund was started to meet the expenses of the defence4 ,the long lists of subscribers which appeared week by week in the columns of the ,national ,reformer give unmistakable proof of the widespread sympathy4 ,when the further hearing of the case came on at the ,guildhall1 the prosecution was conducted by ,mr ,douglas ,straight and ,mr ,mead1 instructed by ,mr ,nelson1 the ,city ,solicitor4 ,mr ,figgins was again the presiding magistrate1 and there were several other aldermen on the ,bench4 ,at this hearing--which lasted a couple of days--,mr ,straight offered to proceed against ,mr ,bradlaugh alone1 letting the charge against ,mrs ,besant drop but to this the latter would on no account agree4 ,at the conclusion they were liberated on their own recognisances1 to appear at the ,central ,criminal ,court on #gth ,may4 ,the prospect of standing in the dock of the ,old ,bailey was not very alluring to my father1 so he went to the ,court of ,queen's ,bench and made an application to the ,lord ,chief ,justice 7,sir ,alexander ,cockburn7 and ,mr ,justice ,mellor for a writ of certiorari for the removal of the case to that ,court1 to be heard before a judge and a special jury4 ,after some argument the ,lord ,chief ,justice said3-- ,if1 upon looking at it the pamphlet1 we think its object is the legitimate one of promoting knowledge in a matter of human interest1 then lest there should be any miscarriage resulting from any undue prejudice1 we might think it is a case for trial by a judge and a special jury4 ,i do not say it is so1 mark1 but only put it so2 that if1 on the other hand1 science and philosophy are merely made the pretence of publishing a book which is calculated to arouse the passions of those who peruse it1 then it follows we must not allow the pretence to prevail1 and treat the case otherwise than as one which may come before anybody to try4 ,if we really think it is a fair question as to whether it is a scientific work or not1 and its object is a just one1 then we should be disposed to accede to your application1 and allow it to be tried by a judge and special jury1 and for that purpose allow the proceedings to be removed to this ,court4 ,but before we decide that1 we must look into the book1 and form our own judgment as to the real object of the work4 ,their ,lordships took the book to consider on its own merits1 and refused to read the evidence given at the ,police ,court4 ,a few days later the writ was granted in the following words3-- ,we1 said the ,lord ,chief ,justice1 have looked at the book which is the subject-matter of this indictment1 and we think it really raises a fair question as to whether it is a scientific production for legitimate purposes1 or whether it is what the indictment alleged it to be1 an obscene publication4 ,we think that is a question which will require to be decided by a judge1 and1 we think1 by a special jury1 and therefore there will be a writ of certiorari granted4 ,mr ,bradlaugh's recognisances for #djj for the costs of the prosecution were accepted4 ,he regarded this granting of the writ by the judges1 going hand in hand1 as it were1 with the very plain language of the ,lord ,chief ,justice1 as a most favourable sign2 and on the matter of the recognisances ,mrs ,besant wrote3 ,they become as we go on small by degrees and beautifully less4 ,we began by arrest on a warrant2 from a warrant we passed to liberation on bail1 four sureties and our own recognisances being required2 from this we proceeded to liberation on our own recognisances only1 and now we are free on ,mr ,bradlaugh's sole recognisance4 ,the name of the prosecutor had not yet transpired1 though at the outset it was assumed that the city authorities were responsible for the proceedings1 since at the first hearing before ,mr ,figgins the name of the ,city ,solicitor had been mentioned1 while at the second counsel appeared instructed by him4 ,in ,may1 however1 the identity of the prosecutor had sunk into still greater obscurity1 for on the #dth of that month ,mr ,nelson 7the ,city ,solicitor7 declared in writing that the ,corporation of ,london has nothing and never has had anything to do with the prosecution4 ,he further stated in general terms that the prosecution was instituted by the ,police4 ,when1 however1 ,colonel ,james ,fraser1 the ,commissioner of ,police1 was applied to1 he evaded any direct answer by referring my father to the sworn information1 which of course only gave the name of the detective1 ,wm4 ,simmonds1 who1 as informer1 had bought the pamphlet4 ,simmonds was formally asked if he were the responsible prosecutor1 but he merely acknowledged the receipt of ,mr ,bradlaugh's letter4 ,my father1 on #aath ,may1 applied to ,mr ,justice ,lush1 at ,chambers1 for the name of the responsible prosecutor1 but while the judge expressed his opinion that he ought to know1 he regretted that he had no power to help him4 ,at this time the public excitement was further increased by the action of the ,government1 which commenced to make seizures in the ,post-,office of literature sent out from the ,freethought ,publishing ,company's office4 ,not only were open book packets seized1 but in some cases even sealed parcels were suspected of being tampered with4 ,not merely was ,knowlton's ,fruits of ,philosophy confiscated1 but also copies of the ,freethinker's ,text-book1 and a pamphlet written by ,mr ,bradlaugh entitled ,jesus1 ,shelley1 and ,malthus1 as well as a considerable number of copies of the ,national ,reformer4 ,concurrently with this a raid was made upon the shop of that brave old man1 ,mr ,edward ,truelove1 in ,high ,holborn1 and a large quantity of ,robert ,dale ,owen's ,moral ,physiology1 as well as another pamphlet ,individual1 ,family1 and ,national ,poverty1 were seized by persons representing the ,society for the ,suppression of ,vice1 who immediately commenced a prosecution against ,mr ,truelove4 ,in the last days of the month ,mr ,bradlaugh made an application to the ,court to take the case at an early day2 it was fixed for the #ahth ,june1 and shortly afterwards it became known that the ,solicitor-,general1 ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard1 ,q4,c41 ,m4,p4 7now ,lord ,halsbury7 was chosen the leading counsel for the prosecutors--whoever they might be4 ,up to this point--the eve of one of those great forensic contests which marked various periods in ,mr ,bradlaugh's life--he felt that the press as a whole had not been unfair1 although indeed there had been some journals coarse and foul in attack1 usually on the ground of ,mrs ,besant's association with himself4 ,as regards the issue of the struggle1 he wrote that to predict the verdict would be worse than folly1 though1 should the deliverance be against us1 he urgently begged his friends to aid his daughters in keeping his journal afloat until he should be free to edit it again4 ,mrs ,besant's descriptive accounts of the various preliminary legal proceedings are all written in a light1 often jesting1 vein2 indeed1 ,i am inclined to think that she hardly realised all the gravity of her situation2 a true sense of the possibilities involved was perhaps somewhat obscured by the atmosphere of excitement and admiration in which she was living4 ,on the trial it was ,mr ,bradlaugh's object to show that the doctrine of the limitation of the family was to be found in many other works in general circulation dealing with economical questions2 and that in medical works1 many published at popular prices1 and some specially intended for the use of young people1 there were physiological descriptions set forth in identical or even stronger language4 ,amongst other witnesses ,mr ,bradlaugh subpoenaed ,professor and ,mrs ,fawcett 7to formally prove certain statements in ,prof4 ,fawcett's book71 ,charles ,darwin1 the ,rev4 ,j4 ,w4 ,horsley 7,chaplain of the ,clerkenwell ,house of ,detention71 and the ,rev4 ,s4 ,d4 ,headlam--the two latter to give evidence as to overcrowding4 ,prof4 ,fawcett refused to take his subpoena1 and declared he would send ,mrs ,fawcett out of the country rather than that she should appear as a witness in the case4 ,a second attempt was made to induce him to take the subpoena in a friendly way1 but he again refused1 putting his hands behind his back so that the paper should not be surreptitiously put into them--of which he need have had no fear4 ,charles ,darwin wrote his thanks for the courtesy of the notice1 saying3-- ,i have been for many years much out of health1 and have been forced to give up all society or public meetings2 and it would be great suffering to me to be a witness in ,court4 ,it is1 indeed1 not improbable that ,i may be unable to attend4 ,therefore1 ,i hope that1 if in your power1 you will excuse my attendance4444 ,if it is not asking too great a favour1 ,i should be greatly obliged if you would inform me what you decide1 as apprehension of the coming exertion would prevent the rest which ,i require doing me much good4 ,as ,mr ,darwin was going away from home1 he gave addresses where he might be found if he was wanted4 ,but of course it was decided to manage without his evidence4 ,mr ,horsley and ,mr ,headlam were both most courteous1 and there was one volunteer witness whose help was invaluable--,mr ,h4 ,g4 ,bohn1 the founder of the well-known ,bohn's ,library4 ,dr ,drysdale and ,dr ,alice ,vickery also gave their assistance with the utmost cheerfulness4 ,the trial was heard before the ,lord ,chief ,justice1 and extended over four days4 ,the ability of the defence excited universal comment1 and the masterly summing-up of the ,judge was spoken of in the papers as being strongly in favour of ,mr ,bradlaugh and ,mrs ,besant4 ,but in spite of defence and summing-up the jury1 after an absence of an hour and a half1 brought in the following verdict3 ,we are unanimously of opinion that the book in question is calculated to deprave public morals1 but at the same time we entirely exonerate the defendants from any corrupt motives in publishing it4 ,the ,lord ,chief ,justice instructed the jury that this was a verdict of guilty4 ,the foreman bowed acquiescence4 ,the ,clerk asked if they found the defendants guilty upon the indictment4 ,the foreman again bowed1 and a verdict of guilty was recorded4 ,sentence was not pronounced immediately2 it was postponed for a week4 ,the jury1 however1 were by no means so decided at heart and so unanimous as the prompt bow of the foreman led one to believe4 ,one of these twelve wise men and true applied to the ,associate for #d1 #ds4 as payment for his attendance2 two others returned each their guinea fee to be put down to the defence2 one wrote that he did not agree with the verdict1 subsequently stating that six of the jury did not intend to assent to a verdict of guilty1 and that it had been arranged that if the ,lord ,chief ,justice would not accept their special verdict they should again retire and consult4 ,during the time they were locked in they discussed so loudly that they were heard outside1 and their discussion was found to be by no means confined to the offence which they were supposed to be considering1 as it included amongst other things the heretical views of the defendants4 ,on the #bhth ,june ,mr ,bradlaugh and ,mrs ,besant attended the ,court of ,queen's ,bench to receive judgment from the ,lord ,chief ,justice and ,mr ,justice ,mellor4 ,my father had thought it likely that there might be a heavy fine1 but unlikely that there would be any sentence of imprisonment4 ,he drew #bej from the bank1 and showed me the notes as he put them in his pocket-book1 bidding me1 in the event of a sentence of imprisonment1 take the notes from him and pay them into the bank again2 and my sister and ,i accompanied him and ,mrs ,besant into ,court4 ,the ,solicitor-,general opened by moving the ,court for judgment2 some discussion arose on the absence of the postea1 and then ,mr ,bradlaugh submitted three propositions to the ,court3 7#a7 ,a motion to quash the indictment2 7#b7 a motion for arrest of judgment2 and 7#c7 a motion for a new trial4 ,but the ,lord ,chief ,justice would neither consent to a new trial nor to a rule for an arrest of judgment2 he left the decision as to quashing the indictment to the ,court of ,error1 declining1 however1 to stay execution until error was determined4 ,the arguments over these points took up the whole morning1 and after luncheon the ,solicitor-,general1 in order to influence the ,judge in his sentence1 brought forward two affidavits1 one asserting that ,mr ,bradlaugh and ,mrs ,besant had continued to sell the pamphlet since the verdict1 and the other stating that ,mrs ,besant1 in a speech at the ,hall of ,science on the previous ,sunday1 had represented the ,lord ,chief ,justice as being favourable to them1 and the verdict as against his summing-up4 ,sir ,alexander ,cockburn was greatly incensed at the alleged reference to himself1 and regarded the continued sale in the light of a grave and aggravated offence4 ,my father offered that if the ,lord ,chief ,justice would stay proceedings until the writ of error was argued1 he would pledge himself that no sort of advantage would be taken of the indulgence of the ,court to continue the sale of the condemned book2 but as yet the ,judge was obdurate4 ,i think we must pass sentence1 he said4 ,have you anything to say in mitigation8 ,i respectfully submit myself to the sentence of the ,court1 my father replied in his gravest tones4 ,i have nothing to say in mitigation of punishment1 added ,mrs ,besant4 ,the ,judge then proceeded to sentence them to imprisonment for six calendar months1 to a fine of #bjj each1 and to enter into their own recognisances for #ejj each for two years4 ,the judgment was delivered towards the end of a long day of hard and wearisome fighting1 and my father1 who1 with ,mrs ,besant1 had of course received the sentence standing1 was very white2 his voice1 however1 was quite firm when1 the ,lord ,chief ,justice having concluded1 he quietly and respectfully asked1 ,would your lordship entertain an application to stay execution of the sentence8 ,certainly not1 was the answer4 ,mr ,bradlaugh bowed2 the officer of the ,court moved forward to take him and ,mrs ,besant into custody2 my father gave me his pocket-book1 and bade us follow him as far as we were allowed4 ,we had nearly reached the door when the ,lord ,chief ,justice spoke again4 ,in milder tones he said3 ,on consideration1 if you will pledge yourselves unreservedly that there shall be no repetition of the publication of the book1 at all events until the ,court of ,appeal shall have decided contrary to the verdict of the jury and our judgment2 if we can have that positive pledge1 and you will enter into your recognisances that you will not avail yourselves of the liberty we extend to continue the publication of this book1 which it is our bounden duty to suppress1 or do our utmost to suppress1 we may stay execution1 but we can show no indulgence without such a pledge4 ,mr ,bradlaugh replied3 ,my lord1 ,i meant to offer that pledge in the fullest and most unreserved sense1 because1 although ,i have my own view as to what is right1 ,i also recognise that the law having pronounced sentence1 that is quite another matter so far as ,i1 as a citizen1 am concerned4 ,i do not wish to ask your lordship a favour without yielding to the ,court during the time that ,i take advantage of its indulgence4 ,my father added that he wished it to be quite clear that he only pledged himself to stop the circulation of the book until the decision of the ,court of ,error4 ,the ,judge was satisfied with this assurance1 although the ,solicitor-,general was not1 and ,mr ,bradlaugh and ,mrs ,besant were liberated on their own recognisances of #ajj each4 ,this on consideration of the ,lord ,chief ,justice entirely changed the course of events4 ,in the following ,february 7#ahgh7 the case was argued in the ,court of ,appeal before the ,lords ,justices ,bramwell1 ,brett1 and ,cotton1 who in a very elaborate judgment gave their decision in favour of ,mr ,bradlaugh and ,mrs ,besant2 and the indictment was quashed on the ground that the words relied upon by the prosecution as proving their case ought to have been expressly set out4 ,two ,american cases brought forward by the ,solicitor-,general before the ,lord ,chief ,justice as against ,mr ,bradlaugh's argument were regarded by the ,lord ,justices of ,appeal as of no weight2 while any value they might have had was absolutely in favour of the defendants4 ,the total amount disbursed in this defence and provided by public subscriptions was #ajfe4 ,the expenses of the prosecution must have been enormous2 but to the end the name of the prosecutor was refused4 ,in ,march #ahgh ,mr ,bradlaugh wrote3 ,it is not the ,government1 we are assured on the highest authority2 it is not the ,vice ,society2 and it is positively stated that it is not the city authorities1 and yet the ,city ,solicitor instructed counsel1 and the proceedings are conducted from the law offices of the ,corporation4 ,however1 in spite of the positive statement of the ,city ,solicitor1 the official report of the ,common ,council mentioned that the prosecution was ordered by ,alderman ,ellis2 and later1 at a meeting of the ,common ,council1 presided over by the ,lord ,mayor1 the ,solicitor1 in answer to a question1 said the prosecution was instituted by the city police and carried on by him under the direction of ,alderman ,ellis4 ,the actual costs of the prosecution would be1 he thought1 about #gjj4 ,as ,mr ,bradlaugh commented3 ,this becomes embarrassing2 on #dth ,may #ahgg ,mr ,t4 ,j4 ,nelson wrote that 'the ,corporation of ,london has nothing and never has had anything to do with the prosecution4' ,if so1 why do the city authorities pay even #gjj towards the costs8 ,and who pays the rest8 ,for with three counsel to fee all through1 #gjj will most certainly not cover the bill4444 ,why1 unless the ,solicitor-,general1 as a labour of love1 worked half-price1 his fees alone would spoil the #gjj4 ,and1 as my father further asked1 ,why did ,alderman ,ellis direct the prosecution8 for he was not even the sitting magistrate4 ,in addition to the main proceedings in the ,court of ,queen's ,bench and the ,court of ,error there were a number of side issues which were heard before other ,courts2 points were argued in banco2 an application was made to ,mr ,vaughan for the #fej copies of the ,knowlton pamphlet seized by the ,vice ,society at ,mr ,truelove's4 ,an appeal was lodged at the ,general ,sessions against ,mr ,vaughan's order for their destruction1 a successful application was made to the ,court of ,queen's ,bench to quash ,mr ,vaughan's order1 and a summons heard against ,inspector ,wood for unlawfully detaining the pamphlets4 ,not a few were the comments in the press when twice within six months ,mr ,bradlaugh succeeded in getting quashed decisions given against himself 7first1 the indictment1 and with it the sentence of imprisonment and fine1 and next the magisterial order74 ,one journal even suggested that much loss of time might be avoided if ,mr ,bradlaugh were appointed to consult with our legal luminaries and revise their decisions4 ,in the meantime ,mr ,edward ,truelove had been twice tried4 ,at the first trial the jury did not agree2 but at the second1 which took place in ,may #ahgh1 he was sentenced to four months' imprisonment and a #ej fine4 ,scores of purses were eagerly opened to furnish the fine1 but no one1 alas6 could relieve this brave heart from the hardships of a prison4 ,mr ,truelove1 suffering for his opinion's sake1 was obliged to wear the garb of common felons and to associate with them1 and although nearly seventy years of age1 he was compelled to pick oakum and to sleep upon a plank bed4 ,the immediate effect of these prosecutions was to draw public attention to the teaching of ,malthus and his disciples4 ,works upon the population question were eagerly bought and read2 and as the subsequent gradual lowering of the birth-rate in ,england testifies1 the idea of the limitation of the family to the means has certainly1 if slowly1 made some way4 ,the ,malthusian ,league1 first started by ,mr ,bradlaugh in the early sixties1 was1 in #ahgg1 revived on a much larger scale2 its branches and its literature soon spread to all parts of the kingdom1 and enormous meetings were held everywhere4 ,in ,november ,mrs ,besant brought out a pamphlet to supersede the ,knowlton essay1 entitled ,the ,law of ,population3 its ,consequence and its ,bearing upon ,human ,conduct and ,morals4 ,it was dedicated to the poor1 and was eagerly welcomed by them4 ,mrs ,besant in #ahia withdrew her pamphlet from circulation1 a step which matters the less as1 since #ahgg1 there have been other books written by medical men dealing with the same subject and issued at popular prices4 ,but although there was this distinct gain to the public1 not only in the stand made for the free discussion of such a question of vital economical importance1 and in the sweeping away of general indictments1 the cost to the principals in the drama was heavy indeed4 ,mr ,truelove1 a man of unimpeachable integrity1 was1 as ,i have just said1 cut off from his family1 and made the associate of felons4 ,in ,april #ahgh ,mr ,besant appealed to the law to give him the custody of his daughter4#h ,the litigation arising out of this lasted many months2 ,mrs ,besant lost her child1 was grossly insulted by ,sir ,george ,jessel1 and at length1 the strain proving too much even for her strong constitution1 her health gave way1 and she was thrown upon a bed of sickness4 ,footnote #h3 ,one of the reasons given for withdrawing ,mabel ,besant from her mother's charge was that while with her she was liable to come in contact with ,charles ,bradlaugh4 ,nor was the position much less trying for ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,it must not be lost sight of that the ultimate responsibility for the defence1 in every detail of these different law proceedings continuing over several years1 remained with him3 his hand was in it all4 ,he made a great fight1 but his days and often the greater part of his nights were spent in constant work and anxiety4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,an ,,unimportant ,,chapter4 ,in the foregoing account of the prosecution of my father and ,mrs ,besant ,i have thought it best not to burden the narrative with any side issues not immediately important4 ,as1 however1 it is my object in this book to picture my father and his surroundings as clearly as possible1 so that from the picture a just judgment of his character may be derived1 ,i will now devote a few pages to passing details more or less directly connected with this prosecution or arising out of it4 ,as soon as ,mr ,watts decided to plead guilty1 under the circumstances which have already been mentioned1 and it became known that ,mr ,bradlaugh and ,mrs ,besant had determined to publish the prosecuted pamphlet1 it was found that there were would-be prosecutors eager for the fray1 and ready to commence on anything else1 whilst awaiting the new issue of ,knowlton's essay4 ,one morning ,i was seated on the floor 7chairs were a scarce commodity at ,turner ,street7 in my father's study sorting some pamphlets when a knock was heard at the street door2 the landlady opened it1 and then came to say that a man had called who particularly wished to see ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,ask him in1 said my father1 and ,i began hurriedly to rise from my lowly position1 but a ,stay where you are nailed me to the floor4 ,what can ,i do for you8 asked ,mr ,bradlaugh pleasantly1 as a thick-set man of middle age1 with a reddish beard1 entered the room4 ,the man replied that he wished to buy a copy of a book written by my father and entitled1 ,man1 whence and how4 ,rather to my surprise1 because as a rule he refused to sell any literature from his ,turner ,street lodgings1 and indeed kept none there for sale1 my father hunted up a copy of the ,freethinker's ,text-,book1 ,part ,i41 entitled ,man1 whence and how8 or ,revealed and ,real ,science in ,conflict1 carefully dusted it1 and handed it to the man1 asking suavely1 ,is there anything more ,i can do for you8 ,the man replied that that was all1 put the book in his pocket1 paid for it1 and went away4 ,he was hardly outside the door when my father began to laugh4 ,did you see his boots1 ,hypatia8 he asked4 ,his boots6 ,i repeated vaguely1 wondering rather what the joke was4 ,yes2 he actually came in the regulation boots1 he said4 ,that was a detective1 and those who instructed him evidently think that ',man1 whence and how8' is some book upon the population question4 ,undoubtedly it is a book upon the population question1 but not exactly from the ,malthusian point of view2 and if it was bought in that idea1 the purchasers must have felt rather foolish when they read the first lines referring to the ,hebrew chronology and the alleged creation of ,adam and ,eve6 99 99 99 99 99 ,in #ahgf my father was relieved from the pressure of those debts which had been burdening him for so long4 ,first of all a ,liverpool friend died1 bequeathing to ,mr ,bradlaugh #ajj1 less legacy duty4 ,this is a new experience1 said my father on receiving the money1 adding1 ,i owe #ij less than ,i owed last week4 ,then in ,august he received #bejj through a compromised will suit4 ,mr ,henry ,turberville1 brother of ,mr ,r4 ,d4 ,blackmore1 had a very great admiration for my father2 so much so that the year before his death1 when my father was about to go to the ,united ,states1 he felt so anxious not to lose sight of him that he offered to pay the whole of his debts if only he would not go4 ,he made a will leaving the bulk of his property1 valued at #ae1jjj1 to ,mr ,bradlaugh1 and to simplify matters he also made him his sole executor4 ,not long after this ,mr ,turberville1 while staying at ,yeovil1 died suddenly1 having a few hours before made his will in favour of a daughter of a chemist of the neighbourhood4 ,mr ,blackmore asked the ,court to pronounce for an intestacy1 and he joined with ,mr ,bradlaugh as against the propounders of the new will4 ,at last a compromise was agreed upon1 by which ,mr ,bradlaugh received #bejj in addition to his costs4 ,like the #ij legacy1 the #bejj was immediately applied by my father to the discharge of his liabilities4 ,i was in ,court with him when the suits were compromised1 and we went straight from the ,court to the office of his chief creditor4 ,that was only just in time1 my daughter1 he said1 as we turned towards home4 ,as one or other of us girls was now almost continuously with my father1 and his books were bursting all available bounds at ,turner ,street1 in ,february #ahgg he decided to seek some more wholesome and more commodious lodging4 ,turner ,street left much to be desired from the sanitary point of view4 ,i remember one hot summer's evening a kindly1 enthusiastic gentleman1 who lived in the west of ,london1 came eastwards to speak at one of the working-men's clubs4 ,my father was to take the chair for him1 and he came to ,turner ,street before going to the club4 ,we all walked down together1 and this gentleman1 turning with enthusiasm to my sister and me1 said1 ,i think your father living here is just the right man in the right place6 ,my sister and ,i looked at one another2 it had been so hot that day1 yet we had not been able to open our windows to let in the air because of the abundance of smells which came in with it4 ,if ,turner ,street was the right place1 we1 at least1 did not appreciate it4 ,at the end of ,february we removed to #aj ,portland ,place 7as it was then called71 ,circus ,road1 ,st ,john's ,wood4 ,it was a queerly-arranged house2 we had the top floor and the basement1 with a bath-room on the first floor1 the ground floor and the rest of the first floor being occupied by a firm of music-sellers4 ,in the basement was a very large and dark room1 which we used for meals1 and in which at first our tiny table and four chairs looked very desolate4 ,on the top floor was one large room given over to my father's study1 the other rooms being quite small4 ,the library again outgrowing its bounds1 in #ahhj it descended to the still larger room on the first floor1 whence the books were sold after the death of their owner in #ahia4 ,at ,circus ,road my sister and ,i started housekeeping for my father1 with one little servant much given to fainting4 ,i was appointed head cook to the establishment1 and my father and sister uncomplainingly devoted themselves to the task of swallowing my experiments in the culinary art4 ,never once1 either while ,i cooked for him myself1 or later when we ordered his dinners for him1 do ,i remember my father grumbling at the food we set before him4 ,his meals had to be punctual to the moment1 or1 if asked for at an unaccustomed hour1 they had to be promptly served2 if that was done1 he was content with whatever was given him4 ,we had been only a few weeks at ,circus ,road when the new edition of the ,knowlton pamphlet was printed4 ,mr ,bradlaugh was away in ,scotland1 and as ,mrs ,besant's mind was filled with the idea of the possibility of a police raid and seizure of the stock1 we hid parcels of the pamphlet in every conceivable place4 ,we buried some by night in her garden1 concealed some under the floor1 and others behind the cistern4 ,when my father was informed of this cleverness he was by no means pleased1 and sent word immediately that there should be no more hiding2 and as soon as he came home again the process began of finding as quickly as possible these well-hidden treasures--some indeed so well hidden that they were not found till some time afterwards4 ,he also knew that a search was possible1 but he had no wish to look supremely ridiculous--to put it no more seriously--by parcels being found in all these eccentric places4 ,when the ,saturday came on which ,mr ,bradlaugh and ,mrs ,besant attended at ,stonecutter ,street to sell the new edition of the ,knowlton pamphlet1 my sister and ,i went with them3 not to sell the book--that my father would not allow--but to help in the mechanical work of counting out dozens or in giving change2 for although there had been no other advertisement than the one announcement in the ,national ,reformer1 the crush of buyers in the little shop was enormous1 and in the course of twenty minutes over #ejj copies changed hands1 in single copies or in small numbers4 ,several days elapsed between this formal sale and the arrest1 but my father had told me that in the event of such an arrest ,i was immediately to go home and fetch his volumes of ,russell ,on ,crime and ,misdemeanours1 while my sister was to remain with them to take any instructions at the moment4 ,mr ,bradlaugh notified the police headquarters that he and ,mrs ,besant would attend at #bh ,stonecutter ,street from #aj to #aa ,a4,m4 for the convenience of the arrest4 ,the police accordingly made their appearance promptly at ten o'clock one morning2 ,i flew off to ,st ,john's ,wood1 collected the great books1 and caught the next train to the city4 ,it was a warm morning1 ,i was hot with running1 and anxious1 for ,i rather think that ,i had some sort of notion that ,russell was a sort of golden key to unlock all legal difficulties4 ,city men in the train1 going to their ordinary business1 looked at me rather curiously as ,i sat in the carriage closely hugging those three bulky red volumes 7which would slip about on one another1 for ,i had not stayed to tie them together7 on criminal procedure1 of all things for a girl of nineteen to be carrying about with her on a sunny ,april morning4 ,but my sister and ,i felt very1 very lonely and very cold at heart as we sat in the dreary ,police ,court at the ,guildhall--,i hardly know how we got there--listening to cases of drunkenness or assault1 and waiting1 with a shudder of horror and disgust at the thought1 for our father and ,mrs ,besant to come and take their places in that dock which we had seen occupied by some of the lowest specimens of ,london low life4 ,the time came for people to snatch what lunch they could get2 and a kindly gentleman with a slightly foreign accent came to us and wanted to take us to lunch4 ,he knew us1 for he was my father's very good friend1 ,mr ,joannes ,swaagman1 though we did not know him4 ,however1 he talked to us of our father1 and found the way to persuade us1 so we went with him2 and ,i shall never forget the feeling of gratitude towards him1 and the sensation of comfort we felt in seeing his friendly face and hearing his friendly voice4 ,we attended the first day's hearing at the ,guildhall1 but at our father's wish we were not afterwards present during the trying of the case1 either at the ,guildhall or at ,westminster4 ,after they were committed for trial ,mr ,bradlaugh proceeded to make his arrangements for the conduct of his paper1 and of his new business in case of a hostile verdict4 ,the course he then took proves1 as ,i have said1 in a startling way how utterly alone he felt at that moment--old ties were broken1 new ones were not yet tested2 to whom could he turn to help him in this emergency8 ,there was no one but his daughters--girls with no experience1 and in many ways young for their years4 ,but we might be ignorant1 we might be stupid2 still we loved him so well that we could not help being absolutely faithful to any trust he might confide to us4 ,i was apt to be more forward than my sister2 she was nearly two years my elder1 but she was needlessly distrustful of herself1 and so ,i was the one whom my father selected to instruct in the possible editorial duties4 ,i sat with him1 note-book in hand1 with fainting heart at the frightful prospect1 and meekly took note of all his wishes4 ,i was then taken into the bank1 introduced to the manager1 and recorded my signature1 for ,i was to be the financial agent also6 ,during the long hours of the four days' trial at ,westminster1 my sister and ,i used to walk up and down the great hall1 watching for any one to come out with any news of how the case was going on4 ,melancholy figures we must have looked1 nearly always alone1 dressed in black gowns--for our mother had died suddenly in the midst of all this--and very frightened at heart at what might happen4 ,there was one person who used invariably to step out of his way to speak to us as he passed up the great hall to his place in the ,house of ,commons1 and that was ,joseph ,biggar1 the ,member for ,cavan4 ,a little kindness at an hour such as this makes an impression on the mind that nothing can efface1 and my sister and ,i never afterwards heard ,mr ,biggar's name mentioned without recalling how he thus kindly went out of his way to say a pleasant word to a couple of girls miserably walking up and down outside those ,law ,courts at ,westminster4 ,on the fourth day we were summoned inside the ,court4 ,the jury had retired1 and every one was so sure of a verdict for the defence1 that my father thought we should like to hear it--for in spite of all his worries and anxieties1 he could yet think of us at such a moment4 ,when the verdict came it was a shock1 the more so that until a few minutes before1 when an idea of the truth somehow reached the ,court1 a favourable one had been anticipated4 ,on the first day 7,monday7 of the trial1 in giving the history of the ,knowlton pamphlet1 ,mrs ,besant1 as a matter of course1 mentioned that it had been sold by ,messrs ,holyoake ,co41 saying1 ,one of the firm is ,mr ,george ,jacob ,holyoake1 whose name is probably well known to you4 ,the other is ,austin ,holyoake1 and further1 from ,mr ,holyoake the book went into the hands of a ,mr ,c4 ,watts4 ,on ,wednesday1 the third day1 a communication from ,mr ,g4 ,j4 ,holyoake appeared in the ,times1 in which he attempted to explain away his connection with the pamphlet1 adding1 moreover1 that after the ,bristol trial he advised ,mr ,watts to discontinue its publication4 ,as the only effect of this letter could be to injure the defendants1 it may be imagined that my father did not take it as a very kindly act4#i ,indeed1 ,mrs ,besant put it that the letter was one carefully calculated to prejudice the jury against us1 and sent to the very paper with which one of our jurymen#aj was connected4 ,as ,mr ,holyoake had been silent so long1 silent while he sold it1 silent while he profited by the sale1 would it have been too great an exercise of self-control1 she asked1 if he had maintained his silence for two days longer8 ,footnote #i3 ,from the time when ,mr ,holyoake refused to continue to publish ,the ,bible3 what it is1 there were several instances of a want of friendliness on his part towards ,mr ,bradlaugh1 and sometimes--as at this trial and in the ,parliamentary struggle--these occurred at a most critical moment in my father's career4 ,mr ,bradlaugh1 of course1 generally retaliated2 but when his first vexation and anger had passed1 he always showed himself willing to forget and forgive4 ,one of the very first things he did on his return from ,america in #ahge was to join in an effort to buy an annuity for ,mr ,holyoake1 who had been so prostrated by illness that at that time it was thought that he would not be capable of continuous work again4 ,notwithstanding old differences1 some of which had been extremely and bitterly personal1 my father joined in the appeal with the utmost heartiness1 and expressed his vexation that the readers of the ,national ,reformer had not been permitted to be amongst the earliest subscribers to the fund4 ,footnote #aj3 ,mr ,arthur ,walter1 son of the principal proprietor of the ,times1 was on the jury4 ,the next week my sister and ,i were with my father and ,mrs ,besant all day in ,court when sentence was pronounced2 but in spite of all our vague fears1 ,i do not think we altogether realised what imprisonment could mean until the ,judge pronounced the awful words4 ,the whole ,court seemed to fade away as ,i listened1 and it needed the knowledge that my father relied upon me to do something for him to bring me to myself4 ,i took his pocket-book from him as he had bidden me1 and was with my sister mechanically following him from the ,court when we were stopped by the ,lord ,chief ,justice1 his mild tones forming a contrast to the last sharply uttered words4 ,it seemed1 indeed1 as though ages of agony had been lived through in those few minutes4 ,apparently ,sir ,alexander ,cockburn had been told of our waiting outside1 and had noticed us in the ,court1 as afterwards some very kindly words which he had said of ,mr ,bradlaugh and ourselves were repeated to my father4 99 99 99 99 99 ,when1 later on1 ,mrs ,besant was directed by order of ,sir ,george ,jessel to give up her daughter1 my father knew that ,mr ,besant's advisers would not lose a moment in claiming her4 ,by his instructions we drove at once to ,mrs ,besant's house and carried off ,mabel to ,circus ,road4 ,we then took her by road to ,willesden ,junction ,station1 and there gave her into ,mrs ,besant's keeping as she was passing through1 on her way to fulfil a lecturing engagement at ,manchester4 ,thus the poor mother was able to take her farewell of her child in peace1 instead of having her torn from her arms at a moment's notice4 ,then when ,mrs ,besant's health gave way we nursed her through her illness1 and went with her to ,north ,wales1 where she rapidly regained her strength4 ,up to the time of ,mrs ,besant's illness she used to ride with us regularly when time permitted1 but after that she gave it up for a while4 ,i was never very strong1 and one day the doctor had said to me1 ,if you were a rich young lady1 ,i should order you horse exercise1 to which my father1 who was with me1 replied1 ,she is not a rich young lady1 doctor1 but we will see what can be done4 ,and my riding1 which was purely the outcome of fatherly love and a desire for his daughter's health1 has been turned by some people into a sort of crime against ,mr ,bradlaugh6 ,my sister cared very little about riding1 so after ,mrs ,besant gave it up ,i used to go out alone1 riding a little mare1 ,kathleen1 which ,mrs ,besant then kept at livery stables4 ,as ,kathleen had several little peculiarities of temper1 and ,i was accustomed to ride quite alone1 ,i used to ride her in ,regent's ,park in the quiet of the morning4 ,one snowy morning in ,march she bolted with me1 and after a considerable run we fell together just within the ,clarence ,gate4 ,i was carried insensible to the nearest doctor1 and my sister was summoned by a passer-by who recognised me4 ,mr ,bradlaugh had been lecturing in ,scotland1 and was travelling all night so that he might reach ,london in time to be in the ,appeal ,court at half-past ten1 where ,mrs ,besant was appealing against the decision of the ,master of the ,rolls4 ,when he was near home some one stopped my father's cab1 and he came on at once1 to find me lying unconscious on the floor of the doctor's parlour4 ,nothing had been done for me2 the doctor could not even say whether any bones were broken2 his wife had indeed brought me a cup of tea1 but of that ,i knew nothing4 ,to make up for any lack of attentions to my poor body1 they turned their thoughts to my sister's soul1 and in the afternoon the doctor's wife wrote to my sister that she would pray to her ,heavenly ,father that in this great affliction you may be led to know ,him as your ,saviour and ,comforter4 ,if a ,freethinker wrote to a ,christian who was sick or in trouble that hell was a delusion and heaven a myth1 it would justly be considered an outrage1 but the zealot has two codes of morality--one for those who differ from him1 and another for himself4 ,it must have been very hard for my father that day in ,court2 three lectures the day before1 travelling all night1 and at home a daughter who1 for aught he had been able before leaving to learn to the contrary1 might be dying or permanently injured4 ,,chapter ,v4 ,,more ,,debates4 ,in ,april #ahgd the preliminaries for a six nights' discussion between ,mr ,bradlaugh and the ,rev4 ,brewin ,grant1 ,b4,a41 were arranged4 ,it was to be held in the ,bow and ,bromley ,institute1 and to commence on the #bjth of ,may4 ,it will be remembered that ,mr ,grant was no novice in debate1 and had in fact several times previously met ,mr ,bradlaugh on the platform4 ,these encounters had been so unpleasant that my father quite shrank from any renewal of them1 and the present debate was brought about mainly through the mediation of the ,rev4 ,a4 ,j4 ,harrison1 ,m4,a4 ,on the first three nights ,mr ,grant was to attack ,secularism1 and ,mr ,bradlaugh to defend1 and then ,mr ,bradlaugh was to assail ,christianity1 and ,mr ,grant defend4 ,on the first evening the chair was taken by the ,rev4 ,arthur ,mursell1 and ,mr ,grant as the opener had the opportunity to set the course of the debate1 but so little did he realise his responsibilities that in his opening speech1 almost indeed in his opening words1 he fell back upon his old tactics of vulgar personalities1 and this1 of course1 provoked some reply from ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,on the second night the ,rev4 ,brewin ,grant was perhaps not quite so bad1 and my father for his part had resolved to try and endure the taunts levelled against himself1 and against those with whom he worked4 ,with the fourth night1 when the chair was taken by the ,rev4 ,mr ,driffield1 ,rector of ,bow1 came ,mr ,bradlaugh's opportunity1 and he made the most of it2 this time he was the first speaker1 and he opened the debate in a careful and closely reasoned speech1 but unfortunately ,mr ,grant was not content to follow him4 ,the ,eastern ,post1 in an article on the first four nights1 remarked that if the ,rev4 ,brewin ,grant was selected by the churchmen of the district1 the choice did no credit to their judgment4 ,the writer went on to point out that although ,mr ,grant had the advantage of being able to prepare his speech for the first three nights1 he did not show himself capable of speaking with any sequence or coherence1 but instead he flung all sorts of opprobrious charges at ,mr ,bradlaugh1 and introduced the most trivial personalities1 which had not the remotest bearing upon the subject4 ,mr ,bradlaugh in his first speech gave his definition of ,secularism1 which ought to have furnished excellent material for criticism and debate2 but his reverend opponent adhered to the system of personal disparagement1 and at last ,mr ,bradlaugh retaliated4444 ,things improved somewhat on the fourth night1 but this was perhaps due to the fact that the exponent of ,secularism led the debate4#aa ,this1 from the pen of an outsider1 will serve to show the impression produced upon those who listened to the speeches4 ,the chairman of the committee of the ,bow and ,bromley ,institute waited upon ,mr ,bradlaugh after the first night1 and told him in the presence of the ,rev4 ,mr ,schnadhorst 7one of ,mr ,grant's committee7 that in consequence of ,mr ,grant's conduct they had received a requisition1 in which clergymen had joined1 asking them to put an end to the debate4 ,footnote #aa3 ,eastern ,post4 ,on the fifth night the ,north ,london ,railway ,company1 to whom the ,institute belonged1 stepped in and closed the hall just as the people were assembling to go in4 ,as there was no proper legal agreement for the hire of the hall1 there was no redress4 ,there had been no notice of the closing of the hall1 hence ,mr ,bradlaugh and ,mr ,grant1 the chairman and the committees1 were all in attendance at the ,bow and ,bromley ,institute1 as well as the audience who had paid their money to hear the debate4 ,it was decided1 on taking a vote of those present1 to adjourn to the nearest available place and finish the debate there4 ,the ,clay ,hall grounds were suggested1 and there is an amusing account of ,mr ,bradlaugh proceeding to this place followed by the audience1 who were considerably added to from the general public en route4 ,the proprietor was at first rather alarmed at the advent of such a besieging party1 but a reassurance from ,mr ,bradlaugh and a payment in advance soon calmed his fears4 ,mr ,grant1 however1 for reasons best known to himself1 did not come to ,clay ,hall1 although the ,revs4 ,a4 ,mursell1 ,w4 ,schnadhorst1 ,s4 ,bardsley1 and ,w4 ,loveridge came1 as well as other friends of ,mr ,grant4 ,mr ,m4 ,d4 ,conway1 who was to have taken the chair1 also followed the party to the ,clay ,hall grounds1 where he presided at the informal meeting then held4 ,the whole matter was discussed1 and the kindly words on both sides cleared away much of the ill feeling which had grown up during the debate2 and at the conclusion of the meeting1 in replying to the vote of thanks1 ,mr ,conway said3-- ,,gentlemen1--,i must say that ,i came to-night with a good deal of pain and apprehension4 ,though ,i accepted the invitation to preside at this discussion1 ,i did so in the interests of truth1 and from my desire to promote anything like honest discussion4 ,when ,i read the debate as reported in the ,national ,reformer for the first time1 ,i thought that ,mr ,bradlaugh seemed to resemble ,st ,paul--that is1 that he was fighting with beasts2 and ,i came down with a great deal of apprehension that there might be scenes that were not decorous4 ,i quite felicitate you and myself that instead of that1 and instead of such recriminations1 we happen to be in the presence of gentlemen on both sides who have indicated so much fairness and so much fine spirit4 ,i will say for ,christians1 that if what has been levelled at ,mr ,bradlaugh1 as it seems to me1 has conveyed any impression against the ,christian religion1 as perhaps it has to some minds1 the extremely gentlemanly discourse of some of the ,christians we have had here to-night is calculated to recall that4 ,mr ,mursell spoke to ,mr ,bradlaugh as to fresh arrangements1 but ,mr ,bradlaugh had never wanted to meet ,mr ,grant1 and now would only do so if a dozen clergymen put him forward as their representative2 then1 and then only1 he said1 he would meet him1 not as ,mr ,grant1 but as the representative of those dozen clergymen4 ,for his part1 he would be no party to doing anything voluntarily towards renewing such scenes as they had just had4 ,strange as it must seem to any one who has read the pages of these debates1 ,mr ,grant found fifteen clergymen willing to vouch for him as a fit and proper person to represent their views on ,christianity1 and another 7and happily1 final7 debate was arranged for the following year4 ,my father1 in order to show that he did not measure all clergymen by ,mr ,grant's inches1 selected ,mr ,mursell to represent him in the preliminary arrangements1 just as on the previous occasion he had consented to abide by the decision of the ,rev4 ,a4 ,j4 ,harrison4 ,the debate was to be held on one night in each week for six weeks1#ab and by securing ,south ,place ,chapel as the building in which it should be held the ,committee were ensured against the possibility of intolerant proprietors closing the doors of the hall upon them in the midst of the discussion4 ,the subject to be argued as chosen by the ,committee was1 ,is ,atheism1 or is ,christianity1 the true ,secular ,gospel1 as tending to the improvement and happiness of mankind in this life1 by human efforts1 and material means8 ,mr ,grant was to lead on the first three nights1 with objections to show that ,atheism was not the true ,secular ,gospel4 ,mr ,bradlaugh on the remaining three nights was to show that ,christianity was not the true ,secular ,gospel4 ,as might have been expected1 this debate was only a modified repetition of what took place on the previous occasion2 ,mr ,grant was certainly less free of speech1 but with all that he could not keep clear of personal accusations and epithets which at times provoked much unseemly uproar and confusion4 ,footnote #ab3 ,june and ,july #ahge4 ,much has been said at one time or another about ,mr ,bradlaugh's adoption of the views of ,spinoza1 and to leave his position perfectly clear on that head ,i will quote the words he himself used in answer to his opponent on the third night of this debate4 ,it is perfectly true1 he said1 that the argument as to one existence was adopted from ,spinoza4444 ,the precise distinction between the views of ,spinoza and myself is this3 ,spinoza contended for the infinite attributes of extension and intelligence4 ,i cannot conceive the possibility of attributes1 except as the characteristics of the thing conditioned1 the mode thought1 and1 therefore1 cannot conceive infinite attributes at all4 ,spinoza held one existence1 which1 to him having infinite intelligence1 made him a ,pantheist2 and ,i1 not able to conceive that1 stand to ,spinoza in the relation of ,atheist1 and that is just the distinction between my thought and that of ,spinoza4 ,on the fourth night the ,rev4 ,a4 ,mursell took the chair1 and made kindly acknowledgment of the uniform courtesy he had all through received from ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,on this1 and for the remaining nights1 my father1 according to the arrangements1 had the debate4 ,on each occasion his opening speech was carefully prepared1 and was listened to with the most profound attention2 but although a man may lead a debate1 he cannot compel his antagonist to follow1 and on the fifth night the ,rev4 ,brewin ,grant actually brought a manuscript prepared beforehand1 which1 unless by the merest coincidence1 could obviously be no kind of reply to the arguments ,mr ,bradlaugh was advancing4 ,this ,,ms4 he read very quickly1 and often almost inaudibly1 and again his conduct resulted in uproar and confusion4 ,at the conclusion of ,mr ,bradlaugh's final speech1 although there was still one to come from the ,rev4 ,brewin ,grant1 the audience had become so incensed with that gentleman that the majority determined to leave4 ,mr ,grant thereupon bent down to his own reporter1 and read to him from his ,,ms4 quickly and in a low tone of voice4 ,as it was impossible to argue upon propositions which he could not hear1 ,mr ,bradlaugh also rose and left the building4 ,on the sixth and last night ,mr ,m4 ,d4 ,conway occupied the chair4 ,at the very outset considerable confusion was caused by ,mr ,grant's demand that some rules should be read from a book which ,mr ,bradlaugh objected to as incorrect and unauthorised4 ,at length the chairman settled the matter by saying to ,mr ,grant1 ,if you can give me the ,divine ,authority for the infallibility of this little volume1 ,i will read it all4 ,when ,mr ,bradlaugh sat down after his last speech1 he had so moved the audience that they called for three cheers for him2 but he begged them1 if they thought he deserved praise1 to show it by remaining perfectly quiet during the fifteen minutes that ,mr ,grant had still to address them4 ,his hearers responded to his appeal1 and listened mutely to the end4 ,a few words from a speech delivered by the ,rev4 ,arthur ,mursell1 in the ,free ,trade ,hall1 ,manchester1 in the spring of the following year1#ac give some insight into the impression ,mr ,bradlaugh's eloquence produced1 even under such difficult circumstances as those of a debate with ,mr ,grant4 ,said ,mr ,mursell3-- ,footnote #ac3 ,april #bcrd1 #ahgf4 ,i am indebted to one whom the world calls an ,atheist1 and who accepts the designation1 but whom1 in social intimacy1 ,i would rather call my friend than thousands of the ,christians whom ,i know2 a man who1 while casting doubt upon ,him ,i call my ,master1 has shown more of ,his spirit in the practical intercourse of life1 as far as ,i know it1 than many a champion of orthodoxy2 a man of honest1 though religiously benighted creed1 and eloquent tongue2 to such a man ,i am indebted for a stimulus to fervour in the cause of what ,i deem the vital truth1 which prompts me to attempt to press it home with emphasis upon you now4 ,in public debate upon the principles of ,christianity which he opposed1 he closed a speech1 smarting under what he deemed the too flippant satire of his antagonist1 in words something like these3--',if ,i believed in a ,god1 which ,i do not2 if ,i believed in a hell to be escaped1 which ,i do not2 if ,i believed in a heaven to be won1 which ,i do not2 do you imagine ,i could allow myself to rack my brain in coining the paltry jests of a buffoon1 and tickling the groundlings' ears with quips and quirks8 ,no6 ,i would exhaust the logic of my brain1 and the passion of my heart1 in seeking to convince and persuade mankind that they might shun the one and gain the other1 and try to seal a testimony which should be worthy of my conscience and my creed4' ,i felt condemned at my own apathy1 as the eloquent sceptic lifted before me the standard of fidelity4 ,the debate held ten months later with ,mr ,walter ,r4 ,browne1 ,m4,a41 ,fellow of ,trinity ,college1 ,cambridge1 is both pleasant and instructive reading4 ,the question discussed was1 ,can miracles be proved possible8 and the debate arose out of some lectures upon the subject of ,miracles1 delivered a little while before by ,mr ,browne in ,leeds4 ,the discussion was held in the ,albert ,hall1 ,leeds1 on two evenings in ,april #ahgf4 ,the ,mayor 7,alderman ,croft7 presided at the request of the ,vicar of ,leeds1 and on both evenings there was a large audience of earnest and orderly people1 who gave the closest attention to the whole proceedings4 ,the report is pleasant reading1 because one sees the undoubted intention on the part of each disputant to make his position clear to the other and to the audience2 that he was influenced by no mere desire to catch the other tripping for the sake of a moment's applause4 ,the moods of disputants and auditors seemed in complete harmony1 and throughout there was not the slightest sign of disturbance or disorder4 ,mr ,browne at the outset expressed his small confidence in the utility of public debates as a means of arriving at truth1 and thought they were of little advantage either to the debaters or to the audience2 but ,mr ,bradlaugh met this by remarking that he thought that every objection which applies to a debate in public between two persons1 applies with equal1 if not greater1 force to an ex parte statement made by one person in public1 and that the mere delivery of controversial lectures upon such a subject necessitates that the person delivering the controversial lecture should be prepared to recognise at least as much utility in the clashing of his thought publicly with another man's1 disagreeing with him1 as in the mere utterance of his own thought where there is no one to check it at the moment4 ,the instructive character of the debate does not lie in any definite conclusion which might be arrived at by a reader in doubt as to the possibility or impossibility of miracles1 but rather in a realisation of the difficulty two capable men with different points of view may have in settling upon a common meaning for certain words4 ,in ,mr ,browne's first speech he defined a miracle to be a supernatural marvel wrought by ,god1 but this was a definition upon which they could not agree1 because ,mr ,browne would not accept ,mr ,bradlaugh's meaning for nature1 as the totality of all phenomena1 and as equivalent to the word existence1 or the word universe1 nor would he himself define ,god1 for that1 he said1 was beyond definition4 ,the meaning of the words force and creation1 the idea of perception1 the doctrine of free-will1 and the existence of evil1 all proved stumbling blocks to the smooth course of the debate2 but as ,mr ,browne truly said in his concluding speech on the first evening1 while it was true that they had not at that time advanced very far in the argument1 it was better to make the ground sure as they went along than to attempt too much before their conceptions were clear4 ,some of ,mr ,browne's arguments were1 for a trained speaker and debater1 amazingly feeble4 ,for example1 his objection to ,mr ,bradlaugh's definition of the word nature was founded upon the simple reason that such words as 'supernatural1' 'preternatural1' and 'unnatural1' are certainly used amongst us1 and it did not seem to have occurred to him that these might be merely instances of a popular misuse of words4 ,he also thought that the ,american ,war1 which resulted in the abolition of slavery1 showed conclusively that there was a ,god who governs the world2 in this case his mind seemed to dwell only on the one fact of the abolition of slavery1 and to ignore the waste of human life and the horrors of the war as well as the prior fact of the slavery itself4 ,mr ,bradlaugh has often been accused of talking about the unknowable1 but a passage from this debate will show in what sense he used the word--if1 indeed1 he ever did use it4 ,referring to the allegation of creation1 he said3 ,to me creation is a word without meaning2 ,i only know creation in relation to change4 ,i do not mean by it origination of substance2 ,i only mean change of condition4 ,i do not mean the bringing into being that which was not2 ,i only mean the conditioning existence by characteristics by which ,i had not hitherto conditioned it4 ,i cannot conceive the possibility of a period when existence was less than it is now4 ,i do not mean that because ,i cannot conceive it1 therefore it is not true4 ,but ,i do mean that1 as ,i cannot conceive it1 you who say you can are bound to give me your conception of it4 ,understand me clearly1 ,i do not put any such monstrous proposition in this debate as that the inconceivable is therefore the untrue1 or that because a position is inconceivable to me1 therefore ,i have a right to call on all other men to reject it4 ,but ,i do put it1 that you have no right to call upon me to accept any position which is inconceivable to me2 that you are bound to tell me how you conceive it before you have a right to ask me to accept that it is possible4 ,i do not remember to have heard ,mr ,bradlaugh speak of the unknowable2 and that he should use such a term is quite contrary to the whole of my experience of his careful methods of speech4 ,in any case the above will serve to show that he would not be likely to put any such monstrous proposition1 as that the to him unknowable was therefore unknowable to men with wider means of knowledge4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in ,june of the same year ,mr ,bradlaugh held a debate with ,mr ,robert ,roberts1 a leader of a sect called the ,christadelphians4 ,he had challenged ,mr ,bradlaugh to the discussion1 and the subject selected was1 ,are the ,scriptures the ,authentic and ,reliable ,records of ,divine ,revelation8 ,the question was to be argued for six nights1 two at ,leicester and four at ,birmingham4 ,after the two nights at ,leicester ,mr ,bradlaugh avowed his disappointment2 he had hoped that at any rate the discussion would bring out some new thought1 but after two evenings' experience1 he doubted whether that result would be attained4 ,he may be a good preacher1 said my father2 he is most certainly not a good disputant4 ,at ,leicester the audience were small2 at ,birmingham they were larger1 but the debate does not seem to have been any more enlightening4 ,mr ,roberts was described by one of the ,birmingham auditors as a man of considerable fluency of speech1 and overflowing with religious enthusiasm1 and also in all respects a courteous gentleman1 but unfortunately those qualities did not make him a debater4 ,on each evening a quarter of an hour was occupied by each disputant in questioning his antagonist according to the ,socratic method1 and this feature of the proceedings seemed specially to attract the audience1 although indeed it must require considerable practice and skill before it can be successfully carried out4 ,mr ,roberts challenged ,mr ,bradlaugh to further debate1 but this the latter felt obliged to respectfully decline on the ground of the challenger's utter incompetency4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a few days later ,mr ,bradlaugh was at ,liverpool discussing the necessity for disestablishing and disendowing the ,state ,church4 ,his antagonist was ,mr ,william ,simpson1 the working men's candidate at ,liverpool at the general election of #ahgd4 ,the ,concert ,hall1 ,lord ,nelson ,street1 was densely packed1 and it was said that there were thousands unable to obtain admission4 ,the arguments were closely followed by those present1 and although there was no sort of disturbance1 the audience were sufficiently excited to give audible expression to their appreciation or disapproval1 and such interruptions were generally met by a sharp repartee from the speaker of the moment4 ,mr ,simpson1 while praised for his fluency1 courage1 and resource1 was not thought equal to his task1#ad and in reading the verbatim report of the debate1 one is drawn to the conclusion that he scored his greatest successes when making his greatest jokes4 ,footnote #ad3 ,liverpool ,post4 99 99 99 99 99 ,my father had an unusual number of debates this year1 and a little later in the summer was at ,darlington discussing with a ,mr ,j4 ,h4 ,gordon on the question of ,atheism1 is it rational8 ,the proceeds1 after paying expenses1 were given to the ,darlington ,hospital4 ,there was no shorthand report1 but in an article very hostile to ,mr ,bradlaugh which appeared in a local paper1 there is a description of him well worth reproducing4 ,the writer professed to think that my father's ,atheism--which he said1 with that calm assurance born of ignorance1 paid him well in money and gratified vanity--was not a matter of conviction1 but merely the result of a desire to be in opposition to the majority4 ,he further ventured to prophesy that in ,parliament he would be a failure4#ae ,the following portrait of ,mr ,bradlaugh sketched by a pen so unfriendly1 is a singular testimony to his power3-- ,footnote #ae3 ,at the ,bar he would be a bully1 in the pulpit a passing sensation1 on the stage a passion-tearing ,othello1 in the ,press a competent ,american editor1 in ,parliament a failure4 ,mr ,bradlaugh is a tall1 muscular man1 who stands firm on his legs1 with broad shoulders1 between which is a massive1 square1 powerful head4 ,he dresses in plain black1 relieved only by an ordinary display of linen1 and a slender watch chain4 ,he is closely shaven as a ,roman priest4 ,his features are large and open1 his eyes are of a grayish hue1 and his hair1 which is fast turning gray1 falls back from a brow on which intelligence1 perception1 and power are strongly marked4 ,he has a face which can be very pleasing and very stern1 but which conceals the emotion at will4 ,as he sits listening to the denunciations of his opponent the smile of incredulity1 the look of astonishment1 the cloud of anger1 pass quickly over his countenance4 ,rising from his seat1 and resting one hand upon the table1 he commences very quietly in a voice which1 until the ear is accustomed to it1 sounds unpleasant and harsh1 but which1 when it becomes stronger1 loses much of its twang1 and sounds almost musical4 ,his enunciation is singularly distinct1 not one word being lost by the audience4 ,he addresses himself to all parts of the house--gallery as well as body4 ,when warmed by his subject1 he advances to the centre of the platform1 and looking his audience full in the face1 and with right hand emphasizing every important sentence1 he expresses himself in tones so commanding and words so distinct that his hearers may be hostile or friendly1 but cannot be indifferent4 ,one may retire horrified at his sentiments1 even disgusted at his irreverence and audacity--from a ,christian's standpoint--but no one would go to sleep under him4 ,he can be complimentary and humorous1 but is more at home in sarcasm and denunciation4 ,he is never ponderous2 nevertheless1 the grave suits him better than the gay4 ,cheering does not seem to affect him1 though he is by no means indifferent to it2 but he is quick to perceive disapproval1 and is most powerful when most loudly hissed4 ,with head erect1 face coloured with a flush which has in it a little of defiance as well as earnestness1 now emphasising with his right hand1 now with folded arms1 now joining the tips of his fingers as if to indicate the closeness of his reasoning1 as he would have the audience believe it1 he stands defying opposition1 even going out of his way to increase it1 and revelling in his ,ishmaelism4 ,then1 comparing him with his opponent3-- ,mr ,bradlaugh has not much action1 but what he has is dignified1 which ,mr ,gordon's never is4 ,he can be severe1 even harsh1 but never petulant and peevish1 which ,mr ,gordon frequently is4 ,mr ,bradlaugh may abuse his opponent1 but it is boldly1 not like a bad-tempered school-girl4 ,he can be pleasant1 but never assumes the grimaces and gestures of a ,merry ,andrew4 ,his features are expressive1 but he never pulls faces4 ,he is essentially a strong man1 strong in his language and his oratory1 self-sustained1 bold in the way he meets and even avoids the topic of dispute4#af ,footnote #af3 ,from the ,darlington and ,stockton ,times4 ,there are1 of course1 some phrases in this description which ,i should contravene1 but apart from these1 it is a most vivid and lifelike picture of my father as a speaker4 ,it is1 however1 a mistake to suppose that ,mr ,bradlaugh wantonly went out of his way to increase opposition1 or revelled in his ,ishmaelism2 what is quite true is1 that if in pursuing the path he had marked out for himself he increased opposition1 he went on just the same1 and did not turn away by so much as a hair's-breadth to avoid it4 ,at heart he might be bitterly wounded1 but that did not make him falter4 ,to take1 for example1 one of the latest cases3 when his attitude on the ,employers' ,liability ,bill provoked such a storm of opposition from the very men for whom he worked1 he wrote pathetically to a friend3 ,it is a little saddening to me to find that in the close of my life ,i am to be regarded as doing disservice to the men whom ,i desire to serve4 ,but although he felt the men's distrust thus keenly1 he did not hesitate nor turn from his course4 ,nor did he revel in his ,ishmaelism2 he had no pride in being an outcast1 neither had he any shame in it2 the shame of his position was not his1 it was theirs who thrust him into it4 ,it shows a complete lack of appreciation of the facts to suggest that a man like ,mr ,bradlaugh could delight in being regarded as a sort of moral leper by his fellow-men1 who indeed neglected no means to exclude him and his from society4 ,i have noticed these two points because it has been a common error to assume that because my father did not quail before opposition1 therefore he courted it1 and that because he was not ashamed when the law said1 ,you are an ,atheist1 and as such you are outside our protection1 therefore he rejoiced in being so distinguished4 ,both assumptions are equally and entirely without foundation4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the same year also ,mr ,bradlaugh held a written discussion with the ,rev4 ,john ,lightfoot1 of ,wolverhampton1 on the subject of ,eternal ,torment4 ,this controversy consisted of four letters from each disputant1 and was printed in the ,national ,reformer2 it was afterwards issued in pamphlet form1 and is still obtainable4 ,in #ahgg he had too much work to allow him to indulge in public discussions on theological subjects1 but in #ahgh he held a debate with the ,rev4 ,r4 ,a4 ,armstrong1 a ,unitarian minister much respected in ,nottingham4 ,this encounter was the result of a lecture given by ,mr ,bradlaugh in ,nottingham in defence of ,atheism1 and as a reply to some lectures delivered by ,professor ,max ,mller under the ,hibbert ,trust4 ,mr ,armstrong offered some opposition at the close of ,mr ,bradlaugh's address1 and a debate was suggested4 ,nothing further was said at the time1 but the local ,secular ,society took the matter up1 and pressed ,mr ,armstrong in such courteous and earnest terms1 that after consultation with his friends1 he agreed to accept the challenge4 ,the subject selected for discussion was1 ,is it reasonable to worship ,god8 and the time appointed was the #eth and #fth of ,september4 ,the debate was a great success1 not indeed as furnishing the audience with a cut-and-dried answer ,yes or ,no to the question argued by the disputants--a result rarely1 if ever1 attained--but both sides of the question were put forward with a calm and serious earnestness which must have been very pleasant to listen to4 ,mr ,g4 ,b4 ,rothera made an admirably impartial chairman1 and the audience1 which crowded every corner of the ,co-operative ,hall long before the hour fixed for commencement1 listened throughout with close and appreciative attention4 ,on the morning of the #eth ,mr ,bradlaugh had gone early to ,coldbath ,fields ,prison to attend the release of ,edward ,truelove from his six months' imprisonment in defence of a free press4 ,it had been a dull1 close morning1 damp with the rain which had not long ceased falling2 inside the gaol the chaplain1 not seeing my father and ,mr ,truelove's son1 had sneered at the crowd of ,freethinkers waiting in the damp and gloomy street without2 had sneered1 too1 at the ,freethinker1 the prisoner1 within1 whose age might have been his protection4 ,this was a sorry preparation for debate1 but when the evening was over my father said1 ,i left ,london in no mood for debating4 ,coldbath ,fields atmosphere hung about me all day1 but the debate1 as far as the first night has gone1 is the most pleasant one in which ,i have ever taken part4 ,the discussion was afterwards republished as a pamphlet1 to which ,mr ,armstrong added1 by invitation1 a few prefatory words giving his reasons for taking part in it1 and suggesting books for study to those who wished to learn more of the positive argument for ,theism and ,worship4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the last debate in which ,mr ,bradlaugh took part prior to #ahhj was one in the early part of ,march #ahgi1 with the ,rev4 ,w4 ,m4 ,westerby1 a ,congregational minister of ,burnley4 ,the subject agreed upon1 and worded by ,mr ,westerby1 was1 ,has1 or is1 man a soul8 ,the chair was taken on each of the two evenings by the ,rev4 ,r4 ,littlehales1 ,baptist minister1 and the audiences were large and orderly4 ,the ,rev4 ,r4 ,littlehales was thoroughly impartial said ,mr ,bradlaugh1 quite doing his duty1 but scarcely saying a word that was not absolutely necessary4 ,of his opponent ,mr ,westerby1 he spoke as an able speaker1 with considerable tact and judgment1 and showing the utmost courtesy4 ,the proceeds were given to the ,blackburn and ,east ,lancashire ,infirmary1 without any deduction for the expenses of the disputants4 ,that was all very well as far as ,mr ,westerby was concerned1 for the discussion took place in his own town2 but ,mr ,bradlaugh had to journey from ,london to ,burnley at his own cost1 and pay his own hotel expenses4 ,this heavy tax he rightly regarded as unreasonable1 and such as should not have been demanded of him1 nevertheless he thought the result was worth the sacrifice1 and was glad he had made it4 ,indeed1 this debate is regarded by many as one of the best in which ,mr ,bradlaugh ever took part4 ,amongst them1 the ,burnley and ,preston papers gave about thirty-five columns of report2 leading articles were written and sermons were preached upon the subject1 and in that part of ,lancashire1 at least1 the arguments were pretty thoroughly discussed4 ,a verbatim report was published1#ag and in that and in a little pamphlet#ah issued many years before this discussion1 ,mr ,bradlaugh's position on the question of the soul is fully set out4 ,footnote #ag3 ,has1 or is1 ,man a ,soul8 ,two nights' debate with ,rev4 ,w4 ,m4 ,westerby4 ,footnote #ah3 ,has ,man a ,soul8 ,theological ,essays by ,c4 ,bradlaugh1 vol4 i4 ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,,some ,,later ,,lectures4 ,mr ,bradlaugh addressed an audience in ,oxford for the first time early in ,may #ahge1 when he spoke upon the subject of ,land and ,labour4 ,some difficulty had been made as to the use of the ,town ,hall1 and a smaller hall1 known as the ,holywell ,music ,room1 was engaged4 ,a number of undergraduates put in an appearance1 but as ,mr ,a4 ,r4 ,cluer1 who was also present1 observed1 it was evident that they had come more with the intention of attempting to interrupt than to listen quietly4 ,but after the first few sallies of undergraduate wit had been effectively met and replied to by ,mr ,bradlaugh1 in which encounters the laugh always remained on his side1 the audience was tolerably peaceful4 ,the ,oxford papers gave their different versions of the lecture1 but they all joined in the announcement that the chairman was a sweep by trade1 whereat my father immediately wrote1 ,if ,mr ,hines is not ashamed to again preside for me1 ,i shall be glad to ask him to take the chair at my next meeting4 ,the next meeting followed close on the heels of the first1 for on the #bfth ,mr ,bradlaugh was again in ,oxford1 speaking in a room crowded to excess1 upon the subject of ,one ,hundred ,years of ,tory ,rule4 ,the majority of the audience was composed of undergraduates1 and the interruption kept up by these gentlemen in embryo was so continuous that a complete sentence was almost impossible4 ,appeals to the good sense and decency of the audience were in vain2 cigars and pipes were lit and smoked2 shouts1 yells1 hisses1 and insulting remarks were continued throughout the lecture4 ,one of the most prominent of the disturbers was said to be ,lord ,lymington1 son of the ,earl of ,portsmouth1 who not only himself misbehaved1 but also encouraged others to do likewise4 ,in ,january #ahgg my father was once more in ,oxford1 lecturing this time in the ,town ,hall4 ,again the undergraduates mustered for a disturbance1 and at one time1 when a townsman was knocked down by a gownsman1 it seemed as though a general mele was imminent4#ai ,this time1 however1 firmness and good temper brought all things right1 and the lecture was allowed to come to a peaceful termination4 ,it was succeeded by a sharp fire of questions1 enjoyed no less by the person questioned than by the questioners4 ,footnote #ai3 ,although the lecture was purely political1 the subject being ,national ,taxation1 the ,oxford ,times attempted to justify this rowdyism by saying1 ,a man who identifies himself with a creed which denies the doctrine of reward and punishment in the future life cannot reasonably expect toleration here4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a subject which ,mr ,bradlaugh lectured upon very much in #ahgf1 especially during the early part of the year1 was the ,suez ,canal4 ,he had only just returned from ,america when he learned privately of the purchase by the ,english ,government of the ,viceroy of ,egypt's shares in the ,suez ,canal4 ,ill as he was--he was just convalescent from typhoid fever--he at once gave a lecture protesting against the purchase1 a protest in which for some time he stood quite alone4 ,he wrote a stirring article asking1 ,why should the people of ,england pay #d1jjj1jjj to the ,viceroy of ,egypt8 and he lectured against the purchase week after week4 ,about four or five weeks later others also began to protest4 ,sir ,geo4 ,campbell1 ,m4,p41 in the ,fortnightly ,review1 was one of the first to take ground against the ,government4 ,inspired by ,mr ,bradlaugh1 resolutions of protest were passed in different parts of the country1 and so thoroughly did public opinion change that by the end of ,march the ,standard itself was corroborating statements my father had made early in ,january4 99 99 99 99 99 ,an amusing circumstance happened at ,darwen when ,mr ,bradlaugh was lecturing there in the summer of #ahgf4 ,a foolish ,christian challenged him to pay a visit of consolation to an old bed-ridden woman named ,peggy ,jepson1 and offered him a sovereign if he would go4 ,amidst much laughter and cheering1 he took the sovereign1 and carried it straight to the old woman1 who was of course surprised and delighted beyond measure with the unexpected gift2 this was a form of consolation which met with her decided approval4 ,not so with the ,christian challenger1 however4 ,he was so irritated that he threatened ,mr ,bradlaugh with ,county ,court proceedings for the return of his pound4 99 99 99 99 99 ,at the end of ,september in this year my father and ,mrs ,besant had been invited to lecture at ,congleton on two successive evenings1 and to be the guests of ,mr and ,mrs ,wolstenholme ,elmy1 at ,buglawton1 during their stay4 ,the ,town ,hall having been refused for their lectures1 the ,salford ,mill1 an old silk mill1 was engaged4 ,mr ,bradlaugh spoke the first evening on ,the right to speak and the right to think1 but a certain section of the inhabitants of ,congleton thought so little of these rights that they kept up a perpetual din outside the mill1 and smashed the windows by throwing stones4 ,while the attention of those on the platform was distracted by the removal of a little child out of reach of the falling glass1 some coward threw something at ,mrs ,besant1 striking her a severe blow on the back of her head4 ,after the lecture the little party had a mile and a half to walk to ,buglawton1 which they did accompanied by a noisy crowd1 which alternately used language of opprobrium and sang ,safe in the arms of ,jesus4 ,when the escort got too demonstrative ,mr ,bradlaugh and ,mr ,elmy turned about and faced them1 and then1 like sheep1 the crowd turned about too4 ,a woman was struck full in the face by a ,methodist shoemaker1 whom she had detected in the act of throwing mud and had reproved4 ,at the house the crowd remained yelling outside until midnight4 ,but if ,monday 7the first night7 was bad1 ,tuesday was worse1 because the rioting was more organised4 ,for two hours before the lecture a crowd assembled in front of ,mr ,elmy's gate1 hooting impartially every one seen entering or leaving the house4 ,a cab had been engaged to drive to the mill where ,mrs ,besant was to lecture1 although she was still suffering from the hurt of the evening before1 and as they got into the vehicle a volley of stones was thrown1 but fortunately no one was hurt4 ,during the lecture eight persons came in together1 and it was soon evident that a thorough disturbance was planned4 ,one of the new-comers shouted1 ,put her out1 and as this seemed the signal for a fight1 my father said sternly that the next one who interrupted should be put out4 ,a man named ,burbery1 a local tradesman and well-known wrestler who boasted his prize cups1 invited ,mr ,bradlaugh to make the attempt upon him4 ,my father saw that if the lecture was to go on something must be done1 and that quickly1 so he descended from the platform1 and laying hands upon the champion1 after a short struggle ejected him1 and handed him over to the charge of the police outside4 ,the audience inside cheered and hooted2 the crowd outside yelled and threw stones--one of which1 striking ,mrs ,elmy1 cut her severely over the right eye4 ,the excitement subsided in a few minutes1 however1 and the lecture concluded1 and discussion was held in perfect quiet and order4 ,an attempt was made at ,mr ,elmy's house to repeat the scene of the night before1 but my father and his host went out1 and at length succeeded in frightening the disturbers away4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i was myself present on one occasion when ,mr ,bradlaugh had himself to put some rufflers out of a hall in ,newman ,street1 ,london4 ,in ,june #ahgg a meeting on the ,population question was held at ,cambridge ,hall1 and was attended by a number of medical students from1 ,i believe1 the ,middlesex ,hospital4 ,there was a crowded meeting1 and there were1 in addition to my father1 several speakers1 both men and women4 ,several of the medical students got up to move amendments1 and in the midst of a very coarse speech by one of them1 some of his friends at the side commenced to flourish thick sticks1 and emphasize their opinions by bringing these same sticks into contact with the heads of the peaceful members of the audience4 ,a general fight seemed imminent1 when ,mr ,bradlaugh in commanding tones requested every one to keep his seat1 and himself going up to the ringleaders1 seized three of them by their collars--two in one hand and one in the other--and partly carrying1 partly pushing them down the hall1 cast them out of the door amidst cheers of delight from the audience4#bj ,the students who remained ventured on no more disturbance1 and the meeting proceeded in peace and order4 ,footnote #bj3 ,dr ,nichols had an amusing article on this meeting in the ,living ,age4 ,the juvenile sawbones1 he said1 climbed upon the platform and moved their amendments with admirable audacity4 ,they had not much to say1 and they did not know how to say what they had thought of saying2 but they mounted the breach bravely enough for all that4 ,and the ,malthusian majority behaved very well--much better than ,english audiences usually do when there is opposition4 ,in the sudden charge that swept the forlorn hope out of the fortress1 it looked for a few moments as if there might be a case for the coroner1 but ,mr ,bradlaugh's disciples were mindful of his teachings4 ,in the autumns of #ahgg and #ahgh ,mr ,bradlaugh took my sister and me with him on a lecturing tour he was making in ,scotland with ,mrs ,besant4 ,these tours were a sort of combination of work and holiday1 in which the work was to pay for the holiday1 and they were both greatly enjoyed by us all4 ,we went as far north as ,aberdeen1 and came south as far as ,hawick4 ,in several of the towns we visited--notably at ,perth and ,edinburgh--we found kind and hearty friends equally eager to make the holiday part of our visit as great a success as the work itself4 ,the arrangements were all well made1 and it was not until the second visit that any serious hitch arose1 and that came unexpectedly at ,edinburgh4 ,in #ahgg ,professor ,flint had delivered a series of lectures on ,theism1 under the auspices of the ,baird ,trustees4 ,my father wrote some replies to them1 and on sending the first to ,professor ,flint he received this kindly letter in acknowledgment3-- ,johnstone ,lodge1 ,craigmillar ,park1 ,edinburgh1 ,december #beth1 #ahgg4 ,,sir1--,i thank you kindly for sending me a copy of the ,national ,reformer for ,december #bcrd4 ,i shall read with interest any criticisms you may be pleased to make on my book on ',theism1' and ,i shall endeavour to answer them in a note or notes to the volume on ',anti-theistic ,theories1' a copy of which will be forwarded to you4 ,i regret that my time will not allow me to do more than this4--,thanking you sincerely for your personal courtesy towards me1 from whose views you so thoroughly dissent1 ,i am1 ,sir1 yours very truly1 ,r4 ,,flint4 ,c4 ,,bradlaugh4 ,in the autumn of #ahgh ,mr ,bradlaugh determined to take one of ,professor ,flint's lectures1 ,is belief in ,god reasonable8 and make some reply to it from an ,edinburgh platform4 ,the ,music ,hall was duly engaged1 the lectures were advertised for the #bfth and #bgth of ,september1 and everything promised successful meetings both for himself and for ,mrs ,besant4 ,on the #bcrd1 however1 the directors of the hall cancelled the hiring4 ,as ,mrs ,besant's subject was ,christianity3 ,immoral in ,theory and ,demoralising in ,practice1 it was thought at the outset that the refusal was on her account1 but a special mention of the subject of ,mr ,bradlaugh's lecture in the letter written by the directors contradicted this impression4 ,the ,edinburgh ,freethinkers were indignant2 they sought legal advice1 but found they had no redress1 ,professor ,flint's lectures had been largely attended and fully reported in the ,scotch papers1 but of course he had argued in the affirmative4 ,the ,committee who had arranged the lectures for ,mr ,bradlaugh and ,mrs ,besant then went to the ,artillery ,hall1 and explained all the circumstances2 the hall was then hired and paid for1 but on the same afternoon the hall-keeper returned the money1 saying that the proprietors would not let it for the purposes required1 and further1 that he was instructed to have the place guarded by police on the ,thursday and ,friday evenings4 ,many fruitless attempts were made to obtain a hall4 ,on ,thursday ,mrs ,besant's lecture had to be abandoned1 and we went to the theatre instead1 whilst a large number of persons1 who had not seen the notices of postponement1 assembled at the ,artillery ,hall4 ,the ,society of ,arts ,hall was obtained for ,friday1 and when this was known1 much pressure was put upon the proprietors to rescind their contract2 they held out until the afternoon1 then they also gave way and refused the hall1 and when the audience came in the evening they found the doors locked and the place under police protection4 ,at last ,mr ,bradlaugh wrote to ,professor ,flint1 shortly stating the case1 and appealing to his sense of fair play to aid him in procuring a platform in ,edinburgh where he might reply to his arguments4 ,to this letter he received the following reply3-- ,edinburgh1 ,september #cj1 #ahgh4 ,,sir1--,it appears to me that you have very good reason to complain of the injustice of the persons who1 after granting you the use of their halls1 cancelled their contracts4 ,i sincerely regret the treatment you have met with in ,edinburgh in this respect4 ,i have no influence1 however1 with the directors of public halls in this city1 and therefore cannot do more than assure you that ,i cordially wish you the fullest liberty you can desire to discuss and criticise my lectures on ,theism4 ,the more freely the grounds of religious belief are examined from all points of view the better4--,i am1 etc4 ,r4 ,,flint4 ,one immediate outcome of this exhibition of intolerance was an offer1 publicly made and advertised in the ,scotsman1 of a sum of #ejj towards the building of a hall in which free discussion might be held4 ,mr ,bradlaugh lectured many times in ,edinburgh both before and after this date1 but1 as far as ,i am aware1 this is the only time on which he had any difficulty about obtaining a hall to speak in4 ,many ,scarborough people will recall the fuss made over ,mr ,bradlaugh's lecture there in the ,old ,town ,hall on ,eternal ,hope and ,eternal ,torment in ,april #ahgi4 ,a protest1 signed by nearly every clergyman in the borough1 was sent to the ,corporation4 ,that ,mr ,bradlaugh should lecture in a public building belonging to the town was1 said these intolerant clerics1 a public scandal1 and a most serious outrage upon the convictions of the rate-payers4 ,the ,mayor moved that this protest be entered upon the ,minutes1 but there were only five votes in favour of his motion1 and it was therefore rejected4 ,my father lectured in ,scarborough in #ahhb on ,perpetual ,pensions1 and was to have lectured there again in #ahhi1 but this engagement had to be cancelled in consequence of his serious illness4 ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,,lunatics4 ,i suppose that all public men are more or less troubled with lunatic correspondents and lunatic visitors1 so that in this respect ,mr ,bradlaugh was in no way singular2 but perhaps they gave him more trouble than most men because he was so easy of access4 ,any one who wished to see him had only to knock at the door1 to ask1 and to be admitted if my father were at home4 ,letters from insane persons were of constant occurrence1 but they were soon disposed of--the wastepaper basket was large and was always at hand4 ,there was one man1 however1 who wrote my father daily for years2 indeed1 sometimes he would write twice in a day4 ,his letters were without coherence1 written on scraps of paper of all shapes and sizes1 and ,i do not remember that he ever gave either his name or his address4 ,but if there was the ever-hospitable wastepaper basket ready to receive a lunatic's letters1 a lunatic visitor needed to be treated more discreetly4 ,this was especially the case at ,turner ,street1 where the room was small1 and there was not much space in which to move about4 ,when a visitor called he was usually requested to be seated at the side of the writing-table opposite my father4 ,the chairs were few1 and if the visitors were many1 some had to sit on piles of books or pamphlets4 ,one day a man called at ,turner ,street1 and was asked to sit down in the customary way4 ,my father inquired his business1 and without going much into detail the visitor explained1 with a queer1 uncertain look in his eyes1 that he had a mission from ,god to kill him2 and thereupon he drew out a formidable-looking knife4 ,mr ,bradlaugh examined the man's face1 and saw that it was no foolish hoax being played upon him4 ,there was a quiet determination about his would-be murderer that was anything but reassuring4 ,the chair in which my father always sat was an old-fashioned1 high-backed oaken chair1 with arms1 and from the back at the right hand hung1 suspended by a strap1 his heavy ,colt's revolver2 between himself and the lunatic was the small writing-table1 #bg inches wide4 ,my father carefully felt behind him until he felt the revolver under his fingers1 and then he quietly asked the man if he was quite sure that ,god had given him this mission4 ,yes1 the man said2 he was quite sure4 ,have you consulted any one about it8 ,no1 was the reply4 ,don't you think it would be better to do so8 gently insinuated ,mr ,bradlaugh2 ,i should be inclined to talk it over with some one--with the ,archbishop of ,canterbury1 for instance--were ,i in your place4 ,you see it might be rather awkward afterwards if there should happen to be any mistake about the matter4 ,this apparently was a view of the case which had not previously occurred to the lunatic1 but he promptly accepted it1 and announced his determination to go to ,lambeth ,palace forthwith2 and it was with a perceptible feeling of relief that my father heard the street door close upon his visitor4 ,he knew that there was no danger to the ,archbishop1 as there was no probability of such a man being allowed to see him4 ,mr ,bradlaugh had had a case a little before this of which the circumstances were rather peculiar4 ,a man named ,john ,sladen came up from his home in ,cheshire on ,thursday1 ,march #cast1 #ahgj1 and in the evening he went to the ,new ,hall of ,science in ,old ,street1 where a social gathering was about to be held to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the publication of the ,national ,reformer4 ,before the proceedings commenced1 ,john ,sladen made himself known to ,mr ,austin ,holyoake1 to whom he was previously an entire stranger1 and asked him if he could speak with ,mr ,bradlaugh for a few minutes4 ,mr ,holyoake introduced him to ,mr ,bradlaugh1 who took him into a private room4 ,in the course of conversation ,sladen informed my father that he had determined to kill the ,queen1 giving as his chief reason 7if my memory serves me7 that she wanted to marry him4 ,mr ,bradlaugh returned to ,mr ,holyoake1 and explained the state of affairs to him1 and they both agreed that the police ought to be informed1 so my father went to the police station and saw the inspector1 who sent an officer in plain clothes to the ,hall4 ,in order to avoid any disturbance amongst the people present1 ,sladen was allowed to remain until ten o'clock1 when1 as ,mr ,holyoake said1 the police officer very adroitly got him away4 ,sladen was so sensible on most matters that at first the police were disinclined to believe in his madness1 but before the night was out they had more than sufficient proof4 ,on the following morning ,mr ,bradlaugh telegraphed to ,sladen's friends1 and went himself to the police station to see that he was properly cared for4 ,eventually he was sent to ,hanwell ,asylum1 and on the earliest opportunity he wrote reproaching my father4 ,of course he did not think he was mad1 and he told ,mr ,bradlaugh that as he had been the means of putting him in the ,asylum1 it was his duty to get him out1 or at any rate to send him papers to read4 ,later on my father communicated with ,dr ,bayley1 the physician to the ,asylum1 who assured him that ,sladen was not fit to be released1 and that any political reading would be calculated to excite him and retard his cure4 ,but a few years later ,i believe he was allowed to have the ,national ,reformer4 ,my father never lost sight of him2 he used to send to the ,asylum to make enquiries1 and ,sladen also wrote to him occasionally2 he always felt ,sladen's to be a sad case1 and was oppressed by a feeling of responsibility in the matter just because he was the one to hand him over to the police4 ,of course there was a small public sensation about the matter1 which the newspapers did their best to fan into a big one at ,mr ,bradlaugh's expense4 ,the east end of ,london was posted with large placards announcing ,a ,threat to murder the ,queen at the ,new ,hall of ,science4#ba ,an evening paper#bb giving a report of the proceedings1 told how ,sladen heard ,mr ,bradlaugh lecture at the ,hall of ,science1 and after the lecture told ,mr ,bradlaugh of his determination to kill the ,queen4 ,the next morning this report was repeated1 but with additional embellishments4 ,now it was said that ,sladen went to hear a lecture by ,mr ,bradlaugh1 and soon afterwards burst into threats of such violence towards ,her ,majesty that he was taken into custody as a dangerous lunatic4#bc ,that there was no lecture at the ,hall that evening1 that there was no bursting out into threats of violence1 that ,sladen spoke to ,mr ,bradlaugh before1 and not after1 the commencement of the evening's proceedings1 were of course matters of mere detail1 without value when compared with the opportunity of raising a prejudice against ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,similarly1 when the lad ,o',connor tried to frighten the ,queen with an empty pistol1 it was said that probably a large share of the mischief was caused by the lad's attendance on the lectures of a notorious ,infidel and ,republican lecturer1 whose inflammatory discourses1 falling on a weak1 excitable1 untrained mind1 produced the natural effect and goaded him on to mischief4#bd ,that there was no evidence that the lad had ever attended any such lectures was apparently of small importance4 ,footnote #ba3 ,this was done by the ,eastern ,post4 ,footnote #bb3 ,the ,pall ,mall ,gazette4 ,mr ,austin ,holyoake wrote a short letter contradicting this report1 and giving the simple facts of the case1 but his letter was not inserted4 ,footnote #bc3 ,daily ,news4 ,footnote #bd3 ,city ,press4 99 99 99 99 99 ,at ,circus ,road ,i can recall several mad visitors3 one in shirt sleeves and leather apron1 who offered to reveal a secret to ,mr ,bradlaugh whereby he might become possessed of millions2 another1 a little old lady1 who told with a mysterious air how she was the ,secret ,history2 another1 who was so noisy that he had to be put out1 and who then remained in the street below shouting out that ,mr ,bradlaugh had ill-used him1 till he brought out all the neighbours to their doors1 and the commotion he raised threatened to hinder the traffic4 ,then there were some who claimed to be descendants of one or other of the ,brunswicks1 and as such entitled to the ,crown2 but provided they were quietly listened to1 these gave little trouble save in the time they wasted4 ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,,the ,,watch ,,story4 ,there have been some fictions so pertinaciously circulated about ,mr ,bradlaugh that any story of his life would be incomplete without some reference to them4 ,lies are so proverbially hard to kill1 however1 that ,i dare not feel confident that even an exposure of them here will altogether discredit these old favourites1 but at least ,i hope that it may have some little effect4 ,i think the most popular of all these is what has come to be known as the watch story1 and for this reason ,i have taken the trouble to trace back its history1 not exactly to its origin1 but for the last hundred years or so4 ,the defiance of ,deity1 which is really only the converse of the prayer1 is a very ancient idea1 and the old stories mostly ended in the punishment or death of the person who so rashly defied the ,omnipotent4 ,the so-called ,atheist who1 in the time of the ,french ,revolution1 defied ,god to prevent him drinking his cup of wine1 was struck dead to the ground1 and the cup was dashed untasted from his lips4 ,even during this century1 as late as #ahdi or #ahej1 the story was told of a wicked soldier who rode out of the ranks1 and turning his horse's head1 faced his companions1 exclaiming1 ,if there be a ,god1 let ,him now prove it by striking me dead before you4 ,in a few minutes this rash young man was a corpse--a victim to the wrath of an outraged ,deity and a solemn warning to his comrades4 ,when this fable is related1 not of vague personalities such as the ,atheist or the wicked soldier1 but of actual living persons1 the termination has to be amended1#be and the moral loses something of its point4 ,the first time that it was told of ,mr ,bradlaugh was1 as far as ,i can trace1 in the year #ahfg4 ,there was at that time a certain ,conservative journal called the ,british ,monarchy1 the editor of which1 desiring to damage the ,reform ,league1 expressed his opinion in choice and elegant language that the meetings of the ,league gave ,an opportunity to the roughs of the ,metropolis to sack the shops1 444 goaded on by the fool who says in his heart there is 'no ,god1' which reminds us1 he went on1 of a fact related of a resigned leading member of the ,reform ,league1 and the supposed projector of the ',good ,friday meeting'#bf of this year4 ,this would-be lawgiver and law-maker1 travelling on the ,great ,eastern ,railway1 was as usual endeavouring to propagate his hateful opinions4 ,he had the presumption to offer1 it is said1 as a proof of his assertion that 'there is no ,god1' the fact that if1 on taking out his watch from his pocket1 he held it in his hand for some minutes and was not struck dead1 it would be conclusive evidence of the truth of his opinions4 ,he was not struck dead because of ,god's long-suffering mercy4 ,he reminds us of ,pharaoh2 may he escape his fate6 ,footnote #be3 ,as late as ,january #ahhd1 however1 ,mr ,bradlaugh noted a case reported in several newspapers of a private in the ,hampshire ,regiment1 who cried1 ,god strike me blind6 and who thereupon felt drowsy1 and stretched himself on his bed1 but when he attempted to open his eyes1 he found he could not do so1 and he has since been wholly deprived of the use of his eyes4 ,he was conveyed to the ,haslar ,military ,hospital1 where he remains4 ,as this was tolerably definite1 inquiries were made at the ,hospital4 ,in answer to these1 the principal wrote3 ,there is no truth whatever in the statement1 and the lad who is supposed to have sworn never swore at all4 ,he has a weak right eye2 it was slightly inflamed--the result of a cold--but he is now quite well4 ,he is very indignant and hurt at the statement1 and1 if he did swear1 he is not blind4 ,footnote #bf3 ,mr ,bradlaugh was neither the projector nor the advocate of the ,good ,friday promenade4 ,mr ,bradlaugh never by any chance sought to propagate his opinions in a railway carriage1 nor was he ever guilty of such ridiculous folly1 as he contemptuously termed it1 as that attributed to him by the ,british ,monarchy4 ,long before this story was attached to ,mr ,bradlaugh name it was told of ,abner ,kneeland1 the ,pantheist and abolitionist in ,america2 indeed1 the defiance of ,deity in this particular manner is said to have originated in a story told by an ,american of ,abner ,kneeland4#bg ,it was ascribed to ,mrs ,emma ,martin1#bh a ,freethought speaker in ,england1 who was eulogised by ,mr ,g4 ,j4 ,holyoake as beautiful in expression1 quick in wit1 strong in will1 eloquent in speech1 coherent in connection1 and of a stainless character1 she was incomparable among public women4 ,it was related again and again of ,mr ,g4 ,j4 ,holyoake1 who wrote a denial of it as early as ,january #ahed4 ,many times also was the challenge ascribed to ,mrs ,harriet ,law1 a lecturer on the ,freethought platform thirty years ago2 and later1 when ,mrs ,besant came into the movement1 she was made to play the part of heroine in this affecting drama1 although1 as she herself pointed out1 there is one very queer thing about the story2 it never appears in any report given at the time of any lecture1 and no one speaks of having heard the challenge the day1 week1 or month1 or year after it was done4 ,the pious ,christian always heard it about twenty years ago1 and has kept it locked in his bosom ever since4#bi ,footnote #bg3 ,kneeland died in #ahdd4 ,the tale was repeatedly contradicted4 ,footnote #bh3 ,emma ,martin died in #aheg4 ,in her case also it was contradicted4 ,footnote #bi3 ,national ,reformer1 ,june #fth1 #ahhj4 ,from #ahfg1 when the ,british ,monarchy first associated this story with ,mr ,bradlaugh's name1 down to #ahhj1 when my father commenced a prosecution against a man named ,edgcumbe1 not a single year passed without some repetition of it4 ,since this prosecution1 although it still occasionally shows signs of life1 it is not nearly so vigorous4 ,the story was circulated1 not merely by vulgar and irresponsible purveyors of slander1 but even by persons whose position gave an air of unimpeachable veracity to anything they might choose to say4 ,the first person to relate the watch story orally of ,mr ,bradlaugh was ,mr ,charles ,capper1 ,m4,p41 who1 as it may be remembered1 told it with some detail at a public meeting at ,sandwich during the general election of #ahfh1 giving the name of ,mr ,charles ,gilpin as his authority4#cj ,my father at once wrote to ,mr ,capper that he had read his speech with indignation1 but without surprise1 for no inventions on the part of my enemies would now surprise me4 ,he had1 he said1 seen ,mr ,charles ,gilpin1 and so far as he is concerned1 ,i have his distinct authority to entirely deny that he ever told you anything of the kind1 and ,i have therefore to apply to you for an immediate retraction of and apology for your cowardly falsehood1 which has been industriously circulated in ,northampton1 and which could only have been uttered with the view of doing me injury in my candidature in that borough4 ,permit me to add1 that ,i never in my life 7either in ,northampton or any other place7 have uttered any phrase affording a colour of justification for the monstrous words you put in my mouth4 ,footnote #cj3 ,deal and ,sandwich ,mercury1 ,sept4 #bf4 ,but ,mr ,charles ,capper would not retract1 and would not apologise1 so ,mr ,bradlaugh1 who felt all the more incensed about this1 because of the dragging in of ,mr ,gilpin's name as authority for the slander1 brought an action against him4 ,before it could be brought into ,court1 however1 ,mr ,capper died4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the ,december of the same year1 during the hearing of the proceedings in the ,razor libel case1 the counsel for the defendant ,brooks asked ,mr ,bradlaugh1 in cross-examination1 ,did you not once at a public lecture take out your watch and defy the ,deity1 if he had an existence1 to strike you dead in a certain number of minutes8 ,never4 ,such a suggestion is utterly unjustifiable1 was my father's indignant answer4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the winter of #ahfi1 the ,rev4 ,p4 ,r4 ,jones1 ,m4,a41 of ,trinity ,church1 ,huddersfield1 added the weight of his authority to the slander4 ,the municipal elections were about to take place1 and the cry of infidel had been raised against one of the candidates for the ,west ,ward4 ,hence1 on the ,sunday immediately before the election1 ,mr ,jones preached a sermon against infidels and infidelity1 and1 as an apt illustration of his subject1 he charged ,mr ,bradlaugh with the watch episode4 ,when this came to the ears of the ,huddersfield ,secular ,society1 they lost no time in writing to ask ,mr ,jones whether he had indeed made such a statement concerning ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,this1 said the ,huddersfield ,examiner1 the reverend gentleman had not the manliness to admit 444 nor even the courtesy to acknowledge the receipt of the secretary's letter4 ,the ,committee of the local ,secular ,society waited for seven days1 and then appointed a deputation to wait upon the ,rev4 ,mr ,jones4 ,the editor of the ,examiner observed that the explanation then given by that gentleman was not very satisfactory1 and ,i do not wonder he was so tardy about making it4 ,he had heard the absurd story some years ago1 but the person who told it to him had left ,huddersfield2 and on such slender authority as this he brought a charge of using senseless and blasphemous words against ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,the ,rev4 ,p4 ,r4 ,jones1 ,m4,a41 in the course of his duties must have preached obedience to the ninth commandment1 but he evidently did not always enforce his teachings by a personal example4 99 99 99 99 99 ,just about the same time another clergyman1 the ,rev4 ,dr ,harrison of ,st ,james's ,church1 ,latchford1 in a sermon preached upon that favourite but not very polite text1 ,the fool hath said in his heart1 ,there is no ,god1 was reported#ca to have told the story1 with a slight variation1 of some unnamed person4 ,footnote #ca3 ,crewe ,guardian4 ,what did they think of a man at ,manchester1 he asked1 standing up at a public assembly and opening the ,bible in the presence of the people1 and saying if the ,bible was true he hoped ,god would strike him dead8 ,that was in the newspapers not long ago4 ,a creature1 a worm1 a being dependent upon the ,almighty1 raising his puny arm against the ,deity1 asking ,god to strike him dead if the ,bible were true4 ,it would not have been a wonder if ,god had struck him dead2 the wonder was that ,god should be so merciful as to let him live4 ,when the ,rev4 ,dr ,harrison was challenged as to the name of the man1 the time1 and place of the occurrence1 and the names of the newspapers which reported it1 he could of course give no satisfactory authority for his statements4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the summer of #ahgj the ,christian1 in a tirade against infidelity1 stated that the well-known ,atheist ,bradlaugh1 at a public meeting in ,london1 is reported to have taken out his watch1 with these words1 ',if there be a ,god in heaven1 ,i give ,him five minutes to strike me dead4' ,upon this being brought under his notice1 my father said that he was really weary with contradicting this monstrous lie4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the ,liverpool ,porcupine in the same year gave a startling variation on the ordinary version4 ,a certain unnamed person--by implication1 ,mr ,bradlaugh--called on the ,almighty1 if he had any existence1 to strike dead some relative1 and thus prove his power4 ,the ,porcupine forgot that it is the ,christian creed which teaches the doctrine of the scapegoat1 and even the sacrifice of a relative4 ,it forms no part whatever of ,atheistic teachings4 ,the ,rev4 ,r4 ,s4 ,cathcart1 agent to the ,religious ,tract ,society1 in addressing a meeting in the ,corn ,exchange1 ,gloucester1 in the autumn of #ahga1 lamented the spread of infidelity in the north of ,england1 where1 he said1 it was encouraged by a blatant orator1 ,bradlaugh1 from ,london4 ,he added that there was even one poor benighted woman who had actually produced her watch and challenged ,god1 if1 she said1 there be one1 to appear before them on the platform at a given time4 ,mr ,cathcart1 on being asked as to the when1 and where1 and the woman1 failed to make reply4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the next carrier of the slander was an important one4 ,the ,financial ,reformer for the ,december of the same year 7#ahga7 described ,mr ,bradlaugh as the superenlightened gentleman who pulled out his watch at an open-air meeting and challenged ,almighty ,god to strike him dead within five minutes1 if ,god there were4 ,my father was becoming somewhat accustomed to having this accusation made by persons who wished to make out a case against the infidel1 but to find it in the ,financial ,reformer was an unexpected blow4 ,he wrote a courteous letter to the editor1 but the editor made no reply2 he wrote to ,mr ,robertson ,gladstone1 the president of the council publishing the paper1 but ,mr ,robertson ,gladstone left the letter without notice4 ,at length1 thoroughly angry1 he wrote to the printers1 threatening legal proceedings4 ,a proof of an apology already in type was sent him1 but it was not such as he felt he could accept1 and he wrote to the printer to that effect4 ,the apology was then somewhat amended1 and with the copy of the ,financial ,reformer containing it the editor sent a letter to ,mr ,bradlaugh1 conveying a frank and full expression of his regret4 ,upon receiving this my father forgave not only the offence1 but the tardiness of the acknowledgment1 and1 moreover1 expressed his sense of indebtedness to the editor for his apology4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the ,stourbridge ,observer of about the same date also repeated the watch story of ,bradlaugh1 and1 with incredible coarseness1 added that he has been known on another occasion to stop a lame man in the streets1 and tell him that he would spit upon such a ,god as his that would allow him to remain in that deplorable condition4 ,mr ,bradlaugh1 at the request of his ,stourbridge friends1 specifically contradicted both these stories2 but1 he added1 it was too much to expect him to continually contradict every scandalous calumny to which the press gave ready circulation against him4 99 99 99 99 99 ,one of the next places in which the story appeared was ,dudley1 where1 in the winter of #ahgc1 during my father's absence in ,america1 it was related by the ,rev4 ,b4 ,m4 ,kitson1 who apparently introduced it into a speech for the benefit of the ,additional ,curates' ,aid ,society4 ,he located the episode at the ,hall of ,science in ,old ,street1 ,city ,road4 ,as soon as ,mr ,bradlaugh could obtain the reverend gentleman's address after his return to ,england1 he wrote requesting ,mr ,kitson to retract1 or to furnish him with the name of his solicitor4 ,mr ,kitson retracted the statement1 and expressed his regret for having made it4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the spring of #ahgd1 the ,rev4 ,mr ,herring related the tale to some school children at a school near ,goswell ,road1 and in the following ,august the ,rev4 ,edgar ,n4 ,thwaites1 of the ,church ,pastoral ,aid ,society1 carried it to ,salisbury4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a month later1 the ,weekly ,news1 in referring to the ,northampton election1 remarked that ,northampton was specially prominent1 because ,mr ,bradlaugh1 the ,radical orator who challenged the ,almighty to strike him dead1 has appeared in person4 ,anything is fair in war or elections1 some people seem to think4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in the following year the ,rev4 ,mr ,cripps1 of the ,primitive ,methodist ,chapel1 ,thetford1 started a new variation on the old theme4 ,at the end of one of ,mr ,bradlaugh's lectures1 a smith fresh from work1 induced him to go down on one knee 7the narrator was extremely precise in unimportant details7 and proposed that they should pray to ,god to strike him dead in five minutes4 ,this proposal seems to have somewhat disturbed ,mr ,bradlaugh1 for according to ,mr ,cripps1 he jumped up1 picked up his hat1 and rushed out of the building4 ,the ,rev4 ,mr ,cripps1 on being challenged by ,mr ,bradlaugh1 referred him to another minister as his authority--the ,rev4 ,m4 ,normandale1 of ,downham ,market1 ,norfolk2 and1 moreover1 refusing to accept ,mr ,bradlaugh's unsupported denial1 adhered to his statement4 ,the next person to repeat the watch story--but without naming the infidel--was1 ,i deeply regret to say1 the ,rev4 ,basil ,wilberforce1 at ,southampton4 ,the local ,freethinkers were justly indignant1 and ,mr ,j4 ,f4 ,rayner1 the ,secretary of the ,southampton ,secular ,society1 at once flatly contradicted the tale4 ,the only reparation ,mr ,wilberforce thought it necessary to make was to say that he was glad to hear it was not true1 and this offhand mode of disposing of the matter did not do much to soothe the irritated feeling of the ,southampton ,freethinkers4 ,the liberality and kindly-heartedness of the late ,rev4 ,c4 ,e4 ,steward1 ,vicar of ,st ,peter's1 in great measure disarmed their anger2 and later on ,canon ,wilberforce himself learned to hold the ,freethinkers of the district1 as well as ,mr ,bradlaugh1 in respect1 and in consequence taught them in turn to respect him4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a man at ,longton in #ahgf1 whose name ,i do not know1 brought the story to a finer point4 ,hitherto it had always been told on the authority of some second person1 but this man appears to have deliberately stated that he saw ,mr ,bradlaugh pull out his watch1 and heard him defy ,god to strike him dead4 ,this manner of telling the tale in the first person soon found favour1 for only a few months later a phrenologist1 calling himself ,professor ,pasquil1 was reported to have said that he was present at ,huddersfield when ,mr ,bradlaugh went through the performance before several hundred persons4 ,he must have the bump of falsehood splendidly developed1 commented ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,no such event1 or anything to justify it1 ever took place anywhere2 it is a deliberate untruth4 ,the myth was repeated in the same year at ,haughley by a ,mr ,scarff1 and in the following year at ,bristol1 where there seemed to be some confusion as to whether it was ,mr ,bradlaugh or ,mrs ,besant who was the chief actor2 ,mrs ,besant's name being now introduced for the first time4 ,this story is a deliberate lie1 wrote my father in a state of exasperation1 and has been formally contradicted at least one hundred times4 99 99 99 99 99 ,at length1 in the spring of #ahgg1 the ,rev4 ,dr ,parker1 of the ,city ,temple1 took the matter into his fostering charge4 ,it left his lips1 if the report#cb of his sermon is to be believed1 in a form the coarseness of which quite equalled1 if it did not transcend1 all that had gone before4 ,said he-- ,there is a woman going up and down the country lecturing1 and may be in ,london city at this moment1 and she proudly cries out that there is no ,god1 and she takes out her watch and says1 ',now1 if there be a ,god1 ,i give him five minutes to strike me dead1' and she coolly stands watching the hand of her watch dial1 and because she is not struck dead by the time she stipulates1 she cries out that there is no ,god2 and working men run after this woman1 and pay for listening to this ginger-beer blasphemy1 and the ravings of a half-drunken woman4 ,footnote #cb3 ,northern ,ensign1 ,may #ag4 ,mr ,bradlaugh offered ,dr ,parker the use of the columns of the ,national ,reformer in which to verify his statement1 but1 needless to say1 ,dr ,parker did not avail himself of this offer4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in #ahgh the fable was told by ,h4 ,clewarth1 ,esq41 at the ,mile ,end ,assembly ,hall1 of ,mrs ,besant1 and by a revivalist preacher named ,e4 ,b4 ,telford of ,mrs ,harriet ,law4 ,mr ,telford also indulged in the effective first person1 even mentioning the detail that the watch was a gold one4#cc ,footnote #cc3 ,this person was still telling this story in ,december #ahhc4 99 99 99 99 99 ,now we come to a still further development4 ,in ,june #ahgi1 ,mr ,bradlaugh was lecturing in ,huddersfield4 ,he spoke three times on the ,sunday1 and at the conclusion of his afternoon discourse a man got up1 and with the utmost assurance pretended to my father's face that he had heard him defy ,god to strike him dead in the ,philosophical ,hall of ,huddersfield itself4 ,a ,christian gentleman1 understood to be the editor of the local ,examiner1 rose and warmly repudiated any complicity in this audacious falsehood4 ,almost at the same time the story1 with variations1 was repeated by a preacher of ,aberdeen named ,marr4 ,he gave as his authority a certain unknown person1 ,john ,kinch1 who1 it was asserted1 had been actually present when ,mr ,bradlaugh thus defied ,god4 ,i have been able to note here only recorded instances of the telling of this story1 but they will serve to show the astounding vitality of a slander1 even when it is one so monstrously absurd as this4 ,it will be seen how people of all kinds lent themselves to its circulation1 and how reluctant they were to apologise when convicted of error4 ,i am far from asserting that they all uttered the calumny knowing it to be a calumny2 that1 in the case of such a man as the ,rev4 ,basil ,wilberforce1 would be unthinkable2 but ,i do say that they did not take reasonable pains to satisfy themselves of the truth of a story which1 on the face of it1 was in the highest degree improbable and absurd4 99 99 99 99 99 ,when ,mr ,bradlaugh was elected to ,parliament in #ahhj the wildest tales were told about him1 and1 of course1 amongst others the old watch story came up4 ,a ,leicester paper which published it retracted and apologised2 but another1 the ,british ,empire1 was less ready2 my father1 provoked beyond endurance1 went to ,bow ,street and asked for a summons against ,s4 ,c4 ,lister1 a director1 and ,j4 ,edgcumbe 7or ,edgcome71 secretary to the ,british ,empire ,company4 ,edgcumbe was also the writer of the paragraph in which the episode was dramatically described4 ,mr ,bradlaugh would have proceeded against the author only1 but the libel was repeated in the paper on a later date1 and therefore he felt that he could not excuse the directors4 ,the summons was granted1 and when the case came before the magistrate1 after ,mr ,bradlaugh had made his opening statement1 he went into the witness-box to declare there was not a word of truth in the paragraph4 ,in the course of the cross-examination a rather amusing theological discussion arose between magistrate1 counsel1 and witness1 in which the two former seemed quite unable to follow ,mr ,bradlaugh's reasoning4 ,one existence1 ,mr ,vaughan thought1 must mean supreme existence2 failing that1 counsel asked was it mere actual physical existence8 ,my father was examined as to a number of places where the watch episode was alleged to have occurred1 and about a man1 ,john ,field1 then in court1 who1 induced by ,mr ,bradlaugh1 was supposed to have prayed on his knees to ,god to strike him 7,mr ,bradlaugh7 dead1 whilst my father timed him1 watch in hand4 ,when1 however1 ,john ,field1 who called himself a ,baptist minister1 was in the witness-box1 his replies were such that the magistrate said that he had better be withdrawn1 as he could not possibly receive his evidence4 ,a witness 7,bridge7 swore to having heard my father defy ,god in the manner alleged at ,tavistock in #ahec2 but at the adjourned hearing1 when he was wanted for cross-examination1 he was not to be found4 ,amongst the witnesses were three from ,northampton1 who all swore they had heard my father make the challenge at various times and places in ,northampton4 ,two had travelled to ,london together1 having their tickets taken for them by a local missionary2 but at first they swore they knew nothing of each other1 and the facts only came out gradually under cross-examination4 ,at the end of the second day's hearing the defendants were committed for trial4#cd ,mr ,vaughan suggested that the charge should be withdrawn against ,lister1 as he was only a director4 ,mr ,bradlaugh said1 if ,mr ,lister would give his assurance that he knew nothing of the first or subsequent publications of the libel1 he would be content to drop the charge against him4 ,mr ,lister protested that he knew nothing of the matter1 and ,mr ,bradlaugh was about to withdraw the charge when the defendants' counsel coolly asked that it should be dismissed with costs4 ,i imagine1 however1 that at a later stage my father consented to withdraw the case against ,lister1 for the name of ,edgcumbe only figures in the further proceedings4 ,footnote #cd3 ,the editor of the ,huddersfield ,examiner1 commenting on the evidence1 said3 ,we do not believe it1 as we do not think ,mr ,bradlaugh such a fool as to make such a silly exhibition of himself2 and because we know that similar things have been affirmed of him in ,huddersfield4 ,for instance1 a person called at our office last week1 stating that he had heard ,mr ,bradlaugh utter such a challenge1 and saw him pull out his watch in the manner stated in the course of the debate with the ,rev4 ,mr ,m',cann in ,huddersfield4 ,to our certain knowledge no such occurrence ever took place1 and yet the man making the statement appeared to be fully convinced that he had heard and seen what he described as having taken place1 and he was prepared to give evidence on the subject if called upon to do so4444 ,imagination and feeling play a much larger part than reason in the mental operations of not a few well-meaning persons and allowance must be made for this when we hear such charges as that now made against ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,strong dislike is felt by many against both the man and his opinions on religious subjects1 and this exposes him to misrepresentation and injustice4 ,the trial1 which was removed by the defendants by certiorari to the ,court of ,queen's ,bench1 was expected to take place at the end of ,june1 and1 since prosecutors in ,crown cases cannot personally address the jury or argue points of law1 my father had to employ solicitors 7,messrs ,lewis7 and counsel 7,mr ,charles ,russell1 ,q4,c41 ,m4,p41 and ,mr ,moloney72 ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard was briefed to appear for ,edgcumbe4 ,after some delays1 ,edgcumbe was ordered to deliver his pleas within a certain time1 so that the trial might come on in ,november4 ,in these pleadings the episode was alleged to have taken place at ,the ,philosophical ,hall1 ,huddersfield1 about #ahfj or #ahfa2 ,the ,theatre1 ,northampton1 #ahfj1 #ahfb1 #ahfc1 #ahfe1 or #ahff2 ,the ,woolpack ,inn1 ,northampton1 #ahei2 ,the ,corn ,exchange1 ,northampton1 #ahfe or #ahff2 ,the ,hall of ,science1 ,london1 #ahgi or #ahhj2 ,the ,cleveland ,hall1 ,london1 #ahfe or #ahff2 ,the ,nelson ,street ,lecture ,hall1 ,newcastle1 #ahge2 ,tavistock1 #ahec1 #ahed1 or #ahfj2 ,st ,george's ,hall1 ,southwark1 #ahfb or #ahfc2 ,st ,james' ,hall1 ,plymouth1 #ahgj2 ,duke of ,york ,public ,house1 ,cardiff1 #ahfh4 ,as the vagueness of these dates made it almost impossible to get rebutting evidence1 ,mr ,bradlaugh demurred to the plea on this ground1 and in ,march #ahha his demurrer was heard by ,mr ,justice ,grove and ,mr ,justice ,lindley4 ,mr ,moloney argued for ,mr ,bradlaugh that the plea was not sufficiently particular3 it was only necessary to prove one occasion to justify the libel1 hence evidence had to be brought to negative every case1 and ,mr ,justice ,grove1 intervening1 said1 ,if this plea is good1 what is to prevent a party from pleading a volume of instances all possibly untrue1 and at all events putting it upon the prosecutor to discover the particular instance really intended to be relied upon8 ,sir ,h4 ,giffard argued that the plea was sufficient1 but the ,court did not agree with him4 ,it held that the plea was bad1 and ,mr ,justice ,lindley further said it was embarrassing and unfair4 ,after some discussion the ,court gave the defendant leave to amend within three weeks on payment of costs2 otherwise judgment would be given for the ,crown4 ,edgcumbe now gave a series of more or less specific dates on which he alleged that ,mr ,bradlaugh had defied ,god4 ,he also abandoned five of his former cases and introduced new ones at ,bristol1 ,keighley1 ,leeds1 and ,stourbridge4 ,he further stated that on two occasions1 at the theatre at ,northampton1 ,mr ,bradlaugh had cast a ,bible upon the ground and stamped upon it4 ,my father was put to tremendous trouble in procuring witnesses from the different places1 but he received help which he greatly appreciated from unexpected quarters--from ,christians who had been present on some of the alleged occasions4 ,when1 however1 the time came1 the defendant did not proceed to trial1 as he was bound to under his recognisances4 ,my father might have taken proceedings to estreat the recognisances2 but as the ,british ,empire had ceased to exist1 and the editor had already been heavily fined by having to pay the costs of the demurrer1 he was advised to let the matter rest4 ,this course he was perhaps the more inclined to1 as he was himself so terribly harassed by the litigation and trouble arising out of the ,parliamentary struggle4 ,he was rewarded for his forbearance by having the watch story again repeated of him--notably by ,mr ,grantham1 ,q4,c41 ,m4,p41#ce--with the addition that he had not dared to go on with his action4 ,footnote #ce3 ,at ,selhurst1 in ,june #ahhe4 ,note4--,where exact references are not given in this chapter1 the ,national ,reformer is cited4 ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,,other ,,fables4 ,there are other fables told about my father which have enjoyed a popularity almost equal to that of the famous watch episode4 ,there is the allegation--referred to elsewhere--that he compared ,god with a monkey with three tails4 ,this was started by the ,saturday ,review in #ahfg1 and was for years continually reappearing in all sorts of unexpected quarters4 ,indeed1 it was repeated as late as #ahic in a book published by ,messrs ,macmillan4#cf ,perhaps next in order should come two1 which have seen considerable service as arguments in favour of ,christianity4 ,one1 which ,i will call the cob of coal story1 appeared for the first time1 as far as ,i am aware1 in a ,leeds paper in #ahgj in the following form3-- ,some time ago ,i heard an amusing story about ,mr ,bradlaugh and one of his audience at ,wigan4 ,after concluding his lecture1 ,mr ,bradlaugh called upon any of them to reply to any of his arguments4 ,lancashire produces a rare crop of shrewd1 intelligent working men1 and one of these1 a collier1 rose and spoke somewhat as follows3 ',maister ,bradlaugh1 me and my mate ,jim were both ,methodys till one of these infidel chaps cam' this way4 ,jim turned infidel1 and used to badger me about attending class-meetings and prayer-meetings1 but one day in the pit a large cob of coal came down on ,jim's 'yead4' ,jim thought he was killed1 and ah6 man1 but he did holler4' ,then turning to ,mr ,bradlaugh1 with a very whimsical1 knowing look1 he said1 ',young man1 there's nowt like cobs of coal for knocking infidelity out of a man4' ,we need hardly say that the collier carried the audience with him4 ,footnote #cf3 ,national ,life and ,character1 by ,c4 ,h4 ,pearson4 ,this was copied into some ,london papers1 and in the course of a couple of years found its way to ,belfast2 but the scene of action had now become changed from ,wigan to ,manchester4 ,two years later still it appeared at ,hereford1 under the auspices of the ,rev4 ,j4 ,w4 ,bardsley4 ,the some time ago of #ahgj had contracted to recently by #ahgd1 and there were other small alterations of detail4 ,by #ahhb1 my father said he had contradicted this anecdote fifty times at least4 ,it never had the slightest foundation in fact2 it is unadulterated fiction from beginning to end2 it is absurdly improbable2 and yet there are people so credulous that it has been repeated year after year1 and even since my father's death4 ,indeed1 the more childish this class of story1 the better it has seemed to satisfy those to whom it was addressed--at least1 if we may judge of its success by the number of its repetitions4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the next is the old woman anecdote1 which ,i find first in the ,christian ,age for ,november #ahga1 put in this way3-- ,the other day ,mr ,bradlaugh was lecturing in a village in the north of ,england1 and at the close he challenged discussion4 ,who should accept the challenge but an old1 bent woman1 in most antiquated attire1 who went up to the lecturer and said1 ',sir1 ,i have a question to put to you4' ',well1 my good woman1 what is it8' ',ten years ago1' she said1 ',i was left a widow with eight children utterly unprovided for1 and nothing to call my own but this ,bible4 ,by its direction1 and looking to ,god for strength1 ,i have been enabled to feed myself and family4 ,i am now tottering to the grave2 but ,i am perfectly happy1 because ,i look forward to a life of immortality with ,jesus in heaven4 ,that's what my religion has done for me3 what has your way of thinking done for you8' ',well1 my good lady1' rejoined the lecturer1 ',i don't want to disturb your comfort1 but--' ',oh6 that's not the question1' interrupted the woman1 'keep to the point1 sir2 what has your way of thinking done for you8' ,the infidel endeavoured to shirk the matter again2 the feeling of the meeting gave vent to uproarious applause1 and ,mr ,bradlaugh had to go away discomfited by an old woman4 ,this pious fiction is said to have originated with the ,rev4 ,mr ,bradbury1 of ,openshaw1 in the early part of #ahga2 but then it was ,mr ,charles ,watts who was the discomfited infidel1 and not ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,from the ,christian ,age the story was passed on1 evidently without the slightest examination or care for its accuracy4 ,in #ahgb it was repeated in large type by the ,methodist ,visitor1 word for word1 the other day included4 ,mr ,bradlaugh contradicted this idiotic story again and again2 no such incident ever occurred at any of his lectures4 ,in spite of all contradiction1 however1 the old woman remained as lively as ever1 and my father was confronted with her year after year1 until ,i almost wonder he had patience left to write a civil denial of her existence4 99 99 99 99 99 ,an anecdote1 reported#cg to have been told by the ,rev4 ,h4 ,w4 ,webb-,peploe at a meeting of the ,bible ,society at ,stroud in #ahge1 has at least the merit of being amusing1 and certainly came as news to no one more than to the persons chiefly concerned4 ,it was said that ,spurgeon went to ,bradlaugh's ,hall to reply to the ,infidel1 and to that end read two or three texts from the ,scriptures4444 ,this seems to have astonished ,bradlaugh1 for he arose1 and as he went out of the room1 he said1 ',what the devil is to be done with that man8 he is in earnest4' ,if the ,rev4 ,charles ,spurgeon ever1 by any chance1 did go to ,bradlaugh's ,hall1 he carefully concealed his visit from ,bradlaugh4 ,footnote #cg3 ,stroud ,news1 ,may #bh4 99 99 99 99 99 ,fictions concerning my father's treatment of various members of his family have been very common4 ,by a painful coincidence1 my little brother had only been a few days in his grave when my father was asked to contradict a statement that he had about twelve months ago deserted his wife and children4 ,six months after1 the story ran that he had caused his mother to die of a broken heart1 had been drummed out of the army1 and was a man whose morality is of no higher stamp than to suffer himself to be the father of an illegitimate child4 ,it is an interesting point in the study of the evolution of slanders1 that this most persistent one of ,mr ,bradlaugh having caused his mother to die of a broken heart should have been started during his mother's lifetime4#ch ,the allegation of deserting his children1 and throwing them upon the parish1 was published by ,mr ,edmund ,yates in the ,world in #ahge4 ,a little later ,mr ,yates announced that ,mr ,bradlaugh had written him contradicting this1 and suggesting that if on inquiry ,mr ,yates found his allegation untrue1 he should contribute #e to the ,masonic ,boys' ,school4 ,the editor of the ,world formally expressed his regret1 unreservedly withdrew his accusation1 and contributed the #e4 ,the suggestion was really the result of the intervention of a mutual friend1 as ,mr ,yates himself acknowledged in #ahia1 at the same time admitting that the paragraph complained of would have afforded ,mr ,bradlaugh ample grounds for appealing to the law1 with the likelihood of recovering a large amount in damages4 ,footnote #ch3 ,mrs ,bradlaugh died in ,april #ahga4 ,but the slander thus floated by the ,world could not be effaced from the public mind1 even by ,mr ,yates' unreserved withdrawal1 and later in the same year it turned up in full vigour at ,oxford4 ,a ,mr ,bendall went to the shop of a grocer and town councillor named ,laker to make some purchases1 and in the course of conversation he mentioned that he was going to ,london4 ,mr ,laker asked if he was going to hear ,moody and ,sankey1 but ,mr ,bendall said that he was not2 he was going to hear ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,the man ,laker then said1 ,bradlaugh6 he was had up for neglecting his family1 and leaving them chargeable to the ,union4 ,i read it in the ,daily ,telegraph4 ,mr ,bendall denied this1 and bet ,laker #ej to #es4 that it was not true4 ,laker took the bet1 and ,mr ,bendall then wrote out the statement1 which they both signed4 ,the paper was sent to ,mr ,bradlaugh1 who eventually brought an action against ,mr ,laker4#ci ,footnote #ci3 ,tried #beth ,april #ahgf at ,nisi ,prius1 before ,mr ,justice ,field and a special jury4 ,the defendant pleaded ,not guilty1 but did not attempt to justify his statement or to offer any apology1 although ,mr ,bradlaugh said that1 if during the course of the trial an apology had been offered1 he should have been quite content4 ,mr ,grantham1 the counsel for the defence1 was very coarse in his remarks4 ,he scouted the idea that ,bradlaugh could be injured by any slander1 and told the jury that1 if they did give him a verdict1 a farthing damages would be far too much at which to estimate the damage ,bradlaugh had sustained4 ,as usual1 an endeavour was made to play upon the religious feelings of the jury1 and when ,mr ,bendall was in the witness-box he was questioned as to his belief in ,christianity1 the ,bible1 and ,jesus ,christ1 until ,mr ,justice ,field1 who heard the case1 interfered and reproved the counsel for importing these questions into the case4 ,mr ,grantham suggested the whole thing was a plant1 but this accusation1 the judge later on pointed out1 might rightfully increase the damages awarded4 ,mr ,justice ,field1 in summing up1 complimented ,mr ,bradlaugh on the temperate manner in which he had stated his case1 and warned the jury not to allow their judgments to be warped by topics of prejudice which had been introduced into the defendant's case4 ,the jury returned a verdict for ,mr ,bradlaugh1 with #dj damages1 which my father at once handed over to a charity4 ,but even this did not quite kill the slander1 and a few years later it began again to show signs of life4 99 99 99 99 99 ,there was no limit of any kind to the fictions circulated about my father1 nothing was too vile1 nothing too absurd1 and nothing too wildly impossible to say about him4 ,as an example of the last1 ,i think it would be difficult to find anything to compare with one written by the ,london correspondent of the ,new ,york ,herald1 during the illness of the ,prince of ,wales from typhoid fever4 ,i discovered an allusion to this story in looking over a file of the ,newcastle ,weekly ,chronicle for #ahgb2 reference was made to the ,pall ,mall ,gazette1 from which ,i learned that the ,london correspondent of the ,new ,york ,herald professed that he had been informed by a mysterious person well posted as to the doing of the different ,european ,secret ,societies1 that a certain leader of the ,english ,revolutionists whom he designated ',the ,english ,delescluze1' has over and over again declared from public platforms that the ,prince should never sit on the throne1 and that lately1 when ,queen ,victoria was seriously ill1 the same man had said in an interview with the reporter for a ,london paper1 that although the event of the ,sovereign's death occurring just then would without any doubt find the ,society not quite prepared to act1 yet that they could never lose such an opportunity to advance their cause4 ,this1 commented the ,pall ,mall ,gazette1 is1 of course1 an atrocious libel on ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,the poison1 continued the informant to his gaping listener1 the ,herald's ,london correspondent1 was a new and most subtle one4 ,how the ,prince was actually dosed he did not pretend to know4 ,the emissary of the ,international charged with the execution of the sentence of death was left to himself1 and was simply bidden to take as few innocent lives in carrying it out as possible2 but it was suggested to him to mix the poison with the contents of the ,prince's pocket flask1 and this it was probable he had succeeded in doing4 ,this marvellous story was received in ,england with the condemnation and ridicule it deserved1 and ,i only give it here now to show to what lengths prejudice and a disordered imagination will lead a man4 ,i suppose it is only in the natural course of things that an ,irish paper#dj should have the funniest story1 and one too that seems really original4 ,this journal discovered that in the summer1 when ,republican agitation was slack1 ,mr ,bradlaugh took up the more useful--if less profitable--occupation of a bagman4 ,presumably this was intended to be severely sarcastic2 it was only ridiculous and untrue4 ,footnote #dj3 ,belfast ,times1 ,april #h1 #ahgb4 ,at intervals throughout my father's career he has1 of course1 been constantly accused of being in the pay of some one or other4 ,this kind of accusation is common to most public men1 so it was not likely that he would escape4 ,in #ahgb1 when it was asserted that ,bradlaugh and ,odger were sold to ,gladstone and ,morley1 the ,saturday ,review thought it no shame to suggest that perhaps after all there is some truth in the story4#da ,a few months before1 said my father1 it was ,bradlaugh was sold to the ,tories1 now it is the ,whigs who have made the purchase2 and he mockingly regretted that neither party have even paid a deposit4 ,at other times he was charged with being in the pay of the ,prince ,napoleon1 of the ,commune1 of ,sir ,charles ,dilke1 of the ,carlists1 and1 last of all1 in that of the ,maharajah of ,cashmere4 ,this was so much believed in1 that a gentleman belonging to a prominent ,liberal ,club actually told me that it was a good thing my father died poor and in debt1 as it1 at least1 discredited that rumour4 ,footnote #da3 ,saturday ,review1 ,september #ad1 #ahgb4 ,i do not profess to have by any means exhausted the list of fables associated with ,mr ,bradlaugh's name4 ,i have merely taken a few of the more persistent or more remarkable as examples of the whole4 99 99 99 99 99 ,to expose the misstatements and the travesties of ,mr ,bradlaugh's opinions would require a whole volume4 ,what he thought and what he taught on theological1 political1 and social questions will be found in his own writings1 and his own words must necessarily be the most effective contradiction or confirmation of the hearsays of prejudice4 ,,chapter ,x4 ,,peace ,,demonstrations1 #ahgh4 ,during the ,russo-,turkish ,war great anxiety was shown by the ,tories to drag ,england into the struggle2 war songs were sung in the music halls2 the old hatred of ,russia was fanned into a blaze1 and the new love of ,turkey nourished into some sort of enthusiasm4 ,the ,jingo fever ran high1 and the more peacefully-disposed seemed quite overwhelmed by the noise and clamour of the war party4 ,some of the working men of ,london1 however1 determined to make a public protest in favour of peace1 and against those who were seeking to increase the burdens of the nation at a time when there were people dying of starvation in ,wales1 in ,sheffield1 and in the ,forest of ,dean4 ,a meeting was consequently held on the afternoon of ,february #bdth1 in ,hyde ,park1 in response to a general appeal made by the ,hon4 ,auberon ,herbert1 ,mr ,ackrill1 and ,mr ,bradlaugh on behalf of the working men's committee to the working men of the metropolis to resist the effort then being made to drag the country into an ,eastern war4 ,there had been so much rowdyism at former meetings on this subject1 that it was resolved to enrol a special force to prevent this one from being broken up by ruffianism4 ,mr ,bradlaugh's special contingent was to consist of fifty marshals and five hundred deputy marshals1 who wore his ,northampton colours1 and were furnished with wands of office4 ,it was not thought right to ask unarmed men to confront the brutality of the war-at-any-price men1 who came armed with all manner of weapons2 yet it was not desired to provoke an attack by any show of force1 so after some deliberation it was decided that the marshals should be armed with short staves similar to the constables' truncheon4 ,these the men were instructed to keep concealed1 unless they were required for purposes of defence4 ,mr ,herbert's special adherents were similarly armed1 and wore a green favour4 ,fearing a fight1 my father would not allow us to go with him to the meeting1 and would not be happy about our going at all1 until we had promised not to get into the crowd4 ,so we went to the ,park early to watch the great masses of men gathering quietly together1 with neither bands1 banners1 nor procession1 unless the clubs coming up in bodies could be called coming in procession4 ,the mauve1 white1 and green rosettes--which we with a committee of ladies had so lately made--were soon conspicuous by their number2 above them were smiling holiday faces1 while below lay the formidable staves which we had helped to serve out that very morning1 but of which not a sign could be seen1 although we1 who knew they were there1 looked attentively for them4 ,the platform was set up1 surrounded by a ring of men with locked arms three or four deep4 ,by and by groups of young men passed us armed with sticks1 long and thick2 these joined together in gangs1 and amused themselves by making a series of brutal rushes1 after the stupid aimless fashion of the roughs on ,lord ,mayor's ,day4 ,but these medical students--for the hospitals had been whipped up to turn out in aid of the ,tory and the ,turk--unlike their honoured exemplars1 deliberately intended to injure4 ,the meeting was tremendous1 orderly and quiet at first1 and the applause which greeted ,mr ,herbert when he rose to preside showed that the majority were favourable to peace4 ,every facility had been given to the war-party to move an amendment2 every courtesy had been shown them1 and everything possible done to avoid a pretext for disturbance4 ,but no pretext was necessary4 ,mr ,herbert had barely begun to speak when an attack was made simultaneously on three sides of the ring2 sticks flashed in the air1 and staff replied to stick with such energy that the attack on two sides was repelled2 that at the back1 however1 was successful1 the ring was broken through1 and the platform destroyed4 ,in spite of all this1 ,mr ,bradlaugh succeeded in putting the resolution1 and all those within hearing voted for it2 but the tumult was so great that it was impossible to guess how much was heard or understood4 ,my sister and ,i stood by the water breathlessly watching a dense mass of men with sticks in air struggling slowly towards the gate1 feeling sure that ,mr ,bradlaugh must be the centre of a great a display of enmity2 and people even cried to us1 ,your father is there4 ,he will be killed6 he will be killed6 ,and while we were watching1 we ourselves nearly became involved in a rush of the war-party from another direction4 ,frantic cries of ,duck him6 ,the water6 ,duck him6 made us glance round1 and we found we had only just time to escape4 ,when we had reached a place of safety1 and were able to look round again1 the fighting mass was broken up2 and learning from some one1 whom my father had told to seek us1 that he was unhurt and had gone home1 we also hastened to make the best of our way back4 ,we learned that none of our own friends were seriously hurt2 and the hearty and repeated bursts of cheering at my father's appearance where he lectured that night marked the relief felt at seeing him safe and unhurt4 ,mr ,bradlaugh had held many meetings in ,hyde ,park1 but he had never had one broken up4 ,he had had a magnificent gathering in #ahge to protest against the grant of #adb1jjj to the ,prince of ,wales for his journey to ,india1 but all had been quiet and orderly4 ,now1 neither he nor those with whom he was acting liked the idea of their demonstration for peace ending in this way1 so it was determined to make another attempt4 ,the war party1 however1 who stood at nothing1 determined to break up this meeting also4 ,an assault upon the leaders of the ,peace movement was deliberately planned1 and ,mr ,bradlaugh afterwards obtained the names of certain ,tories who had paid and instigated the assailants4 ,on this occasion--,sunday1 the #ajth of ,march--no attempt was made to set up a proper platform1 but there were human volunteers for a living one--no light matter when it came to bearing a man of ,mr ,bradlaugh's inches4 ,mr ,herbert briefly stated the object of the meeting1 and called upon my father to move the resolution1 and from the shoulders of his living platform he moved that the meeting declares in favour of peace1 and the resolution was forthwith seconded1 formally put1 and voted upon with but few dissentients4 ,so far all was well1 and the meeting was dissolved4 ,upon this1 however1 there immediately began a series of regularly-organised attacks by paid roughs1 militia-men1 medical students1 and gentlemen4 ,armed with sticks1 pieces of twisted gas-piping1 sharpened iron1 loaded bludgeons1 and other weapons1 they were a truly gallant company4 ,some of the defending staves were ominously cut and dug into by the sharp and pointed instruments used by the attacking party4 ,for a few minutes the fighting was severe2 my father for an instant was taken off his feet in the struggle1 and his upraised arm caught the murderous rain of blows intended for his head4 ,up again almost at once1 and having the fight thus forced upon him1 he struck five blows in reply1 which were said to have sent as many men to ,st ,george's ,hospital4 ,those were the only blows he struck that day1 the rest of the time he merely warded off any aimed at himself4 ,one man attacked his head with some sharp iron instrument fastened to a long stick1 which cut his silk hat through from crown to rim4 ,a brave little party of swells attacked him at the back1 but these were attended to by his working-men friends4 ,this assault by the war party was as wanton as it was vicious1 because the meeting was over1 and had already began to quietly disperse4 ,a few weeks later stories were current that ,mr ,bradlaugh's staff was taken from him by a young man half his size2 and a couple of ,scotch papers seriously reported that he had had to pay #gb1 #aas4 for breaking the head of another young man4 ,he never heard of any one who had persuaded a court to value his broken head even at the odd #aas42 and as for the staff1 ,mr ,bradlaugh gave it to us after the meetings1 and ,i have it now1 together with a number of torn ,jingo flags and broken ,jingo sticks that were brought to us as trophies of the fight4 ,the blows showered down upon ,mr ,bradlaugh's arm had injured it very severely2 a dangerous attack of erysipelas set in2 he was very ill1 and for sixteen days he was confined to the house4 ,even then he went to the ,old ,bailey in ,mr ,truelove's case before he ought to have gone out4 ,he was ill and depressed2 the nation seemed so eager for war2 the wanton ferocity exhibited and encouraged in ,hyde ,park in the cause of war made him for the moment almost hopeless4 ,he looked on in sadness while the people suffer a ,tory ,government to create the possibilities of debt1 dishonour1 and disgraceful defeat1 or still more disgraceful victory2 and once more he raised his personal protest in favour of peace4 ,although1 as matters fell out1 we did not go to war1 we nevertheless decided upon having the pleasure of paying for it4 ,as it was aptly put1 the game as determined upon by ,lord ,beaconsfield was ,pay first2 fight next2 afterwards1 if you have time1 you can fix upon the object to be attained4 ,,chapter ,,xi4 ,,the ,,national ,,secular ,,society4 ,i am now closely approaching the end of my task1 and as yet ,i have only mentioned the ,national ,secular ,society incidentally4 ,to leave it without further notice would be doing scant justice both to my father and to the association with which he worked so actively1 and with which his name must ever remain connected1 whatever its future history may be4 ,the ,national ,secular ,society has sometimes been confounded with the ,london ,secular ,society1 of which ,mr ,george ,jacob ,holyoake and ,mr ,bradlaugh were successively presidents2 but that was merely a ,london ,society1 and not a general association4 ,indeed1 ,i believe there had never been any general association of the ,freethinkers of ,great ,britain until #ahff1 when it was felt that some endeavour should be made to organise them4 ,there were local secular ,societies all over the kingdom1 there were isolated ,freethinkers to be found everywhere1 but hitherto there had been no attempt to unite them into one general federation4 ,without organisation much propagandist work had been done3 in a single year1 for instance1 #bej1jjj tracts were distributed2 with organisation it was believed that much more might be accomplished4 ,but propaganda was by no means the only object to be gained by uniting ,freethinkers in one general society4 ,in ,september a provisional programme for the proposed ,national ,secular ,society was put forward4 ,mr ,bradlaugh by consent assumed the office of ,president of the ,society until the first ,conference4 ,in the programme it was stated that the objects of the ,society would be3-- ,to form an ,association for mutual help for all the ,freethinkers of ,great ,britain4 ,to conduct in the ,united ,kingdom a more vigorous ,freethought propaganda1 especially in districts where ,freethinkers are few1 and ,freethought lectures rare4 ,to establish a fund for the assistance of aged or distressed ,freethinkers4 ,to promote ,parliamentary and other action in order to remove all disabilities on account of religious opinions4 ,to establish secular schools and adult instruction classes in connection with every local society having members enough to support such schools or classes4 ,the idea of a ,national ,society was well taken up1 and members were enrolled in all directions4 ,it was intended to hold a ,conference early in the following year1 but this was postponed1 partly on account of ,mr ,bradlaugh's ill-health1 and did not actually take place until the end of ,november1 when it was found that the ,society had made a very successful start in life--a success which was fully confirmed by the time the ,conference met again a year later4 ,a special ,lecturing ,fund was established in #ahfg1 and by the aid of this the accredited lecturers of the ,society went into places where the ,freethinkers were too poor and too few to themselves bear the whole expenses of a meeting2 and in this way towns and villages were visited by a ,freethought lecturer where before ,freethought was almost unheard of4 ,the provisional statement of the principles and objects of the ,society was very soon amended in some minor details1 and ten or twelve years later a ,revision ,committee was appointed and the rules newly stated4 ,in #ahfi the ,society brought out the first ,secular almanack ever published4 ,it was edited by ,charles ,bradlaugh and ,austin ,holyoake1 and met with an immediate and complete success1 transcending even the hopes of its promoters1 the first edition being sold out in one day4 ,this almanack has been continued without intermission until the present time4 ,at ,mr ,austin ,holyoake's death1 ,mr ,charles ,watts became co-editor with ,mr ,bradlaugh1 and in #ahgh he was superseded by ,mrs ,annie ,besant4 ,when ,mr ,bradlaugh resigned his office as ,president of the ,national ,secular ,society--in #ahij1 after his serious illness of the previous winter--the new ,president1 ,mr ,g4 ,w4 ,foote1 became editor of the almanack in conjunction with ,mr ,j4 ,m4 ,wheeler4 ,with the exception of the year #ahgb1 when ,mr ,arthur ,trevelyan1 ,j4,p41 was elected ,president1 ,mr ,bradlaugh held the chief office of the ,society from the time of its foundation until his resignation1 and it was always a source of immense pride to him that he was chosen representative of the ,freethinkers of ,great ,britain and ,ireland4 ,he laboured untiringly for the ,society2 not merely for the organisation as a whole1 but for the separate branches and for the individuals which comprised it4 ,during thirty years1 he said on the day he resigned1 ,i think ,i may say ,i have never refused any help to any branch that ,i thought was justified in asking for help4 ,he never held any paid office1 but on the contrary often paid money out of his own pocket for the purposes of the ,association4 ,he estimated that the sum he had earned and given in actual cash to the ,society and its branches during the time he was connected with it amounted to #cjjj4 ,the ,society1 on its side1 released him and ,mrs ,besant from a payment of #dbjdb due to it at the time of his resignation4 ,footnote #db3 ,at his death in #ahgi ,mr ,william ,thomson of ,montrose left #ajjj to ,mr ,bradlaugh as ,president of the ,national ,secular ,society1 which sum he was at liberty to invest in the ,freethought ,publishing ,company1 on condition that he paid the ,society #e a month while it lasted4 ,this he did regularly from #ahgi until ,february #ahij1 when the ,society generously released him from the remainder4 ,his yearly ,conference reports1 although they make no pretence at being detailed records1 are yet landmarks1 as it were1 of the work accomplished by the ,society2 his yearly ,conference speeches#dc often give the most vivid glimpses of himself1 of his pride in work accomplished1 and his aspirations for work yet undone4 ,often1 too1 their terse and moving language reveals the truest1 most unstudied eloquence4 ,footnote #dc3 ,see ,speeches by ,charles ,bradlaugh4 ,the ,national ,secular ,society proved itself an organisation of the utmost value1 not merely as a propagandist association1 but in all cases in any degree connected with the ,freethought movement where combined action was required4 ,when ,mrs ,besant was deprived of her child2 at the time of ,mr ,bradlaugh's ,parliamentary struggle1 with its countless phases2 during the prosecutions for blasphemy1 and on many other occasions1 meetings were held or petitions were got up simultaneously all over the country4 ,the members of the ,society were and are nearly all poor men and women2 but what they have lacked in riches they have made up in energy2 what they could not contribute in money1 they have given eagerly and cheerfully in work4 ,many people misconstrued ,mr ,bradlaugh's reason for resigning his office as ,president of the ,national ,secular ,society4 ,some said he made a choice between his ,freethought and his ,parliamentary work1 and selected the latter2 others said he had long been gradually subordinating his anti-theological work to his political work1 with a view to dropping the former2 others1 that his action was entirely due to a modification in his heretical opinions2 and others again said that he was not in harmony with the members of the ,society4 ,the truth was so obvious and so simple that all seemed loth to accept it1 and searched for complicated motives under the plain facts4 ,at the special ,conference summoned to receive his resignation1 ,mr ,bradlaugh gave his reasons in a voice which was low and faltering1 as much from the feelings which overcame him as from his recent illness4 ,with very slight break1 he said1 ,i have led in this movement for over thirty years--a fairly long period in any life4 ,i have been ,president of the ,society1 with the same slight break1 since the ,society began1 and ,i am very sorry1 very sorry1 to resign office this morning4 ,unfortunately1 while the work was never easy1 it has become much harder since #ahhj1 with the ,parliamentary struggle and the litigation in which the struggle involved me4 ,i have felt for the past three or four years--and ,i think ,i have conveyed that feeling to you in my annual speeches--that the pressure must sooner or later bring a breakdown4 ,last ,october that breakdown came1 and the wonder is that ,i am here to tender you my resignation at all4 ,i was then brought face to face with the difficulty that ,i could no longer do all the work ,i had done4444 ,no resource is then open to me but to resign4 ,some kind friends have suggested that ,i might hold the office nominally4444 ,but ,i could not do that2 ,i must be a real ,president or none4 ,my fault has been that ,i have sometimes been too real a one1 but it is no easy matter to lead such a voluntary movement as ours4444 ,i don't want to leave you4 ,i could not take any other office in the ,society after having been so long your ,president2 but if you thought it right to elect me a member for life1 ,i should be grateful to you for doing it4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in this statement from ,mr ,bradlaugh's own lips is contained the whole and sole reason for his resignation4 ,to be a real ,president of the ,national ,secular ,society involved the performance of a vast amount of labour1 the greater part of which was unrecognised and unseen4 ,this he felt had become beyond his powers2 it was not in him to bear the name and let others do the work2 in giving up the duties of his position he must also give up its honours4 ,only those who knew the pride he had always felt in holding this office of ,president of the associated ,freethinkers of the nation knew the pain it cost him to lay that office down4 ,,chapter ,,xii4 ,,the ,,last ,,chapter4 ,the year #ahhj saw the last of the long struggle in ,northampton and the beginning of that in the ,house of ,commons4 ,for twelve years my father fought prejudice and misrepresentation in ,northampton1 for six years longer he had to fight prejudice and misrepresentation in the ,house of ,commons4 ,but the shorter fight was the harder one2 it was carried on incessantly1 without the slightest intermission4 ,it was a terrible six years4 ,the litigation alone is something appalling2 in that time eight suits were begun and ended4 ,first there was the libel suit against ,edgcumbe1 which dragged on for more than a year1 and ended in nothing4 ,second came ,clarke v4 ,bradlaugh4 ,this was an action for penalties against ,mr ,bradlaugh for having sat and voted without taking the oath4 ,commenced in ,july #ahhj1 it came before the judges six times1 and was ultimately decided in favour of ,mr ,bradlaugh in ,april #ahhc4 ,third--,bradlaugh v4 ,newdegate4 ,an action for maintenance brought by ,mr ,bradlaugh against ,mr ,newdegate1 and decided in favour of the former in ,april #ahhc4 ,fourth--,the ,queen 7,sir ,henry ,tyler7 v4 ,bradlaugh1 ,foote1 and ,ramsey4 ,an action for blasphemy1 decided in ,mr ,bradlaugh's favour in ,april #ahhc4dd ,footnote #dd3 ,in the case against ,foote and ,ramsey the jury disagreed4 ,the prosecution then entered a nolle prosequi4 ,fifth--,bradlaugh v4 ,erskine4 ,an action against the ,deputy-,sergeant-at-,arms for assault1 in removing ,mr ,bradlaugh from the lobby of the ,house of ,commons on ,august #c1 #ahha4de ,commenced in ,april #ahhb1 this suit was decided against ,mr ,bradlaugh in ,january #ahhc4 ,in ,march the ,government enforced their claim for costs against him4 ,footnote #de3 ,mr ,bradlaugh applied for a summons against ,inspector ,denning1 but this application was refused4 ,sixth--,gurney v4 ,bradlaugh4 ,a suit entered upon by ,mr ,gurney of ,northampton1 to try the validity of the conduct of the majority of the ,house in preventing ,mr ,bradlaugh from taking the oath and his seat in the ,house4 ,mr ,justice ,mathew discharged the jury1 refusing to hear the case on the ground that it was a collusive action4 ,seventh--,bradlaugh v4 ,gossett4 ,in ,july #ahhc ,mr ,bradlaugh applied for an injunction to restrain the ,sergeant-at-,arms from using physical force to prevent him from entering the ,house4 ,decided against ,mr ,bradlaugh in the ,february of the following year4 ,eighth--,attorney-,general v4 ,bradlaugh4 ,an action for penalties against ,mr ,bradlaugh for having sat and voted without having subscribed the oath4 ,this case was heard at bar1 and judgment given for the ,attorney-,general4 ,this was appealed against1 and the matter settled in ,october #ahhj2 ,mr ,bradlaugh paid his own costs1 but nothing further4#df ,footnote #df3 ,these proceedings--except the libel case1 which has been already noticed--will be found fully dealt with by ,mr ,j4 ,m4 ,robertson in ,part ,,ii41 in his account of ,mr ,bradlaugh's ,parliamentary struggle4 ,all these lawsuits1 each involving the discussion of points of the greatest intricacy1 and in which my father's brain was pitted against those of some of the greatest lawyers in ,england1 would have been enough to tax the powers of any ordinary man1 even if he had had no other struggles4 ,but in these six years there were many other struggles2 there were six elections1 most of which were carried on under extremely harassing conditions4 ,it was one constant battle within the walls of the ,house and without1 and in the blind fury of their rage his antagonists spared neither my father nor any one whose name was associated with his4 ,sir ,henry ,tyler proceeded against ,mr ,foote and ,mr ,ramsay for blasphemy1 only because along with them he hoped to be able to drag ,mr ,bradlaugh down4 ,sir ,henry ,tyler tried to deprive my sister and myself1 as well as ,mrs ,besant and ,dr ,aveling1 of our right to teach under the ,science and ,art ,department1 only because he hoped to wound ,mr ,bradlaugh by an attack upon his daughters#dg and his friends4 ,the ,somerville ,club 7at the instigation of ,miss ,eliza ,orme7 refused to accept the daughters of ,charles ,bradlaugh as members4#dh ,university ,college would not permit my sister ,alice--a woman of stainless honour and of the highest character--and ,mrs ,besant to study botany within its walls2#di the ,national ,liberal ,club1 having actually invited ,mr ,bradlaugh to become a member1 insulted him by refusing to elect him4#ej ,footnote #dg3 ,this attack upon ,mr ,bradlaugh through his daughters1 insignificant and inoffensive though we were1 was no new idea4 ,in #ahgg an attempt was made to introduce female students into the classes of the ,city of ,london ,college4 ,at my father's suggestion my sister and ,i1 who at that time took little interest in the matter1 joined ,mr ,levy's ,class on ,political ,economy4 ,i went up for the examination at the end of the term1 and1 to my surprise and my father's delight1 ,i took a second-class certificate4 ,but the ,city of ,london ,college were divided upon the subject of the admission of female students1 and1 after much acrimonious discussion1 ,mr ,armytage ,bakewell1 a member of the ,council1 carried his intolerance so far as to turn the dispute upon the admission of my sister and myself4 ,he wrote to the ,city ,press that though the ostensible subject of controversy has been whether females should attend the young men's classes or not1 there was well known to be a wider divergence1 and that was best indicated by the fact that ,mr ,bradlaugh's daughters attended ,mr ,levy's classes4 ,it is only just to the ,city of ,london ,college to add that the ,council1 while repudiating any responsibility for ,mr ,bakewell's conduct1 expressed their regret that any allusion had been made to ,mr ,bradlaugh's daughters in the letter alluded to4 ,the ,city of ,london ,college decided against the further admission of women1 and within a few days of their decision had to listen to ,lord ,houghton's congratulations upon their liberality in admitting women when he presented me with my certificate6 ,he had not been informed that the ,college had just come to the contrary resolution4 ,footnote #dh3 ,march #ahhc4 ,footnote #di3 ,may #ahhc4 ,footnote #ej3 #ahhd4 ,five years later the ,national ,liberal ,club spontaneously elected ,mr ,bradlaugh1 without his knowledge1 a member paying his first year's subscription4 ,the country was flooded with literature making the most infamous charges against him1 and in the name of religion men went from town to town to preach against him4 ,even ,cardinal ,manning1 a prince of the greatest ,church in ,christendom1 was not too exalted to stoop to cast his stone at the despised ,atheist4 ,within the precincts of the great ,commons ,house itself he had to sit in silence1 with no right of reply1 whilst he heard his character assailed1 and those who worked with him basely slandered4 ,within those same historic walls he was set upon and terribly ill-used by officials1 ordered to their work by gentlemen claiming to represent the nation4 ,i was at ,westminster on the day which witnessed this strange example of the boasted ,english love of fair play4 ,i tremble as ,i recall it4 ,we went to ,westminster by train1 my sister and ,i1 with ,mrs ,besant and some friends of hers4 ,the sight which met our eyes as we came out of the station was one not to be readily forgotten2 immense masses of orderly men and women kept easily within certain limits by a thin line of police4 ,there was a quick recognition of us as we passed along by friends from all parts of the country1 who gave us grave and serious greeting4 ,at the gates of ,palace ,yard we were challenged by the police1 but allowed to pass on presenting our petition1 and going on to ,westminster ,hall we found it occupied by little groups of men from all corners of ,england4#ea ,these groups grew and grew1 until the great hall seemed full1 and voices were heard on all sides crying1 ,petition1 ,petition4 ,at the head of the steps near the door leading to the lobby we took up our position4 ,by-and-by an agonising rumour flew through the ,hall1 ,they are killing him2 they are killing him6 and swift on the heels of this came the angry cry1 again and again repeated1 ,to the ,house6 and with this1 the surging forward of the crowd4 ,so few police had been spared to guard this entrance that they would have been absolutely powerless to resist these men--not ,london roughs1 but the pick of the ,london clubs1 and1 more formidable still1 men from many a ,midland town1 and from many a ,north country pit and factory1 whose hearts were bound up in my father1 and who had come to ,london that day to petition for justice4 ,the police command1 ,keep back6 fell upon deaf ears4 ,my sister and ,i involuntarily put ourselves in front of the doors1 facing the crowd4 ,mrs ,besant sprang forward1 and in a few impassioned words she begged them to consider what ,mr ,bradlaugh's wishes would be4 ,the effect was instantaneous4 ,the foremost fell back1 and kept others back till all were self-controlled once more2 but the white1 set faces told of the struggle in their hearts4 ,but we can't stay here and know he is being murdered1 and do nothing to help him1 said one in a choking voice4 ,some terrible minutes passed1 but there was no further attempt to pass through the doors4 ,by-and-by a message reached us from my father that he was gone to ,stonecutter ,street1 and that we were to join him there4 ,at ,stonecutter ,street we found him quite calm and self-possessed1 but his coat hanging in rents1 his ashen face and still quivering flesh telling the tale of the struggle he had just passed through4 ,footnote #ea3 ,seven persons were allowed to enter with each petition4 ,in a few days he fell very ill4 ,the small muscles of both arms were ruptured2 erysipelas supervened1 and the left arm was very bad indeed1 needing constant attention by day and night4 ,all day long from early morning to the small hours of the next day there were people calling1 some friendly and some very much otherwise1 besides press men and persons on business4 ,my father had no rest1 and one day the physician said1 ,you will never get well1 ,mr ,bradlaugh1 if you don't get out of this room4 ,you wish me to go away8 asked my father4 ,yes4 ,when8 ,at once4 ,i will go to-day1 was the characteristic reply4 ,i packed up the necessary baggage1 a fly was ordered to take us to the station1 and at ,mrs ,besant's suggestion it was decided to go to ,eastbourne4 ,i was nursing my father1 so ,i went with him1 while for a day or so my sister remained behind to attend to things at home4 ,mrs ,besant accompanied us4 ,on the way to the station my father1 who was feeling very ill and very depressed1 said he did not care to go to ,eastbourne--it was too fashionable2 so ,i took the map from the railway guide and called over the names of places on the ,south ,coast until he stopped me at ,worthing1 and then we turned about to go to there instead of to ,eastbourne4 ,my father had both arms in slings1 and at the station ,mrs ,besant and ,i had to walk one each side of him to protect them from the impertinent and the unfeeling who crowded round to stare at him4 ,arrived at ,worthing1 we got into a cab1 asking the driver if he could recommend us to a quiet hotel2 he looked compassionately at the only too evidently sick man1 and said he thought ,west ,worthing would suit us best4 ,whilst he was getting the luggage1 a clergyman whom we had seen inside the station came out1 and walking up to the open cab stared rudely at my father1 and as he turned away said loudly1 for us to hear1 ,that's ,bradlaugh2 ,i hope they'll make it warm for him yet4 ,west ,worthing did suit us1 as the cabman surmised2 my father's health daily improved1 and indeed there is little doubt that his timely removal to this quiet spot saved his life for the time4 ,after a few days my sister joined us1 and we all felt the better for the change1 as much from the momentary respite as from the fresh air and sea breeze4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the expenses of the litigation and the various elections were enormous1 both directly and indirectly4 ,although eventually ,mr ,newdegate had to bear the whole of the costs in the suit which he brought against ,mr ,bradlaugh1 yet the latter had to find several hundred pounds--about #gbe in all--to pay into court at different times4 ,these sums were ultimately repaid to him1 but liabilities had to be incurred to produce them at the required moments4 ,the shorthand notes in the three days' appeal from the trial at bar alone cost him #ej4 ,in the case of ,bradlaugh v4 ,erskine1 in which the ,house of ,commons defended its officer1 the ,government made ,mr ,bradlaugh pay the costs1 under the circumstances a very harsh and unusual proceeding4 ,very little time was allowed to elapse before the claim was insisted upon1 and to find the money my father had to choose between more borrowing and selling his library4 ,yet if the motion carried unanimously and amid cheers on the #bgth ,january #ahia means anything1 it is an acknowledgment that the ,house was in the wrong when it instructed its officer to prevent ,mr ,bradlaugh by force from obeying the law4 ,it was not merely the direct cost1 however2 there were the indirect penalties also4 ,for instance1 in ,february #ahhe1 after the appeal from the trial at bar 7which1 with its subsequent proceedings alone covered thirteen days71 my father spoke of the worry and uncertainty which had for months arrested nearly all my means of earning money4 ,people were always subscribing in an endeavour to pay for him the expenses they knew of1 and many were the sacrifices some of them made in their eager desire to help4 ,one old ,yorkshire miner1 who had been sorely troubled that times were so hard with him that he could spare nothing1 one day came triumphantly to his friend saying1 ,i have made it all right2 ,i will go without the half pint for a week1 and send it to the lad4#eb ,many cut down their usual allowance of tobacco1 and some went altogether without4 ,one poor man sent his silver watch1 the only thing of value which he possessed2 some people in ,london1 touched at hearing of this sacrifice1 offered to join together to buy him a gold one in acknowledgment of it1 but he would not hear of it4 ,several times ,i have known a cabman refuse to take his fare4#ec ,many poor people sent their small subscriptions weekly or monthly4 ,but my father always worried about these funds2 he could not bear the thought of his poor friends denying themselves their little luxuries1 or even perhaps their necessaries1 and he always promptly closed a fund when it had been open some fixed time or directly the specific sum was reached4 ,footnote #eb3 ,national ,reformer1 ,april #bg1 #ahhd4 ,footnote #ec3 ,i have lately heard a touching story of a cabman who drove ,mr ,bradlaugh several times4 ,he greatly admired my father1 but was too shy to speak to him4 ,every time he took a fare from him he gave it away to some charitable object4 ,he said he could not spend ,mr ,bradlaugh's money on himself1 he felt that he must do some good with it4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a constant accusation brought against ,mr ,bradlaugh was that of living in aristocratic style1#ed and of having a most enormous income4#ee ,as a matter of fact1 he had no income other than what he earned from day to day1 and his habits and mode of life at ,circus ,road were of the simplest possible kind4 ,his bedroom was very small1 about #aj feet by #i feet1 with just room for his bedstead1 chest of drawers1 wash-stand1 and a couple of chairs4 ,his library1 on the first floor after #ahhj1 was a very large room with five windows to it2 but spacious as it was1 it was by no means too large for his books4 ,the room was shelved all round to the very edges of the windows1 except just over the fireplace2 and there were also three sets of movable shelves on the floor of the room4 ,the furniture was quite simple--just a desk1 writing-tables1 cane-seated chairs1 my father's two old oaken arm-chairs from ,tottenham1 and an easy chair1 which was bought specially for him one time when he was not well4 ,there was no other easy chair in the house1 and only one small sofa--really a bedroom lounge--which my sister bought for me one morning when ,i was ailing4 ,i doubt whether the whole of my father's furniture would have fetched five-and-twenty pounds at a sale4 ,our meals we had downstairs in a very dark basement room under our landlord's music shop1 and here the blue books were also stored4 ,footnote #ed3 ,the ,plymouth and ,exeter ,gazette 7,april #ahgh7 reproved ,mr ,bradlaugh for the glaring inconsistency of his practice with his democratic principles1 by living in the most aristocratic style4 ,footnote #ee3 ,the ,leeds ,daily ,news 7,july #ahhc7 said his income was #ab1jjj a year4 ,my father's habits were as simple as his surroundings4 ,he was an early riser1 and at whatever time he got home at night he was in his study soon after seven in the morning1 ,even when he was not home from the ,house of ,commons till four o'clock in the morning1 it was seldom he lay in bed after eight4 ,he had a cup of tea as soon as he was down1 and he worked at his desk until breakfast-time1 which he liked punctually at eight4 ,if he was more than usually busy or worried1 he asked for his breakfast to be brought to his study1 and he would take it as he worked2 but my sister and ,i always affected to be vexed if he did this1 because we liked to get him away from his work and into another room for his meals4 ,about the middle of #ahgg his ever-increasing correspondence obliged him to have regular clerical assistance1 and his secretary came at nine4 ,he was in to callers until ten or half-past4 ,this was the time he saw people who wanted to consult him on legal or private matters3 he listened patiently to their troubles1 and often gave them most helpful advice how to get out of them4 ,all sorts of difficulties were confided to him--family troubles1 dissensions between husband and wife1 between employer and employed2 great troubles and small were brought to him1 and those who brought them were sure of a sympathetic and patient listener1 and a confidant to whom they could unreservedly open their hearts4 ,if ,mr ,bradlaugh did not have to attend a ,committee of the ,house he would have his dinner 7or lunch1 as it was indifferently called7 at half-past twelve1 and this was followed by a cup of tea in his library2 if he were in all day1 he had his afternoon tea 7just a cup of tea and a crust of bread and butter7 at four1 and his supper about seven or half-past seven4 ,at his dinner and supper he drank hock or burgundy4#ef ,often after supper there would be a little pleasant chat1 sometimes a game of chess1 and1 more rarely1 whist with a dummy4 ,if my father was too tired or too worried for any of these1 he would go to bed as early as half-past eight or nine1 lie and read for a while1 and then sleep soundly until morning4 ,of course it was not often he could do this1 for his evenings were usually spent in lecturing or at the ,house of ,commons4#eg ,the only time during the session which he could rely upon for seeing callers1 answering letters1#eh and earning his living1 was from seven ,a4,m4 until the time he left for the ,house4 ,saturday evening and ,sundays were generally employed in lecturing4 ,until #ahhd his holidays were of the rarest and the shortest4 ,in that year he first went fishing at ,loch ,long4 ,at the suggestion of some ,scotch friends1 a cottage was taken for a month that summer at ,portincaple1 a lovely and secluded spot just opposite ,loch ,goil4 ,my sister and ,i and a ,scotch lady1 ,miss ,lees1 stayed the whole time2 different friends came and went1 and my father spent a week fishing4 ,the cottage belonged to ,finlay ,m',nab1 fisherman and ferryman1 and had belonged to his father and grandfather before him4 ,on nearly all ,mr ,bradlaugh's fishing expeditions ,finlay ,m',nab was his boatman4 ,they would go off just after breakfast1 or sometimes even earlier1 get dinner at ,carrick ,castle or ,ardentinny1 and come home at sunset with a big bag of fish4 ,after #ahhd we went to ,portincaple several summers in succession1 and then ,mr ,bradlaugh took to going there in the ,easter and ,whitsun recess1 and for a few days after ,parliament rose4 ,on these occasions he went alone1 but ,mrs ,m',nab attended to all his comforts indoors as though he were at home1 and outdoors her husband looked after the bait and the boat--except on ,sundays2 then1 my father had to content himself with the dangerous amusement of fishing from the rocks1 whilst ,finlay looked wistfully on4 ,footnote #ef3 ,he was frequently charged with drinking expensive wines1 but the hock he had straight from ,bensheim at a cost of #as4 #c;d4 per bottle 7including carriage and duty72 the burgundy came direct from ,beaune1 and cost a trifle more4 ,footnote #eg3 ,during the time he was not allowed to take his seat he attended the ,house constantly1 sitting under the gallery in a seat technically outside the ,house4 ,footnote #eh3 ,one year he calculated that he had written #abjj letters of advice in the twelvemonth--this1 of course1 in addition to general correspondence4 ,mr ,bradlaugh was a very even-tempered man1 and those who waited on him usually served him eagerly4 ,he never found fault unnecessarily1 and provided an attempt was well meant1 it mattered little1 as far as his behaviour went1 if the result was not equal to the intention4 ,he was most generous and tender-hearted1 except to those who had wantonly taken advantage of the confidence he reposed in them to deceive him4 ,such persons called him hard and unrelenting1 for even if he forgave them they never again held quite the same place in his esteem4 ,some critics have said he was a man of unrestrained passions2 others have said he was absolutely passionless4 ,neither is right4 ,he was a man of very strong feelings1 but he had an iron will4 ,at a critical moment in his life1 when he was greatly tempted to follow a certain course1 a friend urged upon him that if he did he would injure the work he had at heart4 ,my father replied by stretching out his arm1 and closing his fingers over an imagined object4 ,i have not a passion1 he said1 that ,i could not crush as easily as an egg within my hand if it were necessary for the good of the cause ,i love4 ,and he was true to his word4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in #ahgg when ,mr ,bradlaugh severed his business connection with ,mr ,c4 ,watts1 he started1 as ,i have said1 a publishing business in connection with ,mrs ,annie ,besant1 under the style of the ,freethought ,publishing ,company4 ,the business premises were at ,stonecutter ,street1 ,e4,c41 and here1 with small premises1 a small staff1 and a small rent1 the ,company did fairly well4 ,in #ahhb1 however1 my father was induced against his better judgment to lease a shop at the corner of ,fleet ,street and ,bouverie ,street 7now occupied by the ,black and ,white ,company74 ,here the premises were large and the rent heavy4 ,to make matters worse1 about a couple of years later1 owing to the financial difficulties of his landlord1 he was reluctantly obliged to take up the remainder of the lease of the whole building1 and thus he became saddled with the rent and taxes--amounting to more than seven hundred per annum--and the responsibility of a great house in the city4 ,in order to raise the capital required to meet these expenses1 ,mr ,bradlaugh with ,mrs ,besant issued debenture stock to the amount of four or five thousand pounds1 the interest on which was paid with unfailing regularity until my father's death4 ,but as he had feared1 the business at ,fleet ,street did not thrive sufficiently to support so large an establishment2 the greater part of it had always been1 and was then1 a postal business1 hence it could be carried on as well in a little shop in a side street as in a large corner shop in such a thoroughfare4 ,the details of the managership of the publishing department were in the hands of ,mrs ,besant and my sister ,alice1 but as both were without the least experience in business1 my father was the final referee on all matters1 and it was he of course who had to provide for quarter-day with its heavy rent1 taxes1 and debenture interest4 ,in #ahhd1 unable to let the upper portion of the building1 ,mr ,bradlaugh decided to utilise it himself by setting up a printing-office1 and doing his own printing4 ,this department was put under the control of ,mr ,bonner1 to whom ,i was then engaged to be married4 ,as my husband was already familiar with the management of a printing-office1 ,mr ,bradlaugh's only trouble with this branch of his business was in finding the money1 and this was not a great anxiety1 as it paid for itself from the very first4 ,it is true the profits were never great1 for the prejudice against giving work to any establishment connected with the name of ,bradlaugh at first limited the work almost to the printing of his own publications4 ,my father was very glad to be saved responsibility1 even in this small matter for1 as he often said1 he had never intended to become a publisher1 and he had never intended to become a printer2 he had so many things on his hands that he had time neither for one nor the other2 he had1 in fact1 no inclination for commercial pursuits3 they had always been forced upon him by circumstances4 99 99 99 99 99 ,when it was known that ,i was going to attempt some story of my father's life1 there were many things ,i was told that ,i must not fail to mention4 ,amongst others1 one friend said3 ,you must not fail to notice that ,mr ,bradlaugh was an essentially grateful man2 he never forgot the smallest favour or the smallest kindness that was shown him4 ,that is absolutely true2 he could forget most injuries1 his heart was as great as the world1 but it was not large enough to hold the memory of a wrong2 a kindness he never forgot4#ei ,when ,john ,bright pledged himself in the ,house of ,commons for my father1 the latter was greatly affected1 and speaking to us in private about it was quite overcome4 ,he had disagreed often with ,john ,bright1 and had sometimes spoken his disagreement with the utmost frankness2 later on they were opposed upon the subject of ,home ,rule1 but after the day when that lion-hearted old man so unexpectedly and so courageously spoke on his behalf1 ,mr ,bradlaugh never mentioned his name save with the most profound respect and gratitude4 ,and yet this trait of gratitude1 so strong in himself1 he never seemed to expect in others2 or at least he seldom showed surprise at its absence4 ,he once helped to ,baltimore a ,russian prisoner1 escaped from ,siberia1 who had come to him with letters from ,continental friends4 ,the months rolled by1 and nothing further was heard of the man4 ,a great deal had been done for him1 and one day ,i expressed myself very strongly on his ingratitude4 ,my father stopped me by quietly saying that ,i must learn to do a right thing just because it was right1 and not because ,i expected gratitude or any other reward for what ,i did4 ,i felt the rebuke keenly1 but ,i had nothing to say1 for ,i instantly realised that he preached to me no more than he himself practised4 ,footnote #ei3 ,the following extracts1 taken at hazard from ,new ,year's addresses to his friends in the ,national ,reformer1 will show how grateful he was to them for their help and what support he found in their love and trust3-- ,women and men1 ,i have great need of your strength to make me strong1 of your courage to make me brave4 ,i am in a breach where ,i must fall fighting or go through4 ,i will not turn1 but ,i could not win if ,i had to fight alone 7#ast ,january #ahhb74 #ahhc has freed me from some troubles and cleared me of some peril1 but it leaves me in #ahhd a legacy of unfinished fighting4 ,i thank the friends of the dead year1 without whose help ,i1 too1 must have been nearly as dead as the old year itself4444 ,i have had more kindnesses shown me than my deservings warrant1 more love than ,i have yet earned1 and ,i open the gate of #ahhd most hopefully because ,i know how many hundred kindly hearts there are to cheer me if my uphill road should prove even harder to climb than in the years of yesterday 7#fth ,january #ahhd74 ,the present greeting is first to our old friends2 some poor folk who early in #ahfj took ,no4 #a of the ,national ,reformer1 and have through good and ill report kept steadily with us through the more than a quarter of a century struggle for existence 7#crd ,january #ahhf74 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is remarkable how quickly ,mr ,bradlaugh made his personality felt when once he was allowed to sit quietly in ,parliament4 ,some persons had sneeringly said that he would soon find his level1 or that he would soon sink into obscurity1 but he rapidly proved that he at least did not regard the ,house of ,commons merely as the best club in ,england4 ,his patience in mastering details1 his perseverance and persistence in what he undertook1 and the work he accomplished1 were all so notable that he had sat in the ,house barely one year when the possibility of a seat for him in the next ,radical ministry began to be discussed4#fj ,his constant attendance at the ,house and at ,committees--and he was rarely absent--interfered greatly with his lecturing in the provinces during the session1 although almost every available evening was utilised for ,london and suburban lectures1 many of which were given away4#fa ,in consequence of this he was driven more and more to rely upon his pen as a means of earning money4 ,it was always easier to him to speak than to write upon a subject4 ,his style was terse and direct2 his thoughts and his words came so fast that a verbatim report of an hour's speech filled several newspaper columns4 ,his gestures1 his expression1 the modulation of his voice1 pointed and explained his spoken words4 ,but it nearly always irked him to write long upon a subject2 his letters were for the most part models of brevity1 and he tended to make his articles brief also4 ,if a magazine editor asked him to write an article of six thousand words1 and he had said all he wanted to say at that moment in four or five thousand1 he hated to add to it1 and often1 indeed1 he would not4 ,footnote #fj3 ,bognor ,observer1 ,february #ahhg4 ,footnote #fa3 ,one at the ,shoreditch ,town ,hall in ,may #ahhd1 on behalf of the ,hackney ,united ,radical ,club1 realised as much as #dj4 ,the hall was packed in every corner1 and hundreds were unable to gain admittance4 ,by incessant labour my father earned a fair income1 but he could not keep pace with his heavy expenses1 and the burden of his debts each year weighed upon him more and more heavily4 ,he would sigh regretfully that he was not so young as he used to be1 and these things troubled him more than formerly4 ,at the end of ,august #ahhh1 writing his ,rough ,notes in the ,national ,reformer1 he said3 ,many folks write me as though now ,parliament stood adjourned1 ,i could be easily taking holiday and rest4 ,i wish this were possible1 but in truth ,i have to work very hard to reduce my debts and live4 ,i shall1 ,i hope1 have four and a half days' fishing in ,loch ,long from mid-day on ,monday1 ,september #crd1 to the morning of ,saturday the #hth1 but this short holiday is more than counterbalanced by the heavy lecturing work of the recess4 ,this week1 for example1 ,i address seven meetings2 next week eight4 ,many write to me to give lectures in aid of branches1 clubs1 and associations1 and ,i do help very often1 but surely it is not necessary for me to constantly repeat that my only means are those ,i earn from day to day by tongue and pen4 ,my great trouble now is lest ,i should be unable to earn enough to meet my many heavy obligations1 in which case ,i should be most reluctantly obliged to relinquish my ,parliamentary career4 ,this ,note had a most unexpected result2 it was reproduced with generous comments in the press1 and a committee was formed to raise a fund to clear off the balance of #aejj of debt still remaining from the six years' ,parliamentary struggle4 ,this fund was only open one month1 until ,october #ast2#fb and in that short time #bdij was subscribed in sums varying from #a;d4 to #bjj4 ,now at last my father seemed to be getting into smooth waters2 the only financial burdens left upon him were in connection with his business1 and these he hoped to gradually lighten4 ,but within a few weeks he had to face a new trouble4 ,on the #afth ,november my sister ,alice was taken very ill with typhoid fever at ,circus ,road2 for the sake of greater quiet1 we moved her to my rooms at #ai ,avenue ,road1 where1 meningitis having supervened1 she died on #bnd ,december4 ,she expressly asked that in the case of her death she should be cremated1 and we were most anxious to carry out her wishes1 but the ,woking ,crematorium was then undergoing structural alterations1 and it was not possible to do so4 ,this short and unexpected illness1 with its fatal termination1 was a great shock to ,mr ,bradlaugh1 and ,i went to him at ,circus ,road the next morning as soon as ,i could get away4 ,i found him terribly depressed1 working in his room in a bad atmosphere1 with the gas alight and all the blinds down4 ,knowing how he ordinarily shrank from any outward display of his feelings1 and especially how much he disliked mere form1 ,i said1 ,why1 how is this8 ,why have you pulled all the blinds down8 ,he said brokenly1 ,they the servants did it2 ,i thought it might be your wish4 ,i put out the gas1 drew up the blinds1 and opened a window for a few moments to let in a little fresh air4 ,he was himself out of health1 and ,i did not like to see him sitting there in that close and heated atmosphere4 ,i asked if he was going to the ,house8 ,no2 he did not think he should1 he replied4 ,i urged him to go1 believing it was the best thing he could do4 ,he did go1 but he could not stay long2 somehow an announcement of my sister's death had got into the papers1 and ,members sympathised with him in his sorrow in such kindly fashion that he was obliged to come away lest he should break down4 ,a night or two later he made his speech in reply to ,mr ,broadhurst on the ,employers' ,liability ,bill1 and if his words had in them somewhat more of acerbity than usual1 ,i often think that it was in a measure due to the biting pain of his own grief4 ,footnote #fb3 ,mr ,bradlaugh asked for it to be closed on #bfth ,september4 ,on the #eth my sister was buried at the ,brookwood ,necropolis1 where already some members of our family lay4 ,many who had known her1 and whose lives had been helped by hers1 begged that there might be a public funeral2 but my father shrank from exposing his sorrow even to the most sympathetic of friends1 and we quietly and silently laid her in her last resting-place1 where1 alas6 she was so soon to be joined by her stricken father4 ,her death was not allowed to pass without the ,christian commonplaces as to the miserable barrenness of the sceptic's theories in the presence of domestic calamities2 and ,mr ,bradlaugh asked what would be thought of him if at a similar hour he should obtrude upon some ,christian some mocking word upon the horrors of the theory that many are called and few are chosen8 ,my husband and ,i now went to live at ,circus ,road1 and as my father was suddenly without a secretary1 ,i filled the post while he was seeking a fresh one4 ,i had given up the class teaching1 in which ,i had been for many years associated with my sister1 having thus a certain amount of leisure1 and finding ,i could manage all that was wanted1 ,i begged him to let me continue his work4 ,i liked to feel ,i was helping him1 if only in the mechanical way of writing at his dictation4 ,during the later years of his life1 ,mr ,bradlaugh was often out of health and suffered a great deal1 especially in the arm so badly injured on the #crd ,august #ahha4 ,the strain--mental as well as physical--of the six years #ahhj-he had been tremendous4#fc ,but a week at ,loch ,long with ,finlay ,m',nab and his rod and line seemed to restore him to health again2 we never thought of anything serious1 he appeared so big and strong4 ,in ,october #ahhi1 however1 he fell ill--so ill that for some time it seemed doubtful whether he would recover1 but thanks to the skill of his old physician ,dr ,ramskill1 and the assiduous care of his friend and colleague on the ,vaccination ,commission1 ,dr ,w4 ,j4 ,collins1 he gradually struggled back to life once more4 ,it was thought that his health would be greatly benefited by a voyage to ,india1 and therefore he decided to attend the ,fifth ,national ,congress in ,bombay4 ,mr ,m',ewan1 ,m4,p41 who was then enjoying a holiday abroad1 sent ,mr ,bradlaugh a cheque for #bjj so that money difficulties should not hinder him from following the doctor's advice2 and with the cheque1 ,mr ,m',ewan sent a most delicately worded letter1 which touched the sick man to the heart4 ,footnote #fc3 ,this ,i think has been recognised by most people4 ,in ,december #ahhd the ,weekly ,dispatch spoke of the great strain put upon ,mr ,bradlaugh1 under which a man less vigorous in mind and body would long ere this have broken down4 ,the shadows of death lay very close to him1 and he had a hard fight back to the light again1 but he longed ardently to live4 ,there was so much that he had put his hand to1 which the position he had now won in the ,house would enable him to do with comparative ease4 ,as he lay in his bed in his study#fd he turned over and over in his mind plans by which he might economise his strength in the future4 ,it was quite clear that he must do less lecturing1 and must depend more and more on his pen4 ,he resolved to try and sell the remainder of the ,fleet ,street lease1 and to give up his publishing business2 he also planned to gradually pay off the debenture-holders1 and when it was free from all money entanglements1 to hand over the printing plant to my husband to carry on the business in his own name and on his own responsibility4 ,one thing he felt he could do immediately4 ,after he had been lying very quiet for some time1 he startled me one day by suddenly saying that he had determined to resign the ,presidency of the ,national ,secular ,society1 and he bade me get pen and paper1 and take his instructions for a letter to the ,secretary4 ,i tried to argue the matter with him and begged him to reflect upon it1 to do nothing hastily1 and reminded him that people would say if he resigned then1 in his illness1 that he had recanted4 ,his face1 which all along had been set and stern1 darkened as ,i said this4 ,people must think what they choose1 he said1 he could no longer do everything2 something must go2 the ,presidency entailed a great deal of work1 and he must give it up4 ,i tried to say something more1 but he stopped me1 saying sharply that he had made up his mind4 ,i was disconcerted by the tone and manner1 so unusual from him to me1 and left the room a moment to recover my equanimity4 ,i was back almost immediately1 and went to the desk to get the note-book to take down the letter to ,mr ,forder 7the ,secretary74 ,i heard my name spoken gently1 and turning1 saw my father holding out his hand to me4 ,i went to the bedside4 ,now1 my daughter1 he said affectionately1 ,i want you to tell me what you were going to say just now4 ,he listened patiently whilst ,i urged upon him that1 although he was strong enough to despise the misrepresentation that would surely follow the abrupt and unexplained announcement of his resignation1 it was hardly fair to his friends who would have to bear taunt and sneer1 and would be unable to quote a word out of his mouth in reply4 ,he replied that the reason for his immediate resignation was that he could not be a ,president in name only1 and1 without himself taking part in the work1 be held responsible for the sayings and doings of others--with whom he might or might not agree--on behalf of the ,society4 ,he thought1 however1 he might leave his formal resignation until his return from ,india1 although he would at once intimate his intention4 ,he added with a tender smile1 ,i promise you that ,i will make a statement which shall not leave any one in doubt as to my opinions4 ,the religious question troubled him so little that he had not even thought about it until ,i spoke of the possibility of misconstruction4 ,the severity and sternness of his demeanour in making the announcement of his resolve was due solely to the pain it had cost him to give up an office he valued so highly1 and which he had hoped to retain until the laws relating to ,blasphemy were erased from the ,statute ,book4 ,footnote #fd3 ,the doctors would not allow ,mr ,bradlaugh to remain in his bedroom2 one of them told him indignantly--albeit with some exaggeration--that he would have better accommodation in the workhouse6 ,it was generously offered to pay my passage to ,brindisi so that ,i might care for my father during the first days of his journey1 but my own health did not permit me to accept so delightful an offer4 ,he seemed really too ill to go alone1 and the memory of his face1 so haggard and so grey1 as ,i last saw it at the vessel's side1 was an abiding pain4 ,he sent back a pencilled note by the pilot1 and a letter from every port1 to tell how he was gaining strength each day4 ,on board the steamer every one was kind to him4 ,at ,bombay every one was more than kind2 all seemed to vie with each other in showing him attentions--,indians and ,english residents alike4 ,a house and attendants were put at the disposal of himself and ,sir ,william ,wedderburn1 ,president of the ,congress1 and the latter made things easy for the invalid by many a courteous act4 ,although it had been announced that ,mr ,bradlaugh could not stay long enough in ,bombay to receive addresses1 yet a large number were presented to him1 of which about twenty were in caskets or cases of worked silver1 carved sandal wood1 inlaid ivory1 and other beautiful specimens of native work4 ,the duty alone on these amounted to about #ai1 and was paid by the ,congress ,committee4 ,mr ,bradlaugh's interest in ,indian affairs1 and his comprehension of the needs of the people1 were recognised both at home and in ,india4 ,in ,india he was joyfully called the ,member for ,india1 and at home his views on ,indian matters were listened to with growing respect4 ,lord ,dufferin sought an interview1 and afterwards had considerable correspondence with him1 and before ,lord ,harris set out for ,bombay he also made a point of seeing the acknowledged representative in ,parliament of the ,indian people4 ,mr ,bradlaugh returned from ,bombay at the end of ,january 7#ahij71 much better in health than we had dared to hope1 and we now quite believed that with care he would become thoroughly strong again4 ,the birth of my little son in the ,april of this year prevented me from attending to my father's correspondence1 and at my request1 my place was filled by a friend of mine and of my sister's1 ,mrs ,mary ,reed4 ,my father soon grew very fond of my little boy1 and would now and then put aside his writing and take him on his knee1 protesting that he had never before left his work to nurse a baby1 and sometimes wondering whether1 when the boy grew up1 he would go fishing with him4 ,the advent of the baby and all his paraphernalia made us feel more crowded for space than ever1 and as the music publishers had a room on the first floor which they used as a stock-room1 my husband arranged to rent this1 and we furnished it as a sitting-room4 ,we made it look as pretty as we could1 and it was ready for us at the end of ,september4 ,on my father's birthday 7the #bfth7 ,i persuaded him to take us to the theatre1 and we went to the ,lyceum to see ,ravenswood4 ,on coming home we had supper in the bright new room instead of the dark place underground1 and many were my father's jokes about the unwonted splendour of his surroundings4 ,alas6 it seemed that that room was furnished only for him to die in three months later4 ,the winter of #ahij set in early and severely4 ,in ,november it began to snow1 and snow and fog continued well into the new year4 ,with the cold weather my father began to feel ill again4 ,he thought of going to ,paris to spend the ,new ,year1 but he could not afford it4 ,i was sorry he could not go1 for he always came back the better for a few days in ,paris4 ,he was a welcome visitor to the ,french capital2 he had never been made to feel himself an outcast from society there4 ,coming home with him one fearfully foggy night in ,december#fe from a lecture he had been delivering at the ,hall of ,science on behalf of a testimonial to ,mr ,forder1 the ,secretary of the ,national ,secular ,society1 the conversation turned upon the value of his books1 and he mentioned two or three which he thought--erroneously1 as it turned out--very valuable4 ,i asked him if he would not sell them2 if he could get a holiday and health with the money they would fetch1 they would be well worth the exchange4 ,ah1 my daughter1 when ,i sell my books---- he began1 and his unfinished answer told all the sadness of his thought4 ,twice he would have had to sell them if friends had not come to his aid--once1 as ,i have said1 to pay the ,government costs in ,bradlaugh v4 ,erskine1 and next in the ,peters and ,kelly case4 ,he loved his books2 to part with them seemed like parting with his heart's blood4 ,footnote #fe3 ,wednesday1 #ajth ,december4 ,this was the last lecture ,mr ,bradlaugh ever delivered4 ,the subject was ,the ,evidence for the ,gospels1 in criticism of ,dr ,watkin's ,bampton lectures4 99 99 99 99 99 ,on the #ajth ,january my father went out in the afternoon2 it was densely foggy and bitterly cold4 ,when he returned a few hours later ,i ran down to him as usual1 and was horrified to see his face--it was the same face that ,i had seen in the worst of his sickness of the previous winter4 ,this was the first attack of the spasms of the heart1 although we did not then know it2 it was comparatively slight1#ff and after a little my father seemed himself again4 ,the improvement1 however1 was more apparent than real2 in less than a week from that day he was compelled to keep his bed1 and in less than a month he lay in his grave4 ,he died on the #cjth ,january1 firm in the convictions in which he had lived1 and was buried on the #crd of ,february1 next my sister in the ,brookwood ,necropolis4 ,the funeral was a silent one1 without speeches and without display1#fg but people attended it from all parts of ,england--one miner even came from ,scotland4 ,people of all sorts and all conditions travelled to this remote spot to show their respect for the man who had given his life in the service of his fellows4 ,footnote #ff3 ,a person writing in the ,swansea ,journal for #gth ,february #ahia said that some time previously ,mr ,bradlaugh had told him of his sufferings from angina pectoris4 ,this is utterly untrue2 my father never suffered from this complaint1 nor until his fatal illness was he ever conscious that he had anything wrong with his heart4 ,in a private letter to a friend written on the #adth--almost the last written with his own hand--he says distinctly1 ,i have never suffered from heart or lungs before4 ,the mania for invention is extraordinary4 ,footnote #fg3 ,this was exactly in accordance with ,mr ,bradlaugh's wishes4 ,in a will dated #ahhd he said3 ,i direct that my body shall be buried as cheaply as possible1 and that no speeches be permitted at my funeral4 ,his last will1 which consisted of a few lines only1 contained no directions on this matter4 99 99 99 99 99 ,at ,mr ,bradlaugh's death his assets were not nearly sufficient to meet his liabilities1 but amongst these liabilities there was not a single personal item2 they were every one in connection with the ,fleet ,street business4 ,most of the creditors cheerfully agreed to accept a composition of ten shillings in the pound2 of this #agjj was raised by public subscription1 and the remainder was furnished by the sale of the library1#fh ,indian presents1#fi and the lease of #fc ,fleet ,street4 ,it was a wonderful testimony to the regard in which my father was held that people should join together to help in paying his debts after his death4 ,four other memorials to him have been projected1 of which three are now complete4 ,the first to be finished was the monument at ,brookwood4 ,it consists of a bronze bust of ,mr ,bradlaugh1 by ,mr ,f4 ,verheyden1 on a red granite pedestal4 ,it was erected at a cost of #bbe2 and the money was subscribed absolutely spontaneously1 without a single appeal or one word of request4 ,then came the statue of ,mr ,bradlaugh erected by his constituents in ,abington ,square1 ,northampton1 and unveiled on the #beth of ,june #ahid1 in the presence of the greatest crowd ever assembled in that town4 ,lastly1 there is the memorial which was organised in the ,house of ,commons1 and energetically promoted by the daughters of ,richard ,cobden1 one of our country's noblest men4 ,this took the form of making some provision for myself1 and to that end a house has been bought with the money subscribed4 ,footnote #fh3 ,the library included some #gjjj volumes1 in addition to about #cjjj ,blue ,books1 and a large number of unbound pamphlets4 ,the books were sold by post from the catalogue1 and went to all parts of the world4 ,they realised #eej after all expenses were paid1 and about #ajjj volumes remained unsold4 ,footnote #fi3 ,through the generosity of ,edna ,lyall1 ,i was able to buy these for myself4 ,there is one other memorial which from its nature is not likely to be completed for some years4 ,it is a project to build a hall1 to be called the ,bradlaugh ,memorial ,hall1 to be used for the purposes of promoting the great causes with which ,mr ,bradlaugh was identified4 ,it took close upon a hundred years to build a ,memorial ,hall to ,thomas ,paine2 it remains to be seen how long it will take to erect one to the memory of ,charles ,bradlaugh4 ,,part ,,ii4 ,,by ,,john ,m4 ,,robertson4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,,philosophy ,,and ,,secularist ,,propaganda4 ,it may here be well to give a general view of ,bradlaugh's teaching on the great open questions of opinion and action1 taking separately the old provinces of religion and politics4 ,when he came most prominently before his countrymen he had a very definite repute on both heads1 having spoken on them in nearly every town of any size in the country2 but neither then nor later could it be said that anything like the majority of the public had a just or accurate idea of his position4 ,the obstacle was and is partly prejudice1 partly incapacity4 #a ,to begin with1 even the distinct title of ,atheist may mean any number of things for any number of persons4 ,ill-informed and even some well-informed people commonly describe an ,atheist as one who says ,there is no ,god1 and that ,things happen by chance4 ,to say to such persons--as has been said a thousand times--that for an ,atheist both phrases are meaningless1 seems to give no help3 we must begin at the beginning1 and show how the dispute arose4 ,and it is useful to keep in view that ,bradlaugh's ,atheism1 in the evolution of ,english ,freethought1 is only a generation removed from the ,deism of ,thomas ,paine1 which is much the same as the ,deism of ,voltaire4 ,deism or ,theism is to-day reckoned a quite religious frame of mind2 but it was the frame of mind of men who in their day were hated and vilified by ,christians as much as ,bradlaugh in his4 ,explicit ,atheism is only in our own day become at all a common opinion4 ,the men so described in former ages1 so far as we know 7if we set aside the remarkable developments of the ,italian ,renaissance71 have nearly always been ,deists or ,pantheists1 of whom the latter of course tend logically to coalesce with ,atheism1 but who have in their own names alike professed to repudiate ,atheism4 ,thus ,hobbes and ,spinoza1 who last century were constantly called ,atheists by ,christians1 always professed to have a ,god-idea2 and the ,freethinkers who showed head in ,england in the first half of the eighteenth century were all professing ,deists4 ,systematic ,atheism began to arise among the more penetrating or more trained thinkers of the latter half of the century4 ,thus ,hume1 after professing ,deism throughout his life1 left for posthumous publication his ,dialogues concerning ,natural ,religion1 which amount to the surrender of all forms of ,theism4 ,of ,voltaire in his latter years1 when he strongly attacked the ,atheism of ,holbach1 it was said by the more high-flying talkers of the ,paris drawing-rooms3 ,why1 he is a bigot2 he is a ,deist4 ,but even ,voltaire1 as ,mr ,morley has shown1 was somewhat less of a ,deist after the earthquake of ,lisbon2 and ,candide is not a good ,theistic tract4#gj ,diderot1 again1 reached explicit ,atheism2 and his friend ,holbach wrote1 in the ,systme de la ,nature1 the first systematic and straightforward ,atheistic treatise of modern times4#ga ,in ,england the movement was less rapid4 ,bolingbroke went pretty far towards a ,lucretian or ,agnostic ,theism2 and the upper-class ,deism which on his lines held out against the opportunist orthodoxy of ,butler1 necessarily tended to make its ,deity a very remote and inaccessible ,power4 ,but ,freethought1 to get any hold on the general mind in the thickening populations of the latter half of last century and the first half of this1 had to begin again1 and more effectively1 on the lines of the first ,deists4 ,the incredibility of the sacred books had to be made clear before more abstract issues could be settled4 ,in this task ,voltaire1 the pupil of the ,english ,deists1 was the great performer for all ,europe4 ,it was ,paine however who first1 in the turmoil of the ,revolution1 brought home to thousands of ,english artizans and other plain men the incredibility of what had so long passed as divinely-revealed truth4 ,he could do this the better because of the power and fame of his work in politics1 and because of his constant profession of a devout belief in a beneficent ,god1 on whom he declared the ,bible narratives to be a libel4 ,it probably needed this element of popular religion to keep up any continuous current of popular ,free-thinking in ,england throughout the great reaction which followed on the ,french ,revolution4 ,but the argument of ,butler held good against ,paine as against the earlier ,deists4 ,if the ,bible stories were irreconcilable with the idea of a good1 omnipotent ,god1 equally so are the operations of ,nature4 ,and though there are many people who can be led by that argument to believe or make-believe in the ,bible 7though it makes no more for the ,bible than for the ,koran71 there were others who felt bound to take the logical alternative1 and decide that the good ,god of popular half-faith is a dream4 ,footnote #gj3 ,this is all that can be pleaded in favour of the deliberate representation of ,voltaire as an ,atheist by the late ,archbishop ,thomson1 at the ,church ,congress of #ahha4 ,but the ignorance of the upper ,english clergy in general on such matters is amazing4 ,in ,january #ahha1 ,archdeacon 7then ,canon7 ,farrar1 preaching in ,westminster ,abbey1 represented ,robespierre's ,reign of ,terror as a reign of avowed ,atheism2 identified the ,deistic cult of the ,supreme ,being with that of the goddess of ,reason2 and accounted for the fall of ,robespierre by the statement that1 ,god awoke once more1 and with one thunderclap smote the sanhedrim of the insurrection1 prostrated the apostate race4 ,this orator once expressed horror at the thought that ,disestablishment might enable ,bradlaugh to speak in ,st ,paul's4 ,bradlaugh might have remarked on what the ,establishment permitted at ,westminster ,abbey4 ,footnote #ga3 ,the ,english translation1 in the original issue1 is in parts completely perverted to the language of ,theism1 whether out of fear or of ,deistic prejudice on the part of the translator4 ,even the edition prefaced by ,bradlaugh--who did not think of checking the text--preserves the perversions of the first translator4 ,such progress is a question of time4 ,atheism in a psychological sense began with the beginning of physical science4 ,pure ,theism1 in its early form of polytheism1 saw in all natural movements and forces the expression of a personal power or powers1 analogous to man2 and its gods were and are simply magnified projections of humanity4 ,thus the sun1 moon1 and planets1 the winds1 the thunder1 the lightning1 the rivers1 the fountains1 the seas1 were all figured as ruled and moved by personal deities4 ,as soon1 however1 as astronomy made certain the perfectly regular movements of the sun and stars1 ,theism was to that extent logically limited1 and ,atheism to that extent logically possible4 ,astronomy was strictly godless in so far as it showed the universe to move by undeviating law4 ,of course this perception is but a small part of human consciousness and daily life2 and the habit of theising1 so to speak1 easily overrode the habit of atheising4 ,but every advance in exact knowledge of ,nature1 and in the capacity for exact thought1 tended to encourage the atheistic view1 and to discredit the theistic4 ,hence the spread of ,atheism and ,agnosticism among the ,greeks in their progressive and scientific period4 ,it needed the constant reform and modification of theistic doctrine1 and later the complete arrest of all scientific thought1 to keep the theistic view of things in power and place4 ,and there had to be a revival of science and exact thinking before there could again be talk of ,atheism4 ,it follows1 however1 that all early ,atheism1 so-called1 was only the rejection of theistic ideas from some part of the business of life4 ,the ,christians were ,atheists for the ,pagan multitude1 because they rejected the only ,god-ideas which the ,pagan multitude harboured4 ,in the same way the ,christians who later scouted the worship of images of ,god 7as ,persians and ,jews had done long before7 were ,atheists for those ,christians who could only conceive of an imaged ,god4 ,prejudice has its own logic4 ,when again medical men rested more and more on inductive method and rational 7even if mistaken7 procedure1 and less and less on sorcery and invocation1 they were naturally called ,atheists1 because they excluded ,god from an important and perilous province of action4 ,logically1 the more a man is a ,theist1 the more of ,god's intervention he sees in life4 ,no man is a ,theist in all things2 but in the ages of ignorance men were theistic in most matters4 ,the kingdom of ,god1 in a practical sense1 is a sphere in which man is confessedly ignorant or impotent4 ,god's will is the name for the forces which man cannot control1 and does not understand4 ,it covers a storm1 a pestilence1 a good or bad harvest1 a stroke of luck1 but not an indigestion1 or the breaking of coal when struck by a hammer4 ,thus it is that every new advance of science1 every new explanation of a body of facts in terms of law and innate tendency1 is at first denounced as ,atheistic4 ,after the physicians came the physicists4 ,the great ,kepler1 in keeping with his idealistic method1 was so steeped in ,theism as to fancy that the planets were kept up to time by guiding angels4 ,newton1 however1 was flatly accused of ,atheism for explaining the universe in terms of the law of gravitation4 ,he had driven ,god out of the world1 it was said2 and so far as his physics went1 it was true4 ,yet he himself was an ardent ,theist2 and he even sought to make good his ,theism by the theory that matter was first without gravitation1 and that ,god added the attribute4 ,with or without this safeguard1 however1 ,newton's generalisation was sufficiently abstract to leave popular religion intact2 and practical ,theism even assimilated and gained by his science4 ,it was not till geologists began to explain the formation of the earth in terms of law and tendency that the great shock came4 ,god had hitherto been generally conceived as shaping the earth1 were it only because there was no other explanation at hand2 and1 above all1 geology clashed with ,genesis4 ,hence a much more serious resistance1 and a much more general imputation of ,atheism2 though the first geologists were mostly ,deists1 and believers in the special creation of animal life4 ,the next and the most serious shock was that given by ,darwinism1 which removed the divine idea from biology4 ,over this came the loudest outcry of all2 and the odium would have been overwhelming were it not for the number of naturalists who took up the new doctrine as a matter of special science4 ,god is now for scientific people practically removed from the sphere of all the natural sciences2 and the results attained in this connection by educated people are slowly being attained by the ill-educated2 the mass of the clergy having gradually assimilated the conclusions of biology as their predecessors did those of geology and physics4 ,the inevitable next step is the reduction to scientific order of the lore of human affairs4 ,this step was taken in a large part by ,buckle1 somewhat out of the due order of time1 just before ,darwin issued the ,origin of ,species2 and ,buckle has had on the whole more of religious enmity than even ,darwin1 though1 significantly enough1 he expressly insisted on ,theism while ,darwin kept it vaguely in the background4 ,buckle's ,theism so plainly leaves his ,deity nothing to do in human affairs that his belief1 however fervid1 could avail nothing to propitiate the class whose function is to explain history in terms of divine interference4 ,buckle1 a professed ,theist1 is for all practical purposes in the position of an ,atheist1 save in respect of his personal and emotional belief in a future state4 ,a ,god who in no way comes in contact with men1 for good or for ill1 is too thin a conception to count for much4 ,atheism1 then1 is only a development of a process of thought that began ages ago under ,polytheism4 ,it has been reached in the past by isolated thinkers2 there seem to have been ,atheists at the time of composition of parts of the ,vedas2 and each one of the great steps of scientific generalisation has been anticipated by men who were not able to bring the idea home to their own age4 ,it is the giving the step its name that creates the greatest shock4 ,and when a reformer does not even wait to have his position named for him1 does not merely undermine ,theism by a new scientific treatment of a province of fact1 but goes to the logical root of the matter and declares that the latest ,theism is at bottom no more true than the oldest1 though stripped of certain crudities--then it is that the maximum of odium is evoked4 ,the ,atheist1 in reality1 does but carry negation a step further than does the ,theist himself4 ,as ,bradlaugh used to point out1 the modern ,theist denies the existence of any type of ,god save his own4 ,whatever he may see fit to argue about the folly of denying the possibilities of the unknown1 he is quite confident that there is in the universe no ,being even remotely resembling the fabled ,zeus1 or ,moloch1 or ,osiris1 or ,venus1 or ,huitzlipochtli4 ,he is sure that these are only imaginary existences4 ,similarly1 he begins in these days to be sure that the conception of ,jahweh is as purely a dream as that of ,bacchus--the mere projection of man's own image 7however magnified or even idealised7 on the background of nescience4 ,nay1 the latter-day ,theist begins to repudiate the conceptions of the ,deists of last century3 he will have no ,great ,artificer1 no ,overruling ,providence4 ,the latest treatises expressly reject the arguments of the earlier for proving the existence of ,god4 ,thus the ,theist himself denies the existence of a thousand ,gods4#gb ,the ,atheist1 as ,mr ,bradlaugh put it1 merely denies a thousand and one4#gc ,he argues that the most advanced ,theism 7as distinguished from mere ,pantheism7 is only a modified form of the oldest2 merely a civilised fancy instead of an uncivilised2 it is always a male person in the image of man1 with passions1 emotions1 limitations1 qualities2 loving1 hating1 planning1 punishing1 rewarding2 always the magnified non-natural man of the primeval worshipper3 a conception flatly and absurdly opposed to the first philosophic requirements of the very doctrine which embodies it4 ,the ,god of ,theism must always be the analogue of the ,theist4 ,hume1 passing out of ,theism1 concluded that the ,power of the universe could only have a faint and remote analogy to human personality4 ,further reasoning forces the conclusion that it can have no conceivable analogy4 ,footnote #gb3 ,this fact is entirely ignored by ,professor ,flint in his defence of the old plea of ,foster and ,chalmers against ,mr ,holyoake in ,anti-,theistic ,theories1 ,app4 ii4 ,footnote #gc3 ,john ,mill1 after stating that his father held that concerning the origin of things nothing whatever can be known1 remarks that ,dogmatic ,atheism he looked upon as absurd2 as most of those whom the world has considered ,atheists have always done 7,autobiography1 p4 #ci74 ,it is difficult to guess what is here meant by dogmatic ,atheism2 but certainly no statement made above is more dogmatic than the proposition cited from ,mill1 senior4 ,it clearly involves rejection of all ,theism4 ,this very conclusion has actually been reached by many professed ,theists and professed ,christians4 ,professor ,max ,mller has collected instances in his lectures on ,anthropological ,religion4 ,but those thinkers1 like ,dr ,mller himself1 have always in practice relapsed into the personal conception which they philosophically affect to repudiate4 ,as ,dr ,mller puts it1 the abstract ,theism which allows to ,deity no human attributes whatever is too cold for popularity2 and ,dr ,mller is not ashamed1 after smoothing the way with a trivial fallacy1 to recur to the doctrine and terminology of the multitude1 giving the ,deity male sex because we cannot think of ,him otherwise than as male4 ,the ,atheist simply stands honestly to the conclusions which such ,theists have avowedly come to and then feebly let go4 ,this is so obvious to steady-minded people that in all philosophic ages there have been some who1 shunning the name rather than the reality of ,atheism1 have formulated the doctrine and name of ,pantheism4 ,between logical ,pantheism and ,atheism1 however1 it cannot be too strongly affirmed1 there is no difference save in name4 ,an ,atheist believes in a going and infinite universe1 the totality of which he cannot pretend to understand2 and which he flatly refuses to pretend to explain by the primitive hypothesis of a personal ,spirit4 ,he calls the universe infinite by way of avowing that he cannot conceive of its coming to an end1 in extension or in duration4 ,this recognition of endlessness represents for him the limit of thought3 and he declines to proceed to give further attributes to that1 the very naming of which leads him to the verge of the capacities of rational speech4 ,he declines to give to the going universe the name of ,god1 because that name has always been associated by nearly all men with the primitive conception of a ,personal ,being1 and it is a mere verbal stratagem to make it identical with ,universe4 ,so irresistible is the effect of the immemorial association of the name that it serves to carry nearly every professing ,pantheist back chronically into mere ,theism and ,deism1 even if he so formulates his ,pantheism to begin with as to make it answer to the name4 ,a logically consistent ,pantheist1 using the name1 would be hard to find4 ,hence the necessity1 on all grounds1 of repudiating ,pantheism as distinctly as ,theism4 ,the only consistent course is to use the privative a1 and stand to the term which means without ,theos1 without ,god-idea4 #b4 ,this preamble1 it is to be hoped1 may make it easier to appreciate the technicalities of ,bradlaugh's doctrine4 ,he was not the untrained ,atheist of the theistic imagination1 who may be confounded with a quotation from ,kant by one of the personages of ,mrs ,ward's religious vaudevilles4 ,he knew that ,kant1 reduced to plain language1 gives the whole answer to ,kant4 ,beginning as a boy to defend his ,theism in debate1 he saw it demolished by one of those born debaters who are found every now and then among the working class1 men far superior in native power and intellectual sincerity to those cultured acceptors of other men obscurities who look down on them4#gd ,but he did not trust to mother-wit1 his own or another's4 ,he read all the philosophic literature he could lay hands on2 in particular he became a close student of ,spinoza4 ,a clergyman of my acquaintance maintains that to the end he was a ,spinozist4 ,it would be less misleading to say that he employed much of the method of ,spinoza to establish the ,atheism to which ,spinoza's doctrine practically leads1#ge while always scrupulously recognising that ,spinoza formulated ,pantheism and professed only to modify the ,god-idea4 ,here are ,bradlaugh's own words3-- ,footnote #gd3 ,one of the most capable metaphysicians ,i have personally known was an inferior stone-mason4 ,footnote #ge3 ,it was not merely the orthodoxy of past ages that saw virtual ,atheism in the position of ,spinoza4 ,jacobi expressly and constantly maintained that ,spinozism and ,atheism came to the same thing4 ,a ,god who is not outside the world1 he argued1 is as good as no ,god4 ,at the same time1 he admitted that the understanding had no escape from the logical demonstration of the impossibility of a personal ,god2 and that the ,theist must throw himself overhead into the depths of faith4 ,see ,pnjer's ,history of the ,christian ,philosophy of ,religion1 ,eng4 tr41 p4 #fcb4 ,the logic of ,spinoza was directed to the demonstration of one substance with infinite attributes1 for which one substance with infinite attributes he had as equivalent the name of ',god4' ,some who have since followed ,spinoza1 have agreed in his one substance1 but have denied the possibility of infinite attributes4 ,attributes or qualities1 they urge1 are attributes of the finite or conditioned1 and you cannot have attributes of substance except as attributes of its modes4 ,you have in this distinction the division line between ,spinozism and ,atheism4 ,spinoza recognises infinite intelligence2 but ,atheism cannot conceive intelligence except in relation1 as quality of the conditioned1 and not as the essence of the absolute4 ,spinoza1 however1 denied the doctrine of freewill1 as with him all phenomena are of ,god2 so he rejects the ordinary notions of good and evil4#gf ,footnote #gf3 ,pamphlet on ,heresy3 its ,utility and ,morality4 ,a ,plea and a ,justification1 #crd4 ed4 p4 #ce4 ,the position here taken up is frequently met by an outcry against the denial of intelligence to the highest power in the universe4 ,the protest is pure irrelevance4 ,atheism denies intelligence to an infinite existence simply as it denies it whiskers and dyspepsia4 ,the point is that intelligence cannot be conceived save as a finite attribute2 every process of intelligence implying limitation and ignorance4#gg ,infinitude must transcend the state of intelligence4 ,the intelligence of omniscience is a chimra4 ,and when the ,atheist is accused of making himself the highest thing in the universe1 the plain answer is that it is precisely the ,theist1 and nobody else1 who does so4 ,that is to say1 the ,theist makes his own mind and personality the type and analogue of an ,infinite and ,eternal ,power4 ,the ,atheist admits that he can form no conception whatever of ,infinite and ,eternal ,power4 ,the ,theist rushes in where the ,atheist declines to tread4 ,and nothing is more remarkable in the modern history of religion than the retreat of all theistic argument to some form of the sub-rational position so laboriously formulated by ,kant--that the ,god-idea is established1 not by any form of reasonable inference from knowledge1 but by the moral needs and constitution of human nature4 ,that doctrine is not only the formal bankruptcy of all philosophy1 logical and psychological1 but is the stultification of every religious system which adopts it1 inasmuch as it is equally valid for each against all the rest1 besides being finally annihilated by the simple fact of persistent scientific ,atheism1 which proves that human nature does not need the sustenance of a ,god-idea1 whether in ethics1 in politics1 or in natural science4 ,the only resource of neo-,kantism against the ,atheist is the argumentum ad hominem of imputing to him atrophy of the spiritual sense2 an argument which--not to employ a simple tu quoque--may be sufficiently met either by the answer that the spiritual sense which maintains ,theism is merely the carnal and self-excited appetite for mental opium1 and that the ,hindu and the devout ,catholic have it in a much higher degree than the mere ,theist2 or by the reminder that even if there were special intellectual defect behind ,atheism1 it is1 on the ,theistic hypothesis1 a defect foreordained by ,theos1 and is as much part of human nature as the docility of the ,theist4 ,footnote #gg3 ,it is unnecessary here to put the further argument that if we infer intelligence behind the universe by human analogy1 we are bound in consistency to infer organism for the intelligence4 ,dr ,martineau in his ,modern ,materialism1 takes refuge from this argument in declamation1 treating the demand for consistency as if it had been a substantive plea4 ,all the psychological line of argument1 as put by ,kant and his adaptors1 is fully and patiently met by ,bradlaugh in his section of the ,freethinker's ,text-,book1 which deals in turn with all the main pleas of orthodoxy4 ,at the close of the examination of ,kant he writes1 with great caution and moderation3-- ,we do not feel sure that we have either fairly stated ,kant's position or efficiently replied to as much as we have stated4 ,in condensing within the limits of this ,text-,book the views of a writer so involved in his expressions as is ,immanuel ,kant1 we may have failed both in exposition and answer1 but have the consolation that we at any rate place before our readers the sources of completer knowledge4 ,but the modest deprecation was unnecessary1 the main theses of ,kant having really been sufficiently stated and met2 and the ,text-,book goes on to cite and answer the arguments of an able neo-,kantian ,theist1 who had confessedly found ,kant unsatisfying1 but who offered in his turn only the vague emotional plea as against ,kant's moral plea1 backing it up with the old paralogism of the spiritual sense4 ,that is the best that modern ,theism can say for itself2 and the argument will never convince anybody who had needed convincing4#gh ,it is further repudiated by the orthodox ,theism which claims to stand on revelation1 and which in turn is dismissed as ill-founded by more philosophic ,theism4 ,footnote #gh3 ,see an examination of the positions of ,knight1 ,davidson1 and ,kaftan1 in the ,free ,review1 ,august1 #ahid4 ,the orthodox ,theism is in this country represented by ,professor ,flint1 who when challenged by ,bradlaugh to defend his position philosophically1 took the line of answering that1 for a person possessed of a typically ,english intellect1 ,mr ,bradlaugh shows1 in dealing with ,theism1 a curious predilection for metaphysical conundrums1#gi and proceeded to meet the said conundrums in the spirit of a joker dealing with a joke4 ,the argument1 ,unless it be nonsense to affirm infinity and ,mr ,bradlaugh added to it1 why should it be nonsense to affirm infinity and the universe added to it8 is a sample of the reasoning with which ,dr ,flint satisfies the pious1 in answer to the ,atheistic doctrine that human beings are only forms of the infinite existence4 ,another of the ,professor's expedients is to say that ,god has reason but does not reason4 ,no intelligent man thinks or speaks of ,god as reasoning2 which is a severe attack1 from a ,scotch ,professor of ,divinity1 on the author of ,isaiah i4 #ah4 ,but more than passing notice is here due to one of the ,professor's remarks#hj3-- ,there is an impression in some quarters that ,atheism is advocated in a weak and unskilful manner by the chiefs of ,secularism4 ,it is an impression which ,i do not share4 ,most of the writers who are striving to diffuse ,atheism in literary circles are not to be compared in intellectual strength with either ,mr ,holyoake or ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,footnote #gi3 ,anti-,theistic ,theories1 #dth ed4 p4 #eag4 ,footnote #hj3 ,id41 pp4 #eah1 #eai4 ,such a testimony1 from such a source1 counts for rather more than the arguments emanating thence4 ,as to the assertion1 again1 that ,atheists say there is no ,god--an assertion made with surprising frequency by professed ,agnostics--it was constantly met by ,bradlaugh with the answer that the phrase has no meaning4 ,the initial difficulty is in defining the word ',god4' ,it is equally impossible to intelligently affirm or deny any proposition unless there is at least an understanding1 on the part of the affirmer or denier1 of the meaning of every word used in the proposition4 ,to me the word ',god' standing alone is a word without meaning4#ha ,footnote #ha3 ,pamphlet1 ,is there a ,god8 p4 #a4 ,it would have been more exact to say that it has too many meanings to stand for any one in particular4 ,once defined1 the alleged existence can be rationally denied1 as may the existence of a race of centaurs1 half men half horses1 or of dragons who breathe fire1 or of a being answering to the description of ,neptune1 driving a chariot on the sea1 or of ,apollo1 driving the sun4 ,all definitions of ,god which affirm personality or human attributes are open to immediate stultification by argument4 ,i have never yet heard1 wrote ,bradlaugh1 a definition of ,god from any living man1 nor have ,i read a definition by dead or living man1 that was not self-contradictory4444 ,but the moment you tell me you mean the ,god of the ,bible1 or the ,god of the ,koran1 or the ,god of any particular ,church1 ,i am prepared to tell you that ,i deny that ,god4#hb ,the person who says we have no right to deny the existence of his imagined ,god until we have been all through the universe1 has on his own showing no right to deny the existence of such ,gods as are described in the stories of ,saturn and ,thor4 ,the most paralytic ,agnosticism1 however1 like the most devout ,theism1 seems content to be as sure that these are imaginary existences1 as that ,julius ,cesar was never in ,america4 ,footnote #hb3 ,second reply to ,bishop ,magee1 p4 #ce4 ,the relation of ,atheism to ,agnosticism is thus wholly misconceived by most people who differentiate them4 ,that is to say1 the logical form of ,agnosticism--by which is not meant the self-styled ,agnosticism which resorts to the use of the name ,god--comes to the same thing as ,atheism1 since it argues that the current ,god-idea is a mere reflex of humanity1 like those which preceded it4 ,bradlaugh sometimes grew impatient 7and small wonder7 with people who wrote to him to point out that ,atheism was wrong1 and ,agnosticism right4 ,they never took the trouble to try to understand what he meant by ,atheism2 and it must with regret be said that more competent ,agnostics often make the same omission4 ,the simple-minded ,agnostic who candidly remarks1 ,i do not say there is no ,god1 but ,i haven't seen any evidence for one1 is kept in countenance by the more learned ,agnosticism which excludes from its learning the literature of modern ,atheism4 ,bradlaugh had seen the new name readily adopted by men who not only shunned the old but helped to heap on it an ignorant odium4 ,he had seen ,atheism strangely misrepresented by ,mr ,spencer in ,first ,principles2#hc he pointed out that a mere avowal of ignorance is not worth making1 and that ,agnosticism is not a philosophy at all1 unless it says1 not merely1 ,i do not know of the thing you assert1 but you do not know either--which are just the statements of ,atheism4 ,he might have added that while ,atheist1 though a term much abused by ,theists1 is a good word1 and a real doctrine-name1 ,agnostic is a bad word1 and in itself no doctrine-name at all1 since it says ,don't know1 without hinting what it is that is not known4 ,the present writer has heard a ,christian ,evidence lecturer1 a ,master of ,arts1 delight a ,christian audience by saying that the nearest ,english equivalent to ,agnostic is ,ignoramus4 ,his strategy was characteristic of his cause1 but he was dialectically within his rights4 ,footnote #hc3 ,mr ,spencer 7p4 #ca7 represents the ,atheistic theory as professing to conceive an infinite and eternal universe1 and thereby to explain it1 when the very essence of ,atheism is to insist 7as does ,mr ,spencer7 that infinity is only the negation of conceptions1 and that an infinite universe cannot be explained4 ,the best argument for the use of the name ,agnostic is simply that the word ,atheist has been so long covered with all manner of ignorant calumny that it is expedient to use a new term which1 though in some respects faulty1 has a fair start1 and will in time have a recognised meaning4 ,the case1 so stated1 is reasonable2 but there is the per contra that1 whatever the motive with which the name is used1 it is now tacked to half a dozen conflicting forms of doctrine1 varying loosely between ,theism and ,pantheism4 ,the name of ,atheist escapes that drawback4 ,its unpopularity has saved it from half-hearted and half-minded patronage4 #c4 ,another obstinate misunderstanding arises over the word ,materialism4 ,bradlaugh did not willingly or often resort to that name4 ,he seems to have preferred the more philosophic term ,monist1 or the useful word ,naturist1 which latter1 however1 he did not seek to force into common use4#hd ,but he was of course a ,materialist in the sense in which alone the word is used by those who so name themselves--a sense sufficiently different from those put upon it by most of the writers who assail them1 rationalists and supernaturalists alike4 ,the former assailants1 of course1 do the more harm4 ,philosophy has in ,england suffered peculiarly from the tendency of professed thinkers to dissociate themselves anxiously from certain doctrine-names that are ill spoken of1 and to join in the vulgar outcry against them1 rather than try judicially to estimate their significance and value4 ,of such bourgeois prudence we have examples in some of our leading modern philosophers4 ,and there is the other trouble that some men with great powers of a certain sort lack the capacity to see or grasp all the parts of a broad problem at once or in relation1 and must needs cramply lift and handle only one at a time4 ,rationalists of this kind do immense harm to the cause of rationalism1 as pietists of the same stamp do to the cause of their creed1 by elevating a small or verbal difference into a sectarian issue1 and representing other rationalists as opposed to them when there is no fundamental difference in the case4 ,when this want of sense of proportion in an able man goes with intellectual vacillation or discontinuity1 it works the maximum of frustration4 ,we have a prominent instance in ,professor ,huxley1 who has given countenance to contradictory conclusions on half-a-dozen main questions4 ,he has gratuitously encouraged the enforced use of the ,bible in public schools1 and he has wearied ,freethinkers by tediously strategic combats on worn-out topics with those who hold the very beliefs that the ,bible sets up in minds which reverence it4 ,on the question of ,materialism he has reinforced reaction by contemptuous language towards men whose teaching is identical with his own so far as that is sound2 and on the other hand he has obstructed the spread of logical ,materialism by stating crudely and without verbal circumspection a strictly materialistic doctrine4#he ,what is worse1 he has written on ,materialism as did ,lewes--without treating the term historically2 and he has at times condemned ,materialists in general without specifying any one man's teaching in detail4 ,another writer in the same category1 of whom better things might be expected1 is ,professor ,karl ,pearson4 ,that gentleman1 after the fashion of ,professor ,huxley1 has at one time pooh-poohed the criticism of theology as an attack on a ruin1 and at another has furiously cannonaded the bones of a dead theologian4 ,and recently he has gone out of his way1 in his ,grammar of ,science so-called1 to asperse ,materialism1 while teaching practically nothing else of a positive nature4 ,mr ,pearson's account of the ,materialism of ,bchner and ,bradlaugh1 superciliously given in a footnote1 is in the circumstances the worst misrepresentation of the matter now before the public4 ,he speaks of the ,materialist and modern ,materialists as substituting force for the will or spirit of the ,spiritists as a cause of motion1 and goes on to confuse the already much-confused question of necessity by playing the bull in that philosophic china-shop4 ,footnote #hd3 ,naturalist seems first to have been used in this sense by ,holbach4 ,footnote #he3 ,what we call the operations of the mind are functions of the brain and the materials of consciousness are products of cerebral activity 7,hume1 p4 #hj74 ,mr ,huxley goes on1 ,it is hardly necessary to point out that the doctrine just laid down is what is commonly called ,materialism4 ,the idea of enforcement1 he writes1 of some necessity in the order of a sequence1 remains deeply rooted in men's minds1 as a fossil from the spiritualistic explanation of will as the cause of motion4 ,this idea is preserved in association with the scientific description of motion2 and in the ,materialist's notion of force as that which necessitates certain changes or sequences of motion1 we have the ghost of the old ,spiritualism4 ,the force of the ,materialist is the will of the old ,spiritualist separated from consciousness4 ,both carry us into the region beyond our sense-impressions2 both are therefore metaphysical2 but perhaps the inference of the old ,spiritualist was1 if illegitimate1 less absurdly so than that of the modern ,materialist1 for the ,spiritualist did not infer will to exist beyond the sphere of consciousness with which he had always found will associated4 ,this passage1 fallacious from its first clause--being but an empirical attack on empiricism--becomes in the last1 with its for1 a mere misstatement4 ,the ,spiritualist did most emphatically infer will outside the sphere of consciousness with which he had always found will associated1 since he expressly assumed a consciousness without organisation--a thing he never met with4 ,it is further quite unjustifiable to assert that modern ,materialists carry outside the sphere of consciousness ideas either of will or of enforcement1 which they have always found associated with consciousness4 ,professor ,pearson is confused by words1 which are apt to be even for wise men at times what ,hobbes said they were for fools4 ,the task of philosophy is a perpetual struggle with the mazes of language2 and it is worse than idle to discuss such problems as ,mr ,pearson here gratuitously raises1 without analysing the terms which commonly contain them4 ,he uses the word necessitates as if there were no ambiguity or obscurity about its sense2 just as he constantly speaks of our not knowing the why of things1 without making a single philosophical attempt to analyse the psychological force of that profoundly important syllable4 ,what do we mean by why1 apart from matters of volition8 ,it is the old story of regarding the leaf as a flat green object which we know all about already4 ,professor ,pearson goes about to analyse the leaves of physics1 but too often takes for granted the leaves of language4 ,he has needlessly approached his task in such a fashion that it becomes much more a matter of psychology and logic than of physical science2 yet his psychology is little better than a hand-to-mouth criticism1 the mere business psychology of a physicist4 ,his distinction between philosophical and physicist doctrine 7pp4 #ic1 #id71 to the effect that one appeals to temperament but the other not1 is a sample of amateur psychology grievous to consider4 ,and while discrediting certain doctrines in physics1 real or imaginary1 on the bare ground that they are metaphysical1 he yet rounds the whole of his own doctrine to an expressly metaphysical account of the nature of scientific knowledge4 ,there is1 of course1 no real dividing-line between metaphysics and sense-knowledge2 what the physicists rightly protest against is just bad metaphysic1 spiritist metaphysic4 ,but when a physicist himself plunges at every page of his book into more or less gratuitous metaphysic1 and yet assumes to dispose of other men's doctrine 7falsified at that7 by calling it metaphysical1 he goes beyond fallacy into what has been considerately described1 in a factious politician1 as moral paradox4 ,as to the charge against the ,materialists--whom ,mr ,pearson in another passage typifies by ,bchner and ,bradlaugh--it is practically untrue on one head1 that of force being the cause of motion2 and quite inconclusive on another1 that of enforcement and necessity4 ,mr ,pearson is uncandid enough to cite no passage on either head1 and ,i know not whether the latter is not as inaccurate as the other4 ,even if1 however1 a ,materialist should talk of motion as a necessity of matter1 it would amount to nothing to impugn him without showing what he conceives necessity to be4 ,the word is a plexus of connotations2 and to identify it out-of-hand with the conceptions of spiritists is a course more worthy of a theologian than of a man of science4 ,mr ,pearson's way of talking of enforcement1 as if the word conveyed any fixed scientific sense whatever1 is a commission of the very offence he unjustly charges on the school of ,bchner4 ,but as to the statement that ,bchner and ,bradlaugh are wont to speak of force as the cause of motion1 it is really not true4 ,bchner in his typical work1 ,force and ,matter1 does in one passage write somewhat unguardedly of the force inherent in matter--i4e4 in the something empirically known which we call matter--as being the cause 7,ursache7 of the activities which are the phenomena of the said matter2#hf but this momentary verbal laxity is not at all the burden of his treatise4 ,it is in any case much more pardonable than the gross contradictions which ,mr ,pearson quotes from the writings of ,professors ,thomson and ,tait1 collaborators in special physics2 it is paralleled by phrases which he cites from ,huxley1 ,ngeli1 ,spencer1 and ,weismann2 and it is much less serious than the inconsistencies and fallacies into which ,mr ,pearson himself repeatedly falls4 ,even while repudiating the notion above cited as to cause 7which he does without reference to the well-known discussions1 from ,hume onward1 as to the force of the term71 he writes 7p4 #ceb73 444 ,we still shall not find in 'force1' as either the cause of motion1 or the cause of change in motion1 anything more than that routine of perceptions which 444 is the scientific definition of causation4 ,with this account of causation ,bchner and ,bradlaugh1 and everybody else who has appreciated the effect of ,hume's reasoning1 would agree1 save in so far as the phrasing falls into the very crudities of expression which mar ,hume's pioneer argument4 ,mr ,pearson writes that we sadly need separate terms for the routine of sense-impressions1 yet he never hesitates either to use a general term loosely or to disparage an unpopular man for doing the same thing4 ,he says of material particles 7p4 #cbg73 ,all we can scientifically say is1 that the cause of their motion is their relative position2 but this is no explanation of why they move in that position4 ,this use of cause is really looser than ,bchner's1 and is not scientific at all4 ,the use of why--as if we had a clear conception of physical why as distinct from that of cause--is mere verbal bungling4 ,footnote #hf3 ,section on ,the ,value of ,matter 7,werth des ,stoffs71 ,eng4 tr41 p4 #fh4 ,again1 in finally formulating the first general law of motion1 ,mr ,pearson writes 7p4 #cdb73 ,every corpuscle1 whether of ether or gross 'matter1' influences the motion of the adjacent ether corpuscles4 ,here the word influences raises 7as he elsewhere admits by implication7 the same problem as the word causes1 so that his own most deliberate phraseology incurs the objection he makes to another man's incidental expression4 ,as to essentials1 ,mr ,pearson says what ,bchner does4 ,he ostensibly regards matter as that which moves1 confusing the definition1 however1 by saying that we can conceive forms of motion as also moving4 ,this is really going far to set up a dualistic notion analogous to that which he imputes to ,materialists2 and he will probably see on reflection that his idea needs careful re-statement4 ,the essential thing is that the scientific conception of matter excludes the idea of a primary dissociation between force 7or life7 and matter1 and their union at a point of time by a spiritual ,creator's volition4 ,the old dualistic doctrine of inertia1 which is so re-stated by ,mr ,pearson 7p4 #cdd7 as to entirely alter its meaning1 is still commonly cited as establishing the dualistic or spiritualistic position4 ,the dualistic doctrine as to matter is put and maintained by the ,rev4 ,mr ,westerby in his debate with ,bradlaugh 7p4 #bg7 thus3 ,force is always external to the matter that is moved4 ,the effect of ,mr ,pearson's account of ,materialism is to assert that that is virtually the teaching of ,materialists so-called4 ,but it certainly is not4 ,the slipperiness and elasticity of language are such that a single word may set up a fallacious implication2 and the word cause is as slippery and elastic as any4 ,but the obvious and avowed purpose of ,bchner's book is to repudiate and overthrow the dualistic notion of the universe4 ,he expressly and repeatedly affirms that matter and motion1 matter and force1 are inseparable in thought4 ,the conception of dead matter1 he writes1 is a mere abstraction4 ,the investigation of motion is the peculiar task of modern science1 and her province embraces everything that can be traced back to motion4 ,matter in motion or capable of motion is or must be her first and last word4#hg ,further1 ,bchner neither prefers to call himself a ,materialist nor represents science as propagandist4 ,science1 he writes1 is not idealistic1 nor spiritualistic1 nor materialistic1 but simply natural4#hh ,as to the term ,materialist1 he remarks that since the first publication of this book1 the term has become to some extent current1 and at every fitting and unfitting opportunity the designation has been dragged in neck and heels1 unsuited though it is to the defenders of a philosophy which regards matter1 force1 and mind1 not as separate entities1 but only as different sides or various phenomenal modes of the same primal or basic principle4#hi ,similarly ,bradlaugh invariably spoke of one existence1 of which all phenomena are modes1 expressly declaring that we can only know phenomena2 which was his way of saying that we can never know why in the sense in which theologians claim to do so4 ,at no time did he speak of force as a separate entity causing motion4 ,footnote #hg3 ,section on ,motion1 end4 ,footnote #hh3 ,section on the ,value of ,matter 7,werth des ,stoffs71 end4 ,footnote #hi3 ,section on the ,value of ,matter 7,werth des ,stoffs71 end4 ,after speaking of ,materialists as habitually calling force the cause of motion1 ,mr ,pearson loosely represents ,bchner and the followers of ,bradlaugh as finding mechanical laws inherent in the things themselves2 and he declares that this materialism collapses under the slightest pressure of logical criticism4 ,he has in reality passed upon it no logical criticism whatever1 his frequent lack of lucidity becoming at this place sheer darkness4 ,what he has said on the point has been wholly metaphysical2 but his metaphysic1 ill done as it is1 perfectly justifies the doctrine he finally and irrelevantly contemns4 ,in the necessarily limited verifiable correspondence of our perceptual experience with our conceptual model1 he writes 7p4 #cec71 lies the basis of our mechanical description of the universe4 ,a shorthand rsum of our conceptual experience is repeatedly specified by him as the gist or purpose of science2 but when he wants to discredit anybody else's doctrine1 it suffices him to call it just such a shorthand rsum or dismiss it as metaphysical4 ,and the arbitrariness of his verdicts becomes apparent once for all when he writes3 ,it is perhaps needless to add that the gifted lady who speaks of secularists as holding the 'creed of ,clifford and ,charles ,bradlaugh' has failed to see the irreconcilable divergence between the inventor of 'mind-stuff' and the follower of ,bchner4 ,that is to say1 ,mr ,pearson applauds or distinguishes ,clifford for perhaps the loosest formula ever put forward in the name of ,materialism1 but still a formula not contradictory of ,bchner's and ,bradlaugh's monism1 while disparaging ,bchner and ,bradlaugh for their ,materialism4 ,it will be clear to a logical reader that the conception of mind-stuff 7shorthand with a vengeance67 is only a random materialistic suggestion--not an infrequent thing with ,clifford--but still a suggestion quite reconcilable with materialistic monism4 ,bchner writes that all yet future forms1 including reasoning beings1 potentially or in capacity1 must have been contained in that primal world-mist out of which our solar system was gradually evolved4#ij ,bradlaugh always defined his one existence as including all that is necessary for the happening of all phenomena4 ,mr ,huxley--whom ,mr ,pearson does not asperse as a ,materialist--has expressed himself in terms almost identical with ,bchner's4#ia ,to speak of mind-stuff as being part of the primal world-mist is merely to suggest a hopeless conceptual mode of thought over and above the most exact shorthand to which words can well reduce the inferences of science as to cosmic history4 ,that ,clifford would have approved of either the tone or the judgment of his successor in the matter one may take leave to doubt4 ,his temperament was different from that of ,mr ,pearson1 who supplies in his own person the disproof of his own primitive doctrine that scientific opinions have nothing to do with temperament4 ,footnote #ij3 ,section on the ,value of ,matter 7,werth des ,stoffs71 end4 ,footnote #ia3 ,see his ,critiques and ,addresses1 p4 #cjf4 ,the unpleasing fact is that personal interest and prejudice have been the main factors in establishing the ill-repute of the term ,materialist4 ,it arose very much as the term ,freethinker arose1 by way of broadly marking off a new tendency in active thought4 ,the ,freethinkers1 so-called1 simply claimed to follow their reason freely1 where religious people were tied down to their traditional creed4 ,the ,materialists simply emphasized the new and spreading conception--at once ,pantheistic and ,atheistic--that the laws of things were to be looked for in the constitution of things1 and not in any spiritual volition of a superior being or beings4 ,they opposed the notion of a primal distinction between matter and the energies and activities thereof4 ,spiritism was for them the sum-total of all the guesses and hallucinations of ignorance2 and their contrasted ,materialism was imputed to them as a vileness by the types of mind which found elevation in the doctrine of blood sacrifice and ritual theophagy4 ,scientific disinterestedness was bracketed with grossness of life1 and this often by pietists as gross in life as in thought4 ,every ,spiritist who went a certain way in ,materialism was libelled in turn2 but the semi-,materialist could always indemnify himself by libelling those who went further4#ib ,newton's theistic theory of matter is as absurd a one as any man of science ever framed2 but he has earned by it the tenderness of later theists1 while his fame secures the lenity of later physicists4 ,thus some guarded rationalists who pounce like weasels on every slip1 real or fancied1 of professed ,freethinkers1 honey their voices to speak of halfway thinkers whose slips are gross1 open1 palpable4 ,they have their social reward4 ,bradlaugh and ,bchner have taken a different course4 ,finding the term ,materialism in itself unphilosophic1 they have still looked to the essential point of its broad historic significance4 ,it marks on the side of physical science1 from ,la ,mettrie onwards1 the repudiation of theological methods2 and though they would not have coined the name for themselves1 they have not repudiated it1 but have instead sought to free the doctrine behind it from the laxities and crudities which belong to all new departures of thought1 and which abound in the writings alike of ,idealists and of some critical pragmatists in a greater degree than in those of the pioneers they attack4 ,bchner and ,bradlaugh knew that by accepting an unpopular name they incurred the hostility alike of blockheads1 of zealots1 and of the scientists who look anxiously to their status2 but they took their risks4 ,bradlaugh had constantly to explain that by matter--if he used the term at all1 which he preferred not to do--he meant simply total existence3 all that is necessary for the happening of all phenomena4 ,yet men still speak of him as saying that dead matter gives rise to life and mind4 ,it will become clear to a thoughtful reader1 after a little reflection1 that under ,bradlaugh's definition there is no assertion of the cosmic priority of any one mode of existence4 ,he merely insisted that there should be an end of the fantasy of mind or spirit or will1 calling a tangible universe into existence--a fantasy into which anti-,materialists are always relapsing4 ,philosophically speaking1 out-and-out ,spiritism#ic and strict ,materialism come to exactly the same thing1 since each predicates a going1 infinite universe1 with one pervading infinite energy2 an energy which one side chooses to call by the primitive name of spirit4 ,as ,bchner writes3 ,the whole struggle yet proceeding between ,materialism and ,spiritualism1 still more that between ,materialism and ,idealism1 must appear futile and groundless to him who has once attained to the knowledge of the untenability of the dualistic theory which always underlies it4 ,in the same way1 as we have seen1 strict ,pantheism--which is the inevitable end of rational ,theism--comes logically to the same thing as strict ,atheism1 the only difference being the verbal one set up by the ,pantheist's adherence to the primitive name of ,theos4 ,footnote #ib3 ,a refinement on the old simplicity is reached when we find ,mr ,huxley sneering at ,materialists whose teaching is really more circumspect than his own1 and ,mr ,harrison in turn execrating in the name of religion the medical materialism of ,mr ,huxley1 where the latter is simply putting forward as an original speculation a well-established pathological fact4 ,footnote #ic3 ,this is1 of course1 a widely different doctrine from what is commonly known as ,spiritualism3 the belief in the perpetuity of human personalities1 in a bodily form1 without other bodily qualities4 ,in this connection it is difficult to deal with the position taken up by ,mrs ,besant1 the valued friend of ,bradlaugh and of the present writer4 ,mrs ,besant has greatly perplexed her old friends by professing to repudiate the ,materialism she formerly taught1 on the score that it gives dead matter as the source of life and mind4 ,they can only conclude that she has undergone a psychological change which affects her knowledge of her former positions4 ,we have seen that ,bradlaugh's and ,bchner's teaching was fundamentally different from what she represents materialism to be2 and there is no other school of ,materialism in question4 ,the strange thing is that ,mrs ,besant herself translated from the ,german1 carefully and well1 ,bchner's ,force and ,matter 7as also his ,mind in ,animals71 in which the doctrine is flatly contrary to her present account of it4 ,bchner even uses unguarded language--as it is very difficult to avoid doing--in insisting on the perpetual activity of matter4 ,matter1 he writes1 is not dead1 inanimate1 or lifeless1 but is in motion everywhere1 and is full of most active life4 ,bradlaugh more warily pointed to the danger of giving ambiguity to the term life1 which is properly the name for the broad classes of the phenomena of plants and animals4 ,but he never taught or fancied that certain of the mere forms of existence in themselves originated other forms of existence4 ,by matter he did not mean to specialise rocks any more than protoplasm or ether4 ,a more defensible argument has been used by ,mrs ,besant and others against ,materialism3 the argument1 namely1 that it is impossible to think of a transition from physical action to the phenomenon of thought4 ,a number of physicists--among them ,tyndall--can be quoted as declaring that there is a great gulf fixed between molecular motion and the state of consciousness4 ,tyndall once laid it down that the demand for logical continuity between molecular forces and the phenomena of consciousness is a rock on which ,materialism must inevitably split whenever it pretends to be a complete philosophy of the human mind4 ,but this loud-sounding affirmation on analysis resolves itself into the popular rhetoric to which ,tyndall was too much given4 ,what is meant by a complete philosophy of the human mind8 ,if ,materialism asserts that certain constant correlations remain nevertheless mysterious1 it does not thereby cease to be a complete philosophy of the human mind4 ,the statement that our whole knowledge of causation is just a knowledge of correlation is part of the complete philosophy of the human mind--that is1 of the systematic and exact statement of our tested knowledge4 ,to say that human faculty is strictly limited is not an avowal of incompleteness in the philosophy which says it4 ,and as a matter of fact1 the statement as to the discontinuity between molecular forces and the phenomena of consciousness is a statement which1 so far as it has any meaning1 stands to be made of all other correlations of phenomena4 ,when ,i strike a match on the box1 ,i evoke the phenomena of light and heat4 ,in scientific terms1 ,i set up by friction a chemical action quite discontinuous with motion in mass1 and this in turn sets up a wave-motion in the hypothetical ether 7of which ,i can form no conception7 representing light4 ,materialism no more splits on the one rock than on the other4#id ,the one special difficulty as to consciousness is a difficulty that affects all philosophies alike3 the difficulty that it is consciousness that must analyse consciousness4 ,neither by predicating mind-stuff nor by alleging soul is that difficulty evaded4 ,there still remains the admitted correlation between brain-and-nerve action and thought2 and that correlation is on all-fours with those of physics so-called4 ,as the case is put by ,dr ,john ,drysdale 7after reasonings to an apparently different effect71 ,it may be held proved in physiology that for every feeling1 every thought1 every volition1 a correlative change takes place in the nerve matter2 and it is scientific to say with him that the phenomena of mind as a function require no further explanation than the conditions of those changes4 ,when ,dr ,ferrier writes that no purely physiological explanation can explain the phenomena of consciousness1 unless he simply means that there a psychological or logical element 7not ,spiritism7 must enter into the explanation1 he is merely stumbling in the old way over the word explain4 ,what is explanation8 ,as ,professor ,pearson laboriously shows1 and as ,hume showed long ago1 all that takes place in our explanations of physical phenomena is recognition of a routine of sense experience4 ,the theological habit has given men a pseudo-conception of explanation2 and though they have learned to dispense with that process in physics1 they still confusedly demand it in biology and psychology4 ,but the very men who at one time talk of mystery and gulf between matter and mind1 at other times recognise that the mystery is no more and no less in one correlation than in another4 ,thus ,tyndall1 who elsewhere verbalises against ,materialism1 after describing the development of the human organism from the egg1 writes3 ,matter ,i define as that mysterious thing by which all that is accomplished4 ,well1 that is modern ,materialism or nothing2 the ,materialism of ,bchner and of ,bradlaugh4 ,the mere doctrinal or pragmatic expressions of single physicists count for nothing4 ,as ,bradlaugh put it in his debate with the ,rev4 ,mr ,westerby1 it is the cases of ,ferrier that count1 not his opinions4 ,the best observer is not the best formulator or thinker2 and the art or science of logical speech is not gratuitously thrown in with either mathematical or artistic faculty4 ,to turn the data of science into philosophy is a specialist's work4 ,footnote #id3 ,tyndall answered to this argument that the flash of light from the union of oxygen and hydrogen is an affair of consciousness1 the objective counterpart of which is a vibration4 ,it is a flash only by our interpretation4 ,but that is no answer at all4 ,tyndall never went into the psychological problem fully4 ,any one who desires to obtain in a short time by dint of close attention a notion of the difficulty and complexity of the argument as between monism and dualism cannot do better than read the report of the debate between ,bradlaugh and the ,rev4 ,mr ,westerby on the notion of ,soul4 ,mr ,westerby1 though he wrote some of his papers in advance instead of meeting his opponent's case1 was decidedly the ablest of the clerics with whom ,bradlaugh debated2 and in his hands the orthodox cause suffered as little as might be4 ,the reader may or may not in the end decide to stand with ,bradlaugh1 but he will certainly have learned to see the folly of the cheap journalistic dismissal of an undefined ,materialism as exploded1 and the error of the notion that ,bradlaugh was unqualified to handle philosophic and scientific issues1 or that he was a mere public speaker1 unskilled in dialectic4 ,finally1 as to the meaningless expression that things happen by chance1 he of course never used it4 ,of any person who puts this phrase in the mouths of ,atheists1 it may be said at once that he is unfit to discuss a philosophical question4 ,he either does not understand what he discusses1 or is wilfully untruthful4 ,the phrase happens by chance--as was long ago recognised by ,hume1 after he had himself fallen into the ordinary meaningless use of the term--only means either happens without our intending it1 or happens without our being able to trace the cause4 ,it is significant only for everyday purposes1 and in philosophy can only serve to set up a chimera4 ,all events must be conceived as having a cause1 in the ordinary sense of the term4 ,the ,atheist certainly avows that he can only trace causation a small way in the universe2 but he does not for a moment suppose that he would be giving an explanation of any event if he referred it to ,chance4 ,his doctrine is that the universe and its total energy must be conceived as infinite and eternal2 that in physics the question ,why8 resolves itself into the question ,how8 and that the business of science is just to give the answer as fully as may be4 #d4 ,while ,bradlaugh was thus an exact thinker and reasoner1 he distinguished himself above all the rationalists of his time by the energy and persistence with which he sought to bring his philosophy home to the popular mind4 ,he was fundamentally a reformer1 and he could not consent1 as so many do1 to keep silence on errors of creed1 so called1 and resist merely errors of action4 ,for him1 creed was action1 and action creed4 ,he was so thoroughly a man of action that he must needs act on his conviction in matters of opinion1 so called1 as in anything else4 ,it was no doubt the record and the result of the ,french ,revolution that moved the majority of political reformers for two generations to keep their own counsel on religious matters4 ,paine has been expressly charged with hindering the cause of democratic politics by identifying himself also with the cause of ,freethinking4 ,to a man like ,bradlaugh such an objection counted for nothing4 ,it was not merely that he saw how profoundly religion reacts on life1 how creed shapes conduct1 and how the current religion must always tend to support old political doctrine as against new4 ,he took his course instinctively as well as reasoningly4 ,that a doctrine is false was to him a reason for exposing it as such2 and though as a utilitarian he held that truth is the best policy1 he did not wait for the demonstration before choosing his course4 ,he had in fact that love of truth for its own sake which is the inspiration of all scientific progress2 but he had it without restriction1 or at least with as little restriction as can well be4 ,no man can be equally interested in all inquiries2 and none can help thinking some unprofitable2 but ,bradlaugh was limited only by his tastes1 never by the common opinion that the spread of truth is inexpedient4 ,he would give facilities for all conscientious truth-seeking whatever1 barring only random disclosures of sensational facts with no better motive than sensation1 or with no likelihood of edification to balance the likelihood of the reverse4 ,as to the great themes of belief and discussion in all ages1 he simply could not think that human welfare is promoted by maintaining beliefs known to be false4 ,he was a democrat in religion as in politics4 ,if truth was good for him1 it must be equally good for the multitude1 so far as it was possible to enlighten them4 ,they must needs be enlightened by language within reach of their capacity2 but while he would make matters plain for them1 he would in no wise consent to garble and conceal what he held to be the truth4 ,with the many people who either care nothing whether current beliefs are false or true1 or think it desirable that they should be false1 he had no sympathy4 ,it seemed to him that if anything was worth investigating1 the most serious beliefs of the mass of the human race must be2 and the idea that the mass could be helped or raised by keeping them deluded was to him morally repugnant and sociologically false4 ,my object1 he writes in his pamphlet on ,heresy1 is to show that the civilisation of the mass is in proportion to the spread of heresy amongst them2 that its effect is seen in an exhibition of manly dignity and self-reliant effort which is utterly unattainable amongst a superstitious people4 ,and all acts of prayer and religious propitiation were to him survivals of superstition4 ,my plea is1 he went on1 that modern heresy1 from ,spinoza to ,mill1 has given brain-strength and dignity to every one it has permeated--that the popular propagandists of this heresy1 from ,bruno to ,carlile1 have been the true redeemers and saviours1 the true educators of the people4 ,the redemption is yet only at its commencement1 the education only lately begun1 but the change is traceable already2 as witness the power to speak and write1 and the ability to listen and read1 which have grown amongst the masses during the last hundred years4 ,against the popular thesis that ,christianity has achieved these things1 he brought to bear in debate and journalism not only his knowledge of ,christian and ,church history in general1 but his constant experience of the influence of orthodoxy in checking betterment in ,england4 ,the ,state ,church has been an invaluable object-lesson for ,freethinkers4 ,as regards the claim for ,christian ,nonconformity1 the answer might run3 ,if a mainly ecclesiastical or sectarian ,dissent has had so much good political result1 what political1 social1 and intellectual results might not come of a thoroughgoing rationalist ,dissent8 ,it would take too long to set forth even the gist of ,bradlaugh's polemic against the ,christian claim that the ,christian creed has been a force for progress2 but those who care to know his method and his case may find it tersely set forth in the latter sections of his ,notes on ,christian ,evidences in criticism of ,the ,oxford ,house ,papers1 his pamphlet on ,humanity's ,gain from ,unbelief1 and his debate with the ,rev4 ,marsden ,gibson on that thesis4 ,these are late statements of the case he put forward during the whole of his public life2 and it was on the strength of such arguments1 and of his theoretic ,atheism1 that he was able to create in ,england an energetic and intelligent party1 the active adherents of which were and are mostly working-men4 ,secularism is the not inappropriate name1 for general purposes1 of the general doctrine of ,bradlaugh and his adherents4 ,that name1 however1 is attended by the drawback that the man who first employed it1 ,mr ,george ,jacob ,holyoake1 is wont so to define it as to deprive it of specific meaning for the propagandists of ,freethought1 while showing no reason why it should be adopted by anybody else4 ,mr ,holyoake--himself an ,atheist--argues1 in effect1 that ,secularism properly consists in simply attending to secular things2 and that it is not committed to any hostile attitude towards theology4 ,on that view1 every political club is a secular organisation and an exponent of ,secularism4 ,bradlaugh always argued1 and nearly all ,secularists have always held with him1 that this use of the term reduces it to nullity1 since it makes every ,christian a ,secularist in so far as he attends to secular affairs on business principles4 ,there is1 of course1 an important truth implied in this way of speaking2 but it is a truth irrelevant to the issue4 ,if we are merely to discuss secular things1 there is no need for any ,secularist organisation4 ,secularists commonly act freely--or as freely as they are allowed to--with their religious neighbours in political and other public matters4 ,but if a distinct doctrine of the uselessness of sacred machinery and theory is to be maintained2 if it is to be shown that secular action is properly co-extensive with human affairs1 then these views must be upheld by showing that all theology is delusive4 ,a man who believes in the existence of a personal and governing ,god1 broadly speaking1 cannot be induced to keep theological procedure out of his life4 ,there may be many ,indifferentists who act as ,secularists without caring at all to discuss the religious question2 and there may even be a few of the ,lucretian ,theists assumed by ,mr ,holyoake2 but none of the ,indifferentists and not many of the ,lucretian ,theists will be induced to join in a ,secularist propaganda1 even on ,mr ,holyoake's lines4 ,bradlaugh fully recognised that the formulated principles of ,secularism do not directly commit the subscriber to ,atheism4 ,i think1 he avowed1 that the consequence of ,secularism is ,atheism1 and ,i have always said so2 but he added that clearly all ,secularists are not ,atheists4#ie ,the tendency has inevitably been1 however1 to identify ,secularism with ,atheism4 ,and as ,mr ,holyoake has himself all along lectured on anti-theological lines1 his definition has commonly seemed to ,secularists to be wholly in the air1 though his personal merits and practical services to ,freethought are felt to outweigh minor infirmities of reasoning and judgment4 ,whether the name1 thus capriciously defined by its framer1 will continue to be employed by those who repudiate that definition1 remains to be seen4 ,it is not unlikely that new ,freethought organisations1 finding the word ,secularism defined in cyclopdias on the authority and in the language of ,mr ,holyoake1 will seek some other label4 ,but the label in itself was a good one2 and the propaganda of ,bradlaugh recommended it to many thousands of his countrymen4 ,footnote #ie3 ,debate with ,dr ,m',cann1 p4 #ag4 ,that his open adherents were chiefly working-men1 was a result of the economic situation1 which determines so many of the phases of culture-history4 ,it is notorious that among the upper and middle classes there is a great amount of disbelief in the current religion2 but among the upper and middle classes there is almost no organised effort to discredit the creed of the ,churches4 ,the small societies which muster under the banner of ,ethical ,culture1 little as they are given to speaking out on matters of creed1 receive little support4 ,it is often said1 with idle malice1 that ,bradlaugh's adherents were mostly working-men because he was not qualified to appeal to educated people2 but even if that were true1 it would not explain how it comes about that other and better-educated rationalists have not set up an organisation of middle-class and upper-class people4 ,the explanation is mainly economic4 ,as a matter of fact1 ,bradlaugh had hundreds of educated admirers among the middle and even some among the upper classes2 and in ,france and elsewhere he was popular among the classes1 as at home among the masses4 ,but the open avowal of unbelief in ,great ,britain has always meant1 and will long mean1 for one thing1 a certainty of pecuniary loss1 and a certain measure of ostracism to professional men and men of business4 ,let a merchant1 or doctor1 or shopkeeper1 declare himself an active ,atheist1 and he will find it appreciably harder to get customers or clients4 ,a man of established position and personal popularity may fairly hold his own while avowing scepticism in general intercourse2 but even he will incur calumny and loss if he takes trouble to spread his opinions4 ,men in a small way of business are almost sure to suffer heavily2 and it is still no uncommon thing for clerks and others to lose their situations on the simple ground of so-called infidelity4 ,in the more bigoted districts the risk is overwhelming4 ,a shopkeeper in ,belfast told the present writer that when he joined the ,secularists there1 his business1 formerly brisk1 fell off so rapidly and so ruinously that in a short time he had to give it up4 ,nothing1 apparently1 can make the majority of ,christians1 who claim that theirs is a religion of love1 realise that to seek to injure an ,atheist for his opinions is an unworthy course4 ,mere ,nonconformity has incurred1 and still incurs1 a certain measure of penalty4 ,but ,nonconformists seem none the less ready to inflict it in turn on others4 ,obviously1 the number of middle-class people who can defy these risks is small4 ,it is only among workmen1 employed in large numbers by capitalists who do not take the trouble to inquire about their opinions1 that the avowal of ,secularism is safe4 ,even workmen1 of course1 are sometimes made to suffer in pocket1 and often from slander in their own class2 but they suffer less than the trading and professional classes4 ,hence it is that straightforwardness and sincerity abound more among them4 ,it is not that the poor have from birth any occult virtues denied to the rich1 but that the economic conditions make for sincerity and openness among wage-earners more than among earners of fees and profits4 ,it is difficult to guess what ,john ,mill meant when he said that the workers in this country1 though they esteemed truthfulness1 are not as a body truthful4 ,if he meant that they are capable of garbling facts in their own interest in matters of industry1 he was only charging them with what may be charged equally against shopkeepers1 stockbrokers1 commission agents1 traders1 doctors1 lawyers1 politicians1 and clergymen4 ,it belongs to the nature of the case that in the important matter of loyalty to conviction1 the workers are by reason of circumstances superior to the other classes4 ,the upper classes1 though1 like each of the others1 they include candid and sincere men and women1 are as much coerced by social as are the middle classes by commercial considerations4 ,the fear of being charged with bad form1 and of being cold-shouldered1 does among the rich what fear of money loss and calumny does elsewhere4 ,idle men and women1 whose main occupation is an artificial social intercourse1 are little likely to battle for heretical opinions1 even if they have been thoughtful enough to form any4 ,dissimulation and conformity are too much in the way of their daily life4 ,the business of systematic ,freethought propaganda has thus been mainly left to the class with least leisure and least money2 and the newspaper press naturally reflects the balance of property and status4 ,newspapers are produced in the way of business1 and only paying doctrine is put forward by them4 ,it is notorious that the majority of journalists are unbelievers2 but capital buys pens as it buys hands and goods2 and many pressmen have disparaged ,bradlaugh's opinions as peculiar1 or worse1 who themselves held these opinions1 and privately regarded the current orthodoxy as folly4 ,secularism in general has thus been boycotted1 and a common repute of vulgarity and illiteracy has been cast upon it1 often by people who ostentatiously applaud the ,salvation ,army1 with its incredible buffooneries and its reliance on the most abject ignorance4 ,bradlaugh's artisan followers1 as a matter of fact1 have for the most part been the pick of their class for intelligence and energy4 ,that their culture was not equal to their zeal and their sincerity was no reproach to them4 ,they did their honest best2 and from ,bradlaugh they always had his4 ,himself a careful student of all the questions involved in the general issue between rationalism and orthodoxy1 he constantly urged on his followers the necessity of keeping their minds open and their judgment active4 ,mrs ,besant has told in her ,autobiography how earnestly he impressed on her the need of the most thoroughgoing and ever-renewed preparation for the great work of instructing the people4 ,but inasmuch as the people in the mass can only begin with the main or fundamental questions of religion--those of revelation and inspiration1 ,god1 ,providence1 prayer1 miracles1 morality1 atonement1 and immortality--his platform work as a ,freethinker dealt mainly with these topics4 ,and inasmuch as the mass of the people are at once more sincere and more logical in their relation of opinion to conduct than most of the specialists who occupy themselves with the literary analysis of the ,old and ,new ,testaments1 ,bradlaugh's work struck at the roots of orthodoxy wherever he went4 ,he argued that if the ,old ,testament be demonstrably false in its history and barbarous in its morals1 the idea of inspiration in the theological sense disappears1 and the ,hebrew books become mere ancient literature1 forged or otherwise1 and wholly disentitled to be made a textbook for mankind4 ,though a good ,hebrew scholar1 he did not profess to rest his case on the textual analysis of the higher criticism4 ,for him the sacred book was discredited as such by its own contents1 however composed2 and he made it his business to attack them as an imposition on human ignorance and credulity4 ,his standpoint was thus put by himself3-- ,there is no great honour or pleasure1 although there is much wearisome toil1 in gathering the materials for proving that ,genesis nearly always blunders in its attempts at statements of fact2 that it is repeatedly chronologically incorrect1 and in the chronologies of its principal versions utterly irreconcilable2 that copyists1 through ignorance1 carelessness1 or design1 have in many places incorrectly transcribed the text2 that the translators1 according to their respective creeds1 vary in their interpretations of different momentous passages2 that the ,hebrew language itself has been altered by the addition of vowel points1 by means of which a sense is often given entirely different from the original intention2 and that the majority of the ancient versions contain different and contradictory readings of various important verses4 ,but it is absolutely necessary to do all this in a form accessible to the general reader so long as the ,church persists1 under statutory sanction and indorsement1 in its teaching to the people from their early childhood1 that this ,bible is ,god's ,word1 free from blemish4 ,genesis is forced upon the child's brain as ,god's ,word by nurse and pedagogue1 and the mode of thinking of the scholar is in consequence utterly warped in favour of the divinity of the book before his reason has opportunity to mature for its examination4 ,if the book only had claimed for it that which may be claimed for all books--namely1 in part or whole to represent the genius1 education1 and manners of the people and the times from whom and which it issued1 then it might fairly be objected by supporters of the ,bible that the tone of criticism here adopted is not of the highest order1 and that the petty cavillings about misplaced names1 misspelled words1 incorrect dates and numbers1 and geographical errors1 etc41 are hardly worthy the attention of a serious student4 ,but as the ,bible is declared to be the revelation and representative of perfect intelligence to the whole human family2 as it is placed by the whole of its preachers immeasurably above all other books1 with a claim to dominate1 and if necessary to overturn1 the teachings of all other books2 as it is alleged that the ,bible is free from the errors of thought and fact more or less found in every other book2 and as it is by ,act of ,parliament declared to be a criminal offence in this country for any person to deny this book to be ,god's ,holy ,word1 it is not only a right1 but it becomes an unavoidable duty on the part of a ,freethinking critic to present as plainly as possible to the notice of the people every weakness of the text1 however trivial1 that may serve to show that the ,bible1 or any portion of it1 is fallible1 that it is imperfect1 that so far from being above all books1 it is often below them as a mere literary production4#if ,footnote #if3 ,preface to ,the ,bible3 ,what it is1 #ahfe4 ,to such a declaration as this all protests against ,bible-smashing are irrelevant1 by whomsoever made4 ,made by literary humanists1 they ignore the practical situation4 ,it is one thing to recognise that the ,bible is a profoundly interesting body of ancient literature1 illustrating for all time the manner of growth of a cult2 it is another thing to deal with the pretensions of that cult to retain to-day the status secured for it by all manner of sinister means in bygone ages4 ,coming from clergymen1 the protest is worse than irrelevant4 ,the most advanced of them are still1 from the rationalist point of view1 in the position of using the ,bible as a fetish2 and men who as public teachers regularly resort to a primitive priestly literature for sanctions and cues to current conduct have no right whatever to protest against those who show the people what the sacrosanct literature really is4 ,bible-smashing is the necessary checkmate to ,bible-worship4 ,when the literary humanists get the clergy to stop cultivating and trading on ,bibliolatry1 it will be time for them to object to the exposure of the ,bible4 ,but by that time there will be no occasion for the objection4 ,bradlaugh did not go about lecturing against witch-burning or the ,koran4 ,he attacked an aggressive and endowed superstition2 and to asperse him as being himself aggressive is about as idle as to charge ,mr ,gladstone with aggressiveness against ,beaconsfield's foreign policy1 or to denounce ,home ,rulers for being aggressive against the ,union4 ,it speaks volumes for the state of average ,english opinion that the adjective aggressive is still held to be a damaging epithet against ,freethought2 as if zeal were a good and great thing on one side of a dispute1 but wrong and vulgar on the other4 ,churchmen whose bells set up pandemonium every ,sunday count it an aggression to other people to meet by summons of a handbill to discuss whether church-going is reasonable4 ,and they are kept in countenance1 unluckily1 by the mass of easy-going or timid unbelievers1 who1 not caring or daring to act on their own convictions1 keep up their self-esteem by speaking ill of those who do so4 ,in the mouths of some people1 of course1 aggressive means rude or offensive2 and it is still common to say that ,bradlaugh was a coarse assailant of other men's convictions4 ,the charge was early brought against him4 ,lecturing on ,malthusianism in #ahfb1 after alluding to the abuse levelled at him in that connection by the ,unitarian organ1 he said3-- ,i did not consider it necessary to make much justification when ,i was attacked some months ago by a person who is rather famous for the vehemence of his criticism than for the soundness of his logic2 but 444 it may be perhaps not out of place to notice the way in which that sort of criticism has been circulated throughout the country4 ,i have taken up ,irish journals2 ,i have taken up ,scotch journals2 and ,i have found myself represented as the only advocate of this great party 444 who uses in his oratory1 who writes for his readers1 disregarding all morality1 coarse1 brutal1 and degrading phrases4 ,now ,i appeal to you who are here this morning1 and there are some who have listened to me from my boyhood1 whether in my attack on the theologies of the world ,i have permitted my tongue to utter any coarse phraseology1 whether in attacking or destroying them8 7,applause7 444 ,i admit that ,i have been rough and rude in my attacks on what ,i consider to be wrong and injurious1 but ,i have been always reverent and kindly to every one who has seemed to me to be striving for the benefit of humankind4 ,how true is this claim can be easily learned by reading his pamphlets1 or his book on ,genesis4 ,that volume may be objected to as a dry digest of much learning and discussion1 but it certainly cannot be accused either of violence or of flippancy4 ,its history is worth noting here4 ,in #ahef he issued a ,freethinking commentary entitled1 ,the ,bible1 ,what it is1 which went as far as ,isaiah4 ,this being sold out 7it is now so scarce that the present writer has not been able to get a copy71#ig he issued in #ahfe a rewritten edition1 covering only the ,pentateuch1 but larger than the first2 and this in turn was sold out4 ,in #ahha-hb1 while fighting his great battle against ,parliament1 he set himself the drudgery and discipline of beginning again with ,genesis1 enlarging his commentary from his later reading to such an extent that this1 the largest volume of the three1 only covers the first eleven chapters of the first book of the ,pentateuch4 ,some of his followers humorously speculated as to what amount of ground would be covered by a fourth revision1 should he undertake it4 ,whatever may be thought of the method1 it is very evidently not that of a man aiming at a popular success of ridicule or rhetoric4 ,compiled at a time when he was the target for all the bigotry of the nation1 the book is eminently dispassionate and judicial4 ,where most men would have grown more vehement1 he grew more calm4 ,footnote #ig3 ,there is some reason to suspect that there has happened in this country what ,bibliophile ,jacob1 in his preface to his addition of ,cyrano de ,bergerac1 declares to have happened on a large scale in ,france--a zealous destruction of ,freethinking works by pious purchasers4 ,but it lies with these to supply the main evidence4 ,as a lecturer1 of course1 he was vigorous to the highest degree4 ,many of those who have heard him at the height of his powers will agree to the verdict that he was by far the most powerful ,english orator of his time4 ,there was something overwhelming in his force of speech when impassioned2 it lifted an audience from its feet like a storm1 and raised their intellectual conviction to a white heat of enthusiasm for the truth it conveyed4 ,other speakers of his day may have been as thrillingly impressive at their best moments2 but he had great passages in nearly every speech1 and rarely faced an audience without electrifying it4 ,the ,rev4 ,mr ,westerby1 at the close of his debate with ,bradlaugh1 testified with some chagrin to the extraordinary effectiveness of his opponent's speaking1 and this in a debate full of close and difficult argument1 as the verbatim report shows4 ,i only wish1 said the reverend gentleman1 that ,i1 in power of speech1 were as powerful as he4 ,then ,i might have done honour to my cause4444 ,only by the power of his speech1 and by the marvellous energy with which he can endow it1 can ,i understand the impression he has produced upon you4 ,but the reader of the debate can understand it without hearing the delivery4 ,at its highest stress the energy is controlled and intelligized2 never is the argument confused or let slip2 never does vigour lapse to coarseness4 ,he was certainly not an abusive or even a harsh controversialist2 he dealt much less in invective and imputation than most men in his place would have felt justified in doing4 ,one of the strongest of his censures of antagonists in matters of argument is passed on the late ,bishop of ,peterborough1 ,dr ,magee1 who was a sufficiently reckless polemist4 ,the passage occurs in the second of the three 7unwritten7 lectures he delivered in ,norwich1 in reply to three sermons by the ,bishop3-- ,i have now to complain of something still worse than that the ,bishop should have forgotten his ,bible1 entirely ignored the ,thirty-,nine ,articles1 and occasionally in the hurry of rapid speech contradicted his previous sentences4 ,all these are matters at which1 in even an extraordinary man burdened with a bishop's dignity1 we need not wonder at all2 but when we find him blundering in metaphysics1 when we find him making mistakes which a man versed in the merest rudiments of ,mill or the ,scotch and ,german metaphysicians would not make--when we find the ,bishop so blundering1 either wilfully or ignorantly1 it puts me in a position of extreme difficulty4 ,this on ,butler is also1 for ,bradlaugh1 exceptionally severe3-- ,bishop ,butler's argument on the doctrine of necessity is that which one might expect from a hired nisi prius advocate1 but which is read with regret coming from a gentleman who ought to be striving to convince his erring brethren by the words of truth alone4#ih ,footnote #ih3 ,pamphlet on ,heresy1 p4 #dh4 ,a writer1 in whose anti-religious polemic such perfectly justifiable severities are exceptional1 is certainly not to be charged with violence of speech on such matters4 ,to his courtesy in debate there are many testimonies4 ,in his controversy1 e4g41 with the authors of the ,oxford ,house ,papers1 one of them1 ,dr ,paget1 writes3--,i trust that you will let me first acknowledge with gratitude and respect the temperate and courteous character of your criticism4 ,believe me1 ,i sincerely appreciate it4 ,it may not be out of place to remark that the ,oxford ,house ,papers were in the opinion of some readers inexpressibly poor stuff1 respectful comment on which1 in a busy world1 was an excess of consideration4 ,and this careful courtesy was not at all1 as some have supposed1 a late development in him4 ,it is a complete error to suppose that he began by being violent1 and only acquired suavity after much experience4 ,it has been suggested on this head that he was softened by the generosity with which some ,christians1 such as ,bright1 latterly stood by him against the attacks of the bigots4 ,but while it is quite true that he greatly appreciated this1 and while it is further true that he found some of his very basest enemies in professed ,freethinkers of the ,agnostic variety1 it is not the fact that he had required these experiences to make him a temperate and courteous controversialist4 ,that he was at all times2 and he had early cause to know that a ,christian may be a gentleman and a ,freethinker otherwise1 as well as vice versa4 ,even when of set purpose ridiculing ,scripture narratives in his lighter lectures1 ,bradlaugh never descends from humour to coarseness2 and his jests--in such tracts as the ,new ,lives of ,abraham1 ,jacob1 ,moses1 ,david1 and ,jonah--are as perfectly within the limits of rational good taste as those of ,mr ,spencer1 ,mr ,arnold1 and ,mr ,huxley on more august themes2 not to cite ,voltaire4 ,an old slander has lately been very carelessly revived by the late ,mr ,c4 ,h4 ,pearson1 who in his book on ,national ,character speaks of ,bradlaugh as having likened the ,trinity to a monkey with three tails4 ,bradlaugh never did any such thing4 ,a more elaborated figure of that sort appeared in a condensed account once contributed to his journal of an old lecture by a deceased ,freethinker1 who had satirised human anthropomorphism by making a monkey theologise for monkeys1 as ,heine makes the bear do in ,atta ,troll4 ,in the context the figure was fitting enough2 but in any case it was not ,bradlaugh's4 ,and in reply to those persons who affect to see vulgarity1 or worse1 in every jest at ,christian beliefs1 it may be said once for all that ,christians have from the first century onwards put themselves out of court on this head by jealously ridiculing the beliefs of all other believers1 as well as of rationalists2 that they have not stopped at ridicule1 but have in all ages freely resorted to gross calumny2 and that they in turn are not very badly used when their beliefs are merely subjected to the satire to which they are confessedly open4 ,even sheer coarseness is just as reprehensible1 no more and no less1 when directed against living persons1 as when directed against dead or imaginary beings1 or particular beliefs concerning them2 but those who are readiest to impute the latter offence seem to make small account of the other1 when the object of attack is an unbeliever4 ,bradlaugh was never coarse2 yet he was abused with unspeakable scurrility by thousands of ,christian people4 ,and if coarseness ever arose in his movement1 as it so easily may in a popular movement involving controversy1 that movement was in any case a hundred times more sinned against than sinning4 ,mrs ,humphrey ,ward has been at pains in two of her novels to represent crews of ,secularists as either resorting to physical violence against revivalists1 or showing a disposition to resent angrily the appearance of a well-behaved clergyman at their meetings4 ,such slanders would call for very strong comment were they not so nakedly absurd4 ,in no town in ,england would avowed ,secularists dare as such to molest avowed pietists even if they were inclined to do so2 and it has always been their express aim to encourage clerical opposition and debate in their meeting-places4 ,this is a rule without exception4 ,and ,bradlaugh1 in particular1 at all times urged upon his followers--not to abstain from gratuitous violence towards revivalists or clergymen3 he never needed to say anything on that head--but to be very careful to give opponents no reasonable pretext for making a disturbance against them4#ii ,he counselled not only orderliness but tact2 and he sharply rebuked any of his followers who would not listen patiently to even a stupid opponent's speech4 ,mrs ,ward's account of ,secularist organisations is an unfortunate proof that the spirit of religiosity does not change with mere modifications of dogma4 ,even if it were really found that plain1 unlettered men1 facing a religion they feel to be absurd1 spoke out their feeling without due courtesy or refinement1 an instructed observer would see in their reaction the measure and correlative of the crudity of the doctrines assailed4 ,but people of ,mrs ,ward's way of thinking look tenderly on the worst buffooneries of popular faith1 and on the most brutal propaganda of hell and blood-redemption1 while recoiling sentimentally from the perfectly sincere derision of these things by men on whom they are blatantly thrust4 ,the right spirit1 surely1 is that which would enlighten the deluded as individuals1 neither patronising them nor abusing them4 ,that was the attitude of ,bradlaugh as a publicist and as a man4 ,he never talked1 in public or in private1 with malice1 and seldom even with disgust1 of fanatics as such4 ,he explained them1 and respected their honesty4 ,of certain employees of the ,christian ,evidence ,society he would on occasion speak publicly in the strongest terms1 as vile things who1 in fields and open spaces1 where we are not to answer for ourselves1 stab our reputation and our children's4 ,but towards honest bigots1 however imbecile1 he was incapable of feeling the virulent animosity which ,mrs ,ward seems to feel for the ,secularists of her imagination4 ,to speak of him1 as some journalists have done1 as accounting for all religion by priestcraft in the early eighteenth century manner1 is to exhibit the ignorance the statement imputes4 ,he carefully studied the anthropological origins of religion1 lectured specially on anthropology1 and always related his teaching to the anthropological view4 ,towards priests1 as such1 he felt no malevolence4 ,in fine1 from first to last1 the essential manliness and geniality of his nature gave his followers a lead to humanity and chivalry in their warfare with bigotry4 ,if any of them1 seeing the kind of reward he received for his self-restraint1 have taken satisfaction in barbing their arrows1 and in humiliating as well as defeating the enemy1 they cannot cite his example4 ,footnote #ii3 ,thus1 when in ,july or ,august #ahhb an open-air ,freethought meeting was attacked by riotous ,salvationists1 ,bradlaugh strongly urged avoidance of provocation1 and that1 above all1 ,freethinkers must avoid being drawn into physical conflict with ,salvationists 7,national ,reformer1 ,august #ac1 #ahhb74 ,once in a long while a gross circumstantial lie would move him to strike with the handle of the dog-whip1 so to speak4 ,a case of the kind is set forth in his tract entitled ,lying for the ,glory of ,god3 a ,letter to the ,rev4 ,canon ,fergie1 ,b4,d41 ,vicar of ,ince1 near ,wigan4 ,this dealt with one of the idiotic anecdotes by which the truth of ,christianity and the wickedness of ,atheism are proved for so many people--anecdotes of which the absurdity and the untruth seem equally apparent1 but which find instant credence with thousands of pious persons4 ,such an anecdote is the watch story in its complete form1 in which the blasphemer is struck dead1 a detail which has to be regretfully withheld from the narrative when it is applied to living sceptics4 ,such are the endless infidel deathbed stories1 which still do duty in religious tracts1 among them being statements concerning the deaths of ,voltaire and ,paine1 which have been a hundred times circumstantially refuted4 ,such is the venerable anecdote of the nurse who would never again attend an infidel's deathbed--a story which is told with religious impartiality of ,rousseau1 ,voltaire1 ,paine1 and ,hume1 and will doubtless be told in due course of ,bradlaugh4 ,in recent ,christian propaganda1 the growing humanity of the age is seen in a disposition to convert the atheist rather than to send him to hell shrieking4 ,but all these anecdotes alike have one quality in common2 they are rigorously untrue1 though they are never told in the same way by two ,christians running4 ,one sample story of seventeen 7more or less7 leading ,secularists1 of whom fourteen came to bad ends1 after signing a blasphemous covenant with blood for ink1 does not on investigation yield even a grain of fact4 ,in another narrative1 sixteen leaders are represented as having all re-embraced ,christianity4 ,of the sixteen1 over a dozen are unknown to ,secularism1 and one known convert had been reconverted to ,freethought4 ,it was partly the lawyer in ,bradlaugh that made him treat these anecdotes with seriousness and severity1 finding the lie circumstantial some degrees worse than the lie conventional or sophistical4 ,he specially detested downright fabrication of facts4 ,but he also had a chivalrous loathing of the tactic which stabbed a doctrine in the back instead of meeting it in face2 and for his own part he never used the means he might to assail religion through the scandals of its daily record4 ,he would not stoop to collect the stories of frightful fidel deathbeds1 which surpass the contrary sort as much in force as in truth2 and he never would collect in his journal the frequent stories of clerical misconduct which appear in the ordinary press1 though all his life he was being libelled by clerics4 ,he was indeed a dangerous enemy when provoked1 but he had little vindictiveness4 ,his interests were too broad1 his relation to life too genial1 to permit of his being satisfied with the triumphs of feud4 ,he claimed for himself with perfect truth3 ,i have attacked the ,bible1 but never the letter alone2 the ,church1 but never have ,i confined myself to a mere assault on its practices4 ,i have deemed that ,i attacked theology best in asserting most the fulness of humanity4 ,i have regarded iconoclasticism as a means1 not as an end4 ,the work is weary1 but the end is well4 ,and this may serve as a compendious answer to the kind of criticism which disposes of ,atheism by calling it cold4 ,it would be much nearer to the truth to say that many ,atheists have recoiled from religion because of its very heartlessness and gloom2 and because the warmth of those who find joy in the evangelical doctrine of salvation strikes a healthy mind as hardly less repulsive than the warmth of alcoholism4 ,the assumption that a man who puts aside the doctrine of a future life is cold-hearted1 was never more absurd than when applied to the case of ,bradlaugh4 ,but its full absurdity is perhaps made most clear by comparing the doctrine of ,lessing and ,kant as to the nullity of ,judaism as a religion1 in respect of its lack of an authoritative doctrine of heaven1 with the common run of rhetoric about the strength of the ,semitic religious feeling4 #e4 ,it ought not to be necessary at this time of day to offer a justification for ,bradlaugh's doctrine on the ethical side1 his position being simply that of modern science4 ,but just as the avowal of ,atheism and ,materialism gives rise to endless misrepresentation of those statements of opinion1 so the avowal of ,atheism and ,utilitarianism in morals gives rise to all sorts of moral imputations4 ,on the one hand there is the reasonable criticism which falls to be passed on imperfect or exaggerated expression of the utilitarian principle2 on the other hand there are the imputations which ignorant1 confused1 and other persons cast on any statement of ,utilitarianism whatever4 ,many orthodox people have in this matter the indestructible advantage of being unable to understand the rationalist argument--as may be very clearly seen in the debate between ,mr ,bradlaugh and the ,rev4 ,dr ,m',cann on the morality and philosophy of ,secularism4 ,such opponents go on fervently affirming their consciousness of the obligation to do what they feel to be right1 irrespective of consequences1 and insisting that this is the negation of utilitarianism4 ,it is of course no such thing4 ,the real ground of strife between religious and rational morality lies1 or lay1 in the old doctrine that the standard of right is divinely revealed1 and that we do right in virtue of divine command4 ,that doctrine once abandoned1 supernaturalism in morals is a mere matter of words4 ,to admit that we have no certain light or unvarying strength of feeling as to what is right in a given case1 and merely to affirm that we have a divine call from conscience to do what we think right when our minds are made up1 is to surrender the heart of the religious position4 ,this is what was done by ,dr ,m',cann and the ,rev4 ,mr ,armstrong in their debates with ,bradlaugh2 both clergymen nevertheless supposing themselves to be rebutting utilitarianism4 ,the utilitarian position is of course 7#a7 that the instinct to do what we feel to be right is merely organic1 and often goes with conduct that is on rational grounds demonstrably wrong2 7#b7 that the business of ethics is to settle what conduct is reasonably to be held right or wrong2 and 7#c7 that though the sense of utility is not the primary or conscious motive of all actions1 it is the test by which disputed action is to be controlled4 ,of course it will at times be fallaciously applied1 as regarded from the point of view of developed sympathy2 but it can never be misapplied as grossly as the religious standard has been1 and it remains the final standard of ethical appeal4 ,even the religionists who argue that utilitarianism is a pernicious doctrine virtually admit this in their very choice of epithet4 ,the good of society is even for them the final criterion4 ,they never hesitate1 further1 to seek to influence the minds of the young by the primitively utilitarian warning1 ,be sure your sin will find you out4 ,yet they constantly denounce the ,secularist doctrine as encouraging men to make primary self-interest the beginning and end of moral principle1 when on the face of the case it subjects self-interest to public interest by its working formula of the greatest good of the greatest number4 ,the religious argument against that formula always ends in putting the fancy case of the starving man with a starving family1 who steals a loaf of bread from somebody who does not miss it4 ,the religious implication is that the whole family had better starve than commit such a theft--a doctrine which may be left to the decision of common-sense4 ,it is only to be wished that ,christian politics even remotely approached the scrupulosity paraded in this controversy4 ,as for the point of disinterestedness1 the history of ,freethought in general1 and the life of ,bradlaugh in particular1 will serve to show whether or not the recognition of utility as the final test of the right or wrong of actions has led men to put the low utility above the high1 the near above the far4 ,to do the former would be to abandon the very avowal of the principle1 since it always brings odium and injury on the avowers4 ,the very persistence of an unpopular movement is the decisive proof that its promoters have sought higher ends than money gain4 ,what the utilitarian principle has done for ,bradlaugh and those like-minded is not to give them the primary impulse to fight for truth and right as they see them1 but to give them an enduring support in the battle4 ,the first impulse springs from veracity of character plus knowledge2 but it is sure to be opposed by bitter criticism1 imputing to the straightforward course all manner of evil results4 ,when the reformer is convinced that not only truth and justice but the highest utility itself is on his side1 he is thrice armed4 ,and if with some unbelievers the rejection of transcendental moral principles has meant the return to a timid or a base conformity1 they are at least no worse guided than before1 and the blame of their dissimulation must lie with the religious system which not only counsels but enforces it1 not with the doctrine which classes social dissimulation as a vice4 ,certain it is that under the auspices of the ,christian creed ,england has lived mainly for low and narrow utilities1 and not for the high and broad2 the transcendental creed availing only to worsen matters by adding to the forces of evil the element of persecuting bigotry4 ,rationalism once for all excludes the last factor2 and if it ever lends itself to a popular disregard of the great utilities and a pursuit of the small1 which are the undoing of the great1 it will assuredly not be in virtue of following such a lead as ,bradlaugh's4 ,of his influence on his followers those can best speak who have mixed with them4 ,personal and magnetic as it was1 it depended for its continuance on the unvarying nobility of his appeal to the best instincts--to courage1 honour1 justice1 and the love of truth4 ,hundreds of men--men to whom the generality of pulpit sermons are either inane commonplaces or maudlin nonsense--can testify to the fashion in which he stirred them to high sympathies and generous determinations1 making life for all of them1 however narrow their sphere1 a vista of worthy activities and abiding consolations4 ,it is part of the condemnation of modern orthodoxy that its warfare with ,atheism has run mainly to libel--not merely libel on individual ,atheists1 but sweeping aspersion of the whole movement4 ,the records are embarrassing in the sheer multitude of the samples2 and one utterance may serve for a thousand4 ,in the early part of ,bradlaugh's ,parliamentary struggle an orthodox periodical named ,social ,notes1 of which the ,marquis of ,townshend was editorial director1 made the typical assertion3-- ,it is a well-known fact that there is no criminal so fearless in doing evil1 so hopelessly bad and beyond chance of recovery1 as the ,atheist criminal is4 ,atheism and ignorance commonly create the first step to crime4 ,as ,atheism grows in the minds of the lower classes1 so crime increases4 ,the statement can only have come from a writer of a partially criminal type1 since it states not merely a gross untruth1 but one for which the writer cannot possibly have believed he had any evidence4 ,so far from the fact being as he says1 it is perfectly well established that there are almost no ,atheist criminals4 ,readers can satisfy themselves on this head by reading the chapter on ,atheism in ,prison in the ,jottings from ,jail of the ,rev4 ,j4 ,w4 ,horsley1#ajj a writer not at all disposed to say any good of ,atheism4 ,but the folly of the statement cited will probably be recognised by most people on simply reflecting that crime was most abundant in the ages when ,atheism was practically unknown2 that it is common now in countries where there is no anti-religious propaganda whatever among the common people2 that the professional brigands of ,greece and ,italy are faithful children of the ,church2 and that nearly every murderer executed in this country avows beforehand a confident assurance of being welcomed in ,paradise4 ,only one ,secularist1 so far as the present writer is aware1 has ever been convicted of murder2 and he was no typical criminal1 but a man congenitally liable to delirious fits of passion4 ,when he knew of their approach he warned the people about him not to thwart him2 and only in one of these fits1 on intense provocation from a man who had wronged him1 did he strike a deadly blow with a chance weapon4 ,he expressly forbade petitions for commutation of his sentence1 deliberately preferring to end a marred and maimed life4 ,footnote #ajj3 ,fisher ,unwin4 ,those who really suppose ,atheism tends to promote crime know as little of the nature of criminals as of the logic of ,atheism4 ,the immense majority of criminals are unintelligent1 and as such are immeasurably more likely to be superstitious than to be atheistic4 ,a man of bad character may indeed be an ,atheist in virtue of his reasoning powers2 but the same powers will tend to withhold him from breach of the criminal law4 ,the recent insinuations of the present ,bishop of ,manchester as to the effects of secular education in the colony of ,victoria will impress no one who is conversant with criminal statistics2#aja and are repudiated by those qualified to speak in the colony itself4 ,of similar weight are the clerical assertions that the ,anarchist mania in ,france is a result of the godless teaching of the public schools4 ,it has been shown on the contrary that some of the most prominent ,anarchist miscreants have had a careful clerical training2 while the ,anarchists themselves have never produced a criminal to compare with the priest ,bruneau4 ,the organised ,libres-,penseurs of ,france have made a speciality of ethics1 publishing more matter on that head than on any other4 ,footnote #aja3 ,the matter was dealt with at some length in the ,national ,reformer of ,january #ae1 #ahic4 ,it is not necessary to answer again1 but it is edifying to cite1 one of the many utterances in which ,atheism has been held up to horror as tending to universal bloodshed4 ,such an utterance was this of ,bishop ,magee1 delivered in his cathedral of ,peterborough in ,june #ahhj1 and thus specially made to bear on the claim of ,bradlaugh to sit in ,parliament3-- ,a nation of ,atheists must be a nation of revolutionists2 their history must be a history of revolution marked by intervals of grinding1 cruel1 pitiless1 and unreproved slaughter1 because for weakness there would be no appeal to the supreme power against present tyranny4 ,in the rhetoric of religion1 folly and frenzy are thus sometimes so mingled that together they make censure shade into derision1 and derision into melancholy4 ,neither reason nor experience can hinder some men from putting the wildest figments in place of the plainest teachings of history4 ,dr ,magee had before him the history of his own faith1 which began in bitter and sanguinary schism1 and within a few hundred years had raised deadly civil war throughout the civilised world2 which has made more pretexts for war throughout its era than could possibly have arisen without it2 and which in our own country was the inspiration of some of the worst strifes in our annals4 ,he had before him the judgment of ,bacon1 unwillingly following on an unreasoned criticism1 that ,atheism did never perturb states 4442 but superstition hath been the confusion of many states4 ,and the ,bishop's rant1 despicable in itself1 was used to excite new ,christian malice against a man who had again and again met the verbal violence of pro-revolutionaries with the strongest protests against revolutionary methods2 who loved peace and hated war2 and who had time and again resisted and denounced the unjust ,english wars to which the ,bishop's ,church had given its blessing4 ,thus is ,atheism impugned by piety4 ,at the very time when ,dr ,magee's rhetoric was being used to keep ,bradlaugh out of ,parliament1 the ,national ,secular ,society was on his prompting petitioning strongly against the war waged by the ,english ,government on the ,boers in ,south ,africa4#ajb ,footnote #ajb3 ,in ,october 787 #ahhb1 the ,quaker ,friend testified to the melancholy fact that with1 of course1 honourable exceptions1 the most inveterate opponents of militarism are to be found among secularists and socialists4 ,soon afterwards ,bishop ,ellicott regretfully avowed that unbelief had acquired new and dangerous characteristics1 in that it now was very often found co-existent with what they were bound to speak of as a moral and in many cases a philanthropic life4 ,the only form of the orthodox imputation which is even decently plausible is the suggestion that the loss of religious belief may leave some men more ready than before to venture on vice that is not legally punishable4 ,this is no doubt theoretically possible2 and in cases where boys have had such a religiously bad education that they know of no rational veto on misconduct1 harm may sometimes arise on their finding that the religion taught them is incredible4 ,but young men who reason so far are likely to reason further2 and in any case a few plain considerations will serve to convince any candid mind that there is no causal connection between scepticism and vice2 though it stands to reason that the habit of scepticism will promote the critical discussion on the institution of marriage4 ,on the one hand1 the sexual instinct has in all ages gone to the worst excess under the auspices of religions which expressly glorified asceticism2 and the facts of the life of the ages of faith in ,europe make it clear that1 even on the orthodox definition of vice1 there cannot possibly be more of it in the future than there has been in the past4 ,on the other hand1 the utilitarian arguments against vice1 properly so called1 are much better fitted to impress than the religious2 and they leave no such loophole as the others inevitably do in respect of the ,christian doctrine of pardon for sin1 to say nothing of the iniquity of the ,christian ethic which holds one and the same act ruinous in a woman and venial in a man4 ,of course1 if the celibate life1 and marriage without possibility of divorce1 be made the standard of virtue1 rationalism is likely to give piety plenty of occasion for outcry in matters of morals1 as in matters of opinion4 ,however that may be1 it has to be noted that ,bradlaugh was not at all advanced1 as things go1 on the subject of the marriage institution4 ,constantly accused of endorsing ,free ,love doctrines1 he as constantly repudiated the charge4 ,in #ahha we find him indignantly protesting that not only bad men1 but men of whose honesty in other things he was sure1 constantly repeated1 as though they were his1 views on ,socialism which he did not hold1 views on marriage which never had an equivalent in his feelings1 and declarations on prostitution which were abhorrent to his thought4#ajc ,the ,free ,love charge was commonly founded on his alleged acceptance of the whole doctrine of the work entitled ,the ,elements of ,social ,science4 ,no such acceptance ever occurred4 ,he was the last man to vilify a benevolent and temperate writer for doctrines with which he could not agree2 but in the reprint of his pamphlet on ,jesus1 ,shelley1 and ,malthus1#ajd he explicitly wrote of the author in question3 ,his work well deserves careful study2 there are in it many matters of physiology on which ,i am incompetent to express an opinion1 and some points of ethics from which ,i expressly and strongly dissent4 ,not only did he thus reject the advanced doctrine of sexual freedom3 he never committed himself to any such proposition as that of ,mill1 that the institution of the family needs more fundamental alterations than remain to be made in any other great social institution1 or that of ,james ,mill1 cited without disapproval by his son1 as to the probable development of freedom in the sexual relation4#aje ,footnote #ajc3 ,address at the ,national ,secular ,society's ,conference4 ,footnote #ajd3 ,published in #ahfa4 ,reprinted #ahhc4 ,footnote #aje3 ,j4 ,s4 ,mill's ,autobiography1 pp4 #ajg1 #afg4 ,a still more striking illustration of the way in which one rationalist may steal the horse while another may not look over the hedge1 is the following passage in ,mill's book3--,on these grounds ,i was not only as ardent as ever for democratic institutions1 but earnestly hoped that ,owenite1 ,st4 ,simonian1 and all other anti-property doctrines might spread widely among the poorer classes2 not that ,i thought these doctrines true1 or desired that they should be acted on1 but in order that the higher classes might be made to see that they had far more to fear from the poor when uneducated than when educated4 ,it was thus grossly unjust to cast upon the ,secularist movement1 as did ,bishop ,fraser of ,manchester in the worst stress of ,bradlaugh's parliamentary struggle1 the imputation of promoting positive cruelty on the part of men towards women4 ,that episode was for many a melancholy proof of the perverting power of bigotry in a naturally conscientious man4 ,the ,bishop publicly put it as a natural deduction from ,secularist teaching that a man might put away his wife when she grew old and ugly1 or sick1 or otherwise disagreeable to him1 simply because she thus ceased to please him2 and when a ,secularist wrote him to point out the injustice of this assertion1 and the nature of the ordinary rationalist view of marriage1 his ,grace disingenuously quoted the statement that ,secularists repudiated the sacredness of marriage1 without adding the explanation which his correspondent had given as to the proper force of that term4 ,the whole outburst was an angry and unscrupulous attempt to put upon ,secularist teaching the vice which admittedly flourished in the ,bishop's diocese among non-,secularists4 ,all the while1 the doctrine he had put upon ,secularism lay in his own ,bible1 and nowhere else3-- ,when a man taketh a wife1 and marrieth her1 then shall it be1 if she find no favour in his eyes1 because he hath found some unseemly thing in her1 that he shall write her a bill of divorcement1 and give it in her hand1 and send her out of his house 7,deut4 xxiv4 #a74 ,these and other doctrines had been made by ,bradlaugh part of his indictment of ,bible morality4 ,he saw that while women are dependent1 power of self-divorce cannot justly be allowed to husbands4 ,he was certainly in favour of greater facilities for divorce2 but he took no part in the discussion as to whether marriage is a failure2 and he always argued for a legal contract1 in the interests of the woman and children1 as against informal unions2 though1 of course1 he passed no moral censure on women in a state of economic independence who chose the latter4 ,his own sad experience never made him decry marriage2 and he never would have subscribed to the doctrine of ,professor ,pearson1 that love should have the privilege of his wings1 save in so far as he would give freedom of legal divorce4 ,in short1 he did not realise the fancy picture of modern ,materialism painted by religious sentiment1 any more than the fancy picture of the pragmatist4 ,he was not even a lover of realism in fiction4 ,like ,bchner 7whose favourite author is ,shakespeare71 he could not enjoy ,zola2 and on ,hugo's death he eulogised that poet in express contrast to the new school which had begun to write him down4 ,but he did not set up to be a literary critic1 or an sthetic person in any sense4 ,his own art was oratory1 and of that he was master by dint not of conscious study1 but of sincerity1 energy1 and endless activity4 ,he spoke to persuade1 to convince1 to crush2 and he never spoke save on a conviction4 ,it thus lay in his nature that he should be a politician as earnestly as he was a ,freethinker4 ,his ,atheism1 his logic1 his utilitarianism1 all combined to make him a strenuous reformer in the field of government1 and a full half of his whole activity--more than half in the latter years--was turned to making life better and saner than it had been under the regimen of religion4 ,the absurd pretence that ,atheism makes men pessimistic and supine becomes peculiarly absurd when tested by his career4 ,he was no optimist3 he had no delusions about the speedy perfectibility of men1 singly or in mass2 but no man was less inclined to the new pessimism1 which turns its philosophy to the account of commonplace conservatism all round4 ,a clerical opponent1 debating with him1 protested that ,atheists ought to be in a state of black despair at the evil of the world1 which the reverend gentleman on his part viewed with serenity1 holding that the ,god who wrought it must intend to put matters right hereafter4 ,a lay study of the problem1 however1 reveals the fact that hopeful and despairing frames of mind are not as a rule determined by theoretic beliefs one way or the other4 ,bradlaugh had the good fortune to combine the keenest interest in ideas and the clearest insight into human character with a boundless enthusiasm for action2 and he perfectly recognised that a similar temperament in the latter respect might go with what he held to be delusion in philosophy4 ,it is the fashion of conformists without beliefs to speak of propagandist rationalism as intolerant--a use of the term which1 though it may be at times permissible in common talk1 is a complete perversion of its essential purport4 ,applied to action1 the word has no proper force save as implying the wish or attempt to curtail freedom and inflict positive injury on the score of opinion4 ,no such charge can justly be made against ,freethinkers in general1 or ,bradlaugh in particular4 ,the practice of boycotting for opinion's sake he detested and denounced1 and never in any way resorted to4 ,he even carried the spirit of tolerance to an extreme degree in his own affairs1 being careful1 as his daughter testifies1 to avoid giving his children anything like specific anti-theological teaching1 on the ground that the opinions of the young ought not to be stereotyped for them on points which they ought to reconsider for themselves when they grow up4 ,in intercourse with those about him he was equally scrupulous2 and all the contributors to his journal can tell how complete was the freedom he gave them to express in its pages opinions from which he dissented4 ,in this he was far superior to many who have aspersed him as overbearing4 ,it was a point of honour with him to give a hearing in his columns to all manner of opposition to his own views2 and no man was ever less apt to let his philosophical convictions bias him in his practical or political relations with people of another way of thinking4 ,hence he was able not only to follow1 but to follow with a chivalrous devotion1 such a political leader as ,mr ,gladstone1 of whose latter writings on religious matters he found it difficult to speak without a sense of humorous humiliation4#ajf ,but his political teaching must be separately considered4 ,footnote #ajf3 ,his comment on ,mr ,gladstone's reply to ,colonel ,ingersoll is1 however1 a model of respectful exposure of a very bad case4 ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,political ,,doctrine ,,and ,,work4 #a4 ,in combining the propaganda of ,freethought with that of ,republican ,radicalism1 ,bradlaugh was carrying on the work begun in ,england by ,paine1 and continued by ,richard ,carlile1 men whose memory he honoured for those qualities of courage1 sincerity1 and constancy which were the pith of his own character4 ,the bringing of reason to bear at once on the things of ,church and of ,state1 of creed and of conduct1 was for him a matter of course1 as it has been for the great majority of ,atheists1 from ,holbach onwards1 and he held firmly to the old conviction that for free and rational men the only right form of ,government is a ,republic4 ,he had all ,paine's energetic disdain of the monarchic principle in theory and in practice1 and1 coming to his work in the latter half of the century1 he could stand up for ,republicanism without incurring the extreme penalties which fell so heavily on the devoted head of ,carlile that his hold of his rationalist doctrine gave way under the strain of his struggle1 the mind seeking lethargic rest before the body found the final repose4 ,still the great reaction against the ,french ,revolution1 which had made the name of ,paine a byword1 and the life of ,carlile a series of imprisonments1 was still far too strong in the fifties and sixties to permit of an avowed ,republican and ,atheist being regarded without horror by the middle and upper classes4 ,the more famous ,carlyle1 with all his loud esteem for sincerity and louder repudiation of cant1 never dreamt of saying a plain word against the monarchy any more than against the current religion1 though his political theories were at all times as far asunder from current monarchism as from democracy4 ,he even went out of his way to speak smoothly of a royalty which did nothing4 ,for a generation to which ,carlyle figured as outspoken and veridical1 therefore1 anything so practical as ,republicanism was wildly revolutionary1 and so ,bradlaugh figured from the first to the average imagination as a violent politician4 ,strictly speaking1 he was in a sense more violent in his politics than in his anti-theology1 because political strife is necessarily more a matter of attack on living persons than is the doctrinal strife between ,atheism and ,theism4 ,as a republican he could not avoid discussing the personalities of the ,hanoverian dynasty1 inasmuch as the practical strength of royalism lies in the hereditary self-abasement of men before the hereditary royal person as such1 not in any common hold on a monarchic theory of ,government4 ,to people who gloried in living under the ,guelphs1 an exposure of the ,guelphs was the only relevant or intelligible answer4 ,we may indeed say generally of monarchy what ,strauss said of dogma1 that the true criticism of it is its history4 ,but the practical sanity which in ,bradlaugh balanced the fieriest zeal1 showed him from the first that ,republicanism could only advance by way of culture and reason1 never by way of violence4 ,he spoke bullets and bayonets1 but he never for an instant countenanced their use in ,english politics2 and he had always a mixture of wrath and contempt for those who blustered of carrying by force1 or threats of force1 any reform in the ,constitution4 ,even while he was delivering in lectures his ,impeachment of the ,house of ,brunswick1 he constantly declared that the mass of the people were not yet qualified to constitute a republican state2 and he declared as much when1 in #ahgc1 he spoke at the banquet given by the then ,republican leaders at ,madrid in his honour as delegate from the ,republican ,conference which had just been held at ,birmingham4 ,the almost entire subsidence of ,republican agitation in ,england within the last twenty years1 after the considerable show of ,republican feeling which followed on the fall of the ,empire in ,france1 is an interesting and instructive fact1 worth a little explanation here4 ,it does not mean that the nation is less ready for a ,republic2 the fact is quite the other way4 ,recent tests have shown that in the average working-class ,liberal and ,radical ,club1 when the question is plainly raised1 there is virtually no feeling in favour of the retention of ,monarchy4 ,the old devotion to the monarch as such has almost completely passed away among the more intelligent workers1 and now subsists only among their weaker brethren1 and in the middle and upper classes4 ,political movements1 however1 are made and marred not by pure reasoning but by special stresses of feeling1 and there has been little or nothing in the annals of the past twenty years to set up a new stress of feeling against the monarchy in ,england1 while there has been much that has tended to put the republican ideal in the background4 ,it is hardly to the credit of the nation that it lays less store by a great principle or ideal than by concrete points of lower importance2 but such is and must long be the fact4 ,the movement which led to the ,republican ,conference in #ahgc1 to begin with1 suffered from the still vivid recollection of the horrors of the ,commune4 ,next it was found that among its adherents were many who were less concerned to set up a ,british ,republic than to further by that means the independence of ,ireland4 ,thus the movement was in itself weakened by want of unity of motive and purpose1 and could make little headway against the vast forces of habit and prejudice which buttress the ,throne4 ,even what headway it did make was due largely to the then very common feeling of personal hostility to the ,prince of ,wales1 whose reputed character offended many who would not of their own accord have been likely to raise the question of ,monarchy versus ,republic4 ,another ground for hostility to the ,crown was and is the sufficiently solid one of its cost2 but here again the spectacle of the financial corruption in leading ,republics has tended to damp down anti-monarchic feeling4 ,it is pretty clear that1 barring any new and special cause for outcry against the ,throne1 its abolition in this country will only result from the slow accumulation of indifference and of educated aversion to the snobbery which cherishes and is cherished by it4 ,this certainly cannot take place during the lifetime of the reigning sovereign1 whose age and popularity alike go to silence serious agitation4 ,it may or may not come about during the next generation4 ,bradlaugh used to be quoted as saying that he intended that the heir apparent should never come to the ,throne4 ,he never said anything so idle1 though in his youth he thought it possible that the ,republic might be attained in his lifetime4 ,as years went on1 his insight into human nature led him to feel that agitation for an ideal form of ,government was less directly fruitful than agitation against the abuses of class privilege2 and in the last dozen years of his life1 his political work went mainly to reforms within the lines of the ,constitution4 ,apart from this partial change of tactic1 his position underwent no change from first to last4 ,his political doctrine may be broadly described as a demand for the fullest admission of the people to the rights of self-government1 and further1 the application of the powers thus acquired to the removal or reform of all laws framed in the interest of the upper few4 ,this was the ideal he had formed for himself in his youth1 and he declined to substitute for it the ideal of ,socialism1 which had begun to be vaguely popular towards the end of his life4 ,the refusal rested on his experience1 and on his character4 ,in his youth he had seen a great impression made by the teaching and the achievement of ,robert ,owen1 whose propaganda came so closely in relation with that of ,secularism that in several towns the old halls of the ,owenites have been till recent years1 or are still1 carried on by the surviving followers of ,owen1 as ,secularist meeting-places4 ,for ,owen1 whom he had met in youth1 ,bradlaugh had much esteem4 ,no ,socialist myself1 he wrote in later life1 ,i yet cannot but concede that ,owen's movement had enormous value1 if only as a protest against that terrible and inhuman competitive struggle1 in which the strong were rewarded for their strength1 and no mercy was shown to the weakest4#ajg ,but he was profoundly impressed by the extravagance of ,owen's estimate of the present possibilities of human nature2 and the later ,socialism1 like the earlier1 represented for him the optimism of unpractical men1 with the difference that the later agitators had at once much less gift for social organisation than ,owen1 and a far more difficult programme to realise4 ,thus1 where ,owen set himself to create a ,state within the ,state1 ,bradlaugh addressed himself to making the political ,state truly democratic--a course the wisdom of which is admitted by the action of the ,socialists1 who now adopt it4 ,he was in a general sense the successor of the ,chartists2 and in that connection it is impossible not to feel that if such a one as he had been in the place of ,fergus ,o',connor1 the political advance of the past half century would have been considerably quickened4 ,as it was1 his labours have probably counted more than those of any other single man in his day to rouse the workers in the towns to vigorous political action4 ,before they had the vote1 he not only helped to lead the agitation for their enfranchisement1 but appealed to them directly on the issues which he wanted their suffrage to settle4 ,it is the fashion of the new ,socialism to represent that the old ,radicalism wrought for political enfranchisement without any notion of what use the vote was to be turned to4 ,common sense and common candour will put that account of things aside without much trouble4 ,bradlaugh for one had very definite notions of what he wanted the vote to do4 ,his programme was both positive and negative4 ,he strongly supported the ,radical demand for retrenchment of an expenditure which was always tending to benefit1 not the many1 but the few2 and he detested the policy of safe foreign aggression which1 after being long associated with the name of ,palmerston1 came to be identified with that of ,beaconsfield4 ,the fact that this policy had the support of some who later figured as ,socialists1 did not increase his esteem for their after-course4 ,his sympathy with the small and weak nationalities whom ,england selected for attack was rooted in the intense sense of justice which inspired his whole life4 ,after working for struggling ,italy and ,poland1 he refused to stand by in silence while his own country unscrupulously made war on ,afghans1 on ,zulus1 and on ,egyptians1 on pretexts which all ,englishmen would have execrated had they been put forward by ,russians4 ,and as he never made popularity his guiding principle1 he as instantly and resolutely opposed the aggressions of ,mr ,gladstone's ,government as those of the ,tories4 ,in none of the sins of modern ,liberalism1 whether in ,africa or in ,ireland1 was he implicated4 ,but he had a constructive as well as a limitary ideal1 a home policy as well as a foreign2 and whereas his course on the latter head will now be endorsed by most ,liberals1 his social doctrine is still in need of exposition and justification4 ,footnote #ajg3 ,five ,dead ,men whom ,i knew1 p4 #f4 #b4 ,a notable fact in the history of popular ,freethought in ,england has been its association with the social teaching of ,malthus1 which first came before the world only a few years after ,paine's attack on orthodoxy4 ,there is nothing to show that ,paine ever realised what a blow was struck at his optimistic ,theism1 by the essay which his fellow-,theist ,malthus wrote to rebut the optimist assumptions on the ,political ,justice of ,godwin1 a ,freethinker who held by the revolutionary optimism in the sphere of politics1 while tending away from ,deistic optimism in philosophy4 ,paine1 who was certainly as much bent on construction as on destruction1 sketched a socio-political system which will be found by many readers as impressive to-day as it was found by ,pitt4 ,he proposed on the one hand a progressive income-tax1 which should yield new revenue and break up large estates1 and on the other hand a system of stipends to poor families2 annuities to decayed tradesmen and others over fifty1 increasing after sixty2 provision for the education of the children of the poor2 donations for births1 marriages1 and some funerals2 and employment at all times for the casual poor in the cities of ,london and ,westminster4 ,save as regards the old age pensions1 which represent a great improvement on pauper relief1 and the education scheme1 all of this plan comes under the destructive criticism of ,malthus1 inasmuch as it does not recognise the fatal tendency of an untaught population to multiply in excess of the economic possibilities of maintenance4 ,the plan of allowancing poor families at so much per head would have quickened immensely the progress towards national bankruptcy which was carried so far under the old ,poor ,law4 ,it would have bred paupers by the thousand4 ,the demonstration of ,malthus naturally was not relished by the ,radicals1 to whom it was first addressed2 and ,godwin in particular met it with indecent acrimony1 as did ,coleridge1 the ,conservative4 ,but the next generation of ,freethinkers assimilated the argument1 and a certain propaganda for the restriction of families was carried on by ,richard ,carlile4 ,it is a remarkable fact that two ,christian priests have laid two corner-stones of the structure of ,atheistic polity for modern ,england4 ,butler in confuting the ,deists wrought as much for ,atheism as for orthodoxy2 ,malthus1 in meeting the remaining ,deists on the ground of sociology1 confuted their optimism on the practical side4 ,freethought finally accepted both services1 rectifying ,malthus as it rectified ,butler2 and under ,bradlaugh it made for science all round4 ,malthusianism in its original form certainly lent itself to ,toryism2 and no amount of benevolence on the part of ,malthus could make his doctrine acceptable to democracy so long as it was tied down to his ,christian ethic4 ,the step which reconciled the knowledge of the law of population with energetic ,radicalism in politics was taken when rationalists laid it down that the prudential check need not mean prolonged celibacy4 ,teaching as he did the all-importance of checking the birth-rate1 and knowing as he did the possibility of bringing about the restraint1 ,bradlaugh had no further cause for misgiving as to political progress than his recognition of the general capacity of human nature to blunder4 ,he took up the neo-,malthusian position emphatically in his early pamphlet on ,jesus1 ,shelley1 and ,malthus1 published in #ahfa1 a somewhat youthfully rhetorical1 but still a very notable presentment of the three main influences successively brought to bear on the problem of poverty--the spirit of religious submission1 the spirit of humanitarian revolt1 and the spirit of science4 ,he pleaded for the last4 ,an acquaintance with political economy1 he there declares1 is as necessary to the working man as is a knowledge of navigation to the master of a ship4 ,it is the science of social life1 the social science4 ,and he was able in those days of the orthodox economics to cite in support of his definition1 from the high priest of orthodoxy1 a deliverance which may surprise readers whose knowledge of the old economics is not commensurate with their censure of it4 ,the object of political economy1 says ,mr ,m',culloch1 is to point out the means by which the industry of man may be rendered most productive of those necessaries1 comforts1 and enjoyments which constitute wealth2 to ascertain the circumstances most favourable for its accumulation1 the proportion in which it is divided among the different classes of the community1 and the mode in which it may be most advantageously consumed4 ,and in another early pamphlet on ,poverty and its ,effect on the ,political ,condition of the ,people1 first published in #ahfc1 he put as one of his mottoes1 after a more guarded sentence from ,john ,mill1 this from ,sir ,james ,steuart3-- ,the object of political economy is to secure the means of subsistence to all the inhabitants1 to obviate every circumstance which might render this precarious1 to provide everything necessary for supplying the wants of society1 and to employ the inhabitants so as to make their several interests accord with their supplying each other's wants4 ,but his application of the principle was democratic and ,neo-,malthusian1 not ,collectivist4 ,unless1 he wrote1 the necessity of the preventative or positive checks to population be perceived2 unless it be clearly seen that they must operate in one form if not in another1 and that1 though individuals may escape them1 the race cannot1 human society is a hopeless and insoluble riddle4 ,and for years before this he had persistently pressed the point in his lectures1 steadily defying the odium which his action brought upon him4 ,as early as #ahfb we find him temperately replying to denunciation on this head in a lecture on ,malthusianism and its connection with ,civil and ,religious ,liberty1 of which a partial report happened to be taken in shorthand4 ,it may almost seem unwise1 he remarked1 to be continually putting this subject before you2 but really ,i find myself so misrepresented1 and so liable to be misunderstood1 in quarters where one would expect better things1 that you must not wonder if ,i seek to make it clear to you why ,i persist in this advocacy4 ,he here pressed the law of population as a fundamental datum of political science4 ,i shall urge upon you this morning that there can be no permanent civil and religious liberty1 no permanent and enduring freedom for humankind1 no permanent and enduring equality amongst men and women1 no permanent and enduring fraternity1 until the subject which ,malthus wrote upon is thoroughly examined1 and until the working men make that of which ,malthus was so able an exponent the science of their everyday life2 until1 in fact1 they grapple with it1 and understand that the poverty which they now have to contend against must always produce the present evils which oppress them4 ,again3-- ,poverty1 so long as it exists1 is in fact the impassable barrier between man and civil and religious liberty4 ,you can never have true liberty so long as men are steeped in poverty4 ,so long as men do not comprehend what liberty1 what freedom really is1 they will be ignorant how to attain it4 ,ignorance is the necessary sequence of their poverty4 ,are the people poor8 ,for the poor there are no museums1 no pictures1 no elevating spheres of life1 no grand music1 no ennobling poetry4 ,all these phases are closed to them2 and why8 ,because their life is a constant struggle to live4444 ,what is the use of preaching to the masses if the masses do not understand the language in which you talk to them8 ,what is the use of your phrases to them when their education compels them not to comprehend the words you say1 nay1 makes them misunderstand you--for unfortunately poverty has its education1 and is in this case worse than mere ignorance4 ,there is a miseducation in poverty1 which distorts the human mind1 destroys self-reliant energy1 and is a most effectual barrier in the way of religious liberty4 ,liberty1 equality1 fraternity1 are words used very often about the ,republican institutions of the world2 but you can never have liberty1 equality1 and fraternity as long as there is poverty dividing one class from another4 ,these words have been echoed since by ,socialists and others who represent ,bradlaugh as a ,manchester politician2 and who either evade the question of the birth-rate1 or deny that it is of any account4 ,their argument takes two main forms3 7#a7 ,that to urge prudence on the poor is useless1 since they will not listen2 while the better workers who do listen are sterilised2 7#b7 that there would be no over-population if only wealth were properly distributed4 ,both arguments are fallacious2 the first proceeding upon ignorance of the facts1 and the desire to shirk a troublesome question2 the second upon non-comprehension of the law of population4 ,in the first case1 the objector first implies that it might be good to limit families if only people could be got to do so1 and then proceeds to say that the limiting of families is harmful when practised4 ,both of these conflicting views are erroneous in fact4 ,it is not difficult to make the majority of poor men and women listen to reason on the subject2 with those who say it is1 the wish is father to the thought1 in that they do not want to try to give the requisite knowledge4 ,thousands of poor women ignorantly use the most disastrous means to limit their fecundity2 and extreme poverty often hampers them even where they have the knowledge4 ,a little money spent by the charitable in helping the very poor in this way would obviate the need for endless alms to relieve the misery which ignorant instinct multiplies4 ,nor is there the least need to fear the sterilising of the more prudent1 as the limitation of the family has been unwarrantably termed4 ,small families do not necessarily mean lessened total population4 ,a man who has only three children and rears them all healthfully1 maintains the species more efficiently than a man who has eight1 loses six1 and perforce rears the two survivors badly1 because what might have nourished two or three well was for years spent in merely keeping more alive4 ,the extreme case of ,france1 over which there has been so much superficial talk in ,france and elsewhere1 is no such portent as it is made out1 but is in part explicable by the stress of the influenza plague1 which heavily affected even the ,english birth-rate1 and is in part a useful reminder to ,french statesmen that they are pressing too heavily on their country's resources1 and need to mend their methods4 ,withal1 the misery in ,france is far less grinding and pervasive than the misery in ,england4 ,as to the argument that it is not over-breeding1 but bad distribution that causes poverty1 the answer is that both causes operate1 but that over-breeding can work misery under any system of distribution whatever1 and is a main support to bad distribution at present4 ,some ,malthusians have supposed that with a proper proportionment of population to the resources of the time being1 poverty would wholly disappear4 ,this is over-sanguine2 but the case of the ,united ,states in the first half of the century1 when resources were still far ahead of labour supply1 gives abundant support to a more moderate claim4 ,on the other hand1 unless the lesson of prudential restraint be learned1 the most thorough socialistic system of distribution will simply incur the most complete ruin4 ,people reason that if only the resources of the world were properly utilised1 all could be fed and housed comfortably4 ,that is quite true2 but they forget that if there be no restraint1 the population of the world1 being better placed than ever1 will double at least every twenty-five years1 and will thus soon upset any possible system of housing and feeding1 and reduce the general condition to toil and poverty all round4 ,this is so obvious when put1 that the optimists are fain to fall back on a theory that population slackens spontaneously under conditions of comfort4 ,mr ,george moves nimbly between this theory and one which absolutely negates it4 ,but all such pleas resolve themselves into either an admission that the race must and will learn to practise prudential restraint1 which is a surrender to ,malthusianism1 or an assumption of a pre-ordained beneficent harmony in ,nature1 the old optimism in a new dress1 or rather an old dress turned4 ,we come back to the common plea of all the antagonists of ,neo-,malthusianism--that there is no need to check over-breeding at present--a position so crudely unreasonable1 so irreconcilable with any knowledge of the great facts of the case1 that it is a mystery how it can be taken up by candid and well-informed men4 ,no amount of demonstration that the world might feed all its inhabitants can do away with the dreadful fact that myriads of babes are actually born into the world every year only to die of the troubles made by poverty2 that these babes had much better not have been born2 that their birth might have been prevented2 and that the survivors suffered from their birth4 ,that men can shut their eyes to these overwhelming facts1 and go on arguing1 on an if1 that there is no need to restrain the birth-rate in the meantime1 is one of the darkest anomalies of political science4 ,between the obstinacy of the opposing fallacy and the brutality of the resistance of prejudice1 many men who recognise the truth have yet been wearied into holding their peace1 in a pessimistic conviction that mankind in the mass cannot be enlightened on the matter4 ,of that attitude ,bradlaugh was to the last incapable1 though he had more cause than most men to know how tremendous were the odds in the struggle4 ,later generations will find it hard to credit the facts4 ,a policy which on the face of the case could only be motived by public spirit and zeal for the truth was met by the vilest aspersions1 the most malignant imputation of the most preposterously bad intentions4 ,personal vice was freely charged in explanation of an action which no vicious man would have had the self-denial to undertake4 ,it is the bare truth to say that for many years a main part of the work of the ,christian ,evidence ,society in ,england has been to employ hirelings to charge ,secularism with the promotion of sexual vice--this on the strength partly of ,bradlaugh's work for ,neo-,malthusianism1 and partly of the vogue of the anonymous work entitled ,the ,elements of ,social ,science1 in which the arguments for family limitation are combined with a perfectly well-intentioned argument for sexual freedom as against celibacy and prostitution1 the evils of which are not only exposed1 but provided against in the book by careful medical instruction4 ,of this book1 as we have seen1 while honouring the moral courage and absolute benevolence of the anonymous writer1 ,bradlaugh expressly disclaimed the more advanced doctrines2 but he has been saddled with them all the same1 as if his burden of unpopularity were not already heavy enough4 ,he had fit though few compensations4 ,he lived to see the rightness of his course more and more widely and openly admitted2 and to see some ,freethinkers and others who had unworthily attacked him for it come round and follow in his steps4 ,and at his trial with ,mrs ,besant for selling the ,knowlton pamphlet in #ahgg he was able to tell the jury of higher sanctions than these4 ,mill in his ,autobiography1 telling how he was attacked for subscribing to ,bradlaugh's election fund in #ahfh1 says of him3-- ,he had the support of the working-classes2 having heard him speak1 ,i knew him to be a man of ability1 and he had proved that he was the reverse of a demagogue1 by placing himself in strong opposition to the prevailing opinion of the democratic party on two such important subjects as ,malthusianism and ,personal ,representation4 ,men of this sort1 who1 while sharing the democratic feelings of the working classes1 judged political questions for themselves1 and had courage to assert their individual convictions against popular opposition1 were needed1 as it seemed to me1 in ,parliament4 ,it may here be added that ,grote1 who was a regular reader of the ,national ,reformer and a ,neo-,malthusian also1 approved even more strongly4 ,the further fact1 now established1 that ,mill was in his youth actually prosecuted for distributing ,neo-,malthusian literature1 should serve to check the malice of those persons1 clerical and other1 who still divide ,freethinkers into two classes--one of irreproachable morals1 following ,mill1 the other of loose and dissolute character1 following ,bradlaugh4 ,some ,neo-,malthusians have been charged1 despite their rejection of the non-possumus of ,malthus1 with excluding all other reforms in their advocacy of family limitation4 ,if this charge was even valid1 it certainly was not against ,bradlaugh4 ,he might much more reasonably be criticised for not keeping the population question to the front in every discussion of main reforms than for unduly obtruding it1 or using it to discourage reforms made in disregard of it4 ,after he had thoroughly forced it on the public attention1 he trusted more to the quiet dissemination of educative literature on the subject1 and the enlistment of individual self-interest in the reform1 than to the political handling of it on the platform1 where the insistence on it seems still to arouse the resentment of many ,socialists and others1 who can see no need for any reform save those they themselves propose1 and are particularly wroth at the suggestion that working men can be in any degree accountable for their own troubles4 ,the defence of the ,knowlton pamphlet1 as has been shown in the foregoing pages1 was forced on ,bradlaugh2 and it was the more trying for him in that he was always personally averse to the detailed discussion of sexual topics4 ,at the same time1 it was impossible for him to submit to the stupid suppression by the authorities of the only cheap literature that gave to the poor the necessary knowledge for the limitation of their families4 ,he was bound to resist that by every principle he professed2 by his doctrine of freedom for the press and his doctrine of prudence in the family4 ,so resisting1 he identified himself once for all with the ,neo-,malthusian doctrine in politics1 though the resulting special notoriety of the topic was thus the work of the prosecutors themselves1 who probably did more by their hostile act for the spread of popular knowledge than ,bradlaugh had before been able to do by his years of advocacy4 ,how important was his introduction of the principle into politics can only be realised by those who know how much the principle means2 and it is still in the stage of being vilified by the pious and contemned by the superficial1 in which latter class may be included a good many ,socialists4 ,the former heap upon avowed ,neo-,malthusians an abuse which they withhold from eminent politicians who confess opinions that imply ,neo-,malthusianism or nothing4 ,mr ,john ,morley1 for instance1 has expressed his regret that we1--that is1 the ,liberal party in general--shirk the population question so much2 and ,mr ,leonard ,courtney has laid it down that we may as well build a house in disregard of the law of gravitation as hope to make a community prosper without regard to the law of population4 ,the late ,lord ,derby spoke to similar effect4 ,either1 then1 such politicians mean to urge1 with ,malthus1 that working-men shall postpone marriage until they have saved a good deal of money--that is1 till middle or late life--or they approve of early marriage with conjugal prudence4 ,that is the whole matter2 for the nature of the prudence is a quite subsidiary question1 on which no wise man or doctor will narrowly dogmatise4 ,but nobody1 not even the ,times1 denounces or insults ,mr ,courtney or ,mr ,morley or the late ,lord ,derby for saying what each of them has said4 ,as usual1 the man who says explicitly what other men say implicitly is singled out for attack1 not on the score of taste1 but on the score of the plain doctrine1 however put4 ,on the whole1 however1 the tone of the discussion improves from year to year4 ,in the ,knowlton trial1 the then ,solicitor-,general1 ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard 7now ,lord ,halsbury71 after hearing abundant evidence to show that the details made known in the pamphlet were just such as were made known in a number of other current works never prosecuted1 though freely circulated by prominent booksellers2 and after himself expressly avowing that the book1 ,i think it may be said1 is carefully guarded from any vulgarity of expression--nevertheless persisted in coarsely describing it as dirty and filthy4 ,yet he himself was so gratuitously indecent in his own language that in a number of passages it had to be paraphrased or expunged in the report4 ,and though the puzzle-headed jury entirely exonerated the defendants from any corrupt motives in publishing1 they were unanimously of opinion that the book in question is calculated to deprave public morals1 and allowed their foreman to present a verdict of guilty under the indictment4 ,probably no metropolitan jury would now come unanimously to the degrading conclusion that to spread specific physiological knowledge is to deprave public morals1 even if the members were the average sensual men who habitually circulate and gloat upon lewd anecdotes1 to say nothing of their acts4 ,it is true that the abominable imputations packed into the indictment of ,bradlaugh and ,mrs ,besant were repeated in the miserable prosecution#ajh which took place at ,newcastle in #ahib2 and that the ,recorder who tried that case1 ,judge ,digby ,seymour1 displayed gross prejudice at every stage of the trial1 finally vilifying such a perfectly well-meant and well-done treatise as ,dr ,allbutt's ,wife's ,handbook1 and the old ,fruits of ,philosophy1 as two of the filthiest works that could be circulated to debauch and demoralise the minds of the people4 ,odious aspersions of this kind represent merely the fanaticism of ignorant custom1 and take no heed of the enormous harm which physiological ignorance breeds4 ,the ,solicitor-,general in the ,knowlton trial flatly refused to deal with any such considerations2 and ,judge ,seymour similarly would listen to no rational argument4 ,but a decisive current of public opinion now begins to set the other way4 ,even a number of clergymen now admit the frightful evils of over-breeding1 and are thus at least in part disentitled to cry out against rational prudence4 ,the ,newcastle prosecution1 moreover1 was strongly condemned in the local press2 the accused was liberated2 and at a public indignation meeting one speaker declared1 with applause1 that the verdict of ,judge ,digby ,seymour was an insult and a libel upon their ,english manners4 ,and though a ,neo-,malthusian student was heavily fined#aji in ,london in the previous year for circulating information in a slightly irregular manner1 the language of the counsel for the ,crown1 who declared that the only check against immorality in this country is the fear of pregnancy1 excited general indignation1 as did the conduct of the magistrate in ruling that decent language was obscene4 ,this prosecution1 too1 was repented of2 and the most direct journalistic challenge afterwards failed to bring on any prosecution of ,neo-,malthusian doctrine as such4 ,footnote #ajh3 ,of ,henry ,loader1 a professed ,christian4 ,footnote #aji3 ,he was fined #dj1 while two brothel-keepers were fined only #e each in the same week4 ,even the comparatively reasonable attitude of ,sir ,alexander ,cockburn in the ,knowlton trial would not now recommend itself at all points to educated people4 ,in the hearing of the evidence he thought fit to suggest that only strong-minded ladies could acquire medical knowledge without becoming less pure-minded4 ,nor would any thoughtful people now agree with him and the ,solicitor-,general that no better tribunal can be found in the world to judge of such a question as this than the average sound sense and enlightened judgment which is to be found in ,english society4 ,these flights of declamation on the ,bench are part of the general cant of ,english society1 which can decorously endorse the moral reflections of a judge whose own life is the subject of chronic and much-relished scandal4 ,but ,cockburn at least put a new obstacle in the way of legal molestation of honest propaganda by expressing his agreement with the ,malthusian doctrine as to over-population2 and the later judgment of ,judge ,windeyer in ,victoria1 vindicating ,mrs ,besant's ,law of ,population when it was prosecuted there1 marks the turn of the legal tide4 #c4 ,the constructive policy which ,bradlaugh joined with his ,neo-,malthusian doctrine had for its main item the radical reform of the land laws4 ,he was thus in practical harmony with those individualists who except the land from the operation of the individualist principle1 though he did not declare like them for land nationalisation4 ,nationalisation he considered too vast and difficult a transaction in the present state of political evolution2 but progressive interference with the land monopoly he held to be as practicable as it is necessary4 ,property in land1 he held with ,mill1 is only valid in so far as the proprietor of the land is its improver2 when private property in land is not expedient it is unjust4 ,and the control of the land1 in his opinion1 must become the subject of a great and decisive struggle between the people and the landowning class1 who may or may not be aided by the rest of the capitalist class4 ,on this subject he felt no less strongly1 though he always spoke with more restraint1 than do ,socialists with regard to capitalism pure and simple4 ,it is for the use of air1 moisture1 and heat1 he puts it1 for the varied natural forces1 that the cultivator pays2 and the receiver talks of the rights of property4 ,we shall have for the future to talk in this country of the rights of life--rights which must be recognised1 even if the recognition involves the utter abolition of the present landed aristocracy4#aaj ,footnote #aaj3 ,pamphlet on ,the ,land1 the ,people1 and the ,coming ,struggle1 fourth ed41 p4 #h4 ,and he could say of the landed class1 what can hardly be said of the labour-employing class in the main1 that they had stood in the way of every reform3 ,the great rent-takers have been the opponents of progress2 they have hindered reform2 they kept the taxes on knowledge2 they passed combination laws2 they enacted long ,parliaments2 they made the machinery of ,parliamentary election costly and complicated1 so as to bar out the people4 ,they have prevented education1 and then have sneered at the masses for their ignorance4 ,all progress in the producing power of labour has added to the value of land2 and yet the landowner1 who has often stood worse than idly by while the land has increased in value1 now talks of the labourer as of the lower herd which must be checked and restrained4 ,to carry out in legislation the principle of the common interest in the land was accordingly one of his main aims2 and at the time when his illegal exclusion from ,parliament forced him to concentrate all his energies in the struggle for bare political life1 he had gone far to give effect to it4 ,early in #ahhj he took the leading part in establishing the ,land ,law ,reform ,league1 of which the formulated objects were3-- #a4 ,in case of intestacies1 the same law to govern the distribution of real and personal property4 ,this would destroy primogeniture1 but to be useful would need to be followed by some limitation of the power of devise1 say as in ,france4 #b4 ,abolition of the right to settle or entail for non-existing lives4 ,it would be far better to abolish1 all life estates 444 #c4 ,transfer of land to be made as cheap and easy as the transfer of a ship4 ,security to be ensured by compulsory registration of all dealings with land 444 #d4 ,abolition of all preferential rights of landlords over other creditors4444 #e4 ,abolition of the ,game ,laws4 #f4 ,compulsory cultivation of all lands now uncultivated1 and not devoted to public purposes1 which are cultivable with profit4 ,that is1 make it a misdemeanour to hold cultivable lands in an uncultivated state4 ,the penalty on conviction to be dispossession1 but with payment to dispossessed landowners of say twenty years' purchase of the average annual value of the land for the seven years prior to the prosecution4 ,the payment to be by bonds of the ,state bearing the same interest as the ,consolidated ,debt1 and payable to bearer4 ,the land to be ,state property1 and to be let to actual tenant cultivators on terms of tenancy 444 longer or shorter according to the improvement made in the estate4 ,the amount paid as rent to the ,state to be applied to the payment of the interest and to form a sinking fund for the liquidation of the principal4 #g4 ,security to the tenant-cultivator for improvements4 #h4 ,re-valuation of lands for the more equitable imposition of the land-tax4 #i4 ,land-tax to be levied on a scale so graduated as to press most heavily on excessively large holdings4 #aj4 ,one and the same land law for ,great ,britain and ,ireland4 ,within a few months this ,league1 numbering among its ,vice-,presidents four clergymen1 two of them belonging to the ,state ,church1 had established a number of strong branches1 enrolled members1 and affiliated societies representing many thousands more1 thus attracting an amount of notice in the press which promised important results4 ,an illustration of the effect produced may be seen in a letter which ,mr ,ruskin thought worthy of insertion in ,fors ,clavigera3-- ,may ,i take an advantage of this note1 and call your attention to a fact of much importance to ,englishmen8 and it is this4 ,on reference to some ,freethought papers--notably the ,national ,reformer--,i find a movement on foot amongst the ,atheists1 vigorous and full of life1 for the alteration of the ,land ,laws in our much-loved country4 ,it is a movement of much moment1 and likely to lead to great results4 ,the first great move on the part of ,charles ,bradlaugh1 the premier in the matter1 is the calling of a conference to discuss the whole question4 ,the meeting is to be attended by all the ,national ,secular ,society's branches throughout the empire2 representatives of nearly every ,reform ,association in ,england1 ,scotland1 and ,ireland2 deputations from banded bodies of workmen1 colliers1 etc4--such as the important band of ,durham miners--,trade ,unionists1 and1 in fact1 a most mighty representative conference will be gathered together4 ,i am1 for many reasons1 grieved and shocked to find the cry for ,reform coming with such a heading to the front4 ,where are our statesmen--our clergy8 ,the terrible crying evils of our land system are coming to the front in our politics without the help of the so-called upper classes2 nay1 with a deadly hatred of any disturbance in that direction1 our very clergy are taking up arms against the popular cry4 ,only a week ago ,i was spending a few days with a farmer near ,chester1 and learned to my sorrow and dismay that the ,dean and ,chapter of that city1 who own most of the farms1 etc41 in the district where my friend resides1 refuse now--and only now--to accept other than yearly tenants for these farms2 have raised all the rents to an exorbitant pitch1 and only allow the land to be sown with wheat1 oats1 or whatever else in seed1 etc41 on a personal inspection by their agent4 ,the consequences of all this is that poverty is prevailing to an alarming extent2 the workers all the bitter1 hard toil2 the clergy1 one may say1 all the profits4 ,it is terrible1 heart-breaking2 ,i never longed so much for heart-searching1 vivid eloquence1 so that ,i might move men with an irresistible tongue to do the right4 ,it is vain now to guess what the movement might have done if ,bradlaugh1 who was its main force1 had been left free to carry it on continuously4 ,but1 on the one hand1 his overwhelming contest with the ,house of ,commons forced him to put aside an undertaking which depended so much on a seat in that ,house2 and on the other hand1 to say nothing of the precedence inevitably given to the ,irish land question in ,parliament1 it cannot be questioned that the fall in agricultural land values took much of the wind out of the sails of ,english land reformers4 ,the phenomenon of land going out of cultivation put a new face on the dispute4 ,when ,bradlaugh at length got his seat1 he at once showed his continued grasp of the problem by introducing a ,bill for the ,compulsory ,cultivation of ,waste ,land1 the principle of which was1 that wherever land of more than one hundred acres lay uncultivated1 and not used for public pleasure1#aaa while cultivable with profit by a cultivator paying no rent1 or a smaller rent than the landlord held necessary to make it worth his while to lease1 the ,commissioners of ,woods and ,forests should be empowered to take possession of such land and offer it for tenancy4 ,the keeping of the land uncultivated was to be a misdemeanour2 but the dispossessed owner was to receive in compensation an annual payment for twenty-five years of a sum representing the average annual value of the land during the fourteen years prior to his dispossession1 whatever that might be4 ,the justification given by ,bradlaugh for making it a misdemeanour to hold land idle was that already it was a misdemeanour for a labourer to live as an idle vagrant1 and that the law insisted on his utilising his labour power4 ,if labour1 then a fortiori land4 ,in introducing this measure ,bradlaugh emphatically maintained that if the land would not yield the three profits of ,lord ,beaconsfield's formula1 it ought not to be allowed to be kept idle and useless by the landlord4 ,so long as a cultivator could make his profit1 the ,state was bound to give him the opportunity4 ,needless to say1 the ,bill was violently denounced by the ,conservative press4 ,the ,times talked of downright plunder4 ,the ,spectator was especially indignant on the score that great properties in the home counties1 kept waste in the hope that ,london will build on them1 would be confiscated2 and that and other journals held it a sufficient objection that in cases where land had been worth nothing the landlord would get nothing4 ,many ,liberal members further objected that a ,bill of such importance ought not to be introduced by a private member2 and generally there was more hostility than help4 ,on its discussion in the ,house 7,april #ahhf7 ,bradlaugh agreed to withdraw the ,bill on the ground that its machinery was insufficient1 he having come to the opinion that provision should be made for the lending of money to moneyless men to enable them to cultivate on their own behalf4 ,in #ahhg1 still seeing no hope of carrying a ,bill1 he took the course of moving a resolution on the motion for going into ,committee of ,supply1 reaffirming the principle that the right of ownership carries with it the duty of cultivation1 and proposing to empower the local authorities to act as in the ,bill of #ahhf he had proposed to make the ,commissioners of ,woods and ,forests act4 ,this time he had considerable support1 his resolution getting #aja votes1 to #age against4 ,not one of the front bench ,liberals voted2 but the ,irish ,home ,rulers did so in considerable force1 making some amends for old hostility4#aab ,again1 in #ahhh1 he moved a modified resolution1 proposing to empower local authorities to purchase compulsorily waste lands at the capital agricultural value4 ,this time1 some hours having been lost by a ,scotch motion for the adjournment of the ,house on a point affecting crofters1 the discussion came to nothing1 the ,house being counted out while it was in process4 ,those who were behind the scenes may be able to give the explanation of the apathy of the ,liberal and ,radical members generally4 ,the passing of an ,allotments ,act by the ,conservative ,government may have had something to do with it4 ,be that as it may1 ,bradlaugh again in ,march #ahhi gave notice of a resolution on the subject1 this time proposing to give local authorities power to levy a waste and vacant land rate1 or in the alternative1 to acquire the land by payment either for a limited term of an annual sum not exceeding the then average net annual actual produce1 or of a sum representing the capital agricultural value4 ,this resolution1 however1 never came to discussion4 ,he again put it down in #ahij1 immediately after his return from ,india1 but again it failed to reach discussion4 ,in #ahia his work was over4 ,footnote #aaa3 ,this stipulation was often ignored1 and he was accused of wanting to parcel out ,hyde ,park in allotments4 ,footnote #aab3 ,for the details of the case in favour of compulsory cultivation of land1 see ,bradlaugh's pamphlet on the subject1 published #ahhg4 ,it will be seen that his land policy was more advanced than any that has yet been put in force by the ,liberal party1 though the legislation of #ahid has advanced considerably towards the adoption of his principle of compulsion4 ,to that principle later legislators must inevitably come2 and as regards land not utilised it has irresistible force4 ,the proper answer to the demands of landlords for protection against the import of cheap corn from land paying no rent in ,america1 is that when land goes out of cultivation here owing to such competition making it fail to yield its old rent1 or three profits1 the opportunity of cultivating it should pass to the ,state1 which may fitly try the experiment of placing on such land the labourers who are driven to swell the crowd of unemployed in the towns4 ,but this answer has never yet been effectively made in politics4#aac ,the doctrine of the nation's ownership of its land needs apparently to be asserted to-day more emphatically than ever4 ,footnote #aac3 ,it has lately been advanced by a ,unionist politician1 ,mr ,t4 ,w4 ,russell1 in the ,new ,review4 ,asserting it as he did1 ,bradlaugh represented a midway position between out-and-out ,socialism and out-and-out ,individualism4 ,time will show whether it was on the line to be taken by progressive reform4 ,what is clear is that if energetically adopted it may soon lead to the complete overthrow of that land system which is the foundation of the reactionary party politics of this country4 ,in his pamphlet on ,the ,land1 the ,people1 and the ,coming ,struggle1 ,bradlaugh put very clearly the social ideal he had in view4 ,the enormous estates of the few landed proprietors1 he declared1 must not only be prevented from growing larger1 they must be broken up4 ,at their own instance1 and gradually1 if they will meet us with even a semblance of fairness1 for the poor and hungry cannot well afford to fight2 but at our instance1 and rapidly1 if they obstinately refuse all legislation4 ,to this end he proposed1 as we have seen1 re-valuation of all lands1 and a graduated land-tax1 to press most heavily on the largest holdings4 ,the ,budget of #ahid1 although stopping short of graduation of the annual taxes1 has made the first step towards them by graduating the death duties2 and the further steps are probably not far off4 ,the broad political problem of the future is the control of wealth distribution1 to the end of making the rendering of services a condition of the enjoyment of services for all able-bodied persons2 and it seems fairly clear that the easiest of the various possible main steps towards that consummation are the restriction of private property in land and the indirect or direct absorption of economic rent by the ,state1 such adaptations being to the socialisation of other means of wealth production as the simple to the complex4 ,and while ,bradlaugh1 as has been said1 stipulated for gradual action even in the regulation of the land1 he never refused to contemplate the nationalisation of its rent as an ultimate ideal4 #d4 ,it may now be easily inferred how ,bradlaugh came to feel for the popular ,socialism of the day a mixture of distrust and aversion4 ,it was for him a flying off at a tangent from the right spiral line of progress4 ,he had counted on seeing the slowly-won political power of the mass of the people turned to the enforcement of fundamental reforms in taxation and land-tenure1 so as to better the life-conditions of the people in the mass2 and he had trusted to a gradual learning of the lesson of family prudence1 with the result of an immense saving of friction1 waste1 and misery4 ,when he had got to the front of the political struggle1 the needed reforms were still nearly all to make2 and the great lesson of conjugal prudence was only beginning to be learned on a large scale4 ,what was wanted1 to his mind1 was a combination of energy with patience4 ,he had no belief in the possibility of raising the lot of vast masses of people to a high level suddenly by violent legislation for the direct transfer of all property from the haves to the have-nots3 he knew how enormously difficult it was to effect even the modifying measures for which he was working4 ,but he believed that with persistent toil and good sense it might so be carried out that the life of the people should in the next generation be greatly improved1 and the stress of their life materially lessened4 ,just at this stage1 however1 he saw the struggling people suddenly and vociferously appealed to by teachers who taught the uselessness of all gradual action2 the futility of all preceding parliamentary effort2 the impossibility of any improvement so long as private property in any of the means of production subsisted2 the limitation of the alternatives to the whole loaf or no bread2 the necessity of subjecting all industrial action whatever to collective control at one sweep2 in a word1 the absolute necessity of effecting at a stroke1 by violence if need be1 such a social and moral revolution as the world had never yet seen4 ,already the folly of all this is recognised by many even of those who resent ,bradlaugh's popular exposure of it4 ,within ten years there has been developed in ,england a progressive ,socialism which repudiates violence1 substitutes evolution for revolution1 proposes to utilise all the existing political machinery1 is glad of gradual advance1 is content to urge forward ,radicalism1 and modifies mathematical politics by biological conceptions4 ,but ,bradlaugh had to bear the brunt of the anger not only of the heated crowd who had shouted for the impossible1 but of the new sentimental journalists who had patronised them4 ,first he had been constantly and violently abused1 in the early days of his ,parliamentary struggle1 as being himself a ,socialist1 by people who knew nothing whatever about his life and doctrine2 and his alleged ,socialism was one of the pretexts on which some opposed his entry into the ,house of ,commons4 ,the nobleman who then represented the historic name of ,percy took that line4 ,a fair sample of the current tone on the subject among the ignorant rich is supplied by their votes vates sanctissima1 the lady novelist ,ouida1 in a letter to the ,fortnightly ,review1#aad in which she discussed the class politics of ,italy4 ,it is the towns1 she explained1 which are the centres of eagerness for unconsidered war1 and the foolish credulity of bombastic ,radicalism2 and she went on in her best-informed manner to particularise the 'educated' cad of the ,turin or ,florence streets1 who has heard just enough of ,fourier and ,bradlaugh to think that society ought to maintain at ease his ugly idleness4 ,the idleness which felt sure of its beauty was naturally resentful4 ,all the while1 ,bradlaugh was at sharp strife with the ,socialists of the moment2 and he soon came to be applauded for his course in this matter by the same precious upper-class opinion which had just imputed to him the views he assailed1 while new assailants vituperated him as a traitor to principles he had never accepted4 ,it is largely to his destructive criticism that the undefined fashionable ,socialism of the present hour owes its comparative rationality2#aae but there is small thought of acknowledging the service4 ,footnote #aad3 ,november #ahha1 p4 #hdb4 ,footnote #aae3 ,his longer criticisms of ,socialism make a fair volume4 ,they are3 7#a7 ,socialism2 ,for and ,against3 written debate with ,mrs ,besant1 #ahhg2 7#b7 ,will ,socialism benefit the ,english ,people8 debate with ,mr ,hyndman1 #ahhc2 7#c7 ,written debate with ,mr ,belfort ,bax1 under same title2 7#d7 ,socialism2 its ,fallacies and ,dangers1 article in ,north ,american ,review1 ,january #ahhg1 reprinted as a pamphlet2 ,pamphlet1 ,some objections to ,socialism1 #ahhd4 ,see also his articles and debate on the ,eight ,hours ,question1 and his lecture on ,capital and ,labour4 ,certainly he had struck hard1 and this not merely because he was iniquitously and ferociously attacked by ,socialists generally4#aaf ,he saw the new doctrine appealing to and applauded by1 not the clear-headed and self-controlled workers1 but the neurotic1 the noisy1 the passionate1 the riotous4 ,instead of meetings of men at once earnest and orderly1 such as he had gathered and addressed for so many years1 meetings at which debate could go on without disorder1 he saw gatherings of wildly excited men1 who could not listen to opposition1 who could not sit still in their seats when their view were countered1 and who turned a public debate into a public disturbance4 ,significantly enough1 the one town in which the ,socialist party1 even when pretty numerous1 can be trusted to give an opponent a fair hearing1 is ,northampton1 where for so many years he disciplined the workers to orderly activity1 and to self-control under extreme provocation4 ,no cause ever needed such discipline more than that of ,socialism4 ,it is quite reasonable to plead for consideration for men whose life is hard1 and who see idlers at their ease2 but extenuating circumstances do not affect the stream of tendency2 and no amount of sympathy with the luckless can make up for want of judgment in those who undertake to lead them4 ,and to talk1 as so many of the ,socialist talkers did a dozen or less years ago1 of resorting to physical force1 to revolutionise society1 was only to expose the luckless to new disaster4 ,footnote #aaf3 ,i happened to be standing by when1 at a ,freethought ,conference1 the late ,dr ,csar de ,ppe1 a leading ,belgian ,socialist and ,freethinker1 personally and fraternally remonstrated with ,bradlaugh on his opposition to ,socialism4 ,he vehemently answered that he had found the ,english ,socialists among the most unscrupulous of his enemies1 they having not only lied about him freely1 but put in his mouth all sorts of things he had never said or thought4 ,whether all ,bradlaugh's argumentation against ,socialist theory will hold good is another question4 ,it is probable that the extreme statements of ,socialist doctrine with which he had to deal led him latterly to define his ,individualism at times more sharply than before4 ,not many years before his death he declined to dub himself either ,individualist or ,socialist4 ,he sought to legislate for an evolving society1 conditioned by all sorts of anomalous survivals2 and he must prescribe for each juncture or trouble in view of all the facts of the case4 ,as he put it in his pamphlet on ,parliament and the ,poor3-- ,all progressive legislation in this country is necessarily compromise4 ,it is not possible to legislate on hard and fast lines of principle alone4 ,a state of things has grown up through generations which can only be gradually changed4 ,the expedient has to be considered in all lawmaking4 ,legal interpretations of right have received judicial sanction1 which have become so much part of our general political and social system that sudden reversal would be attended often with the gravest mischief4 ,temporary concessions have usually to be made on the one side1 to win consent from the other1 to a sure step in advance2 but no compromise is final4 ,but the affirmation by ,socialists of principles which seemed to make an end of self-reliance and self-determination led him to offer definitions of the sphere of ,government2 and while his concrete decisions--as in the case of the ,eight ,hours movement--will probably be found to be in all cases sagacious1 it may be that political science will yet endorse action which he declined to contemplate4 ,his practical justification is that his ,socialist adversaries always argued the case in vacuo1 and demanded the nationalisation of all the means of production1 and1 by consequence1 the ,state determination of all destinies1 at a time when not only is the public in the terms of the case still largely predatory and anti-social in instinct1 but the ,socialists themselves are divided by incurable animosities4 ,mr ,hyndman chose to debate with him on the issue1 ,will ,socialism benefit the ,english ,people8--if resorted to here and now being implied4 ,only when it is asked1 ,can we evolve up to ,socialism8 will ,bradlaugh's rebuttal be got rid of4 ,what may perhaps be urged against him1 as against land nationalisers from ,mill onwards1 is that the theory which makes land the main matter is partly undermined by the economic evolution in which agricultural land values in this country have receded1 the food supply being more and more derived from abroad1 in return for exported goods4 ,on this head1 however1 it may here suffice to answer that that is in all likelihood a temporary phase2 that in any case1 ,english industry rests on the coal supply1 which is a matter of land in the economic sense2 and that a ,socialism which thinks to maintain a forever increasing population1 on the basis of a mere national workshop system1 is much more short-sighted than the doctrine which makes the land the fulcrum of all industrial movement4 ,there is just one criticism of ,bradlaugh's politics which the present writer will not undertake to meet1 since it raises a point on which he was driven to differ from him4 ,it is the objection to the optimistic assumption that the mass of the people can surmount the trouble of chronic trade-depression by means of thrift4 ,this was perhaps the one touch of uncritical optimism in ,bradlaugh's political system4 ,he argued that the workers could acquire all necessary capital for themselves by simple saving4 ,you can earn it1 he tells them1 at the close of his lecture on ,capital and ,labour1--the ,rothschilds' wealth1 the ,overstones' wealth1 the ,barings' wealth--you1 the millions1 if you are only loyal to yourselves and to one another1 may put all this into your own ,savings ,banks1 and your own friendly societies1 and your own trades unions1 within a dozen years4 ,you accumulate it for others3 you can do it for yourselves4 ,the answer to this is that the capital in question depends for its continuance on the continuance of industrial production1 and of the demand for the product2 whereas1 if the workers were to stint their consumption to the extent of saving great masses of capital from wages1 they would to that extent check their total production1 unless1 that is1 the other classes increase their consumption to a balancing extent2 which1 however1 they could not conceivably do4 ,even if the birth-rate be so checked as to lessen the nett population1 the increasing power of machinery would so far balance the lessened supply of labour that the tactic of parsimony on a large scale would defeat itself4 ,at present the successful savers are so in virtue of the ill-luck of other investors and the non-saving of the mass4 ,saving all round would neutralise itself1 since the saving could only be profitably invested in production to meet increasing demand1 whereas in the terms of the case there would be decreasing demand4 ,it is spending that keeps the machine going1 not saving4 ,but supposing this criticism to be valid--and there are still but few who will endorse it--the final estimate of ,bradlaugh1 as of any politician1 must be in terms of comparison2 and if he has erred on the theory of thrift1 so have all the statesmen of his time2 while on other great issues on which they were backward1 he was alert and enlightened4 ,even the ,socialists who oppose him1 and throw at him the ancient epithet of ,manchester1 have in many cases committed themselves to the ,manchester school's doctrine of saving1 deriding those who contravene it4 ,and on the concrete issues on which they were opposed to him1 it is not difficult to show that ,manchesterism had the right end of the stick4 ,on the ,eight ,hours' question1 in particular1 the ,socialist attack on him is not only subversive of other ,socialist doctrine1 but is a reductio ad absurdum4 ,he is accused of inconsistency1 because he wrought for ,state interference with the relations of labour and capital in his ,truck ,act1 but opposed ,state regulation of working hours4 ,but1 on the one hand1 the two cases are fundamentally different1 since working hours depend on the whole economic situation1 while ,truck is an arbitrary arrangement of the masters1 only possible in peculiar local circumstances2 and on the other hand1 if the ,truck ,act logically commits us to interference with working time1 then a time law will logically commit us to a wages law1 which even the ,socialist critic admits to be folly4 ,that ,bradlaugh was no pedantic individualist is shown1 not only by his ,truck ,act1 but by his agitation for a ,labour ,bureau1 which was the origin of that institution1 though the official ,liberal press usually gives all the credit to ,mr ,mundella1 who merely acted on ,bradlaugh's urging4 ,and while the latter held that the action of the trade unions was in some cases mistaken1 he never ceased to urge their attention to political affairs all round4 ,many of the great trades organisations and friendly societies1 he wrote in #ahhi1 have until recently prided themselves on being non-political4 ,some of the trades societies and nearly all the friendly societies still so pride themselves4 ,this has been a serious blunder1 especially in a country where much legislation has been the work of a very limited class for the conservation of their own privileges4#aag ,footnote #aag3 ,parliament and the ,poor4 ,his limitary principle was one of sound common-sense1 whether or not he recognised the full force of the economic indictment of competitive individualism4 ,a good working doctrine for legislatures should be to mould conduct rather by the development of sound public opinion than by the operation of penal laws4 ,especially should the legislature be careful not to profess to do that for the worker1 which it is reasonably possible for him to do for himself without the aid of the law4 ,a duty enforced by others is seldom so well performed as a duty affirmed by the doer4 ,and these principles1 which perhaps serve even some professed ,liberals mainly as a ground for doing nothing1 were with him a ground for insisting on an act of justice and expediency which such ,liberals have been very loth to accede to4 ,bradlaugh's action in the great test case of recent ,english politics is a decisive proof of his foresight4 #e4 ,as the story of his life has shown1 ,bradlaugh had had special opportunities of studying the ,irish question from the inside2 and from the day when his young blood boiled at the murderous cruelty of an ,irish eviction1 he steadfastly supported the cause of the misruled ,irish people4 ,he never ceased to love ,england with that touch of pride and faith which is the whole stock-in-trade of the average patriot2 but1 combining it as he did with an intense sense of justice1 he could never let that devotion blind him to the wrongs of other peoples at ,england's hands4 ,and in the first years of his political activity1 when he was pleading for rebel ,poles and rebel ,italians1 he seems to have so far recognised the right of ,irishmen to use force against the force of ,england1 that he assisted the ,fenian conspirators of #ahfg to draw up their ,republican proclamation1 so revising it as to exclude every expression of race hatred and every appeal to religious feeling2 the complete separation of ,church and ,state being one of its stipulations4 ,the full details of that connection will probably never now be known2 but what is quite clear is that ,bradlaugh was not only then opposed to the idea of an ,irish ,republic1 but soon ceased to have the least faith in the possibility of a successful or even a well-planned ,irish rising2 while his invariable opposition to useless violence was emphatic in the case of the ,clerkenwell and other outrages4 ,all the more earnestly did he continue his propaganda for ,irish reform4 ,holding as he did that the land question was fundamental in ,english politics1 he could not but see that it was the very heart of the ,irish trouble2 and to the agitation for ,irish land law reform he gave energetic support4 ,but he was always far ahead of the slow movement of average ,english opinion2 and while ,english ,liberals were hoping that the concessions carried out by ,gladstone would make ,ireland a contented partner in the ,union1 ,bradlaugh had already given his assent to the claim for ,home ,rule2 always1 however1 flatly opposing the doctrine of separation4 ,on this he was explicit when1 speaking in ,new ,york in #ahgc1 he found otherwise friendly ,irish auditors disposed to be satisfied with nothing short of absolute severance from ,england4 ,home ,rule1 however1 he all along considered to be not only just but inevitable4 ,while those of us who hoped for a real ,union 7with ,irishmen admitted to perfect equality in the ,executive system7 were urging that as a solution which escaped the proved dangers of ,federalism1 he had made up his mind that ,englishmen could not and would not ever deal with ,ireland as an integral part of the ,state2 and he had declared himself a ,home ,ruler long before ,mr ,gladstone1 who had frustrated the hope for a true ,union by consistently keeping ,irishmen out of his cabinets4 ,that1 helping as he thus did the ,home ,rule movement1 he should yet have been treated with bigoted hostility and injustice by the bulk of the ,irish ,nationalists in his ,parliamentary struggle1 was so remarkable that explanations were demanded2 and the ,nationalists offered several1 to the effect that ,bradlaugh had turned against them4 ,it is necessary to go into some detail to show that this is untrue4 ,at the outset of his ,parliamentary struggle ,bradlaugh was not only not regarded as an opponent by the ,nationalists as a political party1 but was even defended by ,parnell1 although against the wish of most of that leader's ,catholic followers2 and despite the quickly shown ill-will of these1 ,bradlaugh continued to support their cause in the ,house during the nine months of his conditional tenure of his seat1 #ahhj-ha4 ,but as he never hesitated to counter what he held to be wrong policy among ,english democrats1 so he condemned1 albeit reluctantly1 what he held to be unjustifiable courses on the part of the ,parnellites4 ,this appears in his ,parliamentary ,jottings in his journal under date #eth ,september #ahhj1 where he says he much regretted1 during the long conflict of ,thursday-,friday1 to find himself brought into collision with the ,irish members4 ,nineteen ,irish members had spoken1 with his entire sympathy1 against the ,constabulary ,vote2 and after midnight they sought to postpone the discussion1 on the ground that more ,irish members wished to speak1 though not a penny of the estimates had been voted4 ,there were only twelve more ,home ,rulers present1 and they could all have spoken had they wished4 ,they1 however1 appealed to the ,radicals to help them to delay business1 on the score that the ,constabulary ,vote was a life and death question4 ,as obstruction could only delay and not stop the vote1 ,bradlaugh objected1 and made a speech to that effect1 which was warmly cheered by the ,liberals1 and as warmly condemned by ,home ,rulers2 though1 when it came to voting1 only #bg of the #fa ,home ,rulers went into the lobby4 ,obstruction he always condemned4 ,this was a pretext for ,irish hostility1 though there had been abundance of that already4 ,some weeks later he writes3-- ,my personal position as to ,ireland is by no means an easy one4 ,i find ,english ,radicals in general1 and myself in particular the subject of constant abuse in ,irish journals4 ,i read words attributed to ,irish members of the ,house of ,commons full of the most intense hostility to everything ,english1 and find speakers in their presence declaring that the land movement is only the cover for the disruption of the two countries4 ,and after quoting some of the frenzied sayings of ,irish ,americans1 he appeals to ,mr ,parnell and his co-traversers1 and other responsible ,nationalists1 not to check our desire to co-operate with them by their open declarations of hostility to our race2 and in the name of humanity 444 to check the tendency of the people whom they lead to waste their energies in worse than useless force4 ,at the same time1 he protested against the prosecution of ,mr ,parnell and his colleagues by the ,liberal ,government1 supported the fund for their defence1 and incurred new hostility in ,england in consequence4 ,correspondents wrote him on both sides1 and he answered3#aah-- ,footnote #aah3 ,national ,reformer1 ,nov4 #bj1 #ahhh4 ,we must ask both sides to be a little patient4 ,the agrarian crimes cannot be justified1 nor does our contributing to the ,parnell ,defence justify these4 ,we subscribe in order that he and others may have fair play3 it is never easy to be defendant in a ,state trial4444 ,some remind us that three-fourths of the ,irish ,m4,p4's voted against us1 and nearly every ,irish paper attacks us4 ,that is so1 but it does not alter our duty4 ,our duty is to work honestly for redress of ,irish grievances1 although even every ,irishman should be personally unjust to us4 ,one form of the injustice is seen in an editorial sentence from the ,dublin ,freeman about the same time1 propos of the argument of the ,tory ,st ,james's ,gazette#aai to the effect that over-population was the cause of ,irish distress4 ,does the ,st ,james's propose1 asked the ,freeman1 the introduction of ,bradlaughism into ,ireland1 when it says that the 'rapid growth of population1 which is checked in some countries1' must be fatal to the prosperity of cotter families across the ,channel8 ,the ,tory argument was really a sample of the method of utilising the principle of population solely as a reason for not doing justice1 while vilifying those who not only see the trouble but point out the remedy4 ,not a word of support did ,bradlaugh ever get from a ,tory organ in his attempt to avert the evil of over-population4 ,but as regards ,ireland1 he not only recognised that over-population there was positively fostered by the unjust land system1 but he again and again in the ,house denied that even wholesale emigration1 if practicable1 would cure the evil while that system endured4 ,in ,july #ahhj he writes3-- ,footnote #aai3 ,then edited by ,mr ,frederick ,greenwood4 ,i had to listen to the ,hon4 ,b4 ,fitzpatrick1 sent by #aah votes for the borough of ,portarlington1 who1 in the course of a wild display of imbecility1 had the audacity to declare that wholesale emigration of the natives of ,ireland was the 'only remedy' for ,irish distress2 and this was said by an ,irishman4 ,on the #aeth of the same month1 in the debate on the second reading of the ,irish ,tenants' ,compensation ,bill1 he protested against the irrelevance of the ,tory opposition to the ,bill4 ,there had been renewed the argument that ,ireland was over-populated1 and that the tenants who were distressed ought to find in some other country the relief they could not find in ,ireland4 ,now1 there was no colony in ,england1 and there was no part of the ,united ,states of ,america1 to which any poor man without means could go1 hoping to benefit himself at the present time4 ,therefore1 those who recommended emigration had either never taken the trouble to investigate the matter1 or were simply talking against time to delay the measure going into committee4 ,again1 though in ,january #ahha he found himself driven into the lobby1 for the first time this ,session1 against the ,irish members1 only to vote that the business of the ,house was not to be absolutely stopped by an utterly irregular discussion1 he took a most active part in opposing the ,government's coercive measures4 ,in the debate on the address he made one of eight ,english ,radicals who alone had been found to record their votes in favour of ,mr ,parnell's amendment1 though feeling that the ,irish methods of hindering business had kept many ,english members out of the ,nationalist lobby2 and when ,mr ,forster made his appeal for special powers1 ,bradlaugh made a strong speech in support of one of the ,irish amendments4#abj ,yet again he felt bound to vote for the suspension of ,mr ,biggar1 doing it with very heavy heart1 and grieving that ,irish members should so play into the hands of their enemies1 and so totally damage the cause of their country4 ,of the later suspensions of ,mr ,dillon and the ,o',gorman ,mahon1 he wrote with much regret2 but for others who had1 outside1 boasted that they wished to degrade ,parliament1 he confessed he had little pity4 ,none the less1 he moved the rejection of the ,coercion ,bill on the second reading1 in the never-explained absence of ,mr ,parnell1 who had suddenly gone to ,paris4 ,the ,irish ,anti-,coercion ,committee1 who had just denounced him in one of their leaflets for his votes against obstruction1 felt constrained about this stage to send him a vote of thanks4 ,all the while1 his journal had published numerous articles sharply attacking the ,government's coercion policy4 ,footnote #abj3 ,those were the days of all-night sittings1 forced by the policy of the ,nationalists2 and ,bradlaugh missed voting on the motion for leave to bring in the ,coercion ,bill1 by reason of having gone home to rest after having sat for twenty-six hours out of thirty1 the vote being suddenly taken in his absence on the decision of the ,speaker4 ,a vote on the ,arms ,bill was the last act by which ,bradlaugh ministered to the wish of the ,nationalists to have a case against him4 ,he had repeatedly protested against the advice given by ,mr ,dillon and others to ,irish peasants to buy rifles2 and he held that the case of ,ireland was bad enough without adding to wrong and misery the freedom to seek amends in murder4 ,his vote on this point1 like his votes against obstruction1 were held by the ,parnellites to outweigh all his protests against coercion and all his appeals for land law reform2 his exclusion from ,parliament after the decision in the ,law ,courts in the spring of #ahha was hailed by most of them with delight2 and during his long battle outside1 they were among his worst enemies1 the ,irish press and people fully abetting them4 ,still he never relaxed his advocacy of the cause of the ,irish peasantry1 pleading for a merciful and conciliatory treatment of them when they were hooting his name2 and when he at length obtained his seat in #ahhf he gave his unhesitating support to the ,home ,rule policy of ,mr ,gladstone4 ,it was in that year that a leading ,irish ,nationalist went up to him in the ,house with the greeting1 ,mr ,bradlaugh1 you have been the best ,christian of us all4 ,considering that only the influence of the ,catholic priesthood could account for the course taken by the ,parnellite party1 the acknowledgment--in spirit if not in form--was suggestive of some moral progress on the ,christian side4 ,it may be questioned whether many ,liberals could have thus borne the test undergone by ,bradlaugh on the ,irish question4 ,it is certain that ,bright1 with all his chivalry and rectitude1 was somewhat influenced in his latter attitude on that question by the evil return which ,irishmen had made to him for all his efforts on their behalf4 ,bradlaugh suffered far worse treatment at their hands1 but was in no way turned by it from his conviction of what was just4 ,he was content to recognise that the people were swayed by the priests1 and that in any case it is vain to look for the moral fruits of equality from a people to whom equality has been for ages denied4 ,he had been treated by ,irish ,nationalists as he had been by ,english ,conservatives2 and though he felt the ingratitude of the former1 he would not admit that they had shown any grosser unscrupulousness than the latter1 who had denied justice to an ,englishman on motives of party strategy1 reinforced by religious malice4 ,if there was any difference1 it was that the ,irishmen had been more moved by religious malice and less by party strategy2 and it is usual to rate the latter motive the lower of the two4 ,bradlaugh himself would never have claimed that he had shown any special magnanimity in the case2 but those who know how much personal interest or pique counts for in political action will recognise the singularity of his course4 ,it belonged to his character1 equally with his avowal and advocacy of unpopular opinions4 ,later1 when the question of ,woman ,suffrage was being pressed on his constituency1 he was told by ,mr ,labouchere1 as he had been told by others before1 that if the women of ,northampton had a vote he would not be returned4 ,his public answer was3-- ,if ,i knew this to be true1 it would not hinder me from casting my vote in favour of woman suffrage1 even if my vote alone should be required to pass the ,bill4 ,i deeply value the representation of ,northampton1 but the grant of the right of woman to the suffrage cannot be determined by the fact that1 if legalised1 her exercise of that right according to her conscience would be personally hostile to myself4 ,it may be doubted whether ,mr ,labouchere gauged the situation aright4 ,when ,bradlaugh stood for ,northampton in #ahfh and was beaten1 the wives and women-folk of his supporters subscribed their scanty pence1 and bought him a gold pencil-case4 ,if after hearing the utterance above cited the ,northampton women of to-day were capable of voting in the mass against a man so declaring himself1 they would indeed give ,mr ,labouchere a better case against their enfranchisement than he has yet been able to make out4 ,but would they8 #f4 ,in virtue of the qualities which made him a warm friend of ,ireland1 ,bradlaugh was all his life1 and in his latter years still more warmly1 the friend of ,india4 ,all his instincts of justice and sympathy were moved by the spectacle of that vast congeries of immemorially immature races1 ruled by a bureaucracy of ,englishmen1 none of whom would for a moment be trusted to exercise similar power over their fellow-countrymen1 but all of whom collectively are assumed by their countrymen to need next to no supervision when ruling a lower race4 ,again and again ,bradlaugh protested1 as other ,englishmen had protested before him1 against the inveterate apathy with which the ,house of ,commons regards ,indian questions1 as shown by the scanty handful of members who attend to hear them discussed once a year4 ,the death of ,professor ,fawcett1 the member for ,india1 left ,indian interests ill cared for indeed1 and immediately on gaining his seat ,bradlaugh stepped into the vacant place1 although it was by itself work enough for one man1 and he had three men's work on hand besides4 ,his speech on ,india in #ahhc to his constituents shows the broad and systematic way in which he approached the problem4 ,he studied it with the minute care he bestowed on every subject he handled2 and in a few years he acquired by his work an amount of popularity among natives such as had never before been earned by an ,englishman outside ,india1 and by few ,anglo-,indians4 ,as this work was mostly done after his ,parliamentary struggle was over1 the record of it belongs to the story of his closing years2 but it was only the consistent sequel to his previous political life4 ,he took up the cause of ,india as he had done those of ,italy1 ,poland1 ,ireland1 of ,boers1 ,zulus1 and ,egyptians1 with no thought or prospect of personal gain1 out of sheer zeal for justice and hatred of oppression4 ,and inasmuch as ,anglo-,indians of the school of ,mr ,rudyard ,kipling have consistently derided and denounced his ,indian policy1 it may be fitting to note at this point the advantage that policy has over such opposition in respect of its relation to universal political principles4 ,the doctrine of ,mr ,kipling's school--who may be defined as barbaric sentimentalists--is that ,asia in general1 and ,india in particular1 are absolute exceptions to all the principles of ,european politics4 ,the ,east1 they say1 is unprogressive1 unchangeable1 unimprovable4 ,the most direct confutation of that doctrine is supplied by the simple fact of the persistence of the ,congress movement1 which at its outset the sentimentalists scouted as a chimera4 ,whatever may be its outcome1 they are for ever discredited1 in that they declared the thing itself1 when broached1 to be impossible4 ,and those whose sociology goes deeper and wider than a rule-of-thumb acquaintance with part of the actual life of a race or a region are aware that ,india can no more than any other land resist the laws of social transmutation1 given the transmuting forces and conditions4 ,it is extremely unfortunate that many ,englishmen are ready to accept as final the sweeping sociological dicta of ,mr ,kipling1 on the score merely of his first-hand knowledge of ,indian life and his literary genius4 ,foolish generalisations on social possibilities have been made in every country in every age by men with first-hand knowledge of their theme2 and it must be regretfully said that foolish men of genius are among the most eminent darkeners of counsel on such matters4 ,when ,mr ,kipling gives a particular account of a particular phase of ,indian life1 ,englishmen who in the terms of the case have no knowledge of that life accept the account as a revelation1 when obviously their estimate of it in that light has no critical value whatever4 ,strong in the suffrages of such judges1 ,mr ,kipling has been pleased to speak of ,bradlaugh as being prepared by defective education to take that mistaken view of ,indian life which ,mr ,kipling inexpensively imputes to all inquiring ,englishmen at home4 ,the sufficient answer to that criticism is that there are many kinds of defective education1 and that nobody can well be further wrong about ,india than ,mr ,kipling1 inasmuch as he has himself contradicted every one of his own numerous generalisations by others4 ,he first came forward with pictures of the ,indian ,civil and ,military ,services1 in which they appeared nearly as corrupt as those of ,russia are said to be3 husbands getting promotion on the score of their wives' adultery1 and so forth4 ,later he saw fit to represent the ,indian ,civil ,service as embodying every virtue a ,civil ,service can have4 ,as a rule1 he pictures the ,english in ,india as the ,dominant ,race1 with impressive capitals1 and the natives as being universally cowards4 ,when1 however1 a native officer can play like a lambent flame on the polo-field1 and can transgress every law of hospitality by thrasonically declaring defiance to ,russia in the person of a ,russian officer at a ,british mess-table1 that native becomes even as an ,englishman in ,mr ,kipling's eyes4 ,the simple canon of ,mr ,kipling is the feeling that any race which thwarts his own must be base4 ,thus every indiscreet ,russian officer must needs be a blackguard1 and every disaffected ,irishman a ruffian and a sneak2 the evil principle being so deep rooted that the ,asiatic children of an ,irishman spontaneously take to cutting off cows' tails2 though at the same time the ,irish soldier is a hero of heroes1 if only he is duly devoted to the ,queen1 ,god bless her4 ,it will be a bad business for ,english rule in ,india when minds which sociologise in this fashion come to be the guides of the ,british people in their political relations with their dependency4 ,bradlaugh1 it may suffice to say1 was under no delusions as to the present political capacity of the ,indian races4 ,he perfectly recognised their bias to rhetoric and their immaturity of character1 as well as the enormous difficulties in the way of their political amalgamation4 ,hence his programme for them was an extremely gradual introduction of the principle of self-rule4 ,nothing could be more judicious and restrained than his brief address to the ,congress on his brief visit to ,india after his dangerous illness of #ahhi1 within about a year of his death4 ,and the chances are that before a generation is over his view of the case will be the accepted commonplace of ,liberal politics2 while the notion of a perpetual domination of ,englishmen in a country where they cannot rear healthy children will be regarded as a crowning flight of unscientific political sentiment4 ,in any case1 it implies no great rashness to predict that an ,england which ignores the affairs of its subjects as much as possible in ,parliament will not long be able to maintain a despotic rule over a people accessible to ,western ideas4 ,the ,home ,rule principle1 which was for ,bradlaugh a principle of universal virtue1 however different the degree of its application to a given case at a given moment1 must in time be wrought out in ,india as elsewhere1 if only it goes forward in the ,west1 and the ,west keeps up its growing intercourse with the ,east4 ,and it was one of his many political merits to have been one of the first to see this not only abstractly but in the concrete4 99 99 99 99 99 ,enough has now been said to convey a broad idea of the manner and matter of ,bradlaugh's philosophy of life1 cosmical and political1 as it was developed and acted on by him at the time of his most memorable appearance on the arena of ,british public life4 ,at that time much work1 though not many years of life1 remained to him1 so that some who then opposed him claimed afterwards that they could not have known his capacities for good1 as exhibited in his extraordinary ,parliamentary labours4 ,but the foregoing account of his teaching and action will probably suffice to show that his political career was all of a piece1 and that at the time of his ostracism he had given proof of all the powers and opinions which were later admitted to do him honour4 ,neither1 as we shall see1 did he in later life surrender any one of the teachings of his earlier years4 ,he laid more stress on some and less on others2 but he unsaid nothing1 and for the most part he did but carry on his youthful programme4 ,before #ahhj he had been the ardent and yet sagacious friend of oppressed nationalities1 the advocate of ,radical land law reform1 the defender of liberty of conscience1 the exponent of the claims of the poor against the rich1 the preacher of unpopular but all-important doctrines on personal conduct4 ,in the brief period of his first tenure of his seat he wrought vigorously against the abuse of ,perpetual ,pensions1 which he was later the means of removing1 though not in a fashion fully satisfying to himself4 ,in the same period he exhibited a constant concern for the remedying of all manner of grievances4 ,as early as #ahfc1 too1 he had taken what ,mill rightly calls the extremely undemagoguelike line of publishing a pamphlet in favour of ,proportional ,representation1 on the lines of ,hare's scheme--a counsel of perfection still too high for most democrats4 ,as for his general tone of feeling on the questions which turn in an equal degree on feeling and judgment1 it is well illustrated by the last non-personal speech he made in the ,house in the period of his conditional tenure of his seat4 ,it was delivered on #bhth ,march1 and was on the subject of flogging in the army3-- ,mr ,bradlaugh said he wished to say a few words on this matter from a different point of view than other members who had spoken4 ,he had been a private in the army during the time that flogging was permitted for offences now described as trivial1 and he heard the same argument used1 that it would cause a relaxation of discipline if flogging were abolished4 ,if hon4 members opposite knew the feeling of the soldiers at that time it would have much modified some of the speeches delivered to-day 7hear1 hear72 and the hon4 member for ,sunderland 7,sir ,h4 ,havelock-,allan7 would be surprised to hear the number of letters he had received from private soldiers1 asking him to speak on this subject to-day4 ,there was a feeling of utter detestation against the punishment1 not simply on the part of the men who were likely to suffer from it1 but on the part of every one else4 ,private soldiers in ,england occupied a position which no other private soldier in the whole of ,europe occupied1 and he did not know any other country in the whole world where it was a disgrace to wear the uniform of your country4 ,he remembered upon one occasion he went into an hotel in a great city and ordered a cup of coffee1 and was told that he could not be served because he wore the uniform of his country4 ,all punishments which made soldiers seem less reputable than their fellow-citizens ought to be abolished4 ,he asked the ,government to allow nothing whatever to influence them in favour of this most degrading punishment4 ,the men who once felt the lash were not loyal to any command1 and they felt a bitterness and an abhorrence of every one connected with the ordering of the punishment4 ,if they flogged a man engaged on active service1 he was either a good man or a bad man1 a man of some spirit or none at all4 ,if he were a man of any spirit1 there were weapons in his hands1 and he might use them for purposes of revenge4 ,the hon4 and gallant member for ,wigton ,burghs talked of men who preferred the lash4 ,the army would be far better without such men4 7,mr ,childers3 ,hear1 hear47 ,he had seen the lash applied1 the man tied up1 and stripped in the sight of his comrades2 he had seen the body blacken and the skin break2 he had heard the dull thud of the lash as it fell on the blood-soddened flesh1 and he was glad of having the opportunity of making his voice heard against it to-day1 and trusted that nothing would induce the ,government to retain under any conditions such a brutal punishment4 7,cheers47 ,and it was with these matters in their knowledge that a majority of the ,house of ,commons subjected him for five years to an extremity of wanton injustice of which it is still difficult to think without burning anger4 ,the story of that injustice must now be separately told4 ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,the ,,parliamentary ,,struggle4 ,chronological ,summary4 #ahhj ,april #b4 ,bradlaugh elected 7with ,mr ,labouchere7 for ,northampton4 ,may #c4 ,asked to be allowed to make affirmation of allegiance4 ,a ,select ,committee agreed to be appointed to consider his claim4 #ab4 ,committee of #ag appointed4 #bj4 ,committee reported1 by casting vote of ,chairman1 against the claim to affirm4 ,bradlaugh announces his intention to take the oath4 #ba4 ,presented himself at the table of the ,house to do so4 ,motion made that he be not permitted4 ,amendment moved by ,mr ,gladstone1 that the claim to take the oath be referred to a ,select ,committee1 carried by #bhi votes to #bad4 #bh4 ,committee of #bc appointed4 ,june #b4 ,bradlaugh examined by ,committee4 #af4 ,committee reported that ,bradlaugh could not properly take the oath1 and recommended that he be allowed to affirm at his legal peril4 #ba4 ,motion made by ,mr ,labouchere that he be allowed to affirm4 #bb4 ,motion defeated by #bge votes to #bcj4 #bc4 ,bradlaugh again presented himself1 claiming to be sworn4 ,made his ,first ,speech at the ,bar4 ,refusing to withdraw1 was finally taken into custody on motion of ,sir ,stafford ,northcote4 #bd4 ,bradlaugh unconditionally released from custody4 ,july #a4 ,mr ,gladstone moved as a ,standing ,order that members-elect be allowed at their choice to affirm1 at their legal peril4 ,motion carried by #cjc votes to #bdi4 #b4 ,bradlaugh made affirmation of allegiance and took his seat4 ,on giving his first vote1 was served with a writ suing for penalty4 #ad4 ,tory ,bill introduced to incapacitate all ,atheists for membership 7fell through74 #ahha ,mar4 #aa4 ,judgment given against ,bradlaugh in suit for penalty1 he being thus pronounced unqualified to make affirmation of allegiance4 ,bradlaugh gave notice of appeal4 #ca4 ,judgment given against him on appeal4 ,seat thus vacated4 #ahha ,april #i4 ,bradlaugh re-elected for ,northampton1 by #cdcg votes to #ccje4 #bf4 ,presented himself to be sworn4 ,made his ,second ,speech at the ,bar4 ,motion made that he be not allowed to take the oath1 carried by #bjh votes to #age1 many ,liberals and ,home ,rulers abstaining4 ,bradlaugh again presented himself to be sworn1 and refused to withdraw4 ,house adjourned4 #bg4 ,bradlaugh presented himself as before1 and refused to withdraw4 ,after debate1 withdrew on informal understanding that ,government should attempt to introduce an ,affirmation ,bill4 #bi4 ,government announced this intention4 ,may #b4 ,attorney-,general in ,commons moved for leave to introduce ,bill4 ,debate adjourned4 ,lords ,justices of ,appeal decided against ,bradlaugh on the separate issue of his affirmation being a sufficient answer to the claim that he was liable in a penalty for voting without being sworn4 #f4 ,debate in ,commons again adjourned owing to ,tory obstruction4 #aj4 ,government1 owing to continued obstruction1 postponed the ,bill4 ,resolution carried1 on motion of ,tory leader1 that ,bradlaugh be prevented entering ,house4 #af-ag4 ,clarke's counsel moved before ,lord ,coleridge and ,mr ,bowen for judgment4 ,bradlaugh moved to be heard afresh on the point of the validity of the writ1 the issue of which he contended had been too soon for legality4 #be4 ,bill of indemnity to ,bradlaugh1 introduced by ,mr ,labouchere1 blocked by ,mr ,newdegate1 who had been the private maintainer of the action for penalties4 ,june #bj-ba4 ,plaintiff having amended statement as to date of voting1 and ,bradlaugh demurring that writ was void as being dated on the day of the voting sued upon1 ,justices ,denman and ,watkin ,williams decided against him on the legal point4 ,bradlaugh appealed4 ,july #ai1 #bj1 #bb4 ,the question of fact as to the actual hour of issue of the writ came before ,justice ,grove and a special jury4 ,the jury1 after declaring themselves unlikely to agree1 gave a majority verdict in favour of ,clarke4 #bg4 ,police summonses obtained on ,bradlaugh's behalf against ,mr ,newdegate and his solicitor for the criminal offence of maintenance4 #bh1 and ,aug4 #a4 ,bradlaugh moved before ,justices ,grove and ,lindley for a new trial on the point of time of issue of ,clarke's writ1 and argued the point4 ,decision delayed4 #ahha ,aug4 #c4 ,bradlaugh1 on trying to enter the ,house1 was seized by officials2 and he resisting1 was forcibly ejected after a struggle by four messengers and ten policemen4 ,immediately afterwards he was formally resisted in a formal attempt by ,inspector ,denning4 #e4 ,application by ,bradlaugh for a summons against ,inspector ,denning refused by ,mr ,d',eyncourt1 police magistrate4 #h4 ,rule nisi for a new trial granted by ,justices ,grove and ,lindley4 ,sept4 #bj4 ,the summonses against ,newdegate and his solicitor dismissed by ,mr ,vaughan1 magistrate4 ,nov4 #ab and #ad4 ,bradlaugh's appeal from the decision of ,justices ,denman and ,watkin ,williams 7as to validity of writ dated on day of ground of action7 heard by ,lord ,coleridge and ,lord ,justices ,baggallay and ,brett4 ,decision again against ,bradlaugh4 ,dec4 #b and #c4 ,pleadings heard on the rule nisi for a new trial on the question of fact as to the hour of issue of the writ4 ,rule made absolute in ,bradlaugh's favour4 #ahhb ,feb4 #g4 ,on the reassembling of ,parliament1 ,bradlaugh again presented himself1 the excluding order having expired with the ,session in which it was passed4 ,northcote moved that he be not allowed to swear4 ,government moved the previous question4 ,bradlaugh heard at ,bar for the ,third ,time4 ,northcote's motion carried by #bhf votes to #bbh4 ,bradlaugh again presented himself1 but being ordered to withdraw below the bar1 did so4 #aj4 ,mr ,labouchere moved for a new writ for ,northampton4 ,this refused by #cjg votes to #ah4 ,bradlaugh then advanced to the table1 administered the oath to himself1 withdrew below the bar on the ,speaker's order1 but returned and took his seat4 ,churchill moved that the seat be declared vacant4 ,debate adjourned4 #ba4 ,northcote moved an amendment to exclude ,bradlaugh from the precincts of the ,house4 ,on its being noticed that ,bradlaugh had again seated himself within the ,house 7he proposing to speak71 the ,speaker ordered him to withdraw1 and ,northcote moved his complete expulsion4 ,this carried by #big votes to #hj1 and a new writ was agreed to4 #ba4 ,judgment given against ,bradlaugh in ,clarke's appeal against rule for a new trial4 ,mar4 #b4 ,bradlaugh once more elected for ,northampton by #cgif votes to #cfhh4 #f4 ,northcote again moved that ,bradlaugh be not allowed to take the oath should he again present himself4 ,mr ,marjoribanks moved amendment that it was desirable to amend the law1 making affirmation optional4 ,northcote's motion carried by #bei votes to #bdd4 #ahhb ,mar4 #bi4 ,judgment given against ,bradlaugh for #ejj penalty4 ,costs reserved4 ,april4 ,action brought by ,bradlaugh against ,mr ,erskine1 ,deputy ,sergeant-at-,arms1 for assault of #crd ,august #ahha4 ,may #i4 ,bradlaugh moved before ,lord ,justices ,brett and ,cotton for leave to appeal in ,clarke case on point of costs4 ,appeal dismissed3 matter left to the ,house of ,lords with the main appeal4 #ae4 ,justices ,manisty and ,watkin ,williams declined to hear friendly action by ,gurney against ,bradlaugh for not taking his seat4 ,pleadings to be readjusted4 ,july4 ,affirmation ,bill1 introduced by ,duke of ,argyll in ,house of ,lords1 defeated4 #aa4 ,prosecution begun against ,bradlaugh1 ,foote1 and ,ramsey by ,sir ,henry ,tyler1 before ,lord ,mayor1 for publication of blasphemous libels in the ,freethinker4 #ba4 ,bradlaugh committed for trial4 ,bail accepted4 ,nov4 #aj4 ,justice ,mathew declined to hear ,gurney's action on readjusted pleadings1 and discharged jury4 ,dec4 #ah4 ,bradlaugh's action against ,mr ,erskine dismissed by ,justice ,field4 #ahhc ,feb4 #b4 ,second ,freethinker prosecution begun1 ,bradlaugh not being included4 #bj4 ,government moved for leave to introduce an ,affirmation ,bill3 motion carried by #ahd votes to #ec4 ,mar4 #e and #f4 ,bradlaugh's appeal in the ,clarke suit heard by the ,house of ,lords1 he pleading in person4 #f4 ,foote1 ,ramsey1 and ,kemp sentenced to terms of imprisonment in ,freethinker prosecution4 #i and #ag4 ,bradlaugh's action against ,newdegate for maintenance heard by ,lord ,coleridge1 ,bradlaugh appearing by counsel4 ,april #i4 ,house of ,lords gave judgment for ,bradlaugh in his appeal1 with costs4 #aj4 ,bradlaugh separately tried on the first ,freethinker indictment before ,lord ,coleridge and a jury4 ,verdict of acquittal4 #bc4 ,lord ,coleridge gave judgment for ,bradlaugh against ,newdegate1 with costs4 ,april #bd and #be4 ,foote and ,ramsey 7now prisoners on conviction in second prosecution7 tried before ,lord ,coleridge and a jury on the original indictment4 ,after the judge's summing up1 the jury disagreeing1 the ,crown decided to abandon this prosecution 7prisoners already very heavily sentenced74 #bc-,may #c4 ,debate on second reading of ,affirmation ,bill4 ,bill rejected by a majority of #c--bib against and #bhi for4 ,may #d4 ,bradlaugh again presented himself to be sworn4 ,northcote moved that he be not allowed to take the oath4 ,being allowed to speak1 ,bradlaugh made his ,fourth ,speech at the ,bar4 ,mr ,labouchere moved the previous question1 and was defeated by #bga votes to #afe4 #ahhc ,july #i4 ,bradlaugh having notified his intention again to present himself 7by way of raising a testing action at law7 ,northcote moved his exclusion4 ,carried by #bcb votes to #fe4 #ai4 ,bradlaugh began test action against the ,sergeant-at-,arms for resisting his entrance to the ,house4 ,dec4 #g4 ,bradlaugh v4 ,gossett heard before ,lord ,coleridge and ,justices ,stephen and ,mathew4 #ahhd ,feb4 #i4 ,judgment given against ,bradlaugh4 #aa4 ,bradlaugh once more presented himself at the table of the ,house1 and administered the oath to himself4 ,motion by ,northcote that he had not really sworn1 and that he be not allowed to swear1 carried by #beh votes to #afa4 ,motion by ,northcote of complete exclusion1 carried by #bbh to #abj4 #ab4 ,new writ allowed for ,northampton after ,tory resistance4 #ai4 ,bradlaugh re-elected for ,northampton by #djcb votes1 to #cffd for ,richards4 #ba4 ,though ,bradlaugh undertook not to present himself till the decision were given in the action to be brought against him by the ,government for his last oath-taking1 ,northcote moved afresh his complete exclusion from the precincts of the ,house4 ,carried by #bbf to #agc4 ,june #ac-ah4 ,government's action against ,bradlaugh for illegally taking the oath1 heard before ,lord ,coleridge1 ,mr ,baron ,huddleston1 and ,mr ,justice ,grove1 sitting at bar1 and a jury1 five counsel acting for the ,crown1 ,bradlaugh pleading his own cause4 #cj4 ,lord ,coleridge summed up4 ,jury gave answers for the ,crown4 ,bradlaugh asked for a stay to move for a new trial4 ,dec4 #f4 ,motion for new trial heard by the same judges sitting in banc4 ,rule refused4 ,bradlaugh appealed4 #ae4 ,appeal heard by ,lords ,justices ,brett1 ,cotton1 and ,lindley4 #ah4 ,judges of appeal gave rule nisi on points of law only1 the appeal in arrest of judgment to be argued at the same time4 #ahhe ,jan4 #bf4 ,arguments heard on whole case4 #bf4 ,judgment given against ,bradlaugh as incapable of taking an oath in law4 ,notice of appeal given4 ,july #f4 ,on the new 7,conservative7 ministry taking office1 ,bradlaugh again presented himself to be sworn4 ,motion of exclusion by ,sir ,m4 ,hicks-,beach4 ,amendment moved by ,mr ,hopwood 7who had introduced an ,affirmation ,bill7 declaring that legislation was necessary1 lost by #bai votes to #bfc4 #ahhe ,nov4 #be4 ,bradlaugh again carried for ,northampton at the general election1 the figures being--,labouchere #dhde2 ,bradlaugh #dcae2 ,richards #chij4 #ahhf ,jan4 #ac4 ,the new ,speaker 7,mr ,peel7 permitted ,bradlaugh to take the oath1 refusing to allow any interference4 ,affirmation ,bill introduced by ,mr ,sergeant ,simon1 but never brought to a second reading4 #ahhh ,aug4 #i4 ,bradlaugh carried a general ,affirmation ,bill1 which passed the ,house of ,lords and became law4 #ahia ,jan4 #bg4 ,while ,bradlaugh lay dying1 the ,house of ,commons passed a resolution1 moved by ,mr ,w4 ,a4 ,hunter1 expunging from the ,journals of the ,house the resolutions excluding him in former years4 #a4 ,in the general election of #ahhj ,bradlaugh was at length elected member for ,northampton4 ,he had fought the constituency for twelve years1 and had been defeated at three elections1 at one of which he was not present4 ,as has been made plain from the story of his life thus far1 it was his way to carry out to the end any undertaking on which he entered1 unless he found it to be wholly impracticable2 and he was very slow to feel that an aim was impracticable because it took long-continued effort to realise it4 ,he seems first to have thought of standing for ,northampton about #ahff4 ,at that time ,northampton was already reckoned a likely ,radical constituency1 not so much on account of its ,parliamentary record as on the strength of the ,radical element in its population4 ,the trouble was that for long the bulk of the workers were not electors4 ,his eloquence could win him a splendid show of hands in the market-place1 but the polls told a different tale4 ,the ,whiggish middle classes were in the main intensely hostile to him1 on political as well as on religious grounds2 and the influence of pastors and masters alike was zealously used against him4 ,after the passing of the ,household ,suffrage ,act of #ahfh1 however1 the constituency became every year more democratic4 ,the ,freehold ,land ,society1 some of whose founders and leading members were among his most devoted and capable followers1 created year after year scores of freeholds1 the property of workers1 in a fashion that has finally made ,northampton almost unique among our manufacturing towns4 ,the electorate1 which in #ahgd had stood at #fhbi1 had in #ahhj risen to #hahi2 and of these it was estimated that #b1ejj had never before voted4 ,of the new voters1 the majority were pretty sure to be ,radicals1 and as ,bradlaugh's hold on the constituency had grown stronger with every struggle1 it began to be apparent to many of the moderate ,liberals that a union between their party and his must be accepted if the two seats were not to remain in ,tory hands4 ,in the early spring1 however1 the confusion of candidatures seemed hopeless4 ,mr 7now ,sir7 ,thomas ,wright of ,leicester stood as a ,liberal candidate at the request of a large body of the electors1 and though not combining with ,bradlaugh1 deprecated the running of a second and hostile ,liberal candidate4 ,other ,liberals1 however1 brought forward in succession three candidates1 of whom the once well-known ,mr ,ayrton was the most important4 ,he1 however1 failed to gain ground1 partly by reason of the qualities which had made him a disastrous colleague to ,mr ,gladstone's ministry1 partly by reason of coming to grief in a controversy with ,bradlaugh as to the facts of the agitation for a free press1 and free right of meeting in ,hyde ,park1 in regard to which ,mr ,ayrton claimed official credit4 ,his candidature finally fell through when he met with an accident4 ,a ,mr ,hughes was brought forward1 only to be removed from the contest by an attack of illness4 ,mr ,jabez ,spencer ,balfour1 of recent notoriety1 made a very favourable impression1 but could not persuade moderates enough that the ,liberals ought to unite with the ,radicals4 ,a little later ,mr ,labouchere was introduced1 and giving his voice at once for union1 found so much support that ,mr ,wright1 with great generosity and public spirit1 shortly withdrew1 giving his support to the joint candidature of ,bradlaugh and ,labouchere1 who stood pretty much alike in their ,radicalism1 though the latter was described in the local ,liberal press as the nominee of the moderate ,liberals4 ,as he explained in his own journal1 a man who was a moderate ,liberal in ,northampton would rank as a ,radical anywhere else4 ,the joint candidature once agreed upon1 victory was secure4 ,the ,tory candidates were the former sitting members1 ,mr ,phipps1 the leading local brewer1 and ,mr ,merewether1 a lawyer4 ,their platform opposition was not formidable1 and the greatest play on their side was made by the clergy and the press1 who sought to make the contest turn as far as possible on ,bradlaugh's atheism and on his ,neo-,malthusianism4 ,nearly all the ,established ,church clergy1 and some of the ,nonconformists preached fervently against the infidel4 ,on the ,sunday before the election the vicar of ,st ,giles' intimated that to those noble men who loved ,christ more than party1 ,jesus would say1 ',well done6' and on the day before the poll many thousands of theological circulars were showered upon the constituency4 ,on the other hand1 the deep resentment of ,lord ,beaconsfield's foreign policy felt by a great part of the nation led to unheard-of concessions on the part of the ,nonconformists4 ,the late ,mr ,samuel ,morley1 a representative ,dissenter1 wealthy and pious1 being appealed to for an expression of opinion on the ,northampton situation1 sent to ,mr ,labouchere a telegram--soon repented of--strongly urging necessity of united effort in all sections of the ,liberal party1 and the sinking of minor and personal questions1 with many of which ,i deeply sympathise1 in order to prevent the return1 in so pronounced a constituency as ,northampton1 of even one ,conservative4 ,at the same time ,mr ,spurgeon was without the slightest foundation described in the ,tory press as having said1 with regard to the fight at ,northampton1 that if the devil himself were a ,liberal candidate1 he would vote for him2 and it was supposed that the anecdote affected some votes4 ,but before any of these episodes had occurred1 ,bradlaugh was tolerably well assured of victory4 ,his organisation1 then controlled by his staunch supporter ,councillor ,thomas ,adams1 who lived to be ,mayor of ,northampton1 was perfect2 and he knew his strength as nearly as a candidate ever can who has not already been elected4 ,the combination of his forces with those of ,mr ,labouchere of course strengthened him2 yet such was still the strength of religious animosity that though the joint candidature stood on the footing of a strict division of votes1 every elector having two1 for the two seats1 the ,liberal press still encouraged plumping1 and many then1 as later1 voted for ,mr ,labouchere who would not vote for ,bradlaugh1 thus provoking a smaller number of the latter's supporters to plump for their man in turn4 ,the result was that the election figures stood3--,labouchere 7,l47 #deah2 ,bradlaugh 7,r47 #chbg2 ,phipps 7,c47 #caeb2 ,merewether 7,c47 #bhbf4 ,no sooner were the results known throughout the country than the ,northampton election became a theme of special comment1 and of course of special outcry from the defeated party4 ,one journal1 the ,sheffield ,telegraph1 which about the same time described the ,scriptural phrase about the dog and his vomit as a popular1 though somewhat coarse saying1 designated ,bradlaugh as the bellowing blasphemer of ,northampton4 ,mr ,samuel ,morley was hotly assailed1 and promptly wrote to the ,record a pitiful letter of recantation1 which ended3-- ,no feeling of pride prevents my saying that ,i deeply regret the step ,i took1 which was really the work of a moment2 and ,i feel assured that no one who knows me will doubt that ,i view with intense repugnance the opinions which are held by ,mr ,bradlaugh on religious and social questions4 ,to which ,mr ,bradlaugh in his own journal replied that he had had no part whatever in the appeal to ,mr ,samuel ,morley1 and that he would have been elected all the same if ,mr ,morley had done nothing1 adding the following3-- ,we have no knowledge of the opinions of ,mr ,morley except that he is reputedly very rich1 and therefore exceedingly good2 but we must express in turn our intense repugnance to the conduct of ,mr ,morley1 who having accidentally been betrayed into an act of kindness to a fellow-creature1 regrets the act when pressure is brought to bear upon him by a pack of cowardly and anonymous bigots1 and couples the public expression of his regret with a voluntary insult to one for whom ,mr ,morley publicly expressed great respect on the only occasion on which the two have yet come publicly in contact4 ,mr ,spurgeon1 who had been quite falsely accused of avowing readiness to welcome the devil as a ,liberal candidate1 had the manliness to declare1 while indignantly repudiating that latitudinarian doctrine1 that ,mr ,bradlaugh's claims to be returned to ,parliament were not to be measured by his piety or orthodoxy4 #b4 ,but the question was soon carried into a greater arena4 ,the elections were over in ,april2 on #crd ,may ,parliament assembled1 and ,bradlaugh's first problem was to choose his course in the matter of the oath of allegiance1 the taking of which by members of ,parliament is still made a condition of their taking their seats4 ,it has long been felt by the thoughtful few1 even including ,theists1 that oath-taking1 a barbaric and primevally superstitious act under all circumstances1 is gratuitously absurd in the case of admission to ,parliament1 where it serves to bring about the maximum of religious indecorum without in any way affecting the action of anybody4 ,originally set up in the reign of ,elizabeth1 the ,parliamentary oath was maintained in the interest of disputed dynasties1 though it was notoriously taken by hundreds of men who were perfectly ready to overthrow1 if they could1 the dynasty to which they swore allegiance4 ,now that there is no longer any question of rival dynasties1 and that no instructed person disputes the power of ,parliament to abolish the ,monarchy1 the oath of allegiance is maintained by the stolid unreason which supports the monarchic tradition all round4 ,state after ,state has abandoned the practice as absurd2 but ,britain clings to it with hardly even a demur1 save from men of the chair4 ,france since #ahgj has had neither oath nor affirmation1 though1 if oaths could be supposed to count for anything1 the ,republic might fitly have exacted them4 ,since #ahfh affirmation has been substituted for the ,parliamentary oath in ,austria2 and congressmen and senators in the ,united ,states have their choice between swearing and affirming4 ,neither oath nor affirmation is exacted in the ,german ,reichstag1 though the members of the ,prussian ,diet1 like those of the ,states ,general of ,holland1 still swear4 ,in ,italy1 the performance is attenuated to the utterance of the one word ,giuro1 ,i swear4 ,in ,spain1 where it has never deterred rebellion1 the oath1 as might be expected1 remains medivally elaborate4 ,before ,bradlaugh's time the oath in ,england had been adapted to the requirements of ,catholics1 ,quakers1 and ,jews successively1 the resistance increasing considerably in the last case4 ,o',connell's refusal to take the ,protestant oath of supremacy in #ahbi1 when there were three separate oaths--one of allegiance1 one of supremacy1 and one of adjuration--led to the passing of an ,act permitting ,catholic members to take the ,catholic oath1 already provided under the ,catholic ,relief ,act for use in ,ireland4 ,protestant public opinion avowedly regarded all ,irish ,catholics with distrust as being disaffected1 but the ,tory leaders being committed to ,catholic ,emancipation1 the resistance was overpowered4 ,the next extension took place under ,whig auspices4 ,in #ahcc the ,quakers1 who in the case of ,archdale in #afii had been held incapable of sitting in ,parliament by reason of their refusal to swear1 were allowed to affirm1 first by resolution of the ,house1 later by ,act4 ,this was done at the instance of a ,quaker member1 ,sir ,joseph ,pease1 who besides being rich enjoyed personally the respect latterly accorded to his sect by those which formerly persecuted it4 ,then came the case of the ,jews1 first raised in the person of ,baron ,lionel ,nathan de ,rothschild1 in #ahej4 ,there was now a triple ,protestant oath1 and an alternative ,catholic oath1 the theoretically dangerous church being allowed to swear in its own way2 but for the small community of ,jews there was no formula1 and the ,jewish banker had to choose between exclusion and swearing on the true faith of a ,christian4 ,he omitted these words from his oath1 and was accordingly declared disentitled to sit1 the ,house at the same time formally resolving to take ,jewish disabilities into its consideration at the earliest opportunity in the next ,session4 ,in #ahea1 another ,jew1 ,david ,salomons1 returned for ,greenwich1 refused to take the oath in the ,christian form1 formally resisted the ,speaker's ruling against him1 was formally removed1 and was excluded from his seat4 ,not till #aheh was the relief given4 ,in that year a single 7,christian7 oath was substituted for the triple asseveration of the past1 and on the re-elected ,baron ,lionel again refusing it1 he was allowed1 by resolution of the ,house1 to swear without the ,christian formula4 ,in #ahei he1 with ,baron ,mayer ,amschel de ,rothschild and ,salomons1 was again sworn theistically4 ,finally1 in #ahff1 by the ,parliamentary ,oaths ,act1 the oath was made simply theistic for all1 the familiar expletive ,so help me ,god being held sufficient to associate the ,first ,cause ethically with the proceeding in hand4 ,this movement was doubtless due to a certain semi-rational perception of the futility of oaths in general1 as being a vain formality to honest men1 and a vain barrier to others4 ,sir ,william ,hamilton1 a thinker so fervent in his instinctive ,theism that he undid his philosophy to accommodate it1 had in his day created a strong impression by his essays 7#ahcd-e71 on the right of ,dissenters to be admitted into the ,english universities1 in which he emphatically reiterated the declaration of ,bishop ,berkeley--made when the oath test was in fullest use--that there is no nation under the sun where solemn perjury is so common as in ,england4 ,if the perjury of ,england stand pre-eminent in the world1 said ,hamilton1 the perjury of the ,english ,universities1 and of ,oxford in particular1 stands pre-eminent in ,england4 ,doctrine like this had made for an abolition of oaths which could easily be classified as unnecessary1 and for the simplification of those retained2 but though the very step of reducing the act of imprecation to a curt conventional form meant1 if anything1 the belittling of the act of imprecation as such1 the ,parliamentary formula had for half a generation remained unchallenged4 ,john ,mill had in #ahfe sworn on the true faith of a ,christian1 and a good many ,agnostics and ,positivists have since unmurmuringly invoked the unknown ,god4 ,it was left for ,bradlaugh to attempt a departure from the course of dissembling conformity4 ,when he stood for ,northampton in #ahfh 7as he stated in answer to ,mr ,bright on the second select committee of #ahhj71 he had gravely considered the question of oath-taking1 there being then no possibility of affirmation4 ,believing now that he had the right to affirm under the ,act which permitted affirmation to witnesses1 he felt bound to exercise it4 ,as every step in his action has been and still is a subject of obstinate misconception and wilful falsehood1 the story must be here told with some minuteness4 ,the usual statement is that he refused to take the oath of allegiance4 ,he did no such thing4 ,a professed ,atheist1 he had been the means of bringing about the legal reform which enabled unbelievers to give evidence on affirmation1 albeit the form of enactment was1 to say the least1 invidious4 ,a great difficulty is felt by many ,christians in regard to the abolition of the oath1 in that they fear to open the way for false testimony by witnesses who would fear to swear to a lie1 but do not scruple to lie on mere affirmation4 ,it is for ,christians to take the onus of asserting that there are such people among their co-religionists2 and they have always asserted it in the ,house of ,commons when there is any question of dispensing with oaths4 ,and it was on this plea that the first ,act framed to allow unbelievers to give evidence on affirmation was made to provide that the judge should in each case satisfy himself that a witness claiming to affirm was not a person on whom an oath would have a binding effect4 ,that is to say1 he was to make sure that the witness was not a knavish religionist trying to dodge the oath1 in order to lie with an easy mind4 ,it was the duplicity of certain believers1 and not the duplicity of unbelievers1 that was to be guarded against1 though1 of course1 the only security against the lying of believers in answer to the judge was that a known conformist would be afraid publicly to pretend that he had scruples against the oath4 ,but the main effect of the clause1 framed to guard against pious knavery1 was to stigmatise unbelievers as persons on whom an oath would have no binding effect4 ,an ill-conditioned judge was thus free to insult ,freethinking witnesses1 and even a just judge was free to embarrass them by an invidious question1 since the bare wording of the ,act enabled and even encouraged the judge to ask them--not1 as he ought to have done1 whether the oath was to them unmeaning in respect of the words of adjuration1 but--whether the oath as a whole would be binding on their conscience4#aba ,while recognising the invidiousness of such a question1 ,bradlaugh always claimed to affirm in courts of law1 though to him1 as to most professed rationalists1 the repetition of an idle expletive was only a vexation1 and in no way an act of deception1 when made the inevitable preliminary to the fulfilment of any civic duty4 ,he had openly avowed his opinions1 and if the oath was still exacted1 the responsibility lay with those who insisted on it4 ,on his return to ,parliament he felt that not only would it be inconsistent for him to take the oath if he could avoid it1 but it would be gratuitously indecorous1 from the point of view of the believing ,christian majority4 ,sitting in the house before the swearing-in1 he remarked to ,mr ,labouchere that he felt it would be unseemly for him to go through that form when he believed he was legally entitled to affirm4 ,and in this belief1 it must always be remembered1 he had the support of the former ,liberal law officers of the ,crown1 who had privately given it as their opinion#abb that he was empowered to affirm his allegiance under the law relating to the affirmation of unbelievers4 ,with that opinion behind him1 he was in the fullest degree entitled--nay1 he was morally bound as a conscientious rationalist--to take the course he did4 ,other rationalists1 real or reputed1 were returned to the same ,parliament4 ,professor ,bryce1 as candidate for the ,tower ,hamlets1 had been assailed as an ,atheist1 and was yet returned at the head of the poll4 ,mr ,firth had been similarly attacked1 but was nevertheless carried in ,chelsea4 ,neither of these gentlemen1 however1 made any public avowal1 direct or indirect1 of heresy4 ,mr ,john ,morley1 who was justifiably regarded as a ,positivist or ,agnostic on the strength of his writings1 when elected later made no demur to the oath2 and ,mr ,ashton ,dilke1 who afterwards avowed his heterodoxy in the ,house of ,commons1#abc also took it without comment4 ,it was left to ,bradlaugh to fight the battle of common sense--,i might say of common honesty1 were it not that long usage has in these matters wholly vitiated the moral standards of the community1 and honourable men are free to do1 and do habitually1 things which1 abstractly considered1 are acts of dissimulation4 ,footnote #aba3 ,in the action of ,richards v4 ,hough and ,co41 however1 in ,may #ahhb1 ,mr ,justice ,grove expressly remarked that some judges did not think it necessary to enquire at all as to the belief of a witness claiming to affirm4 ,in the prosecution of ,bradlaugh1 ,foote1 and ,ramsay in #ahhc for blasphemy1 on the other hand1 ,lord ,coleridge1 a very considerate judge1 expressly asked ,mr ,foote1 before letting him affirm1 whether the oath would be binding on his conscience1 though ,mr ,foote1 declaring himself an atheist1 rightly objected to such a query4 ,his lordship after discussion agreed to modify the question1 making it apply only to the words of invocation2 and he put the question with still more modification to ,mrs ,besant1 who1 warned by what had been done to her partner1 declared in so many words that any promise she made would be binding on her1 whatever the form4 ,footnote #abb3 ,sir ,henry ,james later avowed that they adhered to that opinion all along4 ,footnote #abc3 ,in the discussion on the ,burials ,bill1 #ahha4 #c4 ,bradlaugh's first formal step after obtaining the opinion of the last ,liberal law officers and privately consulting the officials of the ,house1 was to hand to the ,clerk of the ,house of ,commons1 ,sir ,thomas ,erskine ,may1 on ,may #crd1 a written paper in the following terms3-- ,to the ,right ,honourable the ,speaker of the ,house of ,commons4 ,i1 the undersigned ,charles ,bradlaugh1 beg respectfully to claim to be allowed to affirm as a person for the time being by law permitted to make a solemn affirmation or declaration1 instead of taking an oath4 ,he had already explained1 in answer to the questions of the ,clerk1 that he made his claim in virtue of the ,parliamentary ,oaths ,act1 #ahff1 the ,evidence ,amendment ,act1 #ahfi1 and the ,evidence ,amendment ,act1 #ahgj1 which explains and amends the ,act of #ahfi4 ,the ,clerk formally communicated these matters to the ,speaker 7,sir ,henry ,brand71 who then invited ,bradlaugh to make a statement to the ,house with regard to his claim4 ,bradlaugh replied3 ,mr ,speaker1--,i have only now to submit that the ,parliamentary ,oaths ,act1 #ahff1 gives the right to affirm to every person for the time being permitted by law to make affirmation4 ,i am such a person2 and under the ,evidence ,amendment ,act1 #ahfi1 and the ,evidence ,amendment ,act #ahgj1 ,i have repeatedly for nine years past affirmed in the highest ,courts of ,jurisdiction in this realm4 ,i am ready to make the declaration or affirmation of allegiance4 ,the ,speaker thereupon requested him to withdraw1 and formally restated the claim to the ,house1 remarking that he had grave doubts on the matter1 and desired to refer it to the ,house's judgment4 ,on behalf of the ,treasury bench1 ,lord ,frederick ,cavendish1 remarking that the advice of the new law officers of the ,crown was not yet available1 moved that the point be referred to a ,select ,committee4 ,sir ,stafford ,northcote1 the ,tory leader in the ,commons1 was at this stage not actively hostile4 ,a man of well-meaning and temperate though meagre quality1 made up of small doses of virtues and capacities1 well fitted to be a country gentleman1 but of too thin stuff and too narrow calibre to be either a very good or a very bad statesman1 he was a ,conservative by force of tradition and mental limitation1 and a partisan leader in respect of his pliability to his associates4 ,as his biographer puts it1 he was not recalcitrant to compromise in matters of party strategy and leadership4 ,being personally willing to substitute affirmation for oath1#abd he seconded the ,liberal motion without any show of animus1 and only some of his minor followers1 as ,earl ,percy and ,mr ,daniel ,onslow1 sought to effect the adjournment of the debate4 ,this attempt1 however1 was not pressed to a division1 and the ,select ,committee was agreed to4 ,footnote #abd3 ,he wrote in his diary at the time3 ,it seems strange to require an oath from a ,christian1 and to dispense with it from an ,atheist4 ,would it not be better to do away with the member's oath altogether1 and make the affirmation general8 7,mr ,lang's ,life of ,northcote1 ii4 #aed47 ,only a few of the speeches in the ,house thus far had indicated a desire among the ,tory party to make ,bradlaugh the victim of their feud with the ,liberals4 ,but outside the ,house1 ,sir ,henry ,drummond ,wolff1 member for ,portsmouth1 speaking at ,christchurch1 had already publicly declared his intention to oppose ,bradlaugh's entry3 the broaching of the oath question in legal and other journals before the assembling of ,parliament having given to such politicians their cue4 ,over and above the purely factious motive of such men1 and of the mass of the ,tories1 there was the motive of genuine religious malice2 and the two instincts in combination wrought memorable results4 ,on #ajth ,may ,lord ,richard ,grosvenor1 the ,liberal ,whip1 announced to the ,house the names of the proposed members of the ,select ,committee whose appointment he should move next day3--,mr ,whitbread1 ,sir ,j4 ,holker1 ,mr ,john ,bright1 ,lord ,henry ,lennox1 ,mr ,w4 ,n4 ,massey1 ,mr ,staveley ,hill1 ,sir ,henry ,jackson1 the ,attorney-,general 7,sir ,henry ,james71 the ,solicitor-,general 7,mr ,farrer ,herschell71 ,sir ,g4 ,goldney1 ,mr ,grantham1 ,mr ,pemberton1 ,mr ,watkin ,williams1 ,mr ,spencer ,h4 ,walpole1 ,mr ,hopwood1 ,mr ,beresford ,hope1 ,major ,nolan1 ,mr ,chaplin1 and ,mr ,serjeant ,simon4 ,although the motion was not to come on till next day1 ,sir ,henry ,drummond ,wolff sought1 in despite of the ,speaker's opposition1 to raise at once a debate on the legitimacy of the ,committee2 and on the following day he was able to do so4 ,he moved the previous question1 and pronounced the course taken inconvenient1 unprecedented1 and irregular1 although it had been agreed to by his nominal leader2 thus beginning the tactic of independent action which served to mark him off with three colleagues1#abe as constituting a fourth party in the ,house1 the other three being the main bodies of ,liberals and ,tories1 and the ,irish ,home ,rulers4 ,the debate1 once begun1 was carried on with great violence and recklessness1 ,mr ,stanley ,leighton alleging that ,bradlaugh had been pressed on the ,northampton constituency by the ,liberal whip1 prompted by ,mr ,gladstone2 and ,sir ,r4 ,knightley affirming that the election had been determined by the interference of ,mr ,samuel ,morley4 ,a member known as ,f4 ,h4 ,o',donnel1 but originally named ,macdonald1 an ,irish ,catholic1 asserted that ,bradlaugh had explained religion as a disease of the brain1 and conscience as a nervous contraction of the diaphragm4 ,after more random discussion the ,house divided1 when there voted for the appointment of the ,committee #aga1 against it1 #gd1 giving a majority of #ig to the ,government4 ,most of the ,conservative leaders walked out of the ,house before the division1 thus already showing a disposition to surrender to the irresponsibles on their side4#abf ,footnote #abe3 ,these were ,mr ,gorst1 ,lord ,randolph ,churchill1 and ,mr ,a4 ,j4 ,balfour4 ,the latter took little oral part in the ,bradlaugh struggle1 but always voted with his party4 ,footnote #abf3 ,northcote's diary1 so far as published1 naturally offers no confession or explanation as to the change in his attitude4 ,under date ,may #bd1 he simply records that we agreed to stand firm for ,wolff's motion 7,mr ,lang's ,life1 ii4 #aei74 ,already1 too1 there began to be apparent what can now no longer be disputed--the mismanagement of the ,speaker4 ,only bad judgment or partiality could account for his permission of such gross irrelevance as filled the speeches of ,mr ,leighton and ,mr ,f4 ,h4 ,o',donnel1 alias ,macdonald4 ,on the language of the latter now forgotten personage ,mr ,bradlaugh thus commented in the ,national ,reformer3-- ,i remember1 fourteen or fifteen years ago1 when the countrymen of that member's constituents came to me for help and counsel4 ,the honourable member professes to now represent those ,irishmen who then sought and had my aid2 and on ,tuesday he in effect told the ,house that it ought to exclude from it one who did not believe in ,god1 and had no standard of morality4 ,but ,i see from the division list that the 'third party1' of which he pretended to be the spokesman at the election of the ,speaker1 went into the lobby opposed to that into which their leader went1 so that the really ,irish members did not forget old ties4 ,unfortunately the latter tribute was not long to be deserved4 ,on #bjth ,may the ,select ,committee presented its report4 ,there had been eight members in favour of the view that ,bradlaugh was legally entitled to affirm1 and eight against2 and the casting vote of the chairman1 ,mr ,spencer ,h4 ,walpole1 was given for the ,noes4 ,it was said1 and it was believed by ,mr ,bradlaugh1 that ,sir ,john ,holker had avowed a belief that his claim was valid1 but ,sir ,john ,holker on the ,committee voted with his party4 ,save for the fact that the ,noes included ,mr ,hopwood1 the vote would stand as a purely party one1 the rest of the ,noes being ,conservatives1 while the rest of the ,liberals took the affirmative side4 ,and so general was the attitude of reckless prejudice that we still find the ,chairman's son giving a flatly misleading account of the situation4 ,mr ,spencer ,walpole1 in his work on ,the ,electorate and the ,legislature#abg published in #ahha1 and re-issued in #ahib1 has made 7p4 #ge7 this statement 7italics ours73-- ,footnote #abg3 ,macmillan ,co41 ,the ,english ,citizen series4 ,in #ahhj 444 the legislature was suddenly confronted with a new dilemma4 ,the borough of ,northampton sent a representative to ,parliament who refused to take an oath--not because he had any conscientious objection to be sworn1 but because an appeal to a ,god--in whom he had no belief--seemed to him an idle formula which was not binding on his conscience4 ,since ,mr ,walpole has chosen to print and reprint this maliciously untrue statement1 and takes no notice whatever of published protests against it1 ,i am obliged to say in so many words that he1 a professed historian1 is here grossly perverting history4 ,much might indeed be set down to his carelessness4 ,issuing in #ahib the second edition of what should be an authoritative treatise1 ,mr ,walpole inserts 7p4 #gg7 a passage as to ,parliamentary affirmation which is completely quashed by the passing of ,mr ,bradlaugh's ,affirmation ,act of #ahhh4 ,of this ,act1 in #ahib1 ,mr ,walpole does not seem to have any knowledge2 but however he may contrive to overlook such a fact as this1 he cannot have been unaware in #ahhj that ,mr ,bradlaugh did not refuse to take the oath1 and that he repudiated the expression that the oath would not be binding on his conscience1#abh repeatedly declaring that any promise he made would as such be binding on his conscience1 whether or not an idle formula should be appended to it4 ,bradlaugh's position on this point was always explicit2 for him a promise1 however embellished1 was a promise which as an honourable man he was bound to keep4 ,by the majority of the ,british ,house of ,commons it is still implicitly ruled that a certain promise would not necessarily be binding on the consciences of ,christian members unless accompanied by the popular imprecation ,so help me ,god4 ,footnote #abh3 ,a technical assent to this ambiguous question was1 as we have seen1 the condition attached to affirmation in the law courts4 ,but common decency usually gave the formula there a purely technical and non-natural force4 ,the decision of the first ,select ,committee1 on the casting vote of the chairman1 at once carried the question to a new phase4 ,bradlaugh immediately published a statement#abi of his position as to the oath1 the taking of which he now held to be forced upon him by the refusal of the right to affirm4 ,footnote #abi3 ,printed in ,national ,reformer of #cjth ,may #ahhi1 p4 #cch1 and in several ,london newspapers4 ,it ran3-- ,when elected as one of the ,burgesses to represent ,northampton in the ,house of ,commons1 ,i believed that ,i had the legal right to make affirmation of allegiance in lieu of taking the oath1 as provided by sec4 #d of the ,parliamentary ,oaths ,act1 #ahff4 ,while ,i considered that ,i had this legal right1 it was then clearly my moral duty to make the affirmation4 ,the oath1 although to me including words of idle and meaningless character1 was and is regarded by a large number of my fellow-countrymen as an appeal to ,deity to take cognizance of their swearing4 ,it would have been an act of hypocrisy to voluntarily take this form if any other had been open to me1 or to take it without protest1 as though it meant in my mouth any such appeal4 ,i therefore quietly and privately notified the ,clerk of the ,house of my desire to affirm4 ,his view of the law and practice differing from my own1 and no similar case having theretofore arisen1 it became necessary that ,i should tender myself to affirm in a more formal manner1 and this ,i did at a season deemed convenient by those in charge of the business of the ,house4 ,in tendering my affirmation ,i was careful1 when called on by the ,speaker to state my objection1 to do nothing more than put1 in the fewest possible words1 my contention that the ,parliamentary ,oaths ,act1 #ahff1 gave the right to affirm in ,parliament to every person for the time being by law permitted to make an affirmation in lieu of taking an oath1 and that ,i was such a person1 and therefore claimed to affirm4 ,the ,speaker1 neither refusing nor accepting my affirmation1 referred the matter to the ,house1 which appointed a ,select ,committee to report whether persons entitled to affirm under the ,evidence ,amendment ,acts1 #ahfi and #ahgj1 were under sec4 #d of the ,parliamentary ,oaths ,act1 #ahff1 also entitled to affirm as ,members of ,parliament4 ,this ,committee1 by the casting vote of its ,chairman1 has decided that ,i am not entitled to affirm4 ,two courses are open to me--one1 of appeal to the ,house against the decision of the ,committee2 the other1 of present compliance with the ceremony1 while doing my best to prevent the further maintenance of a form which many other members of the ,house think as objectionable as ,i do1 but which habit and the fear of exciting prejudice has induced them to submit to4 ,to appeal to the ,house against the decision of the ,committee would be ungracious1 and would certainly involve great delay of public business4 ,i was present at the deliberations of the ,committee1 and while1 naturally1 ,i cannot be expected to bow submissively to the statements and arguments of my opponents1 ,i am bound to say that they were calmly and fairly urged4 ,i think them unreasonable1 but the fact that they included a legal argument from an earnest ,liberal deprives them even of a purely party character4 ,if ,i appealed to the ,house against the ,committee1 ,i1 of course1 might rely on the fact that the ,attorney-,general1 the ,solicitor-,general1 ,sir ,henry ,jackson1 ,q4,c41 ,mr ,watkin ,williams1 ,q4,c41 and ,mr ,sergeant ,simon1 are reported in the ,times to have interpreted the law as ,i do2 and ,i might add that the ,right ,honourable ,john ,bright and ,mr ,whitbread are in the same journal arrayed in favour of allowing me to affirm4 ,but even then the decision of the ,house may endorse that of the ,committee1 and should it be in my favour1 it could only--judging from what has already taken place--be after a bitter party debate1 in which the ,government specially1 and the ,liberals generally1 would be sought to be burdened with my anti-theological views1 and with promoting my return to ,parliament4 ,as a matter of fact1 the ,liberals of ,england have never in any way promoted my return to ,parliament4 ,the much-attacked action of ,mr ,adam had relation only to the second seat1 and in no way related to the one for which ,i was fighting4 ,in #ahfh the only action of ,mr ,gladstone and of ,mr ,bright was to write letters in favour of my competitors1 and since #ahfh ,i do not believe that either of these gentlemen has directly or indirectly interfered in any way in connection with my parliamentary candidature4 ,the majority of the electors of ,northampton had determined to return me before the recent union in that borough1 and while pleased to aid their fellow-,liberals in winning the two seats1 my constituents would have at any rate returned me had no union taken place4 ,my duty to my constituents is to fulfil the mandate they have given me1 and if to do this ,i have to submit to a form less solemn to me than the affirmation ,i would have reverently made1 so much the worse for those who force me to repeat words which ,i have scores of times declared are to me sounds conveying no clear and definite meaning4 ,i am sorry for the earnest believers who see words sacred to them used as a meaningless addendum to a promise1 but ,i cannot permit their less sincere co-religionists to use an idle form1 in order to prevent me from doing my duty to those who have chosen me to speak for them in ,parliament4 ,i shall1 taking the oath1 regard myself as bound not by the letter of its words1 but by the spirit which the affirmation would have conveyed had ,i been permitted to use it4 ,so soon as ,i am able ,i shall take such steps as may be consistent with parliamentary business to put an end to the present doubtful and unfortunate state of the law and practice on oaths and affirmations4 ,only four cases have arisen of refusal to take the oath1 except1 of course1 those cases purely political in their character4 ,two of those cases are those of the ,quakers ,john ,archdale and ,joseph ,pease4 ,the religion of these men forbade them to swear at all1 and they nobly refused4 ,the sect to which they belonged was outlawed1 insulted1 and imprisoned4 ,they were firm1 and one of that sect sat on the very ,committee1 a member of ,her ,majesty's ,privy ,council and a member of the actual ,cabinet4 ,i thank him gratefully that1 valuing right so highly1 he cast his vote so nobly for one for whom ,i am afraid he has but scant sympathy4 ,no such religious scruple prevents me from taking the oath as prevented ,john ,archdale and ,joseph ,pease4 ,in the cases of the ,baron ,rothschild and ,alderman ,salomons the words 'upon the true faith of ,christian' were the obstacle4 ,to-day the oath contains no such words4 ,the ,committee report that ,i may not affirm1 and1 protesting against a decision which seems to me alike against the letter of the law and the spirit of modern legislation1 ,i comply with the forms of the ,house4 ,as might have been expected1 this decision to take the oath evoked fresh outcry1 and this time some ,freethinkers joined4 ,the most injurious attack of this kind came from ,mr ,george ,jacob ,holyoake1 who had long been on strained terms with ,bradlaugh1 and avowedly regarded him with disfavour as a too militant ,atheist4 ,before the assembling of ,parliament ,mr ,holyoake1 in answer to a correspondent who asked him whether ,mr ,bradlaugh would take the oath1 had written to the effect that ,mr ,bradlaugh had taken the oath scores of times before1 and would doubtless do so now4 ,this remark had reference to a long-standing dispute as to the propriety of oath-taking by a ,freethinker under any circumstances4 ,before the reform of the law which permitted unbelievers to affirm1 ,mr ,bradlaugh had without hesitation taken the oath in courts of law1 holding the forced formality a much smaller matter than the evil of a miscarriage of justice4 ,mr ,holyoake condemned all such oath-taking2 but it was pointed out that while he was in business partnership with his brother ,austin1 the latter1 a highly esteemed ,freethinker1 had taken the oath wherever it was necessary for the purposes of the business4 ,this1 of course1 would not altogether set aside ,mr ,g4 ,j4 ,holyoake's argument1 if put forward only as a statement of his own position2 but he was not content with that4 ,after avowing his expectation that ,bradlaugh would take the oath1 he expressed surprise and reprobation when ,bradlaugh proposed to do so4 ,needless to say1 such a deliverance was eagerly welcomed by ,bradlaugh's enemies1 and zealously used against him2 as it was when repeated by ,mr ,holyoake in the following year1 with expressions about ,freethinkers being made to hang their heads for shame by the action of their nominal leader4 ,were there not reason to presume that ,mr ,holyoake would not now repeat or defend his former language1 it might be fitting to endorse here some of the very emphatic comments made on it at the time by ,mrs ,besant and others4 ,it may suffice to say1 however1 that ,mr ,holyoake had never before taken such an attitude against ,freethinkers who took the oath2 that he had once himself expressed readiness to take it in court if it were regarded as a civil act1 and not as a confession of faith 7exactly ,bradlaugh's case72 and that he later seemed to other ,freethinkers to quash once for all his own case by justifying quite gratuitous acts of conformity and co-operation with churches whose teaching he held to be false4 ,the common sense of nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand ,freethinkers1 including attached friends of ,mr ,holyoake1 decided that such an act of enforced ceremonial as official oath-taking by an avowed ,atheist surrenders no jot of principle or self-respect1 particularly when the ,atheist is openly striving for the abolition of all such compulsions4 ,of all ,freethinkers who have taken oaths in ,england1 ,bradlaugh was the very least open to the charge of temporising2 and the expressions used by ,mr ,holyoake at different times in this connection as to apostolic conduct have been1 to say the least1 unfortunate as coming from a professed ,freethinker1 not usually acquiescent in orthodox phraseology4 #d4 ,the document above quoted1 announcing ,bradlaugh's intentions1 was dated #bjth ,may1 the date of the ,committee's report4 ,on the following day ,bradlaugh went to the ,house to take the oath and his seat4 ,immediately on his presenting himself1 ,sir ,henry ,drummond ,wolff rose and objected to the oath being administered1 whereupon ,mr ,dillwyn protested against the interruption4 ,the ,speaker now made the fatal mistake of allowing the interruption to be carried out4 ,it is established by the highest possible authority--that of the present ,speaker--that the holder of the ,chair as such had and has no right to permit any such intervention between an elected member and the statutory oath4 ,sir ,henry ,brand1 intimidated by the action of men like ,wolff1 weakly stated that he was bound to say he knew of no instance in which such an intervention had taken place2 but at the same time he would allow ,wolff so to intervene4 ,that personage then made a speech1 resting on the two arguments that ,atheists who had made affirmation in the law courts thereby admitted that an oath would not be binding on their conscience1 and that ,bradlaugh had further1 in his ,impeachment of the ,house of ,brunswick1 affirmed that ,parliament has the undoubted right to withhold the ,crown from ,albert ,edward ,prince of ,wales4 ,the hon4 baronet could not see how a gentleman professing the views set forth in that work could take the oath of allegiance4 ,it was in the course of this speech that the hon4 baronet was understood by all his auditors to say1 of the sects permitted by law to affirm1 that they had a common standard of morality1 a conscience1 and a general belief in some divinity or other4#acj ,footnote #acj3 ,some years afterwards he stated in the ,house that what he had really said was one ,deity or the other1 meaning either the ,unitarian or the ,trinitarian ,god4 ,the explanation did not seem to be credited4 ,the ,tory case against ,bradlaugh's admission to ,parliament was thus at the outset a combination of a moral subterfuge and a notorious political fallacy4 ,all concerned knew perfectly well that the oath was habitually taken by men to whom the adjuration was an idle form1 and that their consciences could only be bound by the simple promise4 ,it had further been ruled by the highest judicial authority1 in the cases of ,miller v4 ,salomons1 and the ,lancaster and ,carlisle ,railway ,company v4 ,heaton1 that the essence of the oath consisted in the promise1 and not in the words of imprecation4 ,yet further1 ,wolff had before him1 and in his speech quoted from1 the statement above cited1 in which ,bradlaugh expressly declared that he held himself bound1 in taking the oath1 not by the letter of its words1 but by the spirit which the affirmation would have conveyed had ,i been permitted to use it4 ,these words he suppressed4 ,on the other hand1 as regards the point of allegiance1 he was negating the whole established doctrine of the ,british constitution4 ,it is a commonplace of that doctrine that ,parliament can repeal1 as ,parliament passed1 the ,act of ,settlement4 ,the contrary is now maintained by nobody1 and was not really maintained even by ,burke1 in his furious feint of disputing the constitutional principle in his ,reflections4 ,as the law stands1 any member of ,parliament is entitled to move constitutionally for the abolition of the ,monarchy4 ,the oath1 framed though it be for the dynasty1 and not for the ,state1 promises allegiance to the sovereign as by the law established4 ,if the law in future quashes sovereignty1 there will be no sovereign to whom to bear legal allegiance4#aca ,footnote #aca3 ,it is worth noting that ,mr ,keir ,hardie1 a professed ,christian ,socialist1 when recently 7#bhth ,june7 protesting against the foolish ceremony of congratulating the ,queen on the birth of a great-grandchild in the direct line1 went the length of declaring1 ,i owe no allegiance to any hereditary ruler--this after he had sworn allegiance to the ,queen4 ,bradlaugh never stultified himself in this fashion4 ,but such protests as those of ,wolff were perfectly fitted to serve the turn of the ,tory party in a campaign of faction4 ,the cue of shocked piety and the cue of loyalty came alike easily to the representatives of the feudal and the capitalistic interests2 and the bag-baron and the crag-baron vied with each other in the display of sham godliness and sincere zeal for the ,throne4 ,never was there such a reek of cant in ,st4 ,stephen's before4 ,all the ,english gift for hypocrisy1 unrivalled in ,europe1 was brought to bear on the task4 ,alderman ,fowler1 a fitting exponent of the cult of ,mammon in ,his sacred city1 followed up ,wolff with a petition emanating from bankers and merchants1 all praying with one consent that an unbeliever in their gods should not be allowed to sit at ,westminster4 ,the honour of ,god was avowedly the one concern of the ,alderman and of the men1 so many of them gross with fortuitous gain1 who made him their mouthpiece4 ,and those strategists who knew the imperfect efficacy of bogus religion as a means of keeping an ,atheist member out of his seat1 took care to supply the additional weapons needed4 ,mr ,gladstone met ,sir ,henry ,wolff's motion with a counter motion for the appointment of a fresh select committee to consider ,bradlaugh's competence to take the oath--a sufficiently unwise course1 in view of the action of the previous committee4 ,at once1 however1 the official ,tories gave their full support to ,wolff's motion1 declaring that the matter should not even go to a committee4 ,mr ,gibson1 formerly ,attorney-,general for ,ireland1 argued that ,bradlaugh had deserved all that befell him for raising the question4 ,the hon4 member might have taken his seat without opposition1 but he had chosen to obtrude himself on the ,house and the country4 ,he must therefore accept the grave responsibility of thus thrusting his opinions on the ,house4 ,observe the situation4 ,bradlaugh had acted not only as a scrupulous man in his place was bound to do1 but as a man careful of other men's susceptibilities would do4 ,had he simply taken the oath1 he would certainly have been yelled at as a hypocrite1 and further as a blasphemer4 ,the point had been publicly discussed in the press beforehand1 and his enemies were prepared4 ,trying to avoid at once inconsistency and scandal1 he quietly and circumspectly sought to make affirmation4 ,the right to affirm was denied him in committee by the champions of the oath1 joined by one conscientious ,liberal4 ,when he then came to take the compelled oath1 these men and their fellows assailed him as one who obtruded his opinions2 and ,mr ,gibson1 their spokesman1 proceeded to allege in so many words that the member for ,northampton had walked up the floor of the ,house with that oath and ,book before him and declined to take the oath4 ,it was a falsehood2 and ,mr ,gibson himself had just before1 in the same speech1 admitted that ,bradlaugh had claimed for himself1 in careful and guarded language1 the right to make an affirmation4 ,there are many points in the story of this struggle at which it is hardly possible to abstain from imputing wilful falsehood to some of the actors4 ,but on this point it seems right to conclude that one or other form of prejudice or passion made men all round incapable of realising when and how they grossly perverted a simple fact4 ,it was not merely the factious ,tories who repeated the mis-statement1 though they naturally used it most industriously4 ,mr ,chaplin1 ,m4,p41 was reported in two newspapers as having asserted that at a public meeting on #ast ,june ,mr ,bradlaugh announced his intention of refusing the oath1 and asked that he might affirm instead4 ,mr ,chaplin1 at the time of speaking1 was a member of the second select committee appointed to sit on the oath question1 and ,bradlaugh indignantly protested to the ,chairman1 who was again ,mr ,spencer ,walpole4 ,mr ,chaplin1 after some fencing1 declared that the report was inaccurate4 ,baron ,henry de ,worms1 another of the champions of ,omnipotence1 publicly averred#acb that he was in the ,house when ,mr ,bradlaugh came to the ,speaker and said he could not and would not take an oath which in no way bound him1 as he did not acknowledge any ,god4 ,challenged as to this statement1 ,baron ,henry de ,worms avowed that the words from which onwards were his own comment1 but could not see anything unwarrantable in the previous statement as to the facts4 ,such were the notions of truth and honour among ,english--and other--oath-taking gentlemen and noblemen with which ,bradlaugh had to contend4 ,and he was only in part supported by the remarks of ,mr ,john ,morley in the ,fortnightly ,review for ,july #ahhj3-- ,footnote #acb3 ,report in ,standard of #aath ,june #ahhj4 ,there is no precedent for ,mr ,bradlaugh's case1 for the simple reason that there is no precedent for the frank courage with which he has considered it desirable to publish his views as to the nature of an oath4 ,that the oath is just as meaningless1 so far as its divine appeal is concerned1 to many past and present members of the ,house of ,commons as ,mr ,bradlaugh protested it would be to him1 no one doubts4 ,whether and how far he was justified in asking to be sworn1 after he had declined to be sworn1 is a different question4 ,whatever the answer to that may be1 it cannot at least be said that the course adopted by ,mr ,bradlaugh involved the surrender of any principle4 ,the last clause is so candid that it is a pity ,mr ,morley should have considered it desirable to fortify his own position by penning that above italicised4 ,he had previously spoken of ,bradlaugh's pertinacity in parading his views--a statement which obtrudes its inspiration4 ,when a leading ,liberal publicist wrote so1 the godly multitude naturally asserted in chorus that ,bradlaugh had first ostentatiously refused to take the oath1 and then insisted on taking it4 ,dean ,boyd1 of ,exeter1 capped the record by asserting that when ,bradlaugh first advanced to the table of the ,house1 he openly1 boldly1 and defiantly affirmed that he believed there was no such being as a ,deity4 ,in the frame of mind represented by a variety of such utterances as these1 the ,house of ,commons deliberated on ,mr ,gladstone's motion that the question of ,bradlaugh's competence to swear should be referred to a second special committee4 ,on the second day of the debate1 ,sir ,stafford ,northcote1 the nominal leader of the ,conservative party in the ,house1 accepted the position into which he had been ignominiously forced by irresponsible and even semi-defiant adherents1 and opposed the appointment of the ,committee4 ,he is reported as saying3-- ,without raising any question as to whether there is anything irreverent in the course which the hon4 member proposes to take1 it seems to me that we1 in allowing him to take it1 should be incurring a responsibility from which our better judgment ought to make us shrink --a fair sample of the hon4 baronet's forcible-feeble oratory4 ,some ,tory speakers1 as ,earl ,percy1 admitted that the hon4 member1 to do him justice1 had sought to avoid taking an oath to which he attached no sacred character2 but these ingenuous combatants were concerned only to prevent the ,house from incurring the guilt of an act of hypocrisy1 and had no anxiety about avoiding an act of iniquity4 ,when ,john ,bright met the subterfuges of the ,opposition with the retaliatory criticism of which he was a master1 the temperature naturally rose4 ,if1 he asked1 they set up the principle of a creed test1 where were they going to end8 ,would they next question members known to be unbelievers1 though not publicly professed ones8 ,as certain ,conservative members were actually known by their comrades to be ,gallios in these matters1 ,bright's challenge created the appropriate resentment1 as did his emphatic avowal1 ,one thing ,i believe most profoundly1 that there is nothing amongst mankind that has done more to destroy truthfulness than the forcing of men to take an oath4 ,but the memorable part of his speech was this3-- ,i have no right to speak of the member for ,northampton4 ,i think it never happened to me more than once to address to him a single sentence1 or to hear any expression from him4 ,i never saw him to my knowledge but once1 before he appeared in this ,house2 but he is returned here by a large constituency1 to whom his religious opinions were as well known as they are now to us4444 ,now1 ,i have no doubt whatever1 though ,i have no authority to say so1 that the oath as it stands is binding on the conscience of the member for ,northampton1 in the sense that an affirmation would be binding on his conscience--that the words of the oath1 so far as they are a promise1 are words which would be binding upon him1 but that their binding character is not increased by the reference to the ,supreme ,being1 of whose existence1 unhappily as we all think--such is the constitution of his mind1 and such has been the constitution of many eminent minds of whom we have all heard--he is not able to form that distinct opinion and belief which we1 who ,i think are more happy1 have been able to do4 ,therefore if he were to come to the table and to take the oath as it is1 and as he proposes to take it1 ,i have no doubt that it would be binding on his conscience as my simple affirmation is binding on mine2 because in my affirmation there is no reference to the ,deity4 ,i make a promise4 ,my word is as good1 and is taken to be as good1 as your oath4 7,loud ,ministerial cheers47 ,and that is declared by an irrevocable ,act of ,parliament4 ,and if ,mr ,bradlaugh takes this oath1 as he proposes to take it1 ,i have no doubt that1 though the last words of the oath have no binding effect upon him1 yet his sense of honour and his conscience--7,opposition laughter1 and cries of ',hear1 hear' from some ,ministerialists7--his sense of honour and his conscience would make that declaration as binding on him as my affirmation is on me1 and as your oath is on you4 ,among those who joined in the brutal laughter of the gentlemen of the ,conservative party at these passages were men who had committed bribery1 unscrupulous stock-jobbers and company promoters1 men about town1 topers1 libellers1 and liars4 ,but some who thought it fitting to laugh with these would be normally classed as chivalrous and well-bred gentlemen4 ,the debate remained picturesque to the close4 ,lord ,randolph ,churchill1 who has within the present year proved afresh his capacity to create a ,parliamentary sensation1 protested that if the words 'so help me ,god' were held to be a mere superstitious invocation1 the idea or the faith which had for centuries animated the ,house of ,commons that its proceedings were under the guidance of ,providence would lose its force1 and would very soon have to be abandoned altogether4 ,the better to exemplify the energy of the divine supervision1 the noble lord1 after quoting a somewhat strong passage from ,bradlaugh's ,impeachment of the ,house of ,brunswick1 threw the pamphlet violently on the floor of the ,house1 in parody of ,burke's performance with the daggers4 ,baron de ,worms hazarded the proposition that this was an irreligious1 not a religious question4 ,the late ,mr ,thorold ,rogers1 an economist whose incapacity for logical thought led to his not unsuccessful cultivation of the department of historical detail1 made a foolish and offensive speech on the ,liberal side1 setting out with a statement of his sense of intellectual superiority to ,bradlaugh4 ,in his opinion1 a person who recognised no law beyond that of his own mind1 and such scanty rules as he thought fit to lay for his own guidance1 very much weakened his own character and lessened the value of his own life and acts4 ,further1 ,mr ,rogers had over and over again found in the course of the study of history that ,atheists were ,conservatives2 and he cited in proof the names of ,hobbes1 a ,theist2 ,hume1 who till the latter part of his life was an emphatic ,deist2 and ,gibbon1 who was one till his death4 ,he knew something of the political views of educated sceptics2 and when this unhappy gentleman became a little better educated it would undoubtedly be found that he was migrating towards the opposite benches4 ,after other remarks to similar effect1 ,mr ,rogers provoked even the protest of the much-tolerating ,speaker by charging the ,tories with being indisposed to act as generously as they did in their sports1 and to give a little law even to vermin4 ,for this felicitous figure ,mr ,rogers made a stumbling apology4 ,on this being privately repeated1 ,bradlaugh1 with his usual magnanimity1 later forgave the speech as a whole4 ,where a professed ,radical could be thus insolent1 on the score of his sense of superiority to opinions which he was incapable of discussing1 the language of the customary ,tory may readily be imagined4 ,the revelations of ardent piety made by some eminent capitalists and company-promoters were unexpectedly gratifying to the religious feelings of the nation2 and the unrelieved malignity of the personal allusions of these and other ,christians to a man precluded from turning unto them there and then the other cheek1 proved the injustice of the charge that this is an age of lukewarm religious convictions4 ,after two days of largely irrelevant debate1 ,wolff's motion was rejected by #bhi votes to #bad--;a result not ungratifying to the ,tories1 as showing that already certain ,liberals had taken their side4 ,a select committee of twenty-three was duly appointed1 the ,tories being defeated in an attempt to strengthen their representation on it4 ,the members were3--,the ,attorney-,general and the ,solicitor-,general1 ,messrs ,bright1 ,chaplin1 ,childers1 ,sir ,richard ,cross1 ,mr ,gibson1 ,sir ,gabriel ,goldney1 ,mr ,grantham1 ,mr ,staveley ,hill1 ,sir ,john ,holker1 ,mr ,beresford ,hope1 ,mr ,hopwood1 ,sir ,henry ,jackson1 ,lord ,henry ,lennox1 ,mr ,massey1 ,major ,nolan1 ,messrs ,pemberton1 ,simon1 ,trevelyan1 ,walpole1 ,whitbread1 and ,watkin ,williams4 ,the ,committee began by examining ,sir ,thomas ,erskine ,may as to precedents2 and ,mr ,bradlaugh was allowed to put questions to him likewise1 bringing forward precedents ,sir ,thomas had not noted1 among them the important case of ,sir ,francis ,bacon1 who1 as ,attorney-,general1 was challenged for breaking the law in making oath that he was duly qualified to sit1 when1 as a practising barrister1 he was legally disqualified under an ,act of ,edward ,,iii4 7,it was in this case that the ,house ruled3 ,their oath their own consciences to look unto1 not we to examine it47 ,after ,sir ,thomas ,may1 ,bradlaugh was himself examined1 and conducted his case with the lawyer-like exactitude and the more than lawyer-like concision and cogency which even his enemies admitted to belong to all his legal pleadings4#acc ,he pointed out that if it were competent to the ,house to interfere between a member and the oath1 the first forty members sworn in a ,parliament might prevent the sitting of any of the rest2 and that if he were held legally incompetent to make affirmation of allegiance1 he stood legally bound1 as an elected member1 to take the oath1 no matter what his opinions were4 ,he formally stated-- ,footnote #acc3 ,see the report of the ,committee's proceedings1 reprinted in his ,true ,story of my ,parliamentary ,struggle4 ,that there is nothing in what ,i did when asking to affirm which in any way disqualifies me from taking the oath4 ,that all ,i did was--believing1 as ,i then did1 that ,i had the right to affirm--to claim to affirm1 and that ,i was then absolutely silent as to the oath4 ,that ,i did not refuse to take it2 nor have then or since expressed any mental reservation or stated that the appointed oath of allegiance would not be binding upon me4 ,that1 on the contrary1 ,i say and have said that the essential part of the oath is in the fullest and most complete degree binding upon my honour and conscience1 and that the repeating the words of asseveration does not in the slightest degree weaken the binding effect of the oath of allegiance upon me4 ,these explicit statements he repeated again and again in answer to questions1 saying once3-- ,any form that ,i went through1 any oath that ,i took1 ,i should regard as binding upon my conscience in the fullest degree4 ,i would go through no form1 ,i would take no oath1 unless ,i meant it to be so binding4 ,this emphatic explanation was given in reply to a question on what is1 to my mind1 the only obscure point in his examination4 ,asked3 ,do you draw any distinction between the binding effect upon your conscience of the assertory oath1 as it is called1 and the promissory oath8 he answered-- ,most certainly ,i do4 ,the testimony oath is not binding upon my conscience1 because there is another form which the law has provided which ,i may take1 which is more consonant with my feelings4 ,the promissory oath is and will be binding upon my conscience if ,i take it1 because the law1 as interpreted by your ,committee1 says that it is the form which ,i am to take1 and the statute requires me to take it4 ,there is here1 ,i think1 a momentary confusion among the terms assertory1 promissory1 and testimony2 and the phrase not binding on my conscience is also used in a sense probably not intended by the questioner1 and not that intended by ,bradlaugh in his next answer1 above quoted4 ,the because is inconsequent4 ,what he meant to convey was simply that he expressly rejected the testimony oath because in giving evidence he was free to affirm2 whereas he was compelled to take the oath of allegiance1 there being no legal alternative in the opinion of a ,committee of the ,house4 ,he had been forced to submit in the law courts to the invidious formula that the oath was not binding on his conscience1 because it had been expressly ruled in law#acd that if a witness simply said ,i am an ,atheist1 the judge was bound to infer that an oath did not bind him4 ,but ,bradlaugh's answers to the ,select ,committee1 taken together1 made it superfluously clear that in the natural sense of the words he held any formula of promise he took to be binding on him1 whether with or without an imprecatory tag4 ,and inasmuch as members of the ,committee nevertheless thought fit afterwards to allege that he had all along declared the contrary with regard to the oath1 we are driven to one of two conclusions4 ,either 7a7 these gentlemen hold that a formal public promise is not fully binding on their consciences unless they add so help me ,god1 or something of the sort1 and that an ,atheist cannot be more conscientious than they2 or 7b7 they deliberately chose to bear false witness for party purposes4 ,and it finally matters little which conclusion we draw2 for the acceptance of the first leaves open the chance of the second being true also4 ,footnote #acd3 ,in a case not legally reported1 however--that of ex parte ,lennard vs ,woolrych1 in the ,court of ,queen's ,bench1 in ,april #ahge4 ,the ,committee1 after a variety of votes1 finally reported to the effect that ,bradlaugh1 by simply stating though in answer to official question that he had repeatedly affirmed under certain ,acts in courts of law1 had brought it to the notice of the ,house that he was a person as to whom judges had satisfied themselves that an oath was not binding on his conscience2 that1 under the circumstances1 an oath taken by him would not be an oath within the true meaning of the statutes2 and that the ,house therefore could and ought to prevent him from going through the form4 ,they further suggested that he should be allowed to affirm with a view to his right to do so being tested by legal action1 pointing to the nearly equal balance of votes in the former committee as a reason for desiring a decisive legal solution4 ,for this report of course only those members are responsible who voted for its main clauses4 ,under this reservation it falls to be said that the use made of the mean technicality of an oath being held not binding on the conscience of an ,atheist was in itself profoundly unconscientious4 ,that formality was1 to begin with1 expressly intended to prevent the evasion of the oath by religious knaves1 and not at all to imply that an ,atheist who took the oath could not be believed4 ,what was more1 ,bradlaugh had only specified the ,evidence ,amendment ,acts in reply to the express challenge of the ,clerk of the ,house of ,commons4 ,to turn an accidental ambiguity to the account of an iniquity1 to decide that a man was untrustworthy under the pretext of a legal subterfuge1 was merely to show that the oath is less than no security for right action1 and that under its cover men can far outgo the lengths of injustice that they are likely to venture on in the name of simple law4 ,in the words of ,bright1 who opposed the conclusion come to as absolutely untenable1 the course taken was one involving a mean advantage over ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,what the proceeding proved against ,bradlaugh was simply this3 that he had done wrong in ever accepting1 even as a technical phrase1 the juridical formula that an oath as a whole is not binding on the conscience of one to whom an imprecation is an idle barbarism4 ,he ought in the law courts to have repudiated even the technical shadow of an implication that a rationalist's word is worth less than a religionist's oath4 ,nothing but persistent resistance will ever make tyrannous religion give way to justice2 and he1 who was habitually accused of gratuitously defying religion1 had simply not defied it enough4 ,and the lesson taught to other rationalists by his struggle is this1 that oath-taking must in future be stigmatised and warred against as implying not a higher but a lower moral standard than that of rational ethics4 ,men who must swear to be believed are not to be believed4 #e4 ,on #bast ,june1 a few days after the presentation of the ,committee's report to the ,house1 ,mr ,labouchere moved a resolution to the effect that ,bradlaugh be allowed to make affirmation instead of taking the oath--the course the ,committee had recommended4 ,he had previously given notice of a general ,affirmation ,bill1 but had postponed the discussion of it1 pending the report4 ,he now moved his resolution1 after presenting a petition in support of ,bradlaugh from some thousands of the people of ,northampton1 on the heels of a large ,tory petition1 also from ,northampton1 praying that ,bradlaugh might not be permitted to take the holy name of ,god in vain4 ,mr ,labouchere in an extremely able and persuasive speech dwelt on the prime fact that the ,parliamentary ,oaths ,act of #ahff gave to all persons legally qualified to affirm in courts of law the right to affirm in ,parliament1 and that by later ,acts ,bradlaugh was entitled to affirm in courts of law4 ,the opposition view presumably was that the ,act of #ahff could only refer to persons then entitled to affirm2 but no argument to that effect appears on the reports consulted by the present writer4 ,he further warned the enemy that if they carried their hostility to the point of unseating ,bradlaugh1 he would simply be re-elected--a statement which evoked confident ,no's from members whose faith in ,deity was more deep than philosophical2 and remarked what was perfectly true--that there were exceedingly few persons in ,northampton of ,mr ,bradlaugh's views on religious matters4 ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard 7now ,lord ,halsbury7 rang the changes on the argument about obtrusion of views2 and pietists like ,alderman ,fowler and ,mr ,warton expressed afresh their corpulent horror of ,atheism4 ,one ,irish member1 ,mr ,arthur ,o',connor1 took occasion to protest--in a debate on a proposal to permit an affirmation--against letting ,bradlaugh take the oath2 and the ,speaker seems to have made no objection4 ,on the other side1 ,mr ,hopwood1 whose vote in the first committee had possibly permitted all the trouble1 made a powerful speech against the obtrusion argument1 which1 as he justly said1 amounted to telling ,bradlaugh1 ,if you had come to the table with a lie on your lips1 we would have allowed you to be sworn4 ,but again the great speech in the debate was ,bright's4 ,the remark1 ,there are many members of this ,house who take the oath and greatly dislike it1 was his first home-thrust2 and soon1 after a temperate and weighty argument1 he nobly repeated his declaration of belief in the honour of the ,atheist1 whose opinions were probably as repugnant to ,bright as to any other man in the ,house4 ,i pretend1 he said--and his voice rose with his theme1--,i pretend to have no conscience and honour superior to the conscience of ,mr ,bradlaugh4 7,ironical cheers from the ,opposition47 ,it is no business of mine to set myself up--perhaps it is no business of yours to set yourselves up--7cheers7--as having conscience and honour superior to that which actuates ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,he went on to protest that the course taken by the majority of the committee was one involving a mean advantage over ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,the speech1 however1 mainly ran to perfectly judicial argument2 and it was the obvious determination of the ,tories to give no ear to argument that evoked the flashes of feeling which lit it up4 ,bright having said that the oath was now made a theistic test1 where before it had been a ,protestant and a ,christian test1 a ,no1 came from ,mr ,spencer ,walpole1 the ,chairman of the ,committee4 ,why1 retorted ,bright1 the right hon4 gentleman must have forgotten everything in the committee2 he cannot have been conscious of his own opinions4 ,why1 surely the object of this motion is to establish the test of theism4 ,there were again ,no's from the party which denies2 and ,bright1 after establishing his point1 thrust afresh4 ,the theistic test1 he repeated1 is proposed by the member for ,portsmouth--the front bench opposite appears to have abdicated entirely--there is now only an abject1 a remarkable submission to gentlemen who sit in the lower part of the ,house4 ,a plain statement of the obvious fact that ,wolff was establishing a precedent for intervention elicited more blatant ,no's1 and ,bright began to warm up to his peroration4 ,he reminded the ,house that a ,positivist or ,comtist who had been concerned in the issue of an anti-theistic pamphlet might quite as plausibly be challenged as ,mr ,bradlaugh2 going on to speak of certain ,positivists as some men for whom ,i have the utmost respect in regard to everything but their opinions on the question of religion1 which ,i deplore1 and in connection with which ,i can only commiserate them4 ,but1 he went on1 correcting the touch of superciliousness1-- ,i know that many people have much greater power of belief than others have2 and ,i am not one of those--having myself passed through many doubts--to condemn1 without sympathy at any rate1 those who are not able to adopt the views which ,i myself hold4 7,hear1 hear47 ,now1 sir1 only one word more4 ,there are members of this ,house of different ,churches1 but generally all1 ,i trust1 of one religion--of the religion which inculcates charity1 and forbearance1 and justice1 and even generosity4 ,there are those who belong to the ,roman ,catholic ,church4 ,i need not remind them of what they and their ancestors have gone through in ,ireland--7hear7--for the last #bjj or #cjj years or more1 or of how long a time they were kept out of this ,house1 and by the very same class of arguments which the honourable and learned member for ,surrey used4 7,cheers47 ,he tells us that for a very long time past there has been a gradual relaxation4 ,yes1 no doubt4 ,did he ever sit among those who have promoted those relaxations8 ,i have been here for thirty-seven years1 and ,i have heard these questions discussed over and over again2 but ,i never found that the time had come when the party opposite1 represented by gentlemen who now sit there1 were willing to make these relaxations4 ,they submitted not to argument1 not to sentiments of generosity or of justice2 they submitted only to a majority which sat on this side of the ,house4 7,cheers47 ,then there are the ,nonconformists4 ,i am told that there are some ,nonconformists even--but ,i think it is rather in the nature of a mistake or a slander--who have great doubts as to how they should vote on this occasion4 ,it is occasions like this that try men and try principles4 7,hear1 hear47 ,do you suppose that in times past the ,founder of ,christianity has required an oath in this ,house to defend the religion which ,he founded8 ,or do you suppose now that the supreme ,ruler of the world can be interested in the fact that one man comes to this table and takes ,his name--it may be often in vain--7murmurs7--and another is permitted to make an affirmation1 reverently and honestly1 in which ,his name is not included8 ,but one thing is essential for us1 the ,house of ,commons representing the ,english people1 which is1 to maintain as far as we can the great principles of freedom--freedom of political action and freedom of conscience4 ,an allusion to the remark of ,mr ,labouchere that the ,northampton constituency in the mass had no sympathy with ,bradlaugh's theological opinions evoked another ,conservative laugh1 and ,bright continued3-- ,well1 hon4 gentlemen who know nothing about it laugh at that4 ,i think it very possible that1 finding that ,mr ,bradlaugh in his political opinions was in sympathy with them1 those electors so little liked the political opinions of hon4 gentlemen opposite that they preferred ,mr ,bradlaugh1 with his political opinions1 to some opposing candidates who have represented them1 and whose religious views might have been entirely orthodox4 7,hear1 hear47 444 ,to a large extent the working people of this country do not care any more for the dogmas of ,christianity than the upper classes care for the practice of that religion4 7,cheers1 and loud cries of ',oh1' and ',withdraw4'7 ,i wish from my heart that it were otherwise4 7,cheers1 and renewed cries of ',withdraw4'7 ,despite the ,tory wrath1 there was no withdrawal4 ,this great speech was followed1 after the adjournment1 by one from ,gladstone1 less powerful because less fired with moral feeling1 but eloquent1 cogent1 and unanswerable1 save for the slip of the statement that ,bolingbroke1 the ,theist1 was without any religious belief at all4#ace ,yet the end of the debate--after a series of speeches1 including one by ,sir ,henry ,tyler in which he brutally dragged the name of ,mrs ,besant into his attack on ,bradlaugh--was that only #bcj voted for ,mr ,labouchere's motion1 and #bge against4 ,this was on #bbnd ,june4 ,what ,bright had thought could not be had taken place1 though the ,nonconformists were not the bulk of the ,liberals who enabled the ,tories to trample underfoot the first principles of ,liberalism4 ,thirty-six ,liberals and thirty-one ,home ,rulers voted in the majority1 and doubtless joined in its exultant cheers4 ,footnote #ace3 ,on the other hand1 ,tory journalists went much further astray in asserting that ,bolingbroke believed in future rewards and punishments4 ,a number of ,liberals1 further1 were absent without pairs4 ,there were found among the allies of tyranny representatives of nearly all of the sects which had themselves suffered persecution1 ,catholics1 ,wesleyans1 ,presbyterians1 ,jews1 as well as members of the ,established ,church4 ,when1 therefore1 ,mr ,john ,tenniel in ,punch caused his weekly contribution to the gaiety of his nation to take the shape of a cartoon joyfully representing ,bradlaugh as kicked out1 with a crumpled paper in his hand bearing the legend ,atheism1 he was more than usually in touch with the social sentiment of which he is the leading artistic exponent4 ,our ,english love of fair play was never more neatly illustrated1 even by that primitive pencil4#acf ,footnote #acf3 ,it should be noted that the kicked-out idea is a favourite one with the cartoonist4 ,he used it lately in the case of the ,irish ,evicted ,tenants ,bill4 ,the action of the ,home ,rulers is perhaps specially notable4 ,some of them later pretended that their hostility to ,mr ,bradlaugh was due to a single vote he gave on the ,arms ,bill4 ,it will be seen that they opposed him in great force before he had ever had a chance to vote at all1 and this on a simple claim that he should be allowed to make affirmation4 ,mr ,justin ,m',carthy1 in keeping with his general attitude on religious questions1 sought from the first to exclude the ,atheist from ,parliament4 ,the only other plea open to the majority was that ,bradlaugh had forced his ,atheism on the ,house4 ,this was the line taken1 for instance1 not only by ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard1 but by ,sir ,walter ,barttelot1 a typical ,tory squire and ,english gentleman1 who just before ,bradlaugh's death in #ahia won for himself some credit by a frank tribute to his honesty of character4 ,were it not for the countenance given by ,mr ,john ,morley at the time to a patently unjust account of ,bradlaugh's action--an account which ,gladstone as well as ,bright then explicitly contradicted--one would be disposed to point to the general repetition of the untruth by the ,tory press and party as proving how worthless a thing the honour and conscience of ,english gentlemen is in matters of public action4 ,it is a matter of simple fact that ,bradlaugh all along anxiously sought to keep his ,atheism out of cognisance of the susceptibilities of the ,house2#acg and it is perfectly certain that had he come forward to take the oath at the outset1 he would not only have been afterwards vilified by the ,opposition as a blasphemous hypocrite1 but would have been challenged all the same by ,wolff and the rest4 ,the matter had been openly discussed beforehand4 ,there is thus no conclusion open save that the majority in the vote on the affirmation motion did a gross injustice2 and though the really religious men in the ,house1 as ,gladstone and ,bright1 were mostly on the other side1 and the religiosity of the aggressors was in many cases a nauseous farce1 it must be assumed that religion counted for much#ach in the matter4 ,parnell in the next stage of the question avowed that he had been on ,bradlaugh's side from the first1 but had found himself opposed on the point by the great majority of the ,irish members4 ,there would seem to be no doubt that the ,catholic priesthood--actively represented by ,cardinal ,manning--determined the action of ,parnell's followers1 and later his own4 ,it is perhaps not unprofitable to reflect that most of the ,liberal wrongdoers have since paid some penalties4 ,some dozen lost their seats at next election on the ,bradlaugh issue4 ,the ,home ,rulers have felt to the full the power of fanaticism against themselves2 and ,parnell1 who later yielded to the bigotry of his party1 lived to know all the bitterness of religious injustice4 ,a minor ,scotch ,liberal then on the wrong side1 ,mr ,maclagan1 has lately been unseated by clerical effort2 and doubtless others could testify that they who draw the sword of bigotry tend to perish by it4 ,it would doubtless be giving an undue air of moral regularity to the business to lay any stress on the final political fate of ,northcote1 who in the ,bradlaugh struggle made himself the catspaw of the worst section of his followers4 ,he certainly had his due reward4 ,footnote #acg3 ,the ,select ,committee persistently examined him to get avowals which he had not made1 and had no wish to volunteer4 ,footnote #ach3 ,the ,echo of #beth ,may #ahhj has the passage3 ,say what we like1 occupants of the ,tory benches are penetrated with deep and undying religious convictions4 ,the very reference to an unbeliever1 unless it is in fierce denunciation of him1 reddens their faces4444 ,but strange to say1 the very men who apparently were so jealous of religious or semi-religious forms last evening will this evening vote that ,parliament shall not sit to-morrow because it will be the ,derby day4 ,now if there be one place on this wide earth which may be denominated a pandemonium it is the ,epsom ,downs on a ,derby day4 #f4 ,being thus expressly denied the right to affirm by a vote of the whole ,house1 ,bradlaugh promptly reverted to his position that if he could not affirm1 he was legally bound to take the oath and his seat4 ,a committee had declared by a casting vote that he could not affirm1 and left him to swear4 ,the ,house referred the point of his swearing to a larger committee1 which decided by a majority that he could not swear1 but recommended that after all he be allowed to affirm4 ,the ,house stood by the finding of both committees in so far as it was hostile1 and overruled that of the second in so far as it was favourable4 ,it remained to fight the whole ,house on the point of the oath4 ,on #bcrd ,june1 after the prayers1 which remain one of the institutions of the ,house1 ,bradlaugh walked to the table amid some cries of ,order1 and spoke to the ,clerk4 ,the ,speaker then formally intimated to him the decision of the ,house1 and called upon him to withdraw4 ,amid roars of ,withdraw from the furious mob of ,tory members1 ,bradlaugh contrived to let the ,speaker understand that he claimed to be heard4 ,he had to withdraw while the question was discussed1 and when ,mr ,labouchere sought to move that he be heard1 the ,speaker had to rise to secure order4 ,on grounds not easily inferred1 the ,house1 suddenly changing its temper1 with very little dissent agreed to let ,bradlaugh be heard at the ,bar1 which was at once drawn across the bottom of the ,house1 and at which he proceeded to speak1 as represented in the admirable portrait done after his death by ,mr ,walter ,sickert4 ,this1 his first speech at the ,bar of the ,house1#aci ,i have heard described as perfect by some ,liberals who thought less highly of the three others it was his lot to make from the same place4 ,it is perhaps the most vividly impressive1 but only1 ,i think1 because it was the first4 ,certainly it is the most memorable address of challenge ever made to the ,house1 though it has all the straightforward1 terse simplicity of ,bradlaugh's general speaking1 which was never rehearsed4 ,it was measured and controlled throughout4 ,the mean insult of a ,hear1 hear when he asked1 ,do you tell me ,i am unfit to sit amongst you8 did not discompose him4 ,the more reason1 then1 he went on1 that this ,house should show the generosity which judges show to a criminal1 and allow every word he has to say to be heard4 ,even in rebuking the most dastardly attack made upon him in the ,house he was gravely dignified4 ,footnote #aci3 ,see the verbatim report reprinted in the volume of his ,speeches4 ,i have to ask indulgence lest the memory of some hard words which have been spoken in my absence should seem to give to what ,i say a tone of defiance1 which it is far from my wish should be there at all2 and ,i am the more eased because although there were words spoken which ,i had always been taught ,english gentlemen never said in the absence of an antagonist without notice to him1 yet there were also generous and brave words said for one who is at present1 ,i am afraid1 a source of trouble and discomfort and hindrance to business4 ,i measure the generous words against the others1 and ,i will only make one appeal through you1 sir1 which is1 that if the reports be correct that the introduction of other names came with mine in the heat of passion and the warmth of debate1 the gentleman#adj who used those words1 if such there were1 will remember that he was wanting in chivalry1 because1 while ,i can answer for myself1 and am able to answer for myself1 nothing justified the introduction of any other name beside my own to make a prejudice against me4 7,cheers1 ',question1' and cries of ',order4'7 ,footnote #adj3 ,the reference was to the ever-offensive ,sir ,henry ,tyler1 who had made a cowardly allusion to ,mrs ,besant4 ,he went on to deal with the common objection to his action3-- ,it is said1 ',you might have taken the oath as other members did4' ,i could not help1 when ,i read that1 sir1 trying to put myself in the place of each member who said it4 ,i imagined a member of some form of faith who found in the oath words which seemed to him to clash with his faith1 but still words which he thought he might utter1 but which he would prefer not to utter if there were any other form which the law provided him2 and ,i asked myself whether each of those members would not then have taken the form which was most consonant with his honour and conscience4 ,if ,i have not misread1 some hon4 members seem to think that ,i have neither honour nor conscience4 ,is there not some proof to the contrary in the fact that ,i did not go through the form1 believing that there was another right open to me8 7',hear1 hear' and ',order4'7 ,is that not some proof that ,i have honour and conscience8 ,the most searching thrusts were delivered with entire amenity4 ,it is said that you may deal with me because ,i am isolated4 ,i could not help hearing the ring of that word in the lobby as ,i sat outside last night4 ,but is that a reason--that because ,i stand alone1 the ,house are to do against me what they would not do if ,i had #ajj1jjj men at my back8 ,that is a bad argument1 which provokes a reply inconsistent with the dignity of this ,house1 and which ,i should be sorry to give4 ,and no less measured was the warning that the struggle would not end with his exclusion3-- ,do you mean that ,i am to go back to ,northampton as to a court1 to appeal against you8 that ,i am to ask the constituency to array themselves against this ,house8 ,i hope not4 ,if it is to be1 it must be4 ,if this ,house arrays itself against an isolated man--its huge power against one citizen--if it must be1 then the battle must be too4 ,but it is not with the constituency of ,northampton alone4444 ,the peroration was as austere as the rest of the speech3-- ,i beg your pardon1 sir1 and that of the ,house too1 if in this warmth there seems to lack respect for its dignity2 and as ,i shall have1 if your decision be against me1 to come to that table when your decision is given1 ,i beg you1 before the step is taken in which we may both lose our dignity--mine is not much1 but yours is that of the ,commons of ,england--,i beg you before the gauntlet is fatally thrown down--,i beg you1 not in any sort of menace1 not in any sort of boast1 but as one man against six hundred1 to give me that justice which on the other side of this wall the judges would give me were ,i pleading before them4 ,then ensued a fresh debate4 ,northcote at some length expressed himself to the effect that there was nothing to be said4 ,gladstone at similar length agreed4 ,the ,speaker asked whether ,bradlaugh should be called in1 and after some confused discussion ,mr ,labouchere was allowed to move that yesterday's resolution be rescinded4 ,mr ,gorst moved the adjournment of the debate2 but on an appeal from ,gladstone1 ,mr ,labouchere withdrew his motion4 ,the ,speaker then recalled ,bradlaugh to the table1 and informed him that the ,house had nothing to say beyond calling upon him once more to withdraw4 ,bradlaugh replied3 ,i beg respectfully to insist upon my right as a duly elected member for ,northampton4 ,i ask you to have the oath administered to me1 in order that ,i may take my seat1 and ,i respectfully refuse to withdraw4 ,the helpless ,speaker thought it right to point out to the hon4 gentleman what he had pointed out before4 ,again ,bradlaugh replied3 ,with respect1 ,i do refuse to obey the orders of the ,house1 which are against the law2 and the ,speaker had to appeal to the ,house to give authority to the ,chair to compel execution of its orders4 ,gladstone remained silent1 despite calls for him1 and ,northcote in his flabbiest manner proceeded to move1 though ,i am not quite sure what the terms of the motion should be1 that ,mr ,speaker do take the necessary steps for requiring and enforcing the withdrawal of the hon4 member for ,northampton4 ,the ,speaker confusedly explained1 to the perplexity of the ,house1 that according to former precedents the motion should simply be that the hon4 member do now withdraw--precisely what he had already declared to be the resolution and order of the ,house4 ,the motion being challenged1 there voted for it #cbf1 and only #ch against1 the ,government having chosen to give effect to the vote of the majority of the day before4 ,the scene now became still more exciting4 ,on the ,speaker's again calling on ,bradlaugh to withdraw1 he answered3 ,with submission to you1 sir1 the order of the ,house is against the law1 and ,i respectfully refuse to obey it4 ,the ,speaker then called on the ,sergeant-at-,arms to remove him1 and that officer1 coming up1 touched him on the shoulder and requested him to withdraw4 ,he said1 ,i shall submit to the ,sergeant-at-,arms removing me below the bar1 but ,i shall immediately return to the table1 and he did so1 saying on his way back towards the table1 ,i claim my right as a member of the ,house4 ,again led back to the bar by the officer1 he again walked up the floor of the now tempestuous ,house1 saying in a voice rising high above the din 7says a contemporary report71 ,i claim my right as a member of this ,house4 ,i admit the right of the ,house to imprison me1 but ,i admit no right on the part of the ,house to exclude me1 and ,i refuse to be excluded4 ,again led to the bar by the ,sergeant-at-,arms1 he awaited the action of the ,house4 ,his action had been taken with a forethought4 ,he was determined to force the ,house to further steps1 and to make its path a cul de sac4 ,the ,speaker again appealed to the ,house for orders1 and ,northcote1 making an effort to get up a state of vigorous purpose in himself1 conscious the while that the moral right was all on the other side1 once more took action4 ,he somewhat disappointed the followers who had led him by remarking3 ,i am quite sure that none of us are disposed to make any personal complaint of the conduct of the hon4 member4 ,we know that he is in a position which calls for our consideration1 and that we must make all proper allowance for the course which he may think it right to take4 ,complaining that the duty ought to have been taken up by the leader of the ,house1 ,northcote proceeded to move that ,bradlaugh1 having defied the ,house1 be taken into the custody of the ,sergeant-at-,arms4 ,gladstone once more explained that he thought those who had got the ,house into the trouble should get it out1 and wordily went on to indicate that he thought the ,opposition were taking a consistent course4 ,but again a discussion arose4 ,mr ,labouchere began by remarking on the position of a citizen sent to prison for doing what some high legal authorities thought he had a perfect right to do4 ,mr ,courtney suggested that the arrest be formally carried through to permit of the legality of the ,house's course being tested on a writ of habeas corpus4 ,the appearance of a shorthand writer at the bar taking notes led to a question of order2 and the ,speaker explained that he was there by authority1 reporting the proceedings1 not the debate1 which would clearly be out of order4 ,a friendly motion for the adjournment of the debate was made1 discussed1 and withdrawn4 ,another was made by ,mr ,finigan1 a friendly ,irish member1 and seconded by ,mr ,biggar2 but only five voted for it and #cdb against4 ,mr ,parnell then made the very creditable speech in which he avowed his dissent from the majority of the ,home ,rulers2 and some of these in turn expressed their dissent from him4 ,at length ,northcote's motion was carried by #bgd votes to #g4 ,the result was received without any manifestation of feeling1 and members laughed when the ,speaker announced the resumption of the private business4 ,already the majority had begun to feel that its triumph was a fiasco4 ,in an hour the ,sergeant-at-,arms1 called upon by the ,speaker to report1 announced to the ,house that in pursuance of their order and ,mr ,speaker's warrant1 ,i have taken ,mr ,bradlaugh1 the member for ,northampton1 into custody4 ,he was in the ,clock ,tower--in a room1 that is1 on the second story of that part of the ,house--whither he had gone with the slight requisite show of formal resistance1 passing first a short time in the ,sergeant's private room4 ,there he was visited by ,parnell1 ,mr ,o',kelly1 ,mr ,o',connor ,power1 ,mr ,finigan1 and ,dr ,commins1 all of whom expressed their cordial sympathy4 ,the imprisonment was a farcical form4 ,a constant stream of friends visited him2 and he went about the business of fighting his battle in the country as he would do in his own rooms4 ,on the very evening of his arrest a ,committee was formed to secure his liberation1 and an appeal drawn up in its name by ,mrs ,besant4 ,this was distributed by thousands next day2 and a fresh petition for signature was likewise framed and sent out broadcast at once4 ,but the democracy did not wait for petitions4 ,the moment the news of the ,house's action reached the public1 a cry of indignation arose1 loud enough to alarm ,beaconsfield1#ada on whose urgent advice 7so it was said at the time7 ,northcote on the next day moved for ,bradlaugh's unconditional release1 which was hurriedly agreed to4 ,the stultification of the majority was now complete2 and the course taken by ,northcote thus far may stand as a fair sample of modern ,conservative statesmanship--the policy of irrational resistance1 on no better principle than that of partisan habit1 ending in ignominious collapse4 ,still the cry of protest swelled in volume4 ,in less than a week two hundred meetings were held throughout the country to pass resolutions in ,bradlaugh's favour2 ,radical and ,liberal clubs and societies of all kinds sent their messages of protest and appeal2 and ,liberal members who had voted on the ,tory side were sharply called to account4 ,even before matters had come to a crisis1 abundant proof was given that a large and earnest minority were dead against the policy of intolerance4 ,in ,may ,mr ,labouchere had given notice of a ,bill to permit affirmation by any member in place of the oath of allegiance2 and by #fth ,july there had been presented #dfb petitions in favour of that measure1 with #dj1dcd signatures1 largely obtained through the organisation of the ,national ,secular ,society4 ,the effect of these and other displays of popular feeling began to be seen in the ,house4 ,liberal members who had voted on the ,tory side out of fear of the bigots in their constituencies began to hesitate4 ,on #bhth ,june leave was given to ,mr ,labouchere to introduce his ,affirmation ,bill1 which was read a first time4 ,the ,government1 however1 took the view that ,bradlaugh's rights ought to be legally determined in respect of the state of the law at the time of his election2 and instead of supporting or giving facilities for ,mr ,labouchere's ,bill1 they proposed the compromise of moving that the excluded member be allowed to affirm pending the legal settlement of his position4 ,this was accepted2 and1 on #ast ,july1 ,mr ,gladstone moved as a standing order that members-elect be allowed1 subject to any liability by statute1 to affirm at their choice4 ,footnote #ada3 ,this perhaps understates ,beaconsfield's protest4 ,bradlaugh heard that he condemned the whole proceedings1 and called his followers fools for their pains4 ,this was of course the signal for a fresh storm4 ,on ,mr ,gladstone's preliminary motion that the ,orders of the ,day be postponed1 ,mr ,gorst pronounced the motion disorderly1 and opposed the proposal in advance as being to the effect that the ,house should break the law1 in order to smuggle ,mr ,bradlaugh into the ,house4 ,gladstone1 in moving his order1 was studiously moderate1 giving as a reason for the ,government's not introducing a ,bill the impossibility of having the question calmly discussed in the then state of feeling1 while urging the necessity of preserving the dignity and decency of the ,house as a reason for doing something4 ,he went on to defend ,bradlaugh fully and forcibly against the charge of having obtruded his ,atheism on the ,house1 and wound up with a calm contention that it was the duty of the ,house to further the claim of any member to take his seat under a given law1 leaving it to be settled in the law courts whether his claim was valid4 ,northcote opposed1 arguing that there was no fear of a repetition of the scene of last week1 since the ,speaker could give instructions that ,mr ,bradlaugh be not allowed to enter the precincts4 ,to accept the motion would be to some extent humiliating to the ,house4#adb ,no question of justice or righteousness was raised by the ,tory leader4 ,one of his followers1 ,lord ,henry ,scott1 advanced the pious proposition that the mere affirmation of a person who did not believe in a ,supreme ,being could not be regarded as a binding engagement upon him4 ,another ignoramus named ,smyth explained that the test of ,theism pervaded the whole body of the ,constitution1 of which1 like the soul of man1 it was the animating principle4 ,let ,atheists be admitted within its walls1 and there would be ,atheistical legislation4444 ,such teaching it was that led to the outbreak of the ,french ,revolution4 ,thus were old lies made to support new4 ,an ,irish ,catholic named ,corbet spoke of ,mr ,bradlaugh's ,byzantine doctrines of morality1 either forgetting that ,byzantium was the typical ,christian ,state for a thousand years1 or desiring to asperse the ,christian ,church which had all along been the great rival of his own4 ,mr ,a4 ,m4 ,sullivan1 another ,catholic1 made a rabid speech1 supporting the cause of religion with the plea1 ,where was the class that was oppressed now8 ,it was nothing but an individual4 ,he went on to avow that he sought to keep ,mr ,bradlaugh out of ,parliament on the score that his ,malthusianism1 taken in conjunction with his ,atheistic opinions1 struck fatally at the foundation of civil society4 ,the ,church of the confessional is naturally zealous for the sacredness of the family2 and the ,church of the ,inquisition for the foundations of civil society4 ,men who regard the hamstringing of cattle as at most a pity are naturally warm on the subject of rational control of human procreation4 ,on the other hand1 ,parnell wished1 as an ,irish ,protestant1 with the utmost diffidence1 to say a few words in explanation of the vote he would give to-night4 ,already he seemed shaken by the resistance of his followers2 and he was at pains to say he regarded the religious tenets of ,mr ,bradlaugh and his doctrines with reference to over-population as abominable--a deliverance which reads dramatically in connection with the close of his own career1 when an only less insensate and irrational ethic than his own gave the sanction for similar vilification of himself4 ,there was finally a ring of anxious bravado in his avowal that it was personally an odious task for him to take the course he should on this occasion--7this after he had voluntarily gone to shake hands with ,bradlaugh after the arrest7--but if he had to walk through the lobby alone1 he should deem himself a coward if he did not act up to his conviction4 ,footnote #adb3 ,again he was surrendering his own convictions to the partisanism of his colleagues4 ,he had been personally willing to support legislation for the settlement of the difficulty1 but was overruled as usual by his associates4 ,see ,mr ,lang's ,life1 ii4 #agb4 ,less self-regarding1 and much more helpful1 was the speech of ,mr ,richard1 the most impressive in the debate4 ,mr ,richard was one of the extremely few ,christians who keep one set of gospel passages so constantly in view as never to be led into imitating the rest4 ,he never echoed their words of execration4 ,his very rebukes to his fellow-,christians for their pious scurrility were gentle2 and he must have caused some searchings of heart when he observed that no man who watched what went on1 on the first day of the present ,parliament1 when hon4 members were squeezing round the table1 and scrambling for the ,new ,testaments amid laughter--7',no1 no1' and ,ministerial cheers7--no man could have watched that scene1 and believed that the act had any of the solemnity of a religious act about it4 ,when the otherwise pious ,wolff followed1 the altered balance of feeling was shown by impatient interruption of his remarks4 ,an exceptionally offensive ,catholic1 named ,m',coan1 was called to order by the ,speaker for the remark that a more offensive representative of ,atheism never was seen than ,bradlaugh4 ,finally1 after ,general ,burnaby had mentioned that the ,chief ,rabbi1 although refusing to interfere with political questions1 felt very deeply on this subject1 the vote was taken1 and by #cjc votes to #bdi ,gladstone's motion was carried4 ,bradlaugh was now free to make affirmation1 and did so next day4 ,almost immediately on taking his seat he had occasion to vote1 and immediately thereafter he was served with a writ to recover a penalty of #ejj for illegal voting4 ,the writ had apparently been prepared beforehand4 ,the suitor was one ,henry ,lewis ,clarke1 the tool of ,mr ,newdegate1 ,m4,p41--the latter1 a man of the most restricted understanding1 notorious as an old opponent of the admission of ,jews to ,parliament and a rabid assailant of ,catholicism1 but now eager to combine with ,jews and ,catholics against the ,atheist4 ,a few days afterwards a similar writ was served at the instance of one ,cecil ,barbour1 of ,nightingale ,lane1 ,clapham2 and yet a third was given notice of2 but the work was left to ,mr ,newdegate's employee4#adc ,a new stage in the struggle had now been reached4 ,footnote #adc3 ,a friendly action by ,mr ,swaagman1 for all the remaining penalties that might arise1 served to forestall other speculative suits4 #g4 ,for nine months--that is1 while ,parliament sat in the period ,july-,march #ahhj-haadd--;,bradlaugh now sat in the ,house1 doing his work with intense and continuous application1 though all the while there hung over him the shadow of a ruinous litigation4 ,he had taken the risk4 ,on #hth ,july the ,government were asked by ,mr ,norwood1 a hostile ,liberal1 whether they would instruct the law officers of the ,crown to undertake his defence in any suit brought against him2 but the answer was1 of course1 in the negative2 and ,bradlaugh rose to explain that he had had no communication with either ,mr ,norwood or the ,government on the subject4 ,a fortnight later a ,bill was zealously forced through both the ,houses to indemnify ,lord ,byron1 who had sat and voted without being sworn1 against any action for penalties4 ,bradlaugh had the experience of helping to safeguard the peer from the prosecution laid against himself4 ,footnote #add3 ,mr ,lang1 in the page of random jottings in which he sketches the ,bradlaugh story1 makes the misleading statement that he only sat for a few weeks under statutory liability 7,life of ,northcote1 ii4 #acg74 ,his ,parliamentary activity was many-sided1 including as it did the charge of the interests of endless correspondents in all parts of the world who had grievances to redress and claims to put4 ,but above all he devoted himself to the interests of ,ireland and of ,india1 the one still suffering from an imperfect realisation of her needs by ,english ,liberals2 the other from the general neglect of ,liberals and ,tories alike4 ,the gratitude of the people of ,india has been freely given for his service2 that of the majority of the ,irish members was naturally not prompt4 ,they had wronged him1 and so could hardly forgive4 ,such a frenzy of malevolence1 further1 as had been aroused among bigots of all ,churches by ,bradlaugh's entrance into the ,house1 was slow to decline4 ,whether outside the ,house or inside1 he was furiously aspersed4 ,a ,bill to exclude ,atheists was early introduced by ,sir ,j4 ,eardley ,wilmot1#ade and petitions in support of this were largely signed1 though wholesale subscription by the children of ,sunday ,schools was in many cases found to be necessary to fill the sheets4 ,but petitions for his exclusion were a small part of the storm of malice that assailed him4 ,it would fill a volume to recite or even cite the hundreds of denunciations--often vile and grossly libellous1 and nearly all implying a religious motive--which were poured forth against him week by week4 ,clergymen naturally formed the bulk of the assailants2 and of these the ,state ,church furnished the largest contingent1 all grades of the hierarchy being represented2 but the ,president of the ,wesleyan ,conference1 on behalf of the ,conference ,committee1 presented a hostile petition to ,parliament2 and the secretary to the same ,conference issued a circular calling upon the various ,wesleyan bodies to join in the general movement against the ,atheist4 ,protestants vied with ,catholics in the foulness of their abuse1 the ferocity of their enmity4 ,footnote #ade3 ,the same member tried to raise the question on a vote in supply4 ,on the other hand1 it must be put on record that in every church1 in varying numbers1 there seem to have been lovers of freedom as well as persecutors4 ,some of the most forcible and earnest letters sent to the newspapers on ,bradlaugh's behalf were written by clergymen of the ,church of ,england2 and many ,nonconformist clergymen spoke out on his side ably and warmly4 ,at a ,church ,conference1 more than one priest of the ,establishment defended him bravely and well4 ,even from within the pale of the ,church of ,rome there came voices of protest against the intolerance of the majority4 ,on #bgth ,june #ahhj the ,home ,government ,association of ,glasgow sent to ,bradlaugh a resolution of the majority of its members to the effect that this meeting of ,irish ,roman ,catholics 444 most emphatically condemns the spirit of domination and intolerance arrayed against you1 and views with astonishment and indignation the cowardly acquiescence1 and in a few instances active support1 on the part of a large majority of the ,irish ,home ,rule members to the policy of oppression exercised against you4 ,bradlaugh was peculiarly quick to appreciate such messages of sympathy and fairness from religious opponents4 ,the words of ,bright on his behalf in the ,house brought tears to his eyes2 and he never forgot to be grateful for them4 ,in his own journal1 immediately after his entrance to the ,house on tentative affirmation1 he printed the following appeal3-- ,now that the fierce struggle is over1 and that ,i am really in full enjoyment of the right and privilege which the people of ,northampton gave me on the day of the poll1 ,i beg my friends not to mar this triumph by any undue words of exultation or ungenerous boast4 ,if bitter bigotry and ,tory malice have been active against me personally1 there has been also honest1 earnest piety1 in despite of the foulest and most persistent misrepresentations1 enlisted in the grand array on behalf of right4 ,if some clergymen have been cruel and unjust in language and conduct1 there have also been preachers who have been most generous and kindly4 ,do not let our ,freethinking friends remember so much what we as a party have done towards the result1 as what has been done for us by religious men1 notwithstanding the cry of heresy4 ,if the heart of the great ,nonconformist party had not been brave and just1 the fight1 instead of being so far over1 would yet have to be fought4 ,the speeches of religious men like ,william ,ewart ,gladstone1 ,john ,bright1 ,henry ,richard1 and ,charles ,stewart ,parnell--each representing a varying shade of ,christian belief1 and each a most earnestly religious man--must more than outweigh1 and cause our friends to pass by1 the rabid1 raving1 fanatical outpourings and deliberate misrepresentations which have disfigured the ,parliamentary discussions on this subject4 ,when the reader remembers that the very vilest mis-statements and coarsest caricatures of my language and conduct have been circulated to every member of ,parliament1 444 it makes worthy of the strongest praise the high-minded conduct of those ,nonconformists in the ,house of ,commons who have declared for justice despite all4 ,but no good-feeling on his part or on that of the tolerant religious minority could stay the torrent of libel and vituperation2 and a paragraph penned a month later shows how the majority bore themselves3-- ,many of my good friends have--during the progress of the bye-elections which have taken place at ,oxford1 ,scarborough1 ,berwick1 ,wigton1 and other boroughs--written indignantly as to the exceedingly wanton and coarse personal slanders which1 chiefly for electioneering purposes1 have been circulated against me by the ,conservatives in order to induce votes against supporters of the ,government4 ,it is a little difficult to know how properly to deal with these most indefensible and cowardly attacks4 ,by the law as it stands no action can be maintained for any spoken words unless an indictable offence is charged in the slander1 or unless actual special pecuniary damage can be shown to have resulted1 which latter is of course not in question4444 ,thus1 ,sir ,john ,d4 ,hay--who in the ,wigton election has descended to a lower depth of coarseness and falsehood than any other ,parliamentary candidate#adf--;could not be sued for damages4444 ,the journals may of course be sued2 but even if this is a wise course1 the case is not easy4 ,i am now proceeding against the ,yorkshire ,post for one very gross libel1 and in the proceedings1 which will be very costly1 am actually required to answer voluminous interrogatories1 not only as to all the doctrines ,i have taught and works ,i have published or written during the whole of my life1 but also to works ,i happen to have referred to4444 ,in the indictment against the editor of the ,british ,empire#adg ,i shall probably have to bring a large number of witnesses from various parts of ,england to speak as to what has happened at lectures as far back as #ahfj4 ,the fearful cost in this case 7in which1 being a criminal procedure1 counsel must be employed7 can only be fairly estimated by professional men4444 ,i refrain from commenting on the infamous1 most cowardly1 and utterly uncalled-for attacks made on ,mrs ,besant by ,sir ,john ,hay and the ,glasgow ,news1 as these will in all probability be submitted to another tribunal4 ,footnote #adf3 ,language fit for a ,yahoo1 was the description given of ,hay's scurrility by the ,scotsman4 ,footnote #adg3 ,for publishing the watch libel4 ,some of these proceedings had to be abandoned1 so enormous was the burden4 ,a leading part had been early taken in the outcry against the ,atheist by the leading representative in ,england of the ,church of ,rome1 ,cardinal ,manning4 ,in a highly declamatory and malevolent article contributed to the ,nineteenth ,century1 that ecclesiastic took the line of appealing to the spirit of traditional national religiosity1 grounding his case not on any tolerable form of ,christian doctrine1 but on the ignorant instinct that he knew to underlie the orthodoxy of the ,protestant ,churches1 as of his own4 ,he lauded the ,english people1 regardless of its attitude to his own ,church3-- ,it knows nothing1 he declared1 of a race of sophists who1 professing to know nothing about ,god1 and law1 and right and wrong1 and conscience1 and judgment to come1 are incapable of giving to ,christian or to reasonable men the pledges which bind their moral nature with the obligations necessary for the command of fleets and armies1 and legislatures and commonwealths4 ,of the historic fact that the ,english people had once brutally persecuted the ,quakers1 but had latterly allowed them to dispense with oath-taking1 he disposed by saying that they were allowed to affirm because they were known to be deeply religious1 and therefore trustworthy3-- ,but let no man tell me that this respectful confidence is to be claimed by our ,agnostics2 much less by those1 if such there be1 who1 sinking by the inevitable law of the human mind below the shallowness and timidity of ,agnosticism1 plunge into the great deep of human pride1 where the light of reason goes out1 and the outer darkness hides ,god1 ,his perfection1 and ,his laws4444 ,there still stands on our ,statute book a law which says that to undermine the principles of moral obligation is punishable by forfeiture of all places of trust 7#i and #aj ,will4 c4 #cb1 ,kerr's ,blackstone1 iv4 #cd1 #ce1 note71 but there is no law which says that a man who publicly denies the existence of ,god is a fit and proper person to sit in ,parliament1 or a man who denies the first laws of morals is eligible to make laws for the homes and domestic life of ,england1 ,scotland1 and ,ireland4 ,the whole article was in this strain1 as far removed from political science as from the charity which is conventionally associated with the ,christian name4 ,and though all the while it was notorious that the ignorant and superstitious of the ,cardinal's own ,church are the least to be believed1 whether on oath or without oath1 of all quasi-civilised men1 the rancorous rhetoric of the ,romish priest counted for something with the class of ,protestant bigots who1 hating ,rome1 hate reason so much more as to be ready to work with even ,rome against it4 ,and yet ,manning1 in his work on ,the ,present ,crisis of the ,holy ,see1 had declared that ,england has the melancholy and bad pre-eminence of being the most anti-,catholic1 and therefore the most anti-,christian1 power of the world4 ,thus can fanatics manoeuvre4 ,among other libels1 the ancient fable of the watch1 the story of which has been told in an earlier chapter1 was at this time made to do special duty1 the flight of ,edgcumbe being insufficient to set up hesitation on the subject among the mass of the orthodox4 ,some assailants1 however1 showed much discretion when challenged4 ,thus one ,j4 ,f4 ,duncan1 a ,wesleyan minister of ,nottingham1 who in his pulpit described that man from ,northampton as a blot on the ,british escutcheon1 and as a wretch who gave his ,maker five minutes to strike him dead1 was told that unless he apologised at once1 criminal proceedings would be taken against him4 ,he instantly replied3 ,i am this morning honoured with your communication1 and have to say in reply that ,i know nothing of newspaper reports of my sermons1 but if any remarks of mine have been offensive to you1 you have my retractation and apology at once4 ,a line in the ,reformer tells how ,j4 ,h4 ,martin ,hastings1 a professedly religious person1 having grossly libelled ,mr ,bradlaugh1 now1 under threat of criminal proceedings1 sends us his retractation and sincere apology4 ,some persons1 offered an opportunity for a much-needed apology1 did not avail themselves of it1 the risk of criminal proceedings being absent4 ,the following correspondence sets forth one such case3-- ,to the ,lord ,norton1 ,june #beth1 #ahhj4 ,,my ,,lord1--,in the lobby of the ,house of ,commons this afternoon your lordship said in my hearing1 ',mr ,bradlaugh ought to be flogged in ,trafalgar ,square1' to which ,i at once replied to you that it was ungentlemanly and impertinent to offer me an insult at a moment when ,i could not return it4 ,i now beg to ask your lordship for some explanation1 at the same time informing you that several members of the ,house of ,commons whom ,i have consulted on the subject advise me that your lordship's carefulness in being ill-mannered and insulting three feet outside the ,house of ,commons precludes me from submitting the matter to the ,speaker1 and ,i can therefore only place this letter before the public with such answer as your lordship may be pleased to send me4--,i have the honour to be your lordship's obedient servant1 ,,charles ,,bradlaugh4 #ce ,eaton ,place1 ,june #bfth1 #ahhj4 ,,sir1--,in reference to your letter just received1 the facts are these3 ,i was yesterday in a crowd at the door of the ,house of ,commons1 waiting to get into the gallery for the ,irish ,compensation debate4 ,you came out and passed into the lobby4 ,some one pointed you out to me4 ,the observation was made1 how much trouble one man's desire for notoriety could give4 ,i added that a desire for notoriety might be gratified by a public flogging in ,trafalgar ,square4 ,you seem to have imperfectly overheard the last words on returning to the ,house1 and connected your name with them4 ,i certainly had no idea of suggesting a mode and place of treatment for any particular case4 ,you came up to me and said1 ',you should not insult a man in his presence4' ,i replied that ,i had said nothing to you4--,obediently1 ,,norton4 ,bradlaugh's fingers must have itched to apply to ,lord ,norton's person the chastisement which his lordship had prescribed for him4 ,less well-bred people than his lordship expressed their sentiments to ,bradlaugh by letter1 being denied the opportunity of insulting him in his hearing4 ,in the ,reformer of #abth ,september he writes3-- ,i was sorry that ,mr ,dillon thought it necessary to call the attention of the ,house to the threatening letters which had been sent to him4 ,when ,i was fighting for my seat in the ,house1 ,i received at least threescore letters threatening my life4 ,i put them all in the waste-paper basket1 although one or two of the communications were works of art1 and decorated with skulls1 cross-bones1 bleeding hearts1 and daggers4 ,there is always a fair proportion of lunatics who in times of excitement write strange letters to public men4 ,his laugh over these things was entirely genial4 ,at no period of his struggle1 and on no provocation1 did he ever show a touch of that general embitterment which so many men feel towards society on the strength of an ill-usage either imaginary or trifling in comparison with what he underwent4 ,but the wrongers1 as always1 could not forgive4 ,there was no slackening in the output of ,conservative defamation1 the device of saddling ,bradlaugh's ,atheism on the ,gladstone ,government being too congenial to be abandoned4 ,as ,lord ,henry ,lennox had put it in an inspired but unguarded moment1 it was felt to be good ,tory policy to put that damned ,bradlaugh on them4 ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard 7now ,lord ,halsbury7 publicly and falsely asserted in ,november that before the election the ,liberal whip1 ,mr ,adam1 had written to the ,northampton electors1 asking them to return ,bradlaugh2 going on to add that this step had never been disavowed or disapproved by the ,liberal leaders--an extremity of false witness memorable as coming from a man who was soon to be made ,lord ,chancellor4 ,such a lead was of course zealously followed4 ,and the average upper-class ,liberal1 while reluctantly voting with the ,government in the matter1 indemnified himself by insolence to the man over whom the trouble had arisen4 ,there are always in the ,liberal party men loyal to it as a faction1 while caring little for its principles in themselves1 and bearing small goodwill to those more advanced adherents who give pause to the weaker brethren4 ,this state of mind may account for the gratuitous offensiveness1 though hardly for the inaccuracy1 of one utterance by ,mr ,marjoribanks 7now ,lord ,tweedmouth7 in an address to his constituents at ,duns in ,november #ahhj3-- ,it was in his opinion a great pity that the electors of ,northampton should have elected a man to be their representative whose views1 moral1 religious1 and social1 were such as were ,mr ,bradlaugh's specialty1 and not only his specialty1 but his means of subsisting4 7,applause47 ,it was a pity1 too1 that when ,mr ,bradlaugh had been elected he had not followed the example of far greater men1 such as ,mill and ,hume1 who were to some extent sharers in his beliefs1 or rather his disbeliefs1 but who had quietly gone to the table and taken the oath1 and said no more about it4 ,then1 again1 it was a pity that when ,mr ,bradlaugh claimed to affirm1 he was not at once allowed to do so at his own risk4 ,of one thing1 however1 he was perfectly sure1 and that was1 that the ,house of ,commons was perfectly right in the distinct and peremptory refusal which ,mr ,bradlaugh's demand to take the oath met when it was ultimately made4 ,it is not necessary here to go into ,mr ,marjoribanks' estimate of the relative greatness of ,bradlaugh and ,joseph ,hume1 or of the merits of ,bradlaugh's views4 ,it is not such judgments as his that determine a man's standing with his generation1 or with posterity4 ,the remark as to means of subsisting1 also1 may be left to supply its own commentary4 ,more recently the same speaker has emphasized his objection to some action of some journalists by remarking that it was done for a livelihood2 a judgment which strikes at the whole mass of the ,christian clergy1 and which would seem to imply that a rich man is to be pardoned for saying a false or a base thing where a hireling is to be doubly denounced4 ,a man who has never had occasion to do anything for a livelihood presumably sees such things in a different light from those who lack his pecuniary advantages2 and though a professing ,christian is supposed to hold that the labourer is worthy of his hire1 ,lord ,tweedmouth doubtless remains satisfied with the ethics of his youth4 ,mr ,chamberlain has indicated similar views4 ,suffice it here to point to ,bradlaugh's whole career for the proof of the utter sincerity of his propaganda4 ,but to praise ,mill and ,joseph ,hume for taking an oath on the true faith of a ,christian1 and to blame ,bradlaugh for choosing rather to affirm when he believed an affirmation was open to him1 is to set up an ethic which one would hardly expect any professed ,liberal to avow4 ,as for the distinct and peremptory refusal1 no such thing had taken place4 ,what the ,house had distinctly refused was to allow the affirmation2 and in the division on that point ,mr ,marjoribanks had not voted for ,mr ,labouchere's motion2 whereas he had voted for ,mr ,gladstone's motion referring the oath question to a select committee4 ,when a politician can thus deal with simple historical facts1 his opinion on weightier issues is apt to lose even the significance it would normally have4 ,other ,liberals added their quota4 ,lord ,sherbrooke1 writing in the ,nineteenth ,century1 spoke of the oath which ,mr ,bradlaugh at first refused and afterwards was ready to take4 ,his ,lordship had once spoken of ,disraeli as possessing a slatternly and inaccurate mind4 ,no milder epithets could well be applied to himself in the present case4 ,but for all these endless insults and wanton slanders ,bradlaugh had seldom anything save a restrained and dignified rebuke4 ,when ,mr ,grantham1 ,q4,c41 ,m4,p4 7now ,mr ,justice ,grantham71 spoke of him as gaining his livelihood by the circulation of obscene literature1 he remarked in his journal that there was one homely ,saxon word that would meet the case4 ,he might reasonably have said that there were several1 of varying length4 ,it was noticeable that all of these insults were uttered in ,bradlaugh's absence1 or in periodicals where he was allowed no reply4 ,from the first he had been refused the right of reply in the ,nineteenth ,century4 ,men did not now venture to attack him in the ,house2 but they were bold when among their constituents1 especially in the rural districts4 ,on his own part he was scrupulous to give no just cause for offence4 ,one journalist recklessly represented him as having once obtruded himself on the ceremony of prayers in the ,house1 when in point of fact he had been accidentally shut in1 and had remained motionless where he stood4 ,we have seen how he besought all of his freethinking followers to beware of seeming to presume on the vote in his favour4 ,during the autumn of #ahhj there was much discussion of the question of the ,burials ,bill1 a test which served to show the amount of good-will subsisting between bodies of citizens professing belief in the same ,god and the same sacred books4 ,dissenters were fit to swear and sit in the ,house of ,commons1 but from the ,church point of view were not fit to be buried on their own recognisances1 so to speak1 in the public churchyard4 ,the ,tories in their traditional fashion opposed all concession1 arguing that if dissenters were allowed to hold their own services1 ,atheists and heathens would follow4 ,one ,conservative member1 named ,st ,aubyn1 pictured ,atheists holding indecent orgies over the bodies of the dead4 ,considering that drunkenness at funerals had been a reproach to ,christendom for centuries2 that it was common in ,presbyterian ,scotland within the century2 and that ,irish wakes are still customary1 the suggestion may serve to measure the honour and conscience of the speaker1 who further signalised himself by admitting1 as a lawyer1 that ,bradlaugh had a legal right to sit in the ,house1 while he confessedly opposed his taking his seat4 ,in view of the general state of the ,christian mind1 ,bradlaugh abstained from speaking on the subject in the ,house1 and the ,national ,secular ,society decided to present no petitions in support of the ,bill1 lest they should thereby injure its chances4 ,they had their thanks in a speech from ,mr ,osborne ,morgan1 who asked in ,wales whether it was reasonable to keep four millions of ,nonconformists knocking at the churchyard gate for years because a handful of ,secularists wanted to enter with them8 ,any suggestion1 however indirect and unobtrusive1 that ,secularists were entitled to the rights of other citizens1 was sure in those days to elicit some display of animosity from the majority of those who call their creed a religion of love4 ,upright and scrupulous ,nonconformists there were in the ,house1 such men as ,richards and ,illingworth1 who were faithful to the principle of equal liberty1 and sought to carry it out2 but the feeling that ,secularists were as much of a nuisance dead as alive was the prevailing one4 ,among the ,irish members1 finally1 the full power of the ,catholic priesthood was exerted to the utmost4 ,bradlaugh did the ,home ,rulers careful and continuous service in the ,house1 besides publishing in his journal many articles and paragraphs in support of the ,parnell movement4 ,when the ,chief-,justice of ,ireland made a scandalous exhibition of judicial prejudice in regard to the ,parnell trial before the case was heard1 ,bradlaugh denounced it as an impudent manifesto4 ,at the same time1 nothing would induce him to cater for ,irish or any other support at the expense of truth and fair play1 and he protested against ,irish wrongdoing no less promptly1 though more gently1 than against the wronging of ,ireland4 ,any such display of impartiality served the majority of the ,catholic ,home ,rulers as a political pretext for an antagonism motived either by religion or fear of priestly influence2 and when ,bradlaugh protested against the ,irish tactics of obstruction and scurrility--tactics which he always refused to employ--they deliberately represented him as supporting coercion1 though he not only spoke repeatedly against the ,coercion ,bill and published in his journal a number of articles emphatically condemning it1#adh but actually moved the rejection of the ,bill on the second reading1 when ,parnell had taken flight to avoid arrest4 ,by this time ,parnell had given way to the pressure put upon him by his followers1 by the priests1 and by the ,irish press1 and had joined them in aspersing ,bradlaugh as the enemy of ,ireland4 ,none the less did he continue his ,parliamentary labours in the ,irish as in other causes4 ,a reference to ,hansard shows that in the months ,july-,march #ahhj-a 7in only five of which1 however1 did ,parliament sit7 he was one of the most usefully industrious members in the ,house2 and so much was abundantly admitted by his fellow-members1 including even some opponents4 ,running over the scanty reports of his work1 we find him pleading for ,maories and ,hindus1 urging reform of the ,criminal ,code1 asking the ,house to reject the ,lords' amendments on the ,ground ,game ,bill1 moving for a select committee on perpetual pensions1 challenging ,indian finance1 resisting the prohibition of ,sunday funerals1 calling for returns of national revenue and expenditure1 working hard on the ,employers' ,liability ,bill of #ahhj1 protesting against the plank bed for prisoners1 protesting against the flogging of soldiers1#adi besides putting questions on behalf of aggrieved correspondents everywhere4 ,footnote #adh3 ,the ,national ,reformer of #afth ,january #ahha contains1 besides ,bradlaugh's own protest1 articles by two leading contributors strongly condemning the measure and criticising its defenders1 including ,bright4 ,footnote #adi3 ,see above1 p4 #bja4 ,it was within this period that he came before the public in a new light1 through having been challenged to fight a duel by a wild ,french dput1 ,m4 ,laisant1 who declared in the ,chamber1 #bgth ,december #ahhj1 that he had precise information proving ,bradlaugh to be a ,prussian spy4 ,declining to go through the ceremony of the duel1 ,bradlaugh invited ,m4 ,laisant to lay the matter before a jury of honour of six--three to be ,english ,m4,p4's of whom ,m4 ,laisant should name one1 and three ,french ,deputies of whom ,bradlaugh should name one4 ,the matter1 like the regulation ,french duel1 came to nothing4 ,but ,bradlaugh had a very real fight before him at home4 #h4 ,meanwhile the litigation forced upon ,bradlaugh by the policy of the ,government was proceeding1 heaping up debt and preparing disaster4 ,after some distant skirmishing on points of form1 the action of ,clarke came on in the ,court of ,queen's ,bench on #gth ,march #ahha1 before ,mr ,justice ,mathew 7a ,roman ,catholic7 who1 being newly appointed1 was only that morning sworn in4 ,when the case was called1 the junior counsel for the prosecution applied for an adjournment on the score that his leader1 ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard1 was absent1 and he1 the junior1 did not feel able to argue the case4 ,bradlaugh curtly explained that ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard has on more than one occasion refused to consult my convenience1 and declined to agree to the adjournment4 ,giffard then appeared4 ,stripped of minuti as to demurrers and cross-demurrers1 the arguments were3-- ,for the plaintiff3 ,that the defendant was not in law entitled to make affirmation of allegiance as he had done1 the laws permitting such affirmation having been intended to cover only persons holding religious beliefs--i4e4 beliefs as to a ,deity and a future state4 ,for the defendant3 ,that the ,parliamentary ,oaths ,act of #ahff expressly provided that every person for the time being by law permitted to make a solemn affirmation or declaration instead of taking an oath1 should be entitled to make affirmation in ,parliamentary matters2 that the ,evidence ,amendment ,act of #ahfi enabled any unbeliever to give evidence in any court of justice on the presiding judge being satisfied that an oath would not be binding on his conscience2 that the further amending ,act of #ahgj defined the term judge as covering any persons legally authorised to administer oaths for the taking of evidence2 and that the ,speaker was so authorised4 ,therefore defendant was entitled to affirm allegiance4 ,i contend1 said ,bradlaugh1 that all enabling clauses in statutes must be interpreted liberally1 not restrictively1 in favour of the person claiming the benefit1 and not harshly against him4 ,the one technical weakness of the case was that nowhere had the legislature explicitly said that persons with no religious belief should be free to make affirmation of allegiance2 though to found on this omission would be to assume that the legislature1 while thinking the oath could advantageously 7for that was avowed in the preambles7 be dispensed with in the taking of evidence1 thought it could not be dispensed with in the formality preceding entrance into ,parliament4 ,on that point1 however1 ,mr ,justice ,mathew founded his judgement1 which was delivered on #aath ,march4 ,the ,evidence ,acts1 he decided1 were clearly intended to remove restrictions upon the admissibility of witnesses with a view of promoting the discovery of the truth1 and had no other object4 ,the ,acts of #ahff and #ahfi-gj must not be read together1 because the legislature could not be supposed to have intended them to be so read4 ,to this argument--one of the two mutually exclusive methods of interpretation of law which judges employ at their choice--,mr ,justice ,mathew added a pointed comment on one of the defendant's arguments4 ,bradlaugh1 he said1 had attempted to show that the privilege of sitting in either ,house of ,parliament was analogous to the 'privilege' of giving evidence in a court of justice4 ,on which his lordship absurdly remarked that no one who was free to choose his words and had a preference for accuracy of expression would speak of the discharge of the all-important and anxious duty of a witness as a privilege4 ,it plainly follows on this1 either that the work of a member of ,parliament is not an all-important and anxious duty1 or that it is not a privilege4 ,the first alternative is absurd2 the other quashes the judge's argument4 ,further1 it is the historical fact that ,bradlaugh and other ,freethinkers had regarded the power of giving evidence in court as a privilege1 and had so described it4 ,it may suffice to give these grounds1 for the view of many of us is that the decision was unjust4 ,but neither at this nor at any other time was ,bradlaugh known even in private to question a judge's fairness4 ,his loyalty to the established system of justice was absolute4 ,judgment being given for ,clarke1 ,bradlaugh applied for a stay of execution 7as to the costs71 with a view to an appeal2 and the judge assented4 ,on #adth ,march1 when ,bradlaugh was rising in the ,house to present a petition1 ,mr ,gorst interposed with the objection that his seat was now vacant1 and took occasion to assert that to his knowledge no notice of appeal had been given in the case4 ,a discussion ensued1 in which ,mr ,labouchere read a letter from ,mr ,bradlaugh to him1 telling that he had instructed his solicitor to give the formal notice of appeal1 and would prosecute it without delay1 and offering to vacate his seat1 if thought fit1 to save time4 ,lord ,randolph ,churchill suggested that they had no security that the appeal would be made till nearly the end of the statutory twelve months4 ,the point being dropped1 ,bradlaugh on #bcrd ,march moved the ,court of ,appeal to expedite the hearing4 ,as the appeal was from an interlocutory order1 and not from a final decision1#aej it could be taken promptly1 and on #cjth ,march it was heard before ,lords ,justices ,bramwell1 ,baggallay1 and ,lush4 ,bradlaugh began by arguing that ,clarke was not legally entitled to sue1 the ,act founded on by him having been repealed by another which did not re-enact permission to anybody to sue4 ,going over the other ground afresh1 he argued that the ,act of #ahff made no exclusion of any class of persons whatever2 and that the legislature ought therefore to be held as having desired to enable every class of citizens--an argument much more cogent1 to the lay sense1 than the contrary inference drawn by ,justice ,mathew4 ,the arguments were long and intricate on both sides2 and one of ,bradlaugh's remarks in his closing address shows to what length of speculativeness they sometimes went3 ,the learned counsel said the word 'solemnly' could not mean 'sincerely1' because there was already the word 'sincerely' in the declaration4 ,by the same process of reasoning the word 'sincerely' cannot be construed to mean 'truly' because there is also the word 'truly' in the affirmation4 ,i think it is better to confine ourselves to law1 and not go into philology4 ,towards the close1 on a question as to whether their lordships' judgment was to be judicial or extra-judicial on both points raised1 ,bradlaugh remarked1 ,the ,house of ,commons has been very generous in its treatment of me1 and ,i am anxious to reciprocate that generosity1 adding a hope that their lordships would not think he was pressing his point unduly4 ,if you will allow me to say so1 replied ,lord ,justice ,lush1 you have argued the case with great propriety as well as great force4 ,but the judgment 7delivered on #cast ,march7 was again hostile1 being to the effect that ,clarke was entitled to sue1 and that ,bradlaugh was not entitled to make the ,parliamentary affirmation4 ,the reason given by ,lord ,bramwell1 the presiding judge1 was that the ,parliamentary ,oaths ,act of #ahff would only permit affirmation to persons already entitled1 like the ,quakers1 to make affirmation not on particular occasions but on all occasions when they would otherwise have to take an oath4 ,unbelievers not being thus already entitled 7having only the right to affirm as witnesses71 ,bradlaugh was not entitled to affirm by the ,act of #ahff1 read in connection with others which did not give a complete qualification4 ,that is to say1 as ,i understand him1 ,lord ,bramwell argued that the ,act of #ahff was meant to give the right of affirmation in a particular case to persons who already had it in all possible cases4 ,it sounds sufficiently absurd1 and ,i may have failed to follow the reasoning2 but ,i can arrive at no other interpretation of his words as published4 ,lords ,justices ,baggallay and ,lush concurred4 ,the latter put it that the every other person in the ,act of #ahff must mean every other person in a like position with ,quakers1 that is1 persons having a perfect immunity from taking the oath in all places and on all occasions4 ,therefore ,i feel no doubt whatever that the true construction of this sentence is that ,parliament never intended to allow every person whomsoever when elected to appear before the ,house of ,commons1 and on stating that he had a conscientious objection to the oath1 being permitted to make affirmation4 ,nobody1 as it happened1 had ever said so4 ,but ,lord ,justice ,lush's confident conclusion as to the intentions of ,parliament involves this3 ,that ,parliament1 knowing there were ,atheist members1 deliberately chose to have them take the oath1 rather than let them make affirmation4 ,to this outrageous conclusion all these judges are shut up2 for there is not a word in any of the ,acts about excluding ,atheists2 and if the intentions of the legislature are to be looked for--thus argued ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard in this very case--the language must be clear and unequivocal4 ,so say we all4 ,but the judges expressly inferred exclusive intentions from the mere absence of special detail in the inclusive language4 ,they would not infer friendly intention from friendly language2 but they would infer hostile intention from no language at all4 ,footnote #aej3 ,bradlaugh put the technicalities thus to the ,lord ,chancellor in the ,court of ,appeal on #bgth ,march3--,there are issues of fact untouched by the demurrer1 and there is the first paragraph of the statement of defence1 on which ,i may possibly defeat the plaintiff even should the allowance of the demurrer be maintained4 ,bradlaugh's seat was now vacant in law2 and he at once stood for re-election4 ,all along the great majority of his constituents had stood by him cordially and courageously4 ,a series of crowded public meetings1 some addressed by himself and ,mr ,labouchere1 some by leading local politicians1 protested against the injustice done to member and constituency at each new stage of the process of exclusion1 and now that the constituency was called upon to express its feeling at the polls it effectively responded4 ,a certain number1 of course1 were detached from ,bradlaugh by the storm of obloquy which beat upon him1 and this the more readily because they had accepted the joint candidature with reluctance2 but the great majority stood staunch1 despite desperate efforts to turn them4 ,as ,bradlaugh told at the time1 the constituency was flooded with pamphlets containing not only what ,i have said and what ,i have written1 taken out of its context and distorted1 but containing things ,i have never said and have never written1 and never dreamt of saying or writing4 ,books that ,i have neither written nor published1 but which were supposed to be obnoxious1 have had extracts taken out from their medical parts and circulated1 and the physiological part of the ,knowlton pamphlet1 for which ,i was indicted1 was taken separately and sent by post to each of the electors4 ,the vilest things have been said4 ,some of my foes have been more foul than even ,i had thought possible4 ,the dirty work was largely done by a person named ,varley1 known as a tradesman of ,notting ,hill4 ,further1 a notice was served on the electors assuring them that ,bradlaugh had vacated his seat as if he were dead2 and on the comedy side of the contest the ,conservative candidate1 whose name figured on his bills in the alliteration ,corbett and ,christianity1 fortified his position in his electoral address by the appeal3 ,i am intimately connected with a family in your own county 7that of ,sir ,charles ,isham71 which is well known to you1 and members of which have at former periods had the honour of representing their native county in ,parliament4 ,on the other side1 a considerable amount of goodwill to ,bradlaugh was shown in the ,liberal press4 ,the ,christian ,globe1 declaring unhesitatingly that the member for ,northampton should be allowed to affirm1 if he desires it1 remarked that ,mr ,bradlaugh has his faults1 but he is a man of cleanly1 decent1 orderly life--a man of brains and ability1 and of sterling courage as well4 ,the ,daily ,chronicle testified that he had made a decided and creditable mark in the ,house of ,commons by his ability1 his moderation1 and his general deportment4 ,even the ,times bore witness3--,mr ,bradlaugh has his compensations4 ,it is something to have displayed forensic ability so conspicuous4 ,it is only fair to him to allow that many1 whom the choice of ,northampton naturally did not content1 have been conciliated by ,mr ,bradlaugh's manly and moderate attitude4 ,the more ,radical ,weekly ,dispatch declared that no other new member of this new ,house of ,commons has so much distinguished himself for political integrity and shrewdness1 or given such evidence of statesmanlike qualities4 ,even in the ,house itself1 ,sir ,john ,holker had observed that ,bradlaugh had shown himself a skillful debater1 an eloquent man1 whose voice and tongue had an influence on the debates4 ,more solid than these testimonies were the thousands of subscriptions1 mostly small1 but ranging from twopence to #e1 sent in to meet the election expenses4 ,this help from the workers was the kind of sympathy that always touched ,bradlaugh to the quick4 ,the upshot of the fight 7#ith ,april #ahha7 was that ,bradlaugh received #cdcg votes1 being #cij less than at the general election1 while the ,conservative candidate got #ccje1 being #aec more than the former ,tory vote4 ,some #aej electors had turned round1 while some #bdj nominal ,liberals had abstained--not a very bad result under the circumstances4 ,the narrow majority of #acb1 however1 gave sufficient encouragement to the ,tories in the ,house to stick to their policy of exclusion2 and anger at defeat did the rest4 ,one journal1 whose name it will be charitable to suppress1 deplored that the reluctance to fight a seat against a ,yahoo like ,bradlaugh1 with whom even that association would be pollution1 had prevented the advent of a better ,tory candidate than ,mr ,corbett4 #i4 ,parliament being in recess1 it was only on #bfth ,april that ,bradlaugh was able to present himself once more on the field of battle4 ,sir ,stafford ,northcote1 courteously enough1 as ,bradlaugh acknowledged1 wrote him beforehand1 intimating that he felt himself bound to object as before to the oath-taking4 ,this he did as ,bradlaugh was about to be sworn4 ,the ,speaker confessed that undoubtedly a proceeding so regular and formal as the oath-taking ought under ordinary circumstances to be continued without interruption1 but in view of the former resolution of the ,house he felt bound to allow the intervention4 ,bradlaugh interposed a request that he should be heard before the ,house came to a decision2 but it needed the special interposition of the ,speaker to get him a hearing for the bare request from the shouting ,tories4 ,northcote spoke on the customary lines4 ,bradlaugh had been legally declared unentitled to affirm2 but on the other hand1 it would be profanation for him to take the oath--albeit everybody knew it had been taken by dozens of ,atheists4 ,and the old dishonourable equivoque once more did duty3 it had been clearly shown that ,mr ,bradlaugh did not regard the oath as having any binding effect on his conscience4 ,the mover of the amendment in ,bradlaugh's favour1 ,mr ,davey1 was much interrupted1 as was ,bright when he proceeded to support it4 ,interrupting ,bright was never profitable4 ,his first allusion to religious disability evoked the customary imbecile correction1 irreligious disability4 ,the answer was prompt3-- ,hon4 members say 'irreligious disability4' ,well1 you have objected before to the admission of the ,roman ,catholics4 7',hear1 hear4'7 ,you objected to them because of their religion1 which you deemed to be false--7loud cries of ',no' and ',yes'7--and the religion you deemed to be false you would now seem to consider much better than no religion at all4 ,on the same ground you refused for many years the claims of the ,jews to be admitted to this ,house1 and you have now raised exactly the same question--7',no' and ',hear'7--but in a more offensive form--7',oh' and cheers7--because you aim your shafts at a particular individual1 who cannot be said to represent a class4 ,once more ,bright defended ,bradlaugh from the impudent charge that he had obtruded his opinions on the ,house4 ,his declaration that ,bradlaugh's ground for proposing to affirm was a ground honourable to himself--it was in point of fact a tenderness of conscience1 as ,i should call it1 drew loud laughter from the conscientious gentlemen of the ,opposition4 ,bright pressed his point all the harder3 ,i think it a gross unfairness--it was then and is now--to bring forward the fact that he himself preferred to affirm rather than take the oath1 and then upon that to assume that the oath would not be binding upon his conscience4444 ,he states in the most distinct manner that the words of the oath are binding upon his conscience--binding upon his honour and conscience4 ,if that be so1 you have no right to assume that the oath is not binding upon his conscience4 ,you might as well tell me that the oath is not binding upon my conscience4 ,later in the speech came a shrewd thrust3-- ,if it be permitted to make these assumptions with regard to the hon4 member for ,northampton1 why is it not equally right to make them with regard to other persons--,i will mention no names--in this ,house or outside this ,house1 who either publicly or privately have expressed the same opinions as are assumed to be held by ,mr ,bradlaugh8 ,but nobody proposes to put any questions to them4 7,cries of ',name4'7 ,it is admitted now that if ,mr ,bradlaugh had come to the table and said nothing about the affirmation--,i do not hesitate to say that it is to his credit that he did not take that course--and had offered to take the oath1 no question would have been asked1 but he would have been allowed to take the oath just as other members of the ,house4 ,another reference to ,bradlaugh's conscience brought out the cry1 ,what is its value8 from a ,conservative member1 and ,bright commented mildly enough3-- ,i must express my regret at what ,i must call the almost violent temper with which some hon4 gentlemen come to the consideration of this question4 ,i can feel the greatest charity for a member of this ,house who in my opinion holds views on religious matters which appear to me so extraordinary and so unfortunate4444 ,there has been no member of this ,house who has conducted himself with greater propriety and decorum--7cheers7--and he has brought to our discussions at least an average--perhaps more than an average--ability2 and there is not a single word he has uttered1 not a single act he has committed1 which in the slightest degree ought to bar him from taking his place in this assembly of gentlemen4 7,cheers47 ,i would ask hon4 members to think for a moment whether it is in accordance with that ,christianity which they presume so much to defend that they should now at this time1 after many years1 almost centuries1 of discussion of questions of this nature1 determine to raise up another barrier against the civil freedom which our constituencies believe they enjoy4 ,the use of the quotation3 ,bigotry may swell ,the sail he sets for ,heaven with blasts from ,hell was perhaps the most resented item in the speech2 and ,mr ,gorst1 who followed1 thought it judicious to assert that on his side of the ,house there was no disposition to treat this question in the spirit of intolerance and bigotry which the right hon4 gentleman had done his very best to stir up4444 ,it ought to be treated purely as a question of legality4 ,but in a few minutes ,mr ,gorst arrived at the further conclusion that to say that this was a question for the courts of law was absurd4 ,bradlaugh then made his ,second ,speech at the ,bar4 ,he first reminded ,mr ,gorst1 who had argued from his old answer to the ,committee on the point of the oath1 that that answer was given unwillingly and after objection to its being put4 ,in another preliminary paragraph he remarked3 ,my return is untainted4 ,there is no charge of bribery1 no charge of corruption1 nor of inducing men to come drunken to the polling-booth4 7,hon4 members who had done these things had had no scruple about taking the oath1 nor had the ,house ever shown much resentment at contact with them47 ,mr 7now ,sir7 ,edward ,clarke had during the debate spoken of ,bradlaugh's making an avowal of opinions to the ,house on a former occasion1 and had contended that the dignity of the ,house was now involved4 ,i have never1 said ,bradlaugh1 directly or indirectly1 said one word about my opinions1 and this ,house has no right to inquire what opinions ,i may hold outside its walls4 ,the only right is that which the statute gives you2 my opinions there is no right to inquire into4 ,i shelter myself under the laws of my country4 ,this is a political assembly1 met to decide on the policy of the nation1 and not on the religious opinions of the citizens4 ,he was accordingly meeting the ,conservatives1 as represented by ,mr ,gorst1 on their own ground4 ,on the question of dignity1 raised by ,mr ,clarke1 he asked3 ,do you mean that ,i can injure the dignity of this ,house8 this ,house which has stood unrivalled for centuries8 this ,house1 supreme among the assemblies of the world8 this ,house1 which represents the traditions of liberty8 ,i should not have so libelled you4 ,the most direct thrust in the speech is perhaps the following3-- ,what will you inquire into8 ,the right hon4 baronet would inquire into my opinions4 ,will you inquire into my conduct1 or is it only my opinions you will try here8 ,the hon4 member for ,plymouth ,mr ,e4 ,clarke frankly puts it--opinions4 ,if opinions1 why not conduct8 ,why not examine into members' conduct when they come to the table1 and see if there be no members in whose way you can put a barrier8 7',hear1 hear4'7 ,are members1 whose conduct may be obnoxious1 to vote my exclusion because to them my opinions are obnoxious8 ,here again the tone is not deprecatory3-- ,the right hon4 baronet has said there has been no word of recantation4 ,you have no right to ask me for any recantation4 ,since the #ith ,april you have no right to ask me for anything4 ,if you have a legal disqualification1 petition1 lay it before the judges4 ,when you ask me to make a statement1 you are guilty of impertinence to me1 of treason to the traditions of this ,house1 and of impeachment of the liberties of the people4 ,and the close--it cannot be called a peroration--makes no abatement of emphasis3-- ,i ask you now1 do not plunge me into a struggle ,i would shun4 ,the law gives me no remedy if the ,house decides against me4 ,do not mock at the constituencies4 ,if you place yourselves above the law1 you leave me no course save lawless agitation1 instead of reasonable pleading4 ,it is easy to begin such a strife1 but none knows how it would end4444 ,you think ,i am an obnoxious man1 and that ,i have no one on my side4 ,if that be so1 then the more reason that this ,house1 grand in the strength of its centuries of liberty1 should have now that generosity in dealing with one who to-morrow may be forced into a struggle for public opinion against it4 ,mr ,gladstone followed with a carefully subdued speech1 in which1 however1 he remarked3 ,mr ,bradlaugh is upon his trial before the ,house2 but the ,house also1 permit me to say it with great respect1 is upon its trial1 and he proceeded to cite against the opposition the authority of ,sir ,george ,grey1 who was an ornament of the ,house for fully forty years1 and who has not ceased to take a lively interest in its proceedings4 ,i hold in my hand his written opinion1 expressed in the most decisive terms1 and he has the fullest conviction that the opposition to the taking of the oath by ,mr ,bradlaugh ought not to be permitted by the ,chair4 ,he further bore laudatory witness to ,bradlaugh's behaviour in the ,house3-- ,every man must in common fairness admit that ,mr ,bradlaugh is to be credited with the best and highest motives4 ,he is under a prim facie and presumptive obligation and duty1 having been elected by a constituency to present himself at the table as the only means of fulfilling his duty to them4 ,on the other hand1 ,i need not animadvert upon his conduct4 ,it is generally admitted that his conduct while he sat on those benches was the conduct of a man of great ability1 integrity1 and honour4 ,incidentally1 the ,premier mentioned that the authority of ,sir ,john ,holker was with those who held that the ,house had no right to interfere2 and he put to the ,opposition1 at some length1 the plain logical outcome of their action1 namely1 that they were bound1 in every case in which a member's opinions were known from any source to be irreligious1 to refuse that member the oath4 ,the argument was unanswerable2 but it was not argument that was to be met4 ,after a long debate the ,house divided1 when #bjh members voted for ,northcote's motion1 and only #age against4 ,then came another scene4 ,bradlaugh came to the table and made his old protest3 ,the resolution of the ,house is against the law1 and ,i respectfully refuse to withdraw4 ,the ,speaker1 as before1 asked for instructions4 ,northcote asked ,gladstone to propose something4 ,gladstone left it to the majority to carry out their own vote4 ,northcote1 after lecturing the ,premier for dereliction of duty1 moved that ,mr ,bradlaugh be ordered to withdraw4 ,gladstone warmly demanded to know on what grounds he was lectured4 ,mr ,labouchere interposed with a warning1 and proposed to divide1 but at the request of ,mr ,bright withdrew the motion4 ,the ,speaker again asked ,bradlaugh to withdraw1 and ,bradlaugh again refused4 ,the ,sergeant-at-,arms was then called on to remove him1 and did so in the former fashion1 ,bradlaugh returning from the bar to the table as before1 protesting against physical force1 and asking the ,house not to put me to the indignity of a physical struggle4 ,again the ,speaker threw himself upon the ,house for instructions1 and the ,house called for ,northcote and ,gladstone2 but neither leader responded4 ,a member asked whether ,mr ,bradlaugh had not already been ordered out4 ,the ,speaker helplessly explained that the order only extended to the bar of the ,house and no further1 on which ,bradlaugh moved back to the bar and stood there4 ,northcote rose and feebly protested that he was only prevented from moving that ,mr ,bradlaugh should be committed by the feeling that ,mr ,bradlaugh was encouraged by the ,government in his resistance4 ,gladstone entirely repudiated and repelled the statement1 considered the accusation groundless and wanton1 and called upon his right hon4 antagonist to point to the facts on which he has made so grave a charge to the ,house4 ,northcote suitably replied1 and ,gladstone again repudiated1 intimating that he should not take any steps in this matter until the time came when it appeared to him he could do it with advantage to the ,house4 ,thereupon ,mr ,cowen moved the adjournment of the ,house1 which was eagerly agreed to4 ,only in that fashion was the ,house able for the time to get out of the ignoble dilemma in which it had been landed by a cowardly cabal of bigots and faction-fighters4 ,northcote did not dare again to move ,bradlaugh's committal1 but did not dare to confess it2 and there was nothing to do but run away4 ,next day1 however1 the trouble began afresh4 ,bradlaugh again presented himself1 and was once more removed to the bar1 where he stood as before4 ,mr ,labouchere now asked whether the ,government would give facilities for the ,affirmation ,bill he had introduced last session2 and ,gladstone in his lengthiest manner evolved the answer that it would depend on whether the ,bill was to be opposed4 ,mr ,labouchere and others passed on the appeal to ,northcote as directly as the forms of the ,house permitted2 and ,northcote1 as lengthily as ,gladstone1 made answer to the effect that a measure of the kind would have his careful consideration1 but he could agree to nothing in the nature of a bargain4 ,the truth was1 of course1 that ,northcote could not answer for his more unscrupulous followers1 but dared not admit as much2 so the debate went on in the diffusest ,house-of-,commons manner4 ,after a long speech from ,bright1 ,mr ,hubbard1 losing patience1 and having no judgment to lose1 asked ,what use were the police1 or officers of the ,house1 if they could not protect the ,house from the intrusion of people who had no business there8 ,no answer being vouchsafed from the deaf heavens1 ,mr ,walter pompously explained that in his opinion ,mr ,bradlaugh ought to be allowed to affirm1 but that no unbeliever ought ever to be allowed to take the oath4 ,it was idle to say the ,house had not official cognisance of the fact that the hon4 gentleman belonged to a sect which did not believe in the existence of ,god4 ,another long speech from ,gladstone left the situation unchanged4 ,mr ,newdegate intimated that if neither leader moved the arrest of ,mr ,bradlaugh1 he would1 if necessary1 do it himself4 ,still the debate rolled on4 ,mr ,chaplin admitted that ,bradlaugh while in the ,house had acted with great ability and great moderation1 but then he had openly avowed1 etc41 so they could not stand by1 etc4 ,they commenced their proceedings with prayer1 and invoked the aid of the ,supreme ,being to guide them in their labours4 ,on the obvious efficacy of the appeal1 ,mr ,chaplin did not dwell4 ,a dozen more speakers followed1 some of them--as ,alderman ,fowler and ,mr ,warton--declaring that they would oppose any bill2 while one ,maciver intimated that he intended on ,thursday to ask the ,prime ,minister whether he would introduce a short measure for the partial disfranchisement of ,northampton4 ,at length1 on no assurance from ,northcote1 but simply on a favourable expression of feeling from ,sir ,walter ,barttelot1 ,mr ,labouchere's motion for the adjournment of the ,house1 under cover of which the whole long-drawn discussion had taken place1 was by leave withdrawn2 and ,bradlaugh withdrew to await the action of the ,government4 ,on the #bith ,april ,gladstone did announce the intention of the ,ministry to introduce an ,affirmation ,bill1 whereupon ,lord ,randolph ,churchill announced his intention to oppose it2 and the early stages of the measure were systematically hampered4 ,bradlaugh published in his journal an ,appeal to the ,people1 in which he asked them to speak out clearly1 distinctly1 thoroughly1 and at once on this issue2 and he again held a great town's meeting at ,northampton4 ,after a long and brilliant speech1 ending with the words1 ,in this struggle some one must recede1 some one must bend1 some one must break4 ,this ,i do pledge myself1 that if health do keep1 and life do hold1 ,i will never give way1 there was a loud tempest of applause1 at the close of which he rose again and asked the audience1 ,have you still confidence in me8 and ,will you stand by me in this fight8 ,every hand went up to both questions with fresh storms of cheering1 and ,bradlaugh answered ,then on my honour1 if ,i live1 we will win4 ,the ,house1 however1 did not mend its ways4 ,on #bnd ,may ,gladstone moved that the other ,orders of the ,day be postponed for the ,oaths ,bill1 and ,churchill opened the debate with a vulgar and violent harangue1 which ended with a hope that the ,tories would give no facilities for placing in that ,house brazen ,atheism and rampant disloyalty4 ,several followed suit2 and ,northcote1 seeing his followers leading him as usual1 made one of his flabby speeches in deprecation of anything like speedy action in the matter4 ,the measure must be discussed upon its own merits1 and not with reference to the circumstances and position of any given individual2 and there must be no semblance of hurry for the purpose of avoiding a scandalous scene4 ,in fine1 there should be no alacrity4 ,gladstone extensively assented1 agreeing to allow an interval after the introduction of the ,bill2 but a number of ,tories threw over their leader1 and one ,lewis moved the adjournment of the debate4 ,this failing1 the ,home ,rulers raised a dispute on procedure1 whereafter the ,attorney-,general1 ,sir ,henry ,james1 introduced the ,bill4 ,in the course of his speech ,sir ,henry cited the admission of ,northcote to the effect that he did not object to ,bradlaugh sitting in the ,house1 but to his taking the oath4 ,the unhappy ,northcote1 pressed on all sides1 made the pitiful explanation that when he said so he only wanted to raise the point of the oath2 but he did not now wish to be understood as having no objection to ,bradlaugh's presence in the ,house4 ,adjourned till ,friday the #fth ,may1 the debate was then proposed to be postponed till the #ajth1 whereupon ,mr ,a4 ,j4 ,balfour--who now for the first time interposed in the controversy within the ,house--objected to the ,government's course as being taken not to give relief to any large class of ,her ,majesty's subjects1 but to deal with an individual4 ,sir ,richard ,cross1 who was reminded that he had admitted there was no way out of the difficulty save by legislation1 granted that he was of that opinion1 but avowed that he would all the same oppose any attempt to give facilities for ,bradlaugh's admission4 ,on a division on the amendment the ,government had only a majority of #f votes--#abh to #abb4 ,on their motion being put substantively1 a new discussion arose1 the ,tories moving the adjournment of the debate4 ,bright made an impressive speech1 in which he ventured to say that if the ,bill were passed there were scores of members who would prefer to make an affirmation1 but obstructive speaking went on1 ,mr ,t4 ,p4 ,o',connor1 among others1 ridiculing ,bright's speech1 and charging him with having insulted the religious feeling of the ,irish people earlier in the evening4 ,after hours of time had been spent1 the ,government1 at three o'clock in the morning1 agreed to the adjournment2 but on ,tuesday morning1 when the question was raised after one ,a4,m41 the obstruction was continued on precisely the same lines1 and the ministry gave up their plan of a morning 7i4e4 afternoon7 sitting4 ,lord ,henry ,lennox's principle of putting that damned ,bradlaugh on them was now felt by his party to be an inspiration worthy of the common cause4 ,bradlaugh's admission stood indefinitely adjourned1 so far as the ,government were concerned4 ,but they had still to reckon with ,bradlaugh himself4 ,giving due notice1 he presented himself at the ,house next day1 and the now customary scene was enacted4 ,the ,speaker made his usual appeal1 and ,sir ,stafford ,northcote moved that the ,sergeant-at-,arms do remove ,mr ,bradlaugh from the ,house until he shall engage not to further disturb the proceedings of the ,house4 ,on challenge1 he explained that by this he meant that ,bradlaugh should not come within the door kept by the doorkeepers4 ,to this motion ,gladstone agreed1 asking his followers to do likewise4 ,it relieved the ,government1 as the journals noted at the time1 of the necessity for pushing on the ,parliamentary ,oaths ,bill4 ,bradlaugh for his part decided not to renew his attempt until the ,irish ,land ,bill had got through the ,house4 ,so much consideration he thought the ,government were entitled to1 and no amount of injustice from ,irishmen could induce him to put in jeopardy a measure of justice to ,ireland4 ,on this decision he promised the ,sergeant-at-,arms not to attempt any forcible entry of the ,house without giving him full notice4 #aj4 ,meanwhile the battle of opinion went on outside the ,house4 ,it was noticed at the time1 as a significant fact1 that in the newspaper war on the subject nearly every attack on ,bradlaugh was anonymous1 or signed with initials1 while nearly every defence of him was signed4 ,his friends fought for him with his own spirit4 ,a ,league for the ,defence of ,constitutional ,rights was founded in his support2 and an anti-,atheistic ,committee was formed on the other side1 with an office in the ,strand1 and with the name of ,sir ,bartle ,frere figuring in its propaganda4 ,on this ,bradlaugh struck out as he seldom did4 ,at least very shame1 he said1 should have made ,sir ,bartle ,frere hesitate before he paraded his blood-and-shame-stained name in a crusade against me4 ,the anti ,committee held a ticket meeting in ,exeter ,hall1 at which a ,secularist who had a platform ticket learned from a member of the ,committee1 a magistrate1 that the ,committee had engaged for the evening six prize-fighters1 with instructions to stop the mouths of ,mr ,bradlaugh's friends with their fists4 ,the meeting was presided over by ,earl ,percy1 and among the speakers was the ,varley before mentioned4 ,bradlaugh's friends filled the street outside and carried counter resolutions4 ,indoors the promoters had the services of the police in tearing up the tickets of any comers who were pointed out to them as ,freethinkers1 and in ejecting the presenters2 while disorder was created by the further ejection from the platform of a number of ,freethinkers who had gone thither with proper tickets4#aea ,no less than two hundred policemen had been supplied by the ,home ,office4 ,after this naturally there was some disturbance4 ,according to ,canon ,taylor1 one of the speakers1 for an hour and a half it was scarcely possible for the different speakers to get a hearing1 except a few sentences at a time2 and when ',god save the ,queen' was sung the ,atheists in every possible way showed their disloyalty4 ,the resolution of the promoters was declared carried2 but the ,rev4 ,canon was alarmed to see such a large minority1 extending from beneath the platform to the other end of that large hall1 composed of men and1 he was grieved to say1 women4 7,the boys present1 it may be inferred1 belonged to the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association47 ,and this alarmingly large minority1 when the contrary vote was taken1 rose with the greatest possible manifestations of dissent1 and with the waving of handkerchiefs4 ,quite a number of similar meetings in the provinces failed more or less badly4 ,on the other hand1 ,bradlaugh in person held crowded meetings1 free to all1 in many towns1 getting an ovation everywhere1 in addition to which scores of resolutions and petitions in his favour were sent to the ,house by ,liberal and ,radical clubs4 ,a mass meeting held at ,st ,james's ,hall under the auspices of the ,constitutional ,rights ,league1 finally1 was packed to the door4 ,among the speakers were three clergymen1 one belonging to the ,church of ,england1 ,admiral ,maxse1 and ,mr ,labouchere2 and no dissentient vote was given on the resolutions in ,bradlaugh's favour4 ,one of the ,nonconformist ministers who spoke1 the ,rev4 ,mr ,sharman1 told how ,plymouth ,liberals had sent to ,northcote the telegram3 ,we protest against your effort to deprive ,northampton of one-half of its representation as being revolution in the name of ,conservatism and robbery in the name of religion4 ,the ,rev4 ,stewart ,headlam said of ,bradlaugh3-- ,footnote #aea3 ,in the ,house of ,commons on #gth ,february #ahhb ,earl ,percy asserted that ,bradlaugh's friends had fabricated tickets for the meeting4 ,the statement was absolutely false4 ,i know the great work he has done in the east of ,london for the moral condition of the people4 ,i know how he has got hold of hundreds of people whom we clergy have been utterly unable to reach2 and 444 ,i am certain that the work he has done in the east of ,london has been of the greatest moral use for the elevation of the people4 ,bradlaugh1 on his own part1 paid one of his many tributes to ,gladstone4 ,of this meeting no report appeared in the leading ,liberal paper1 the ,daily ,news1 then understood to be mainly owned by ,mr ,samuel ,morley1 before mentioned4 ,this was unhappily not the only instance of a ,liberal journal perverted by private motives to the side of bigotry in ,bradlaugh's case4 ,mr ,joseph ,cowen1 ,m4,p41 owner of the ,newcastle ,daily ,chronicle1 who had long been on friendly terms with him1 and who had volunteered the expression of approval of ,bradlaugh's action when he was imprisoned in the ,clock ,tower1 now took the line of charging him with inconsistency in proposing to take the oath1 though it was for trying to take the oath in the previous session that he had been imprisoned4 ,and ,mr ,john ,morley1 then editing the ,pall ,mall ,gazette1 not only gave prominence in that journal to utterances hostile to ,bradlaugh1 such as that of ,mr ,holyoake1 but suppressed letters in his favour1 even when sent by a literary man of good standing like ,mr ,moncure ,conway4 ,mr ,morley1 while of course condemning the ,tory tactics1 now blamed ,bradlaugh for proposing to take the oath at all1 though he had before spoken of him as parading his views1 and though1 when he previously accused him of first declining the oath and then asking to take it1 he had not condemned oath-taking by an unbeliever4 ,bradlaugh pointed out that voluntary abstention from taking the oath would have made his seat void in law1 to which the ,gazette editorially answered by expressing its confidence that if ,bradlangh had simply refused to take the oath1 the ,house would not have dreamt of unseating him on that score4 ,on the strength of that conviction the ,gazette editor wrote3#aeb-- ,footnote #aeb3 ,april #bg1 #ahha4 ,we have not concealed our opinion that ,mr ,bradlaugh would have consulted his own dignity by refusing to take the oath1 and fighting out an issue which could only have one end4 ,and again3#aec ,the national belief in the existence of a ,deity will not be lessened by the fact that ,mr ,bradlaugh and men like him are no longer called upon to use a form which in their lips is an indecent piece of mockery4 ,footnote #aec3 ,may #f1 #ahha4 ,when later elected himself1 ,mr ,morley made no attempt to act on the rule he had thus laid down or caused to be laid down for another man4 ,it is a curious and a melancholy illustration of the instability of human character that while ,mr ,morley was partly playing into the hands of the spirit of injustice1 ,mr ,goldwin ,smith1 who now wears its livery1 was emphatic on the other side4 ,he thus wrote in his ,toronto journal1 the ,bystander1 in ,april #ahha3-- ,to the shame of ,british civilisation and religion1 the attack upon ,mr ,bradlaugh and upon the civil rights of his constituents goes on1 and has been technically successful in a court of law4 ,the ringleaders are scamps1 putting forward religion as a pretext for political persecution4 ,it is ,sandwich over again denouncing ,wilkes for impiety4 ,set a coronet on ,mr ,bradlaugh's head1 give him a large fortune1 make him a ,tory in politics1 and though he were the most offensive of ,atheists1 and the most profligate of debauchees to boot1 he would have these crusaders at his feet4444 ,if ,parliament allows a fine to be levied on ,mr ,bradlaugh for taking the seat to which he had been duly elected it will undergo a far greater disgrace than any that can be inflicted upon it by obstruction4 ,doubtless ,mr ,goldwin ,smith1 writing in ,canada1 did not feel the burden which weighed on ,liberal respectability at home1 the more so as he had never professed himself a rationalist4 #aa4 ,the lawsuit raised by ,clarke on behalf of ,mr ,newdegate still went on its difficult way1 ,bradlaugh fighting it inch by inch and point by point4 ,on #bnd ,may #ahha he argued before the ,lords ,justices of ,appeal a point on which he had previously been stopped1 and on which no judgment had been given4 ,this was as to the validity of the replication1 in which ,bradlaugh argued that1 as he had actually made affirmation1 he could not properly be sued 7as he had been7 for sitting and voting without taking the oath4 ,the judges ruled that as he was not in their opinion entitled to affirm1 the fact of his affirming was not a valid answer4 ,defeated here1 ,bradlaugh decided next to endeavour to overthrow the action on what he described as a pure technicality1 the argument that1 as the writ was dated #bnd ,july #ahhj1 and the vote sued on had been given on that day1 the action had been brought too early1 for that the writ must be held to have been tested at the earliest possible moment of the #bnd of ,july1 and therefore prior to the sitting and voting for which the penalty is claimed4 ,this point was raised on #afth and #agth ,may before ,lord ,chief ,justice ,coleridge and ,mr ,bowen1 on ,clarke's counsel moving for judgment1 and ,bradlaugh advanced a long and learned argument on the point4 ,judgment was delayed1 and the legal point was tried on #bjth and #bast ,june1 before ,justice ,denman and ,watkin ,williams1 on the plaintiff's amended statement1 ,bradlaugh demurring4 ,his demurrer was overruled1 ,justice ,denman admitting that the point raised was true as a general rule of law1 but not applicable to this case2 and his lordship gave this singular reason3 ,for a legal fiction is for the purpose of doing justice1 not for defeating it4 ,it was not suggested that justice was being done in the case in hand2 but if ,bradlaugh's argument were to hold good1 it might be defeated in somebody else's case4 ,no rule of law1 said ,justice ,watkin ,williams concurring1 compels us so to violate common sense and plain understanding1 another decision worth remembering in the present connection4 ,bradlaugh drily wrote in his journal3 ,i think the decision of ,justices ,denman and ,watkin ,williams is in accordance with common sense1 but ,i do not think it is consonant with common law4 ,he added3 ,i shall1 of course1 appeal against the decision4 ,the next step will probably be the trial at ,nisi ,prius--that was1 the trial of the matter of fact as to the exact hour of issuing the writ1 which had still to be proved by oral evidence before a jury4 ,that trial took place before ,mr ,justice ,grove and a special jury1 in the ,queen's ,bench ,division1 on #aith1 #bjth1 and #bbnd ,july2 and the cross-examination of witnesses by ,bradlaugh elicited1 for one thing1 that ,newdegate was the financial backer of ,clarke's action1 and1 for the rest1 that the evidence of ,newdegate and his principal witnesses on the question of the time of issue of the writ was rather worse than worthless4 ,newdegate had a very bad time of it in the witness-box1 and the verbatim report of his cross-examination#aed may be recommended to legal students as illustrating the value of the testimony of an ,english gentleman and magistrate who believes devoutly in ,god1 and holds that no unbeliever can be believed4 ,a worse appearance has seldom been made in the witness-box by a man of standing2 and in the case in question it was only surpassed in importance by the exhibition made by ,newdegate's principal legal witness--a gentleman who was proved to have expressed his surprise that another legal gentleman should consent to give evidence for a man like ,bradlaugh4 ,the whole report is a singularly dramatic comment on the proposition that oaths secure truthful evidence4 ,probably no competent and unbiassed person who now reads it will have any difficulty in concluding that the writ had actually been taken out at least an hour before ,bradlaugh had given the vote on which it proceeded1 and that at least three witnesses swore to falsehoods4 ,bradlaugh categorically asserted in ,court that ,newdegate had lied2 and ,newdegate's evidence was hardly the worst4 ,footnote #aed3 ,given in a special number of the ,national ,reformer4 ,the facts of the case may now be historically stated with tolerable confidence4 ,newdegate had been afraid that a friendly action would be brought against ,bradlaugh1 in which case ,bradlaugh would not have to meet the #ejj penalty4 ,newdegate desired that ,bradlaugh should be mulcted2 and he had actually been indecent enough to block the ,bill of ,indemnity introduced on ,bradlaugh's behalf by ,mr ,labouchere4 ,nay more1 in opposing the motion that ,bradlaugh be permitted to sit on affirmation1 he had argued that it was beneath the dignity of the ,house to lay a trap for a man and leave him to be caught in it by any one who cared to prosecute4 ,yet after saying this1 he gave a bond of indemnity to ,clarke1 the common informer1 for suing ,bradlaugh2 and he had apparently selected ,clarke--a nondescript person1 sometimes called a surveyor1 sometimes an accountant1 but professionally neither--because1 having little or no means1 he could not be made to pay costs in case of ,bradlaugh winning the action4#aee ,such a litigant would not stick at trifles4 ,in concert with his legal advisers1 ,newdegate1 to forestall the friendly action1 had the writ ready for serving before ,bradlaugh had voted4 ,this1 at least1 seems to be pretty clearly revealed by the extraordinary prevarications of ,newdegate and his witnesses4 ,footnote #aee3 ,formally1 ,newdegate was bound to pay ,bradlaugh's costs if ,bradlaugh won1 but had the fact of the maintenance never come out1 it would have been an easy matter for ,clarke to become bankrupt1 and leave ,bradlaugh no redress1 while he himself could be privately reimbursed by ,newdegate4 ,the case ended oddly4 ,the jury1 after being locked up for nearly an hour1 intimated that they were not likely to agree2 and the judge asked whether a majority verdict would be accepted4 ,bradlaugh offered to do so1 but ,newdegate's counsel declined4 ,after nearly an hour more1 however1 the jury agreed on their verdict2 and it was for the plaintiff1 ,clarke4 ,it was understood that they had agreed to give their verdict by majority4 ,bradlaugh tersely remarked in his journal3 ,the ultimate verdict a little disappointed me3 ,i had thought that ,i had won4 ,certainly the judge's summing-up had seemed to be in his favour4 ,as usual1 he appealed4 ,like ,ben ,bolt in the novel1 he was bad to beat4 ,he appealed for a new trial1 on the ground that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence4 ,but that was not all4 ,newdegate1 having confessed giving a bond of indemnity to ,clarke1 had laid himself open to a return action1 under a form of law1 for the offence of maintenance2 so on #bgth ,july ,bradlaugh accompanied ,mr 7now ,sir7 ,george ,lewis1 the famous solicitor1 to ,bow ,street ,police ,court1 where ,mr ,lewis moved for a summons against ,newdegate1 and another against his solicitor as accessory4 ,the magistrate1 ,mr ,flowers1 was somewhat taken aback4 ,is it not rather---- he began4 ,yes1 said ,mr ,lewis promptly2 and so is the action against ,mr ,bradlaugh4 ,mr ,newdegate asks for strict law against ,mr ,bradlaugh1 who now asks in return that strict law may also be enforced against ,mr ,newdegate4 ,the summonses were granted4 ,next day1 #bhth ,july1 and on #ast ,august1 ,bradlaugh argued before ,justices ,grove and ,lindley his motion for a new trial on the question of time in the ,clarke case4 ,finally 7#hth ,august71 after a request from the ,court for affidavits had been followed by an extremely improper step on the part of ,newdegate's solicitor1 who actually sent some affidavits privately to ,mr ,justice ,grove's house1 the ,judges gave a rule nisi for a new trial on the ground urged4 ,this rule could not be argued till ,november1 and if it were then made absolute the new trial could not take place till after ,christmas1 so that ,newdegate was once more intercepted4 ,the criminal summonses1 on the other hand1 did not come on till #bjth ,september1 for reasons which will appear in the next section1 and when heard were dismissed by the magistrate1 ,mr ,vaughan4 ,he was of opinion that complainant had not shown that the maintenance of which he complained came within the meaning of the statute4 ,though the statutes of ,richard ,,ii4 and ,henry ,,viii4 did undoubtedly refer to crimes and imprisonment for maintenance1 still it was most singular that no indictment could be found for violation of these statutes4 ,it seemed to him that the proceeding was an obsolete one1 and that the criminal law ought not to have been invoked for a purpose of this description1 when it was open to ,mr ,bradlaugh 444 to apply to the common law courts4444 ,old statutes had been searched out in order that proceedings--which he could not help thinking had been taken to gratify a very unfriendly feeling on ,mr ,bradlaugh's part--might be instituted in the hope that ,mr ,newdegate would be committed for trial4 ,the licence of general criticism taken by our magistrates has seldom been more strikingly exemplified2 and no one but a prejudiced magistrate1 probably1 would have had the assurance to condemn a litigant for unfriendly feeling towards a declared enemy who had wantonly and zealously sought to ruin him4#aef ,the deliberate setting aside of the statutes as obsolete1 too1 while a civil action was admitted to lie1 was an act of lenity to ,mr ,newdegate1 contrasting favourably with the attitude of other judges towards ,bradlaugh4 ,but the fact that a civil action remained open was sufficient for ,bradlaugh's purposes2 and already ,newdegate had begun to repent somewhat of his zeal4 ,his costs were accumulating1 and still the hoped-for prey was out of his reach4 ,a circular was accordingly issued on his behalf by ,captain ,bedford ,pim1 who felt strongly that ,mr ,newdegate1 ,m4,p41 should not be allowed to suffer for his spirited and patriotic action against ,atheism1 and that some steps should be taken to bear him harmless in the struggle upon which he has so nobly entered4 ,footnote #aef3 ,mr ,vaughan had twice previously given decisions against ,bradlaugh1 and both had been upset on appeal4 #ab ,in the interval between the issuing and the hearing of the summonses for maintenance1 something more serious had occurred4 ,when the ,government had in ,may decided to postpone their ,oaths ,bill1 ,bradlaugh1 while acquiescing perforce in the delay1 had renewed his platform agitation with redoubled energy1 preparatory to forcing a fresh contest on the ,house if need were4 ,the situation grew worse instead of better4 ,between #bjth ,june and #dth ,july he had had a formal correspondence with ,mr ,gladstone on the subject4 ,you are aware1 wrote ,mr ,gladstone1 declining the request for an interview1 to how considerable an extent ,liberal and public interests have been brought into prejudice by untrue suppositions as to communication between you and the ,government4 ,bradlaugh answered by a detailed statement of his action1 which had been guided by a desire to avoid embarrassing the ,ministry2 and ,gladstone in reply acknowledged this2 but later 7#bhth ,june7 intimated that they proposed to try to close the ,session early in ,august1 and they could not hope to carry any strongly controversial measure after the ,land ,bill4 ,this intimation was made definite in a letter of #bnd ,july1 and ,bradlaugh was once more left to his own devices4 ,he chose his course at once4 ,first he addressed to the ,speaker1 under date #dth ,july1 a formal letter1 setting forth his contention as to the illegality of the ,house's action on #ajth ,may4 ,he was advised1 among other things1 that the excluding order of that date did not authorise the ,sergeant-at-,arms to use force1 and that the use of force to prevent his re-entry would be illegal4 ,i beg therefore1 sir1 he went on1 most respectfully to give notice that ,i claim to disregard the order of the ,house1 444 and to treat the same as not requiring obedience from me1 on the ground that such order is absolutely illegal4444 ,in the name of the law1 sir1 and of my constituents1 ,i also most respectfully give notice that ,i shall1 in the manner and at the time provided by the standing orders of the ,house1 again present myself at the table of the ,house1 to complete the fulfilment of the duty imposed on me by law4 ,on this declaration he set about acting4 ,he had had no encouragement whatever to hope for justice save under pressure4 ,northcote1 who had no moral motive for his action1 was open to no moral appeal4 ,to him ,bradlaugh addressed a public letter 7#ast ,july #ahha71 which to-day needs neither adding to nor taking from4 ,after a recital of the facts1 it ran3-- ,at first1 though ,i disagreed with you1 ,i thought you honest1 for you had the repute of an honourable man1 and you said that it was not from any desire to prevent my taking my seat1 but from a desire to prevent the profanation of the oath1 that you were prompted to act as you did4 ,you had been present in the ,house when ,john ,stuart ,mill took the oath1 and you raised no objection4 ,you have been present in the ,house when other members1 whose heresy is matter of common repute1 took the oath1 and you have rested silent4 ,yet ,i counted you a fair ,english gentleman1 and ,i believed your word in any case4 ,but now1 from your speeches outside the ,house1 ,i find that you claim to hinder me from sitting in ,parliament1 whether by complying with the law as it now stands1 or by means of any change which may be proposed to meet your objection4 ,at ,manchester you justified your action on the ground that there was a general feeling in the country against me personally#aeg--;a dangerous argument1 even if it were well vouched4 ,but how is this feeling to be tested8 ,nearly all the meetings called against me have been lamentable failures1 despite the most ridiculous precautions4 ,almost every meeting called in my favour1 and this whether or not ,i have been personally present1 has been an enthusiastic success4 ,footnote #aeg3 ,the essential unveracity of ,northcote's political character is shown by the fact that after thus using the numbers argument against ,bradlaugh1 he himself solemnly denounced the principle4 ,speaking at ,edinburgh in #ahhd 7see ,mr ,lang's ,life1 ii4 #bah7 he said3 ,i am afraid that the ,government will take far too much to the numerical principle1 and if you take to the principle of mere numbers1 depend upon it you will be introducing the most dangerous change into the ,constitution4 ,exactly what ,bradlaugh had said to him4 ,and yet the very vilest means have been resorted to to damage me in the public mind4 ,in your presence at ,manchester1 and without one word of rebuke from you1 one distinguished and noble member of your party repeated against me some of the utter falsehoods of the ,varley pamphlet1 although ,i had given you in writing my distinct assurance of the untruthfulness of much of that pamphlet4444 ,to make a show against me1 petitions have been sent round the country to hundreds of ,sunday ,schools1 and little children by the score have been compelled to affix their signatures4 ,two petitions presented by yourself from ,glasgow and ,york contain hundreds of signatures of lads and girls under twelve years of age4 ,orange ,lodges1 ,roman ,catholic organisations1 and the machinery of the ,english ,church ,associations have been utilised to procure signatures4 ,northcote replied3-- ,i cannot admit that there is any foundation for the charge of illegality which you make against the ,house of ,commons4 ,but ,i must decline to enter into controversy with you upon the general subject of your case4 ,i can only say that ,i have acted from a sense of public duty1 and from no personal motives2 and that ,i see no reason for doubting the propriety of the course which ,i have pursued4 ,but even those ,liberal members who had voted on his side were for the most part quietly acquiescent in the injustice done1 regarding a wrong to one unpopular man as a small matter4 ,the only member who persistently protested was ,mr ,labouchere1 for whose courage and constancy throughout the whole struggle no words of praise could be too high4 ,in the circumstances there was nothing for it but to rouse the country1 and this ,bradlaugh did as only he could4 ,it is difficult now to realise the enormous amount of energy he had to spend4 ,while his cases were pending in the higher courts1 he was doing three men's work outside4 ,thus in the week #ahth to #bdth ,july we find him spending three days fighting his case in the hot and crowded ,court2 holding three night meetings in ,london2 attending a ,freethinker's funeral 7where the sight of the grief of the widow and children made him quite break down72 speaking at a great demonstration of miners in the north2 giving three lectures in ,south ,shields2 and holding a huge gathering in the ,free ,trade ,hall in ,manchester4 ,he knew he was drawing terribly on a constitution which1 though of a giant's strength1 had for many years been doing giant's work2 but he never flinched in a battle while he had any strength left4 ,his plan was to evoke a clear expression of feeling on behalf of his claim in all the large towns1 to hold a mass meeting in ,trafalgar ,square1 and then again to present himself at the ,house2 and if the ,house had been capable of looking at the issue half as reasonably as the constituencies did1 it would have been promptly settled4 ,wherever ,bradlaugh went1 he got unanimous votes in his favour4 ,at one stage he reckoned that out of a series of audiences amounting in numbers to #ge1jjj1 only two hands had been held up against his claim4 ,it was wonderful to see how he swayed audiences against their own prejudices4 ,he must have been listened to by thousands of men who disliked him and his opinions equally2 but they simply could not resist the appeal for a just judgment4 ,i well remember how1 when he spoke in ,edinburgh in #ahha1 he extorted a vote from a general audience there4 ,the body of the hall was filled with middle-class citizens1 few of whom had any sympathy with his propaganda1 and many of whom must have strongly resented his notoriety2 in the gallery were a number of ,tory students1 with the manners of their kind2 and post-cards had been freely circulated with a view to an organised opposition4 ,at the outset the students did their best1 but ,bradlaugh's voice rose easily above their din2 a quick repartee or two to their interruptions turned the laugh against them1 and soon he was quietly listened to4#aeh ,at the close he made the usual call for a show of hands on his claim4 ,as one of the promoters of the meeting1 ,i was interested in watching the manner of the response2 and ,i can still see the respectable church-going shopkeepers slowly and as it were compulsorily raising their right hands at the call of the ,atheist and ,republican4 ,only some dozen1 as far as ,i remember1 voted on the contrary4 ,this was in an audience mainly unsympathetic4 ,at ,trafalgar ,square1 of course1 he was in a dense army of enthusiastic supporters1 including many delegates from provincial towns4 ,the ,dublin ,freeman then1 owned by ,mr ,e4 ,d4 ,gray1 and the organ of ,mr ,parnell's party1 intimated beforehand that no large assembly can take place within a mile of ,westminster ,palace and the police will very summarily dispose of ,mr ,bradlaugh's ragged followers4 ,the police made no such attempt2 and it was well they did not1 for the followers were neither ragged nor timorous1 and their blood was not just then very cool4 ,footnote #aeh3 ,in this particular speech he used the phrase that grand old man of ,gladstone4 ,it was probably he who set the fashion4 ,this was on #bnd ,august2 it was on the next day that ,bradlaugh again presented himself at the ,house2 and then occurred the crowning episode in the struggle--crowning alike in point of the dastardliness of the tactic employed against him and the desperation to which it momentarily moved him4 ,his unanswerable contention was that the ,house was bound to do something to settle the case4 ,it ought either to declare his seat vacant or take some course to permit of his sitting4 ,to keep an elected member out of his seat without disputing the validity of his election was a course which only a majority of professed lawbreakers could consistently take2 and the resolution excluding him from the ,house was merely a puerile evasion by the majority of the legislative problem they had raised4 ,when1 however1 ,bradlaugh presented himself afresh1 that puerile policy was adhered to1 only in a fashion that developed puerility into brutality4 ,the ,liberal ,government acquiescing in the vote of the majority1 the matter was left to the police1 who treated it as a police question1 some of them behaving with that exuberance of insolence and ruffianism which they so often and so naturally bring to their task4 ,their way of seizing him angered him in a way in which he had never been angered before4 ,a few extracts from the newspaper accounts of the time will suffice to tell what happened3-- ,mr ,bradlaugh1 after having waited till the ,speaker had taken the chair1 claimed admission to the ,house4 ,he was in the first place opposed by the regular officials4 ',i am here1' he said1 'in accordance with the orders of my constituents1 the electors of ,northampton2 and any person who lays hands on me will do so at his peril6' ,attempting to enter the ,house1 he was seized by the messengers1 but their resistance being insufficient to overcome the force they roused him to use1 the police were called upon4 ,it was said by ,inspector ,denning that four ordinary men certainly could not have expelled ,mr ,bradlaugh1 and that the ten constables1 all remarkable for strength and activity1 who were engaged in forcing him down the lobby stairs1 found their task far more arduous than they had expected4 ,they had him by the throat1 arms1 and collar1 and he had some of them in the same hold4 ,the strong1 broad1 heavy1 powerful frame was hard to move1 with its every nerve and muscle strained to resist4444 ,the sight1 little of it as was seen from the outside1 soon became sickening4444 ,an almost deathlike pallor had spread over ,mr ,bradlaugh's sternly-set features2 he was gasping for breath1 his body was bent1 and he was in a state of exhaustion painful to see4 ,his black frockcoat was much torn1 his collar and shirt disarranged1 and he himself in a condition of intense mental excitement and bodily prostration4444 ,the ,trafalgar ,square phrase that this man might be broken but not bent occurred to minds apprehensive at the present appearance of him4444 ,his face was deathly white1 and there was about the mouth an expression of determination1 which those who witnessed it cannot readily forget4 ,overborne by the desperate struggle1 he fainted1 but soon recovered when water was brought to him4 ,when ,bradlaugh appeared at the door in the grasp of the police there was a cry of wrath from the assembled crowd1 which told of a source of force that might conceivably be tapped4 ,at another door ,mrs ,besant stood1 at the head of a mass of followers1 who1 hearing vaguely of what was happening1 were urgent in their demand to be let take the law in their own hands4 ,a word from her1 a word from him1 would have sent the multitude headlong into the ,house4 ,they were not a chance ,london mob3 they included thousands of staunch working men from all parts of the country1 who had attended the demonstration the day before4 ,they were wroth with the callous iniquity that had been and was being worked by the majority inside4 ,and ,bradlaugh1 standing bruised and shaken and insulted on the steps1 hardly able to breathe1 but with the fury of physical struggle still upon him1 had a supreme temptation4 ,in his first anger1 alluding to the brute force used against him1 he had said to ,inspector ,denning1 ,i shall come again with force enough to overcome it2 but he did not carry out his threat1 though he might have done it on the instant4 ,had he but lifted his hand to beckon1 the ten policemen would have been tossed aside like chaff by the host of his infuriated friends2 the ,house could have been stormed1 and his enemies could have been kicked wholesale into the river4 ,with a supreme effort1 he controlled himself1 and forbade all outbreak2 proceeding further to go through the form of trying again to enter the ,house1 so that ,inspector ,denning should have to make a form of resistance1 on which he might found an action4 ,it was well4 ,but it is believed that there are still some who1 perfectly recognising the superiority of the course actually taken1 can never wholly stifle1 on retrospect1 an obscure and unreasoned but haunting wish that the multitude had taken its own way1 sacked the ,house1 and thrown1 if not the ,speaker and his wig1 at least ,lord ,randolph ,churchill1 and ,sir ,stafford ,northcote1 and ,sir ,henry ,wolff1 comrades three1 into the ,thames1 that ancient river and unclean4 ,the picture as it stands is memorable enough4 ,i have been told that ,james ,thomson the poet1 the estranged friend of ,bradlaugh's youth1 was among those at the gates2 that he turned pale at the sight of the struggling group2 and that his companions could hardly withhold him by force from rushing to his old comrade's help4 ,english gentlemen in general1 of course1 did not feel about the matter in that way4 ,bradlaugh told3-- ,on ,wednesday last ,i saw more than #aej members of the ,house of ,commons gathered to witness1 for the first time in ,english history1 the cowardly and shameful use of overwhelming brute force in order to prevent a duly-elected member of that ,house from complying with the law4 ,most of these members seemed to enjoy the scene2 one1 ,montague ,scott1 climbed to the top of a pillar1 so that he might have a good 7and safe7 view2 another1 ,alderman ,fowler1 actually followed to the very bottom of the stairs1 encouraging with voice and gesture those who were using force against law4 ,a few1 a very few members1 protested against this conduct towards one of their fellow-members4 ,fowler had shouted ,kick him out4 ,he afterwards denied doing so4 ,bradlaugh on this wrote3-- ,i see that ,alderman ,fowler in his place in the ,house of ,commons denies my statement4 ,i can only say that it is quite impossible ,i can be mistaken1 for ,i saw ,alderman ,fowler stand1 occasionally making jeering gestures1 for nearly ten minutes after this1 within four or five feet from me while ,i was recovering from the exhausting effects of the struggle4 ,others saw the same4 ,concerning ,fowler it is not necessary to investigate3 his denial may stand for what it is worth2 but it is quite certain that scores of members had looked on gleefully4 ,such creatures can our ,english gentlemen become1 under the inspiration of their religion and their politics4 ,inside the ,house the matter was at once raised by ,mr ,labouchere1 who moved as a matter of privilege that the resolution of #ajth ,may only excluded ,bradlaugh from the outer doors of the ,chamber1 and not from the lobbies1 and that the officers of the ,house1 in excluding him completely1 had acted without authority4 ,the ,speaker stated that the officers had acted under his directions4 ,mr ,gladstone lengthily argued that there were three distinct grounds on which it was to him quite plain that the motion could not be sustained4 ,northcote naturally approved altogether of the ,speaker's action4 ,sir ,wilfred ,lawson contrived1 despite interruptions1 to make a good fighting speech on the main question1 under cover of a proposed amendment1 which turned out to be a motion for the rescinding of the resolutions of #bfth ,april and #ajth ,may4 ,mr ,cowen invited the ,government to say whether they would reintroduce their ,oaths ,bill next session1 but no response was given2 and the discussion drifted on in the usual wasteful way4 ,mr ,biggar observed that on personal grounds he was indisposed to vote on ,bradlaugh's side in the matter1 because ,bradlaugh had voted for the expulsion of ,irish members earlier in the year1 but he would vote against it as a bad precedent4 ,the level of the debate was raised by a dignified speech from ,bright1 who irregularly appealed to the ,opposition to think of what they were doing2 whereupon ,lord ,john ,manners' made the pragmatic reply that might have been expected from that feudal personage4 ,on the moving of an amendment approving what had been done1 ,gladstone diffusely intimated that it would be out of order for him to answer ,mr ,cowen's appeal4 ,after much talk a vote was taken1 when #g voted for ,mr ,labouchere's motion and #aia for the amendment1 a number of ,radicals walking out to avoid voting4 ,to the amendment1 put as a substantive resolution1 ,mr ,ashton ,dilke moved a fresh amendment asserting the need for legislation1 but this was disallowed as irrelevant4 ,sir ,wilfred ,lawson tried another1 which fared no better4 ,mr ,callan rose to explain that whereas ,mr ,bright had described ,bradlaugh as being reduced to a fainting condition1 he had put one of the officers in a far worse condition by his grip of that officer's throat--a statement which1 despite its source1 was not wholly untrue4 ,finally the resolution approving the course taken was allowed to pass1 whereupon ,mr ,labouchere gave notice that he would again raise the main question on going into ,committee of ,supply4 #ac4 ,thus once more was the day of reckoning put off1 the more decisively because an early result of the scuffle for ,bradlaugh was a dangerous attack of erysipelas in the arm--the same arm which had suffered from the ,tory bludgeons in #ahgh4 ,he was able1 indeed1 though sorely shaken1 to speak at the ,hall of ,science in the evening1 when he appealed to his followers to avoid all violence4 ,he was able to attend the law courts at ,westminster on the #eth1 when a ,house of ,commons policeman1 seeing him1 fled indoors to give warning4 ,on the same day ,bradlaugh attended at the ,westminster ,police ,court to apply to the magistrate1 ,mr ,d',eyncourt1 for a summons against ,inspector ,denning for the assault of the #crd--not the ejection by the police1 but the later formal resistance to ,bradlaugh's entrance4 ,this was a purely formal action1 ,bradlaugh having testified in his speech at the ,hall of ,science that ,mr ,denning personally had managed his unpleasant task with all possible consideration4 ,the magistrate1 laying significant stress on the action of the ,speaker and of the ,house1 declined even to grant the summons4 ,one of his explanations was that society has a right to protect itself against intrusion1 and his tone throughout showed sufficient animus4 ,having thus done what he could1 ,bradlaugh had to own himself disabled1 and go to the seaside under medical treatment4 ,on his arrival at ,worthing1 when he had wearily taken his place in the fly1 a clergyman walked up1 stared hard at him1 and then said in a loud voice3 ,there's ,bradlaugh2 ,i hope they'll make it warm for him yet4 ,the enemy in general behaved with their accustomed generosity4 ,the ,irish ,times led the way with an intimation that he was malingering1 stating further that the ,irish members had opposed him because he supported the ,coercion ,bill4 ,the ,north ,star repeated the charge of malingering with exuberant brutality4 ,the ,st ,james's ,gazette spoke of ,bradlaugh as having behaved like a drunken rough1 further repeating the lie that he had originally refused to take the oath4 ,others rated him for his constant appearances in the law courts4 ,the ,standard1 on being courteously asked to insert a letter correcting a misrepresentation1 suppressed it4 ,liberals1 professing to deprecate the course taken1 yet palliated it2 and ,professor ,thorold ,rogers1 among others1 declared that nothing the ,house of ,commons could do was illegal4 ,the ministerial journals1 of course1 condemned him1 telling him he had lost friends by his attempt4 ,he was to sit still and wait till the ,ministry should have the courage to make an ,affirmation ,bill a ,cabinet question--a course which they refused from first to last to take1 though it would at once have compelled their deserters to return to their allegiance4 ,on this it may here suffice to say1 once for all1 that the justification given for ,gladstone's course in the matter simply serves to show how low are the standards of our ,christian statesmanship down to the present day4 ,the justification is that ,gladstone was bound to refrain from compromising his party by making the admission of the ,atheist a ,cabinet question4 ,the good of the party must override the claims of justice4 ,mr ,gladstone's memory is welcome to all the credit which such an argument will gain him from a posterity probably devoid of his sense of religious enlightenment4 ,it will be a doubtful certificate of the foundations he claims for his morality1 that while conscious of bloodguiltiness in the matter of the ,transvaal1 he declined to incur for conscience' sake the trivial and transient odium of having made justice to an ,atheist a decisive demand as between him and certain of his followers4 ,i am not here putting the opinion of ,bradlaugh--whose chivalrous respect for ,gladstone prevented him from passing any such criticism1 whatever he may have thought in his heart--but laying down what seems to me the only doctrine worthy of conscientious democrats4 ,it is satisfactory to be able to record that whilst the worst of the ,tory and clerical party exulted in ,bradlaugh's physical ejection1 many religious men were moved by it to new sympathy with him4 ,one esteemed ,churchman wrote as follows3-- ,after reading of the violence unjustly perpetrated on you yesterday by the order 7or1 at least1 with the sanction7 of a so-called ,liberal majority1 ,i desire1 though an entire stranger to you1 to offer you my sympathy4 ,i never read anything which warmed me more than this account4 ,if the present ,cabinet does not secure your admission to the ,house in some way or other1 ,i can only wish they may be turned out of office4 ,the name of ',christian' and the religion of ',christ1' which ,i venerate1 they make odious4 ,as if ,christianity could ever be less than common justice6 ,i don't know what more ,i can do than say1 ',go on6' and ',go in6' ,and if others feel as ,i do1 you will be pushed into your place by a whole nation1 with a much more irresistible force than has been used by a contemptible clique to keep you out4--,i am1 very respectfully and heartily1 your well-wisher1 ,e4 ,d4 ,,girdlestone4 ,needless to say1 a number of ,liberal journals1 though less emphatically1 protested likewise4 ,all along1 indeed1 there were more voices for justice in the ,liberal press than in the ,house1 despite the common sense of a need to disclaim sympathy with the wronged man's opinions4 ,on the other hand1 a number of pious persons1 none giving their names1 but all stating that they were ,christians1 wrote to assure the disabled man that he was going to hell4 ,one promised to help him thither by shooting him if he again tried to take his seat4 ,two wrote that they prayed he might not recover1 and many imbeciles sent tracts and religious books4 ,of another order was the enmity of ,sir ,henry ,tyler1 who1 feeling now safe in ,bradlaugh's enforced absence1 made an attack in the ,house of ,commons on the ,hall of ,science science-classes and their teachers--an attack which he might have made while ,bradlaugh sat1 but did not4 ,the argument was that science classes taught by atheists should be excluded from the ,south ,kensington system4 ,of the teachers1 three were women1 viz4 ,mrs ,besant and the ,misses ,bradlaugh2 and as even the pious majority did not care to back up such an outrageous attack1 it came to nothing4 ,mr ,mundella1 the ,minister concerned1 even went out of his way to vindicate the classes2 and the press mostly supported him4 ,as a matter of course1 the classes had been taught on strictly scientific lines4 ,in a few weeks from the date of his injury ,bradlaugh was about again1 lecturing1 and speaking at demonstrations4 ,his doctor advised him to go abroad1 but he had his law cases before him1 and felt he must buckle to work4 ,at the beginning of ,september he published a fresh appeal to the people1 and on the #eth of that month he spoke at a potters' demonstration at ,hanley1 despite continued suffering in the arms4 ,in his own journal1 too1 he once more took up the cause of ,ireland--which indeed had all along been advocated in its columns--disregarding entirely the treatment he had had at the ,irish members' hands4 ,but stiffer work was before him1 in the trial of his appeal against the decision of ,justices ,denman and ,watkin ,williams1 on the legal or technical point1 as to the validity of a writ dated on the day of the ground of action4 ,this appeal was argued before ,lord ,coleridge and ,lords ,justices ,baggallay and ,brett1 on #abth and #adth ,november1 partly on different lines from those gone upon in the first instance4 ,bradlaugh was complimented by the judges on his able and ingenious argument2 and the discussion between him and them is indeed a very pretty piece of high-class legal fencing4 ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard1 who throughout these cases makes no great show as a pleader1 did not attempt to deal with the most difficult point at all1 and his junior did still worse2 but their lordships dealt with it fully and carefully2 and ,bradlaugh handsomely acknowledged their rectitude1 though they decided against him4 ,his first care was to make sure that the plaintiff should not be allowed to tax his costs until final judgment on the other appeals to the ,house of ,lords2 and this was granted4 ,the wolves were thus still kept at bay4 ,next came on the pleading on the rule nisi for a new trial on the point of fact as to whether ,clarke's writ 7which specified no act of voting7 had not been issued before the act of voting on which it was afterwards formally founded4 ,this was heard on #bnd and #crd ,december by ,justices ,denman and ,hawkins1 who went into the details with minute circumspection4 ,bradlaugh explained that his argument involved a charge of wilful perjury against ,james ,stuart1 the clerk employed by ,newdegate's solicitor1 who had been a principal witness in the previous trial4 ,he further pointed out that ,newdegate's secretary1 ,hobley1 had given a hopeless set of contradictions in cross-examination2 and after the notes of that evidence had been read1 ,mr ,justice ,denman observed3 ,i am bound to say that after the searching cross-examination1 which no counsel could have conducted more ably1 it is hardly wonderful that ,mr ,hobley was very confused4 ,it required no more than the reading of the rest of the evidence to satisfy the judges that the case for a new trial was fully made out2 and they stopped ,bradlaugh in his argument to say so4 ,in regard to the special point of the time of the division in which he voted1 the actual evidence of reporters was against ,bradlaugh1 making it earlier than he did2 but when the judges checked his calculations they could find nothing wrong with them2 and the evidence discrediting that of ,stuart was too strong to be dismissed4 ,after a good deal of vacillation1 ,clarke and ,newdegate decided to appeal against the decision allowing a new trial1 ,newdegate in particular having reason to avoid one if possible4 #ad4 ,northcote's excluding resolution of #ajth ,may being only valid for the session in which it was passed1 ,bradlaugh was free to enter the ,house as before1 on the first day of the new session4 ,he announced his intention to do so2 and on the day of reassembling he kept his word4 ,in the interim an incessant discussion on the case had been going on in the press and on the platform4 ,tory speakers1 as a rule1 alluded to him with insult1 sometimes of the basest description4 ,one1 ,lord ,ebrington1 described him as a person who1 but for a legal quibble1 would be in jail at this moment for publishing an obscene1 indecent book4 ,another1 ,mr ,orr-,ewing1 spoke of ,bradlaugh as circulating filthy books1 calculated to 444 drag hundreds down as low as the brute beasts that perish4 ,most of the ,tory speakers dwelt either on his having first refused to take the oath or obtruded his views on the ,house1 or declared the oath would not bind his conscience2 and scarcely one omitted to add untruth to insult4 ,the profanation of the oath was never alluded to without a shudder4 ,on the ,liberal side some members altruistically urged upon ,bradlaugh to stand aside for a few years to let opinion ripen2 and of the many who spoke in favour of his admission nearly all thought it necessary to disclaim with pity or abhorrence all sympathy with his opinions4 ,of all these disclamatory gentlemen1 there was not one whose name had then1 or has now1 the slightest philosophic authority2 but though one or two admitted that they did not know the nature of the opinions which they all the same disclaimed1 none seems to have been moved to avow that the subject was beyond his capacity4 ,throughout the country1 as all along1 ,liberal opinion was in advance of the action of the majority in the ,house2 but the ,times carefully suppressed the reports of meetings held in ,bradlaugh's favour1 and even of friendly allusions in members' speeches1 and the ,daily ,news at times exhibited equivalent traces of the ownership of ,mr ,samuel ,morley4 ,on the other hand1 the cause of justice had some unexpected adherents4 ,lord ,derby1 speaking at the ,liverpool ,reform ,club1 frankly avowed that he utterly disbelieved in the value of political oaths1 and expressed a hope that no further attempt would be made to prevent ,bradlaugh from taking the oath if he wanted to4 ,some groups of dissenting clergy1 too--in particular the ,unitarians--petitioned for the abolition of the oath or the permission of affirmation4 ,but as against the possible gain from such declarations there was to be set the systematic and energetic hostile action of the ,church of ,england4 ,one ,diocesan ,conference passed a resolution calling on ,churchmen in both ,houses of ,parliament to resist any measure which would admit professed infidels into ,parliament4 ,there was no objection to the admission of infidels who were not professed4 ,another interesting exhibition of ,conservative ethics came from ,mr ,gorst1 ,q4,c41 who1 at a banquet at ,chichester1 in presence of the ,dean1 avowed that he was not a person who pretended to have any great horror of the offence of bribery4 ,bradlaugh1 who took a different view1 had earlier taken occasion to speak of another of his assailants as a political scoundrel1 in respect of being a convicted briber4 ,on the #gth of ,february #ahhb1 when ,bradlaugh as before presented himself at the table of the ,house1 he was as before interrupted by ,sir ,stafford ,northcote1 who made his customary motion4 ,this time1 however1 it was rested on the ground that ,bradlaugh had admitted himself to be a person of a class on whom the law declared an oath had no binding effect4 ,thus the ,opposition stood explicitly on the nefarious application of an ambiguous legal formula1 which1 as has been above shown1 was not at all framed to carry the meaning thus put upon it4 ,on this occasion nothing seems to have been said by the ,tory leader in his opening speech about profanation4 ,bradlaugh withdrew to the bar pending the discussion1 and ,sir ,william ,harcourt1 in ,gladstone's absence1 briefly moved the previous question4 ,newdegate followed with an imbecile speech1 which supplied a useful measure of the minds of those who had supported him throughout the country4 ,he pointed to the history of ,france1 protested against the proposed ,channel ,tunnel1 and argued that to admit ,bradlaugh would be to destroy the distinctions between the basis of government in the two countries4 ,further1 let them compare the condition of the two countries4 ,while the wealth and the population of ,france were stationary1 and the prestige of her arms was gone1 ,england's wealth had increased and her kingdom expanded into empire4 ,the fundamental difference between the two countries was this--that in the coronation oath taken by the ,sovereign1 and in the oath taken by members of both ,houses of ,parliament1 a ,deity was recognised1 and the people venerated the obligation4 ,there was but one other country in the world besides ,england that had not been conquered or had not suffered from revolution1 and that was ,russia4444 ,both countries based the claim of their ,government to the respect of their subjects upon the ,word of ,god4 ,the ,united ,states had not adopted that system1 and they had seen a civil war and two ,presidents murdered there4 ,bradlaugh was then allowed to make his ,third ,speech at the ,bar4 ,he struck briefly but sufficiently at the speech of ,newdegate2 and once more nailed down the eternal misrepresentation as to his having paraded his opinions4 ,when he reminded the ,house that his letter of #bjth ,may was outside the ,house1 and that he had objected to the ,committee taking cognisance of it1 the ,opposition laughed4 ,he reminded them that judges give a silent hearing to a man pleading his case4 ,if you are unfit to be judges1 then do not judge4 ,again he put the plain dilemma3 ,if what ,i did entitles the ,house not to receive me1 why has not the ,house had the courage of its opinions and vacated the seat8 ,then came a graver challenge3-- ,i have read within the last few days words spoken1 not by members of no consequence1 but by members occupying high positions in this ,house1 which made me wonder if this is the ,house of ,commons to which ,i aspired so much4 ,i have read that one right hon4 member1 the member for ,whitehaven#aei--7laughter from the ,ministerial side7--was prompted to say to his constituents that ,i was kicked downstairs last session1 and that he hoped ,i should be again4 ,if it were true that ,i was kicked downstairs1 ,i would ask the members of the ,house of ,commons on whom the shame1 on whom the disgrace1 on whom the stigma8 ,i dare not apply this1 but history will when ,i have mouldered1 and you too1 and our passions are quite gone4 ,but it is not quite true that ,i was kicked downstairs1 and it is a dangerous thing to say that ,i was1 for it means that hon4 members who should rely on law rely on force4 ,it is a dangerous provocation to conflict to throw to the people4 ,if ,i had been as wicked in my thought as some members are reported to have been in their speech1 this quarrel1 not of my provoking1 would assume a future to make us all ashamed4 ,footnote #aei3 ,mr ,cavendish ,bentinck4 ,as the speech went on1 he came into more and more sharp conflict with his antagonists4 ,does the ,house1 he asked1 mean that it is a party to each oath taken8 7',hear4'7 ,there was a time when most clearly it was not so a party4 ,there was a time when the oath was not even taken in the presence of members at all4 ,but does the ,house mean it is a party now8 ,was it a party the session before last8 ,was it a party when ,mr ,hall#afj walked up to that table1 cheered by members on the other side who knew his seat was won by deliberate bribery8--7loud ,opposition cries of ',order'7--bribery sought to be concealed by the most corrupt perjury4 ,did the ,house join in it8 7,renewed cries of ',order4'7 ,if the ,house did not join in it1 why did you cheer so that the words of the oath were drowned8 ,was the ,house a party when ,john ,stuart ,mill sat in this ,house8 ,footnote #afj3 ,elected for ,oxford4 ,after repeating his former explicit declaration that the words of adjuration would in no way weaken the binding effect of the promise on his honour and conscience1 he was met by jeers1 and he began3 ,members of the ,house who are ignorant of what is honour and conscience1 meaning to add in the case of a non-religionist or words to that effect4 ,he was again interrupted by loud cries of ,order and ,withdraw from the men who had just been insulting him en masse4 ,he asked to be allowed to finish his sentence1 but was still interrupted by the mob of hon4 gentlemen on the ,opposition benches4 ,these1 he cried1 pointing at the rowdies1 these are my judges4 ,there was a silence1 and he went on4 ,his blood was up1 and he spoke at greater length than before1 dwelling among other things on the scene of ,august1 and indignantly rebuking those who had exulted in it4 ,in conclusion1 he offered to stand aside for four or five weeks if the ,house would in that time discuss an ,affirmation ,bill4 ,nay1 if they feared to make it a ,bradlaugh ,relief ,bill1 he would resign his seat and stand for re-election4 ,the ,liberals cheered at this1 and he ended3 ,i have no fear4 ,if ,i am not fit for my constituents1 they shall dismiss me1 but you never shall4 ,the grave alone shall make me yield4 ,mr ,labouchere1 speaking next1 stated that he had had sent him over #gej fresh petitions1 signed by about #agj1jjj1 in favour of ,bradlaugh being allowed to take his seat1 and that other ,liberal members had received petitions signed by about #ajj1jjj more4 ,he proceeded to challenge ,northcote to abide by his own declaration of the previous year1 that the question should be legislated on by the ,government2 and ,northcote rose to make a second speech4 ,he too1 he averred1 had received many petitions1 and among others one from ,northampton1 signed by #aj1cjj persons1 giving their occupations and addresses--a manifest prevarication1 inasmuch as many of the #aj1jjj must have been the wives and children of the ,tory electors4#afa ,on the ,government amendment he objected to profanation of the oath2 and as to the obstruction of the ,oaths ,bill last session1 he reminded the ,government that though they had certainly been somewhat obstructed1 they might at any later time have put the ,bill first on a ,government night4 ,as before1 however1 the ,tory leader declined to make any bargain4 ,gladstone replied1 pointing out that it had been quite impossible for the ,ministry to push the ,oaths ,bill as suggested1 and declining to promise that the ,government would give precedence to an ,oaths ,bill4 ,they should let ,bradlaugh swear1 and take his chances in the law courts as before4 ,on this theme he rang the changes1 without much energy4 ,after a number of minor speeches the ,house divided1 when there voted for ,northcote's resolution #bhf1 and for the previous question only #bbh4 ,such a vote served to dispose of the view which had been advanced by some ,liberals1 that the minority of #bfth ,april #ahha was due to the absence of many of their party who were prolonging their holiday1 while all the ,tories were in town for ,beaconsfield's funeral4 ,some seventy ,liberals had now deliberately stayed away 7among them being ,mr ,goschen1 ,sir ,john ,lubbock1 ,sir ,e4 ,reed1 and ,sir ,a4 ,gordon71 while the whole ,parnellite members present voted with the ,tories4 ,five ,scotch1 eight ,irish1 and fifteen ,english ,liberals did the same1 among the latter being ,mr ,samuel ,morley and ,sir ,edward ,watkin4 ,footnote #afa3 ,bradlaugh noted later in his journal that the petition was alleged to be signed by #aj1cjj freemen of ,northampton4 ,this1 he remarked1 cannot possibly be true1 as the freemen do not amount to that number4 ,they really numbered about #cjj6 ,it turned out that thousands of the signatures were those of school-children4 ,immediately on the vote being announced1 and the question being put1 ,bradlaugh presented himself afresh1 refusing as formerly to obey the resolution4 ,the usual appeal from the ,speaker elicited the usual motion from ,northcote1 which being carried1 ,bradlaugh said3 ,it would be undignified in me to indulge in any other kind of contest on the floor4 ,i respectfully obey the ,house1 and withdraw below the bar4 ,the struggle was now apparently reduced to something like a recognised set of moves1 all of which had been made and might be in due course made again2 and ,bradlaugh for the present was left to attend every meeting of the ,house1 sitting beyond the bar1 but without the power of voting or speaking4 ,bradlaugh at once appealed to his constituents to choose whether or not he should resign2 and they promptly decided that he should not2 while some thirty indignation meetings were held throughout the country within a week1 all condemning the action of the ,house of ,commons4 ,the law advisers of the ,crown further formally declared on challenge that the seat was not vacant2 and ,bradlaugh wrote ,gladstone1 formally asking whether he was prepared to do anything4 ,gladstone on #ahth ,february formally replied that he was not4 ,bradlaugh then took a new step1 forcing the question on the ,house more determinedly than ever4 ,on ,monday1 #bjth ,february1 ,mr ,labouchere formally moved in the ,house that a new writ be issued for ,northampton1 seeing that ,bradlaugh had been prevented from taking the oath and his seat4 ,churchill moved to amend the motion by substituting a description of ,bradlaugh as disqualified4 ,the ,attorney-,general formally opposed1 and the perplexed ,northcote did likewise1 being guided by the sole fact that the motion was proposed by ,bradlaugh's friendly colleague4 ,after a debate1 in which ,northcote was dishonest enough to assert once more that ,bradlaugh had claimed to be a person on whose conscience the oath was not binding1 the amendment was negatived1 as was the proposition that the words proposed to be left out should be left in4 ,the resolution was thus left at a stand at the word who2 and on the unfinished sentence the ,house proceeded to divide4 ,when it seemed as if the ,noes would have it without a division1 ,bradlaugh moved from his seat and stood at the bar2 but on ,mr ,labouchere's challenging a division he returned4 ,on the vote being taken there were #cjg ,noes to #ah ,ayes4 ,the ,house thus explicitly refused to decide that the seat should be vacated1 though they were all the while preventing it from being taken4 ,bradlaugh was once more at the bar when the tellers announced the figures4 ,immediately he walked up the floor to the table1 members looking on without excitement1 counting on a repetition of the old scene4 ,but this time the scene was changed4 ,while members waited for the usual action of the ,speaker1 it suddenly dawned on them that ,bradlaugh had a book in his hand--it was the regulation ,new ,testament--and was taking the oath of his own accord6 ,he had gone through the whole mummery before the excited ,house could collect its faculties1 and he duly finished by subscribing a written oath on a sheet of paper with a pocket pen4 ,the ,speaker was on his feet2 the ,clerk had come half-way to meet ,bradlaugh2 and ,northcote had risen to speak1 and sat down again1 speechless4 ,the ,speaker mechanically called on ,bradlaugh1 as usual1 to withdraw below the bar4 ,he did so1 but in doing it announced that he should return and take his seat1 which he did1 seating himself on a back bench4 ,the ,speaker solemnly charged him with disobedience1 to which ,bradlaugh blandly responded that he had obeyed them1 and had taken his seat in addition1 having first taken the oath4 ,on the ,speaker insisting1 however1 he once more withdrew beyond the bar1 sitting under the gallery as before4 ,churchill1 collecting himself more promptly than his leader1 argued that ,bradlaugh1 having taken his seat without taking the oath1 was as dead1 and moved that the seat be declared vacant4 ,the ,attorney-,general professionally pointed out that to vacate the seat under the statute the offending member must vote or sit during a debate4 ,he suggested that the ,house had better adjourn the discussion1 which it did after much further speech-making1 in the course of which ,churchill declared that ,bradlaugh had deliberately insulted the ,house1 not for the first time2 other members of similar dignity speaking to similar effect4 ,next day the debate was resumed4 ,gladstone made a long and scrupulously bland speech1 in the course of which he endured much contradiction of those who thought him insufficiently zealous for the honour of ,omnipotence1 concluding by saying that he left it to the majority to act for themselves4 ,northcote was laboriously indignant1 and lengthily led up to a motion that the ,sergeant-at-,arms be instructed to prevent ,bradlaugh from entering the precincts of the ,house1 which motion1 on the correction of the ,speaker1 he converted into an amendment to that of ,churchill4 ,a dispute arose on behalf of ,dr ,lyons1 who had on the previous night given notice of a more drastic motion1 but had not caught the ,speaker's eye when he rose before ,northcote4 ,then the debate drifted on2 some members drivelling1 some ranting1 some platitudinising4 ,at length ,churchill's motion was negatived1 whereupon ,dr ,lyons proposed his declaring ,bradlaugh incapable of sitting1 as an amendment to ,northcote's4 ,the pious ,lyons was of opinion that behind the particular issue there lay a great moral question1 which1 however1 he did not specify4 ,again the debate rolled on4 ,at length it was noticed that ,bradlaugh had once more taken his seat within the ,house4 ,the ,speaker challenged him1 and ,bradlaugh began to explain that he proposed to ask the indulgence of the ,house1 when his voice was drowned in yells of ,order4 ,the ,speaker then solemnly charged him afresh with disobedience1 and called the attention of the ,house to that circumstance4 ,gladstone rose in response to calls2 but the ,speaker hastily interposed to call upon ,bradlaugh to withdraw beyond the bar1 which he did1 formally protesting4 ,gladstone blandly observed that there was now no disobedience to deal with1 and that it was not incumbent on him to do anything4 ,northcote arose in a state of ostensible but flabby indignation1 and declared that he must say there was a limit to his very moderate line4 ,he now proposed to withdraw his amendment and substitute a motion of expulsion4 ,gladstone suavely intimated that he should not object to the withdrawal of the amendment1 and ,dr ,lyons was induced to withdraw his likewise4 ,the motion for expulsion1 on the ground that ,bradlaugh had1 in contempt of the authority of the ,house1 irregularly and contumaciously pretended to take the oath1 was then put1 and ,gladstone intimated in a period that he would not oppose4 ,mr ,labouchere dropped the very apt remark that he had always found that when the ,house was exercising judicial functions it got into an unjudicial frame of mind1 and pointed out that ,bradlaugh's action had been taken to obtain a case for legal judgment1 and could not reasonably be termed insulting4 ,on a division1 #bia voted for the amendment proposing expulsion and #hc against2 some ,liberals salving their consciences with the formula that the ,house must maintain the authority of the chair4 ,a new point was raised by the intimation of one of the tellers that ,bradlaugh had voted in the division4 ,he had thereby completed the legal circumstances for a test case4 ,the ,speaker again asked for instructions1 but ,northcote1 rather than begin a fresh debate1 let the matter pass4 ,then arose the question1 energetically put by ,mr ,storey1 whether ,bradlaugh should not be heard afresh in his defence2 but this too had to be dropped4 ,on the substantive motion being put1 #big voted with ,northcote1 and #hj against2 and a motion for a new writ was at once agreed to by ,mr ,labouchere4 #ae4 ,not only his constituents1 but the people generally1 gave ,bradlaugh their instant and warm support4 ,at a great ,sunday meeting at ,manchester1 to which hundreds of men had trudged many miles through the rain in the early morning1 over hills and moors1 from the country round1 some of them only to find the hall full to the door1 he had a reception which brought tears to his eyes4 ,at ,northampton1 of course1 the struggle was desperate4 ,mr ,samuel ,morley1 bent on making reparation to his ,deity for his one act of rational tolerance1 followed up his many ,tory votes by a letter to the ,northampton ,nonconformists1 asking them to vote for the ,tory candidate as an act of allegiance to ,god2 but1 on the other hand1 the ,radical ,association of ,bristol 7the town for which he sat71 who had by this time1 after twice hearing ,bradlaugh1 determined to unseat their member1 sent #cjjj copies of an address begging the ,northampton electors to return ,bradlaugh by an overwhelming majority of votes4 ,a meeting of delegates from some scores of workmen's clubs in ,london sent down #aj1jjj copies of a similar appeal4 ,when ,bradlaugh went down1 thousands of people lined the streets to see him pass to say a few words in the ,market ,square4 ,radicals came from other towns to help in the canvassing1 and ,mr ,labouchere gave his powerful aid4 ,the ,tories1 on their part1 did their utmost1 using1 if possible1 viler weapons than before2 and meantime they had been adding every possible vote to the register4 ,the insolence of the ,tory candidate to the workers was such that several of his meetings were broken up4 ,the outcome of desperate efforts was that ,corbett1 the ,tory1 received rather more of the new votes than ,bradlaugh1 the figures being #cgif to #cfhh1 a majority for ,bradlaugh of #ajh 7#bnd ,march #ahhb74 ,in the fury of despair1 the ,tories had demanded a re-count of the votes1 but this had only altered the majority by three4 ,the betting fraternity1 who had mostly laid their money on the side of religion1 were naturally enraged2 and ,corbett was reported to say on leaving1 ,i shan't come back to your dirty town any more4 ,when the news spread1 the fury did4 ,one academic ruffian wrote in the ,saturday ,review3-- ,the average ,northampton elector and the rascal who shot at the ,queen1 while the average ,northampton elector was voting for ,mr ,bradlaugh1 probably acted from motives not dissimilar in kind1 though the acts to which those motives led differed in degree of heinousness4 ,journals which had predicted that ,bradlaugh would be defeated1 now propagated the lie that he had been carried by terrorism--their own terrorism having failed4 ,by the workers in general the news was received with delight2 in most towns it was waited for on the evening of the election with intense excitement1 and acclaimed with unbounded enthusiasm4 ,the ,house of ,commons1 however1 was not to be turned from its evil courses4 ,on #dth ,march ,northcote notified ,bradlaugh of his intention to take the same course as formerly if he presented himself1 and to make a motion on the writ if he did not4 ,bradlaugh replied1 saying he presumed the motion would be one to promote the legislation which ,northcote had often said ought to take place4 ,i congratulate you1 he concluded1 on the return of at least yourself to some respect for the law1 and beg to assure you that ,i shall in such case do my best to help you to avoid further embittering a conflict of which ,i am sure you must feel heartily ashamed4 ,on ,monday1 #fth ,march1 ,northcote asked the ,speaker whether the resolution of #gth ,february was still in force1 and was answered in the negative4 ,he was proceeding to say he would make a motion1 when successive protests against the interruption were made by ,mr ,labouchere and ,mr ,dillwyn4 ,the ,speaker overruled both1 and ,northcote moved that ,bradlaugh1 should he present himself1 be not allowed to take the oath4 ,on the ,liberal side1 ,mr ,e4 ,marjoribanks 7now ,lord ,tweedmouth7 moved as an amendment a resolution that it was desirable so to alter the law as to permit any elected member to take the oath or make affirmation1 at his choice4 ,with the worst of bad taste1 ,mr ,marjoribanks1 who had before declared his preference for decorous hypocrisy1 went on to explain that he was one of the very large section of that ,house who regarded ,mr ,bradlaugh's conduct both within and without that ,house with something very like disgust and indignation1 and to describe the recent oath-taking as an unworthy manoeuvre--a display of class hatred which may serve to suggest the nature of the feeling on the ,tory side4 ,mr ,labouchere1 after defending his colleague1 undertook for him that if the amendment were carried he would not present himself until a decision was come to4 ,gladstone formally approved of the amendment2 but after a long debate of the usual kind1 it received only #bdd votes against #bei1 to the wild delight of the ,opposition4 ,twelve ,liberals1 including ,mr ,s4 ,morley1 ,mr ,torrens1 and ,mr ,walter2 and twenty-six ,home ,rulers1 including ,mr ,mc,carthy and ,mr ,sexton1 had voted with ,northcote4 ,the ,liberal press was now nearly unanimous for legislation and even the ,pall ,mall ,gazette went so far as to say3 ,all that is wanted is that the ,government should pluck up a little more moral courage1 and recognise that even in practice honesty is the best policy4 ,in the foreign press1 the general judgment was that the ,house of ,commons was systematically disgracing itself4 ,the ,government1 however1 proposed nothing1 leaving the ,oaths ,bill in the hands of the disgusted ,mr ,marjoribanks2 while in the ,upper ,house ,lord ,redesdale had on #gth ,march introduced a ,bill providing that a declaration of ,theism should be compulsory on all members of ,parliament and peers4 ,this measure1 he explained1 he introduced from a deep sense of what was due to ,almighty ,god4 ,a little later1 on its discussion1 his lordship withdrew it in deference to ,lord ,salisbury4 ,bradlaugh1 on his part1 after consultation with his committee in ,northampton1 and after publishing a telling ,address to the ,majority for general circulation1 decided that his future course must be one of systematic agitation in the constituencies4 ,the ,constitutional ,rights ,league was reconstituted2 an election fund was begun for the purpose of contesting certain seats held by renegade ,liberals2 and in these constituencies the ,radicals quietly went about the work of making them untenable4 ,already a ,liberal candidate had been defeated on the score of the insolence of his language towards ,bradlaugh's supporters1 ,mr ,samuel ,morley had been called upon by the ,bristol ,radical ,association to resign2 other members had been sharply censured in their constituencies2 and it was plain that it only needed time to ensure the unseating of most of the renegades4 ,for the present nothing was to be hoped for from the ,government2 and a fresh notice by ,mr ,labouchere of a motion for leave to introduce an ,affirmation ,bill was blocked by ,earl ,percy4 ,thus the men who shrieked against profanation resisted all the while every attempt to make oath-taking by unbelievers unnecessary4 ,finally1 a petition by the ,northampton electors to be heard at the bar of the ,house was dismissed by the ,speaker as unentitled to a hearing2 and a notice of motion on the subject by ,mr ,firth never got to a hearing4 ,there was clearly nothing for it but to carry war into the renegades' country4 ,on the subject of the ,speaker's action generally1 ,bradlaugh contented himself with penning a very temperate but very weighty paragraph3#afb-- ,footnote #afb3 ,national ,reformer1 ,april #b1 #ahhb4 ,i am just a little troubled how to decide one or two points4 ,the ,speaker of the ,house of ,commons is the first commoner in ,england1 and his judgment on the various points from time to time submitted to him is practically without appeal4 ,it is impossible to suspect him of intentional unfairness2 he is a clear-sighted and courteous gentleman4 ,yet some of his decisions seem so conflicting that ,i fail in understanding how he reconciles them to himself4 ,on the #bast ,february he held that ,mr ,labouchere was entitled1 under the then circumstances1 as of privilege1 to move for a new writ for ,northampton4 ,on the #bdth ,march1 under precisely similar circumstances1 ,mr ,speaker ruled that such a motion could not be made as one of privilege4 ,on the #fth ,march1 without any reason given whatever1 except that ,i might come some time or other1 the ,speaker allowed ,sir ,s4 ,northcote to raise the question of my right to my seat as one of privilege2 but the ,speaker now refuses to allow ,mr ,labouchere to raise as one of privilege the fact that one of the seats for ,northampton is now in fact unfilled4 ,on the #aeth ,february the ,speaker held that the resolution of the #gth ,february1 which is directly in the teeth of the ,standing ,order of #cjth ,april #ahff1 does not conflict with that order4 ,on the #ith day of ,march he held that the resolution of the #fth ,march1 which does not say one word about my coming to the table to take my seat1 does so prevent my coming to the table1 and that the same resolution1 which does not mention my introducers or in any way forbid them introducing me1 does in point of fact so act as a prohibition that he will hold any attempt to introduce me as disorderly and irregular4 ,when my constituents wrote him1 the ,speaker answered that they must approach the ,house by petition4 ,when they do approach by petition1 he rules that their application has no privilege4 ,the dilemma1 as between imputing to ,sir ,henry ,brand unfairness1 and pronouncing him to have failed in his duty1 must be left here as ,bradlaugh left it4 #af4 ,all the while the manifold litigation set up by the action of the ,house was moving on its slow way4 ,the appeal of ,clarke against the judgment of ,justices ,denman and ,hawkins allowing a new trial had been heard on #bast ,february by ,lords ,justices ,brett1 ,cotton1 and ,holker 7the latter newly appointed71 and these judges ruled that no new trial could take place1 thus reversing the decision appealed against4 ,an independent comment on this judgment1 which appeared in the ,pall ,mall ,gazette at the time1 may be here cited3-- ,the ,court of ,appeal holds that they the ,judges of the ,queen's ,bench ,division ought to have closed their eyes to everything but the partial evidence given at the trial1 some of which at all events both the ,court of ,appeal and the ,court below pronounced to be unsatisfactory4 ,nor does it seem perfectly fair to make so much as ,lord ,justice ,brett does of the imputation of perjury to one of ,mr ,newdegate's witnesses4 ,the ,lord ,justice himself admits that there were blemishes in his testimony1 and that he 'somewhat prevaricated and coloured his evidence1 etc4' ,we fail to see 'the enormous difference' between evidence of this character and perjury1 at least for the purpose of such an action4 ,if a man is to be condemned in a penal action he has a right to insist that it shall be on perfectly honest and straightforward evidence only4 ,the curious reader who cares to form his own opinion on the subject of the evidence referred to will do well to turn to the verbatim report preserved in the ,national ,reformer4 ,the ,clarke-,newdegate combination seemed now to see their way partly clear to their great end of making ,bradlaugh bankrupt4 ,on #bith ,march they moved before ,justice ,grove and ,baron ,huddleston for judgment--that is1 for power to compel ,bradlaugh to pay the penalty sued for and the costs4 ,bradlaugh admitted that at that stage he could not resist a judgment for the penalty1 but resisted the motion so far as it claimed costs4 ,to this the judges agreed2 and on #cjth ,march they gave judgment for the penalty1 but reserved the costs pending the appeal to the ,house of ,lords4 ,bradlaugh had thus to pay #ejj into ,court within fourteen days4 ,already1 too1 he had had to give securities for #ejj on the appeal to the ,house of ,lords1 in addition to the #bjj he had paid down according to rule4 ,for these heavy payments he had to go into debt1 his normal means of earning his livelihood being in part suspended by the very lawsuits themselves4 ,in course of the arguments on the plaintiff's appeal it was noticeable that ,justice ,grove pointed to the possibility of an action against ,newdegate for maintenance1 and1 on ,bradlaugh mentioning that the magistrate had dismissed the summonses against ,newdegate and his solicitor on the ground that the law was obsolete1 observed1 ,but it is by no means obsolete4 ,i set aside an agreement for maintenance only a little while ago4 ,another item was added to the imbroglio of litigation by the friendly action of ,alderman ,gurney of ,northampton1 on behalf of the ,liberal and ,radical ,union there1 against ,bradlaugh for not taking his seat--a step taken by way of getting a legal deliverance4 ,bradlaugh formally demurred that he had been illegally hindered by the ,house of ,commons4 ,when the case came on before ,justices ,manisty and ,watkin ,williams on #aeth ,may #ahhb1 the judges warily declined to give any judgment1 on the score that the action was friendly1 that the pleadings had been drawn so as to compel a decision in ,bradlaugh's favour1 and did not disclose all the facts of the case4 ,yet they excluded no material fact2 and a friendly action for a precisely similar penalty had been heard and decided before in the historic case of ,miller v4 ,salomons1 while1 as a solicitor wrote to ,bradlaugh1 it is a matter of everyday occurrence in the ,chancery ,division for friendly actions to be brought to get a judicial decision on questions arising out of settlements1 etc4 ,in the present case it seemed pretty clear that the judges were simply very much concerned not to come in conflict with the legislature4 ,the pleadings were however readjusted1 and the case stood for re-hearing before a jury4 ,still another complication was perforce set up by an action brought by ,bradlaugh in ,april against ,mr ,erskine1 the ,deputy ,sergeant-at-,arms of the ,house of ,commons1 for the assault of #crd ,august--a step made necessary by the police magistrate's refusal of a summons against ,inspector ,denning for his formal assault2 and by the risk1 which was soon realised1 that the ,gurney action would be denied a hearing4 ,the matter being brought before the ,house on #hth and #ith ,may1 the ,attorney-,general was directed to defend ,mr ,erskine1 ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard suggesting that those who assisted in bringing such an action should be prosecuted according to old precedents for breach of privilege4 ,such a prosecution1 if laid1 would have struck at ,messrs ,lewis ,lewis1 ,bradlaugh's solicitors in the matter1 and at the committee of the ,constitutional ,rights ,league1 who had also instructed them4 ,and yet one more step in this bewildering litigation was taken on #ith ,may1 when ,bradlaugh moved before ,lords ,justices ,brett and ,cotton for leave to appeal against so much of the three orders of the ,court of ,appeal1 dated #cast ,march #ahha1 #adth ,november #ahha1 and #bcrd ,february #ahhb1 as awarded costs4 ,the application was of a highly technical character1 and was dismissed1 everything being now left to the ,house of ,lords when it should hear the appeal4 #ag4 ,the agitation in the constituencies was carried on throughout the spring and summer with an energy worthy of the cause4 ,in addition to the crowded meetings which he held in dozens of the larger provincial towns1 the ,constitutional ,rights ,league arranged for three more great demonstrations in ,london--two on #ajth ,may1 and one on ,sunday1 #adth ,may4 ,on the #ajth was held1 first1 an immense mass meeting in ,trafalgar ,square1 attended by delegates from over a hundred towns1 and addressed by1 among other speakers1 the ,rev4 ,mr ,freeston of ,stalybridge1 ,mr ,ashton ,dilke1 ,mr ,labouchere1 and ,mr ,broadhurst2 and in the evening a second audience packed ,st ,james's ,hall to the doors4 ,on the ,sunday an enormous mass meeting took place in ,hyde ,park1 the attendance being estimated at #gj1jjj or #hj1jjj4 ,at all of these meetings ,bradlaugh's claim was affirmed with the greatest enthusiasm4 ,the attitude of the ,tory press may be gathered from a reference in the ,evening ,standard to that section of the people which holds ,mr ,bradlaugh's coat-tails in veneration4 ,they would get to ,westminster1 see the fun1 shout out encouragement1 and possibly pick up something to pay the expenses of the expedition4 ,an earlier demonstration1 held in the ,shoreditch ,town ,hall on #hth ,may1 presided over by ,mr ,broadhurst and addressed by ,bradlaugh and ,labouchere1 received no notice in the leading morning papers1 though the crowd which sought admittance would have sufficed to fill the hall thrice over4 ,it was necessary for such journals to ignore such matters as much as possible1 since the main plea on the ,tory side had now come to be that the public feeling was universally against ,bradlaugh4 ,to suppress the facts1 and then to deny that the facts existed1 was a natural tactic4 ,naturally the ,tories on their own part were not idle1 either in the ,house or out of it4 ,in the ,house they were safe from answer by ,bradlaugh2 and accordingly ,sir ,henry ,tyler1 who had already distinguished himself by a dastardly attack on the ladies of the ,bradlaugh family and ,mrs ,besant as being unfit teachers of ,science1#afc was foolish enough to call upon the ,home ,secretary1 during ,may1 to prosecute the ,national ,reformer for blasphemy1 on the score1 not of any editorial utterances1 but of certain articles by an outside contributor1 controverting1 as too favourable1 an estimate of the ,gospel ,jesus by a member of the staff4 ,sir ,henry was no less zealous for ,jesus than he had been for ,god2 and he was backed by ,mr ,healy1 who asked whether the paper could not be seized4 ,the ,home ,secretary deprecated the attempt in the name of the interests of orthodoxy1 as he had previously done an attempt to secure a prosecution of the ,freethinker4 ,but ,tyler and those of his kidney1 baffled here1 only looked about for another means of gaining their point4 ,footnote #afc3 ,a question put to ,mr ,mundella on #ahth ,june in the ,house elicited the fact that the ,hall of ,science classes had been established1 and received grants1 under the late ,tory administration4 ,on this ,lord ,george ,hamilton was petty enough to put the blame on his subordinates4 ,mr ,mundella answered that for his part he was responsible for anything done by his subordinates4 ,among the most prominent of the attacks made on ,bradlaugh about this time were the 7second and third7 articles contributed by ,cardinal ,manning to the ,nineteenth ,century1 one under the title ,an ,englishman's ,protest4 ,the second was in time for the election in ,march1 and much was hoped from it4 ,later1 after illegally visiting ,northampton in prelatic state1 to turn the ,irish voters against the ,atheist1 he contributed yet a third article to the ,nineteenth ,century of ,september #ahhb2 and still the editor denied ,bradlaugh all right of reply4 ,it is probable that at no time in the long strife were ,freethinkers more roused to wrath1 more moved to smite arrogant insolence upon its blatant mouth1 than by this manifesto from a prince of the ,church of ,rome1 the murderous organism which had eaten out the mind of ,spain and barely missed destroying ,italy4 ,certain it is that from these malevolent outbreaks of the unsleeping ,romish spirit of persecution may be dated a new birth of enmity towards ,rome on the part of ,english rationalists1 who had before been disposed to class the bloody-mindedness of ,catholicism with the kindred rancours of ,protestantism4 ,it was left to ,manning to put his ,church in the worst light of all2 to show once for all that the fundamental mission of priestly ,rome is not parcere subjectis et debellare superbos1 but to fight the ignoble battle of the million against one4 ,and it is to his action that his co-religionists owe most of the measure of acceptation found among ,freethinkers by the fierce verse in which ,mr ,swinburne has named the ,church of ,rome ,grey spouse of ,satan1 church of name abhorred1 and taunted the withered harlot with the shame of her defeat on the ,field of ,flowers4 ,but ,bradlaugh met the priest's attack with a prose that suffered no weakening from hysteria4 ,in his journal it met a detailed and judicial criticism3 he himself1 roused as he had never been roused before1 published his tract1 ,a ,cardinal's ,broken ,oath1 one of the hardest blows ever struck in written controversy4 ,three times1 it begins1 your ,eminence has--through the pages of the ,nineteenth ,century--personally and publicly interfered and used the weight of your ecclesiastical position against me in the ,parliamentary struggle in which ,i am engaged1 although you are neither voter in the borough for which ,i am returned to sit1 nor even co-citizen in the ,state to which ,i belong4 ,your personal position is that of a law-breaker1 one who has deserted his sworn allegiance and thus forfeited his citizenship1 one who is tolerated by ,english forbearance1 but is liable to indictment for misdemeanour as 'member of a society of the ,church of ,rome4' ,more than once when the question of my admission to the ,house of ,commons has been under discussion in that ,house1 have ,i seen you busy in the lobby1 closely attended by the devout and sober ,philip ,callan1 or some other equally appropriate ,parliamentary henchman4 ,after telling the ,cardinal how he had blundered alike in his law and his history1 making absurd mis-statements concerning the ,french ,revolution and the case of ,horne ,tooke1 the pamphlet takes up the point of persecution1 in regard to ,manning's advice that ,bradlaugh should be indicted for blasphemy3-- ,when ,i was in ,paris some time since1 and was challenged to express an opinion as to the enforcement of the law against the religious orders of ,france1 ,i1 not to the pleasure of many of my friends1 spoke out very freely that in matters of religion ,i would use the law against none2 but your persecuting spirit may provoke intemperate men even farther than you dream4 ,in this country1 by the #ajth ,george ,,iv41 cap4 #g1 secs4 #bh and #bi1 #ca1 #cb1 and #cd1 you are criminally indictable1 ,cardinal ,archbishop of ,westminster4 ,you only reside here without police challenge by the merciful forbearance of the community4 ,and yet you parade in political contest your illegal position as 'a member of a religious order of the ,church of ,rome1' and have the audacity to invoke outlawry and legal penalty against me4 ,and then came a hail of blows at the ,cardinal ,archbishop's own personality1 so rashly put in the way of retaliation3-- ,in the current number of the ,nineteenth ,century you fire your last shot1 and are coarse in ,latin as well as in the vulgar tongue4 ,perhaps the frequenting ,philip ,callan has spoiled your manners4 ,it also seems impossible that one who was once a cultured scholar and a refined gentleman could confuse with legitimate argument the abuse of his opponents as 'cattle4' ,but who are you1 ,henry ,edward ,manning1 that you should throw stones at me1 and should so parade your desire to protect the ,house of ,commons from contamination8 ,at least1 first take out of it the drunkard and the dissolute of your own ,church4 ,you know them well enough4 ,is it the oath alone which stirs you8 ,your tenderness on swearing comes very late in life4 ,when you took orders as a deacon of the ,english ,church1 in presence of your bishop1 you swore 'so help me ,god1' that you did from your 'heart abhor1 detest1 and abjure1' and with your hand on the ',holy ,gospels' you declared 'that no foreign prince1 person1 prelate1 state1 or potentate hath1 or ought to have1 any jurisdiction1 power1 superiority1 pre-eminence1 or authority1 ecclesiastical or spiritual1 within this realm4' ,you may now well write of men 'whom no oath can bind4' ,the oath you took you have broken2 and yet it was because you had1 in the very church itself1 taken this oath1 that you for many years held more than one profitable preferment in the ,established ,church of ,england4 ,you indulge in innuendoes against my character in order to do me mischief1 and viciously insinuate as though my life had in it justification for good men's abhorrence4 ,in this you are very cowardly as well as very false4 ,then1 to move the timid1 you suggest 'the fear of eternal punishment' as associated with a broken oath4 ,have you any such fear8 or have you been personally conveniently absolved from the 'eternal' consequences of your perjury8 ,have you since sworn another oath before another bishop of another church1 or made some solemn vow to ,rome1 in lieu of1 and in contradiction to1 the one you so took in presence of your bishop1 when1 'in the name of the ,father1 ,son1 and ,holy ,ghost1' that bishop of the ,church by law established in this country accepted your oath1 and gave you authority as a deacon in the ,church you have since forsaken4 ,i do not blame you so much that you are forsworn2 there are1 as you truly say1 'some men whom no oath can bind2' and it has often been the habit of the cardinals of your ,church to take an oath and break it when profit came with the breach2 but your remembrance of your own perjury might at least keep you reticent in very shame4 ,instead of this1 you thrust yourself impudently into a purely political contest1 and shout as if the oath were to you the most sacred institution possible4 ,you say 'there are happily some men who believe in ,god and fear ,him4' ,do you do either8 ,you1 who declared1 'so help me ,god1' that no foreign 'prelate 444 ought to have any jurisdiction or authority ecclesiastical or spiritual within this realm'8 ,and you who1 in spite of your declaration on oath1 have courted and won1 intrigued for and obtained1 the archbishop's authority and the cardinal's hat from the ,pope of ,rome--you rebuke ,lord ,sherbrooke for using the words 'sin and shame' in connection with oath-taking3 do you hold now that there was no sin and no shame in your broken oath8 ,none in the rash taking or the wilful breaking8 ,have you no personal shame that you have broken your oath8 ,or do the pride and pomp of your ecclesiastical position outbribe your conscience8 ,you talk of the people understanding the words 'so help me ,god4' ,how do you understand them of your broken oath8 ,do they mean to you3 ',may ,god desert and forsake me as ,i deserted and forsook the ,queen's supremacy1 to which ,i so solemnly swore allegiance'8 ,you speak of men being kept to their allegiance by the oath 'which binds them to their sovereign4' ,you say such men may be tempted by ambition or covetousness unless they are bound by 'the higher and more sacred responsibility' involved in the 'recognition of the law-giver in the oath4' ,was the ,rector of ,lavington and ,graffham covetous of an archbishopric that he broke his oath8 ,was the ,archdeacon of ,chichester ambitious of the ,cardinal's hat that he became so readily forsworn8 ,the eight small but pregnant pages of this concentrated diatribe were carefully translated into ,italian by or for a certain ,monsignor1 once resident in ,england1 who was understood to owe no goodwill to ,manning2 the translation was no less carefully circulated among the higher ,roman clergy2 and if anything had been needed to thwart ,manning's ambition of becoming ,pope1 this little tractate1 it was believed1 would have served not a little to that end4 ,at all events1 ,manning never again ventured to attack ,bradlaugh publicly4 ,he had had enough4 ,and not only had he failed to destroy ,bradlaugh1 he had evoked furious ,protestant protests against his action at ,northampton1 and this even from journals like the ,rock1 which hated ,bradlaugh as much as he did4 ,his alliance was rejected with insult4 ,and even in his own ,church the far more highly esteemed ,newman1 answering a correspondent on the subject of the ,affirmation ,bill of #ahhc1 expressly declared that he thought nothing would be lost to religion by its passing and nothing gained by its being rejected4#afd ,footnote #afd3 ,letter of #hth ,may #ahhc4 ,it would be superfluous to load this already over-burdened narrative with any detailed account of the stream of insults1 imbecilities1 brutalities1 and falsehoods which was cast forth continuously at this period against ,bradlaugh in the press and on the platform4 ,from the fatuity of ,viscount ,folkestone--who argued that an ,atheist1 being guilty of treason to ,god1 who gave the ,queen her power1 should be treated like one guilty of treason to the ,queen--to the brutish licence of the ,tory journals who likened ,bradlaugh's sympathisers to thieves and assassins1 there was1 as ,mr ,moncure ,conway wrote at the time1 no circumstance of heartlessness1 injustice1 hypocrisy1 and falsehood#afe wanting to this last carnival of theological#aff hatred and ferocity4 ,it was not1 of course1 theological hate alone4 ,bradlaugh had just been leading a popular movement for land law reform2 and he had set in motion a second movement for the abolition of perpetual pensions1 which went on wheels1 and the petitions in support of which were signed by the hundred thousand4#afg ,there are few resentments more bitter than that of a menaced interest4 ,but malice once aroused in men of a low type stops at nothing2 and as we have seen1 everybody associated with ,bradlaugh was included in the hatred bestowed on him4 ,one ,tory journal1 the ,manchester ,courier1 went the length of saying that ,bradlaugh's success in ,northampton was due to an exceptionally bad state of education there2 the pretext being that one ,northamptonshire village was in such a state4 ,the ,government inspector testified that as regarded the town he had often paid tribute to the heartiness of the people of ,northampton1 and especially of the working-classes1 in carrying out the ,education ,act1 and that it would be hard to find anywhere a more active ,school ,board1 a higher average of regular attendance1 or a higher general standard of proficiency4 ,footnote #afe3 ,if further samples are needed of the general untruthfulness1 they can be given by the dozen4 ,even men of good standing spoke with a disregard of scruple which put them outside courteous correction4 ,bradlaugh was driven to characterise ,sir ,edward ,watkin as an exceedingly and wantonly untruthful person4 ,in ,november #ahhb he represented to his ,folkestone constituents that he would not have stood in the way of ,bradlaugh either swearing or affirming1 but that he resisted when ,bradlaugh distinctly outraged all that they held sacred4 ,this presumably referred to the self-administered oath of #ahhb4 ,but ,sir ,e4 ,watkin had voted against ,bradlaugh being allowed to swear on #bgth ,april #ahha4 ,the ,hon4 ,mr ,stansfeld1 speaking at ,halifax in ,october #ahhb1 actually represented that the oath was on the true faith of a ,christian2 and repeated the untruth that ,bradlaugh had said that the oath had no binding effect on his conscience4 ,the ,rev4 ,canon ,gascoigne ,weldon1 of ,rothesay1 asserted in writing that ,bradlaugh boasted publicly that he sought entrance into the ,house of ,commons to insult its members and all its past glorious history1 and level it1 if possible1 with its sister ,house1 to the ground4 ,footnote #aff3 ,mr ,samuel ,morley1 speaking at ,bristol in ,november #ahhb1 admitted to his constituents that while ,mr ,bradlaugh was in the ,house of ,commons1 nothing could exceed the propriety of his conduct2 but declared he would oppose his re-entrance because ,bradlaugh continued his system of violent1 offensive1 and disgusting attacks on the faith which he 7,mr ,morley7 in common with the great bulk of the ,english people1 held4 ,to men like ,mr ,morley1 all rationalist propaganda was violent1 offensive1 and disgusting2 but they had no scruples about violent1 offensive1 and disgusting attacks on rationalists4 ,soon afterwards ,mr ,morley grossly misrepresented ,bradlaugh's action1 and on being challenged admitted the fact and made a correction4 ,soon again1 however1 ,mr ,morley spoke of ,bradlaugh as writing in the ,freethinker1 and on being challenged1 made neither admission nor correction4 ,the champions of the oath1 generally speaking1 exhibited a constitutional incapacity for accuracy4 ,footnote #afg3 ,in the summer of #ahhb the total of petitions had mounted to over #ajj1 and the signatures numbered over #bej1jjj4 ,of course such a testimony did little to check the scurrility of ,tory tongues4 ,at a meeting of the ,bible ,society at ,exeter ,hall1 in ,may #ahhb1 with ,mr ,samuel ,morley in the chair1 a ,herefordshire vicar1 the ,rev4 ,h4 ,w4 ,webb ,peploe1 alleged that to his knowledge the first condition imposed upon one whom he knew when he had joined an association under the leadership of a notorious infidel was that he should burn his ,bible2 and that he had further been told that two nights ago1 at a meeting of a notorious infidel1 the things said were so grossly immodest that a member of the press had said that they did not dare to report what had been spoken1 however1 in the presence of young women4 ,on being challenged1 the rev4 gentleman declined to attempt any substantiation of his statements1 only pleading that he had not meant to specify ,bradlaugh4 ,of these cretinous calumnies1 there were hundreds afloat for years on end4 ,it is a comfort to be able to say that some score or more of single clergymen in different places1 of different sects1 spoke out bravely and generously from time to time in repudiation of the whole policy of persecution and slander4 ,but a few voices1 of course1 could not avail to hinder that for thoughtful men the effect of the persecution was to identify religion with injustice4 ,freethinkers reasoned that the ,christians who stood for justice and tolerance did but do what ,freethinkers themselves did1 without accepting the ,christian creed2 while the army of bigots did their evil deeds in virtue of a religious motive4 ,and the effect of it all was to multiply ,freethought as it had never been multiplied before4 ,a barrister1 who had no personal sympathy with ,bradlaugh1 wrote that ,one consequence has been that the cause of ,freethought has made surprising progress4444 ,i do not think that at any time ,freethought literature has been so widely read1 and the ,freethought propaganda so actively and intelligently carried on4 ,active members of the ,secular ,society were enrolled by hundreds2 and the sale of ,bradlaugh's journal rose to its highest figure4 ,men who had before been unquestioningly orthodox became newly critical4 ,one wrote to an editor3-- ,that ',mr ,bradlaugh had brought his troubles on himself' ,i fully admit4 ,so did ,jesus ,christ4 ,in the latter case the ultimate result was a judicial execution as a blasphemer4 ,but ,i am not aware that he is any the worse thought of by his followers on that account4 ,even among ,conservatives there were searchings of heart4 ,one wrote a pamphlet in his favour4 ,another sent an open letter of merciless criticism to ,sir ,stafford ,northcote1 saying1 ,i am a ,conservative1 and my father before me4 ,but there is something ,i put before party4 ,that is self-respect4 ,the letter concluded3-- ,if you wish an outlet for your zeal against 'profanation1' why do you ignore in the ,church the presence of numerous ,broad ,churchmen1 including the father-in-law of your own son1 ,canon ,farrar1 who swear loyalty to the ,thirty-,nine ,articles1 and follow the late ,dean ,stanley in rejecting many of them8 ,why should you have reserved your fervent indignation against apparent insincerity in sacred things to be expended upon a man whose admission to the ,house as silently as possible1 so as not to promote his notoriety1 justice and expediency would alike have suggested3 the whole stupidity1 duplicity1 and inhumanity of ,conservative tactics in this matter are patent to all straightforward minds4 ,you are responsible for giving ,mr ,bradlaugh a name and a place in the history of this country which will survive long after those of the present ,conservative leaders are consigned to oblivion4 ,the harvest was not immediate2 but the seed was abundantly sown1 and inevitably bore its due fruit4 ,that this was not unrecognised in high places was sufficiently proved by the introduction of an ,affirmation ,bill in the ,house of ,lords by the ,duke of ,argyll1 then already sundered from official ,liberalism4 ,the ,duke1 on moving the second reading of his ,bill1 took occasion to scold ,bradlaugh after his manner for violence and scurrility1 denying by implication that the violence and scurrility were on the other side4 ,but this prudent tactic did not avail4 ,the ,earl of ,carnarvon told the usual untruth about the binding effect of the oath on ,bradlaugh1 by way of showing that he deserved no relief2 and the ,archbishop of ,canterbury opposed the ,bill in the name not only of the ,english ,church1 but of the ,romish1 the ,wesleyan1 and the ,scotch ,presbyterian4 ,it was accordingly rejected 7,july7 by #ach votes to #fb4 #ah4 ,on #aath ,july #ahhb a new ,tory battery was opened4 ,the ,freethinker1 a penny weekly journal of a more popular character than the ,national ,reformer1 edited by ,mr ,g4 ,w4 ,foote and then owned by ,mr ,w4 ,j4 ,ramsey1 was sold at the shop of the ,freethought ,publishing ,company1 #bh ,stonecutter ,street1 of which ,mr ,bradlaugh and ,mrs ,besant1 the partners of the ,company1 were the lessees4 ,for a short time after its first issue it had been published by them1 but soon they decided not to take that responsibility2 and thenceforward it had been sold independently by ,mr ,ramsey1 their manager1 who1 in the terms of his engagement with them1 was free to do other trading on his own account4 ,sir ,henry ,tyler1 supposing ,bradlaugh to be the publisher all along1 had bethought himself of prosecuting the ,freethinker for blasphemy1 and so striking a possibly decisive political blow at ,bradlaugh--a course which he was enabled to take by a readily granted fiat from the ,director of ,public ,prosecutions4 ,it had been made clear by his references to the ,national ,reformer in the ,house of ,commons that he had hoped to convict ,bradlaugh of blasphemy on something he had either written or published2 but that hope he had had to abandon4 ,there remained the hope of connecting ,bradlaugh with the ,freethinker2 and ,tyler's solicitors coolly wrote ,bradlaugh on #hth ,july1 asking whether he would personally sell the paper1 so as to prevent the prosecution either of a subordinate of his1 or of the editor and printer4 ,he replied by sending the printed catalogue of all the things he published1 and offering personally to sell any of these4 ,as it did not include the ,freethinker1 the prosecution was begun against ,messrs ,foote and ,ramsey and their printer1 ,mr ,whittle1 on #aath ,july1 before the ,lord ,mayor 7,sir ,john ,whittaker ,ellis71 at the ,mansion ,house2 and after evidence had been led1 the prosecutor's counsel applied to have ,bradlaugh's name added as a defendant4 ,the case was then adjourned1 the ,lord ,mayor stating that he would hear the application against ,bradlaugh in private--a proceeding for which the reasons will afterwards appear4 ,it having appeared that the selling of the ,free-thinker in the ,freethought ,publishing ,company's shop tended to implicate the partners of that company1 ,mr ,ramsey at once decided to suspend its sale for some weeks till he could arrange for its publication in a distinct office1 thus partly safeguarding ,bradlaugh from the attempt to identify him with it4 ,the danger was serious2 for if ,bradlaugh were convicted of blasphemy under the statute1 he would become legally incapable of further defending himself in ,clarke's or any other suit for ,parliamentary penalties4 ,this was fully recognised on the ,tory side1 and the ,whitehall ,review1 in an indecent article1 pressed the point4 ,tyler's move was1 in fact1 a new attempt to cause the ruin aimed at by ,newdegate1 and hitherto warded off2 and ,newdegate's junior counsel 7and private friend7 duly attended the prosecution at the ,mansion ,house4 ,at the same time1 ,bradlaugh was defending a ,freethinker prosecuted for blasphemy at the ,maidstone ,assizes1 and after attending the adjourned hearing before the ,lord ,mayor on ,monday1 #agth ,july1 he had to travel to ,maidstone on the following day4 ,before the ,lord ,mayor ,bradlaugh led the prosecutor's counsel a grievous dance4 ,he appealed to have the cases taken separately1 and counsel was confused enough to say that this was a most unusual and unheard-of application1 which drew from ,bradlaugh the comment1 ,there are several decided cases upon it1 although it may be unheard of and unusual in your experience1 ,mr ,moloney4 ,then ensued hours of fencing as to whether the case was or should be under common law or statute1 and what the ,lord ,mayor ought to do4 ,his lordship was at times somewhat rashly dogmatic on points of law and procedure1 and had to be corrected4 ,he finally decided to refuse to ask the prosecutor to choose whether he would proceed under common law or statute2 and ,bradlaugh then demanded that the case should begin de novo1 putting every possible technical obstacle in the way of his cowardly enemies4 ,their evil way1 he determined1 should be made hard for them2 and it was4 ,as the proceedings went on1 and the prosecution1 who had previously succeeded in obtaining from the ,lord ,mayor a warrant to inspect ,bradlaugh's banking account1 took the dishonourable course of producing on subpoena the manager of the bank used by ,bradlaugh1 and his very passbook1 his indignation mounted4 ,what was intended was evidently a fishing investigation into his financial affairs1 for the production of cheques at that stage was wholly irrelevant to the points proposed to be made out in evidence1 and needing to be so proved4 ,fighting the case with all his force and acuteness1 point by point1 and with no mincing of matters1 ,bradlaugh commented on ,tyler's tactics in language of which the libel law prevented the republication4 ,tyler's counsel protested that he did not quite see what these observations were intended for4 ,they are intended1 replied ,bradlaugh1 to do the same mischief to your client that he is trying to do to me2 and counsel said no more on that head1 though he tried unsuccessfully to retaliate on others4 ,the case was adjourned to the #bast2 and though the passbook was left in the ,lord ,mayor's hands for inspection1 the prosecuting counsel so mismanaged matters that he closed his case without having applied to see it4 ,bradlaugh's account1 however1 had been personally ransacked on ,tyler's behalf1 in gross abuse of the order of the ,court4 ,the ,lord ,mayor finally committed ,bradlaugh for trial on the singularly scanty evidence offered as to his connection with the prosecuted paper1 the incriminated numbers of which were all dated after the time when ,bradlaugh ceased to be concerned in publishing it2 and in committing ,messrs ,foote and ,ramsey 7the charge against the printer had been withdrawn71 his lordship refused to allow ,mr ,foote to make a statement in his defence1 though the law clearly gave the defendant that right4 ,his lordship repeatedly gave the extraordinary ruling that the charge against ,mr ,foote was that he was the editor of the ,freethinker--as if that could possibly be a charge--and on this pretext declined to hear anything on the actual charge1 which was one of blasphemous libel4 ,he similarly tried to prevent ,bradlaugh from reading a formal statement1 but after disallowing it he gave way on consultation with the ,clerk of ,court4 ,the statement was a terse and telling account of ,tyler's tactics from the time of ,bradlaugh's election4 ,in the press the prosecution was sharply condemned1 even the ,times censuring it2 and one journal took occasion to point out that ,tyler represented one of the smallest and most corrupt constituencies in ,england4#afh ,bradlaugh1 being committed for blasphemy1 at once put himself in the hands of his constituents1 who unanimously voted their unabated confidence in him4 ,he immediately 7#bgth ,july7 applied to a judge 7,justice ,stephen7 in chambers for leave to issue a summons calling on ,tyler to show cause why a writ of certiorari should not issue to remove the proceedings to the ,queen's ,bench division2 and on the #bith the certiorari itself was directed to issue by the judge4 ,tyler's counsel at this stage insisted on ,bradlaugh's giving two sureties for #cjj in addition to his own recognisances of #cjj ordered by the ,lord ,mayor4 ,they also asked for an order to expedite the trial1 but the judge curtly refused4 ,another typical detail was the charging of the grand jury on the point of returning a true bill on the indictment4 ,the ,recorder for the ,city1 ,sir ,thomas ,chambers1 was one of ,bradlaugh's bitterest enemies in ,parliament1 and he gave his direction to the grand jury to return a true bill1 not only without putting it to them to decide whether they were satisfied with the evidence against ,bradlaugh1 but with expressions of gross prejudice1 appealing to their feelings as ,christian men4 ,footnote #afh3 ,he sat for ,harwich4 ,not content with his prosecution of ,bradlaugh1 ,tyler in the ,house of ,commons 7#ajth ,august7 at length brought forward an express motion which he had had on the paper for twelve months1 to the effect that the ,hall of ,science was not a proper place1 and the teachers not proper persons1 to teach science in connection with the ,science and ,art ,department4 ,the argument was that persons who had expressed themselves in print to the effect that science undermined religion should be held to have taught the same thing in their science classes4 ,mr ,mundella in reply pointed out that no fewer than thirty-five clergymen of all denominations were science teachers under the department2 and that the reports on the teaching given in the ,hall of ,science classes1 even by a religious visitor who made surprise visits1 were highly satisfactory4 ,he concluded by sharply censuring ,tyler1 as ,mr ,labouchere had already done1 for his malice2 and1 the ,tory members having all left the ,house1 the matter was ignominiously dropped4 ,even the editor of the ,st ,james's ,gazette snubbed ,tyler1 while himself proceeding to repeat ,tyler's contention in a gratuitously insulting statement as to the teaching of the ,misses ,bradlaugh4 ,in the outside public one immediate effect of ,tyler's malicious action was to set on foot a movement and an association for the repeal of the blasphemy laws1 the lead being ably taken by the ,rev4 ,mr ,sharman 7,unitarian7 of ,plymouth1 who had already done admirable service in the constitutional struggle4 ,the blasphemy prosecution not being expedited1 went on slowly enough4 ,intermediate technical proceedings arose1 partly out of irregularities on the part of the prosecution2 and in one of ,bradlaugh's visits to the ,courts with his sureties1 the driver of a four-wheeler who conveyed the party declined to accept any fare1 declaring that it should be his contribution towards fighting ,tyler4 ,at length1 on #fth ,november1 ,bradlaugh made an ex parte motion before ,justices ,field and ,stephen1 to have the indictment against him quashed1 mainly on the score that he ought to have been definitely sued under the statute #i and #aj ,william ,,iii41 and that the provisions of that statute had not been observed in the indictment4 ,the pleadings were extremely interesting as a matter of pure law1 the judges debating the points courteously but closely all along1 and both commenting finally on the candour and propriety with which he had argued his case4 ,their decision was for the most part hostile2 and this was one of his very few cases in which there can be little difficulty in taking the judge's view against him4 ,the main point decided was that the statute had not abrogated the common law in the case in hand4 ,they gave him a rule nisi on only two counts in the indictment1 on the ground of irregular procedure on the part of the prosecution2 but ,justice ,stephen's judgment supplied a very useful conspectus of the history of the blasphemy laws1 and incidentally declared that the statutory penalties could not be inflicted under a verdict on the indictment laid4 ,very different must be the comments passed on the treatment of the friendly action1 ,gurney v4 ,bradlaugh1 which came on afresh before ,mr ,justice ,mathew and a common jury on #ajth ,november4 ,everything had been done that could be done to meet the criticisms formerly passed by ,justices ,manisty and ,watkin ,williams2 and indeed the whole pleadings had from the first been drawn from the journals of the ,house of ,commons1 which were put in evidence4 ,but ,justice ,mathew summarily decided not to hear the case1 and discharged the jury1 on the old ground that the action was collusive4 ,now ,bradlaugh1 in swearing himself in1 had in law done exactly what ,alderman ,salomons did in #ahea2 and the action of ,miller v4 ,salomons was notoriously collusive1 yet it was fully heard and carefully decided4 ,we can only do now what ,bradlaugh did then--leave the judge's action to the judgment of the instructed public4 ,the ,law ,times of that time 7,november #ahhb7 took the unusual step of declaring3-- ,it is plain that it should be possible to try a friendly action to establish a constitutional right2 and we regard the action of the judge as very questionable on constitutional grounds1 and as being an arbitrary interference with a suitor's right to the verdict of a jury4 ,what a law journal thus describes1 plain men may well call by a plainer name4 ,one of ,bradlaugh's five contemporary lawsuits was thus quashed1 but the remaining four kept his hands sufficiently full4 ,the civil suit against ,newdegate for maintenance came on before ,justice ,field on #bnd ,december1 on a preliminary demurrer1 when1 on the advice of the judge1 both aides agreed to let the demurrer stand over till after the trial4 ,a day or two afterwards ,newdegate1 speaking at the ,london ,sheriffs' banquet1 at which six judges were guests1 had the indecency to comment before them on the maintenance case1 and to denounce ,bradlaugh4 ,on the #eth the action against ,mr ,erskine1 the ,deputy ,sergeant-at-,arms1 came on before ,justice ,field4 ,it was a long pleading on both sides2 the case was adjourned till the #ahth2 and after the ,attorney-,general had spoken two hours and a half1 and ,bradlaugh had replied for an hour and a quarter1 the judge reserved his decision4 ,he finally gave it 7#aeth ,january7 against ,bradlaugh1 on the general ground that the ,house of ,commons was the judge as to how it might exercise its privileges1 of which the power to expel a member was one4 ,on the point of legality he ruled that it is not to be presumed that any ,court1 whether it be the ,high ,court of ,judicature or this ,court1 will do that which in itself is flagrantly wrong4 ,the decision was one which might very reasonably have been appealed against4 ,as the ,legal ,advertiser ,supplement remarked at the time1 ,justice ,field's ruling would cover a case in which the ,house of ,commons might1 say1 confiscate the goods and chattels of a member expelled or suspended for obstruction4 ,bradlaugh1 however1 decided not to appeal4 ,he had only commenced the action reluctantly because of the likelihood that the ,gurney suit would be denied a hearing2 and the judge had in this case at least listened to his arguments4 ,he contented himself with a letter to the ,times1 pointing out the constitutional effect of the decision4 ,thus far he had endured defeat after defeat in the law courts as in ,parliament2 and it may be that discouragement and debt counted for something in his surrender of the suit against the ,deputy ,sergeant-at-,arms4 ,but he was now within a short distance of three signal successes which more than counterbalanced all his previous legal defeats4 ,on #ith and #agth ,march his action against ,newdegate for maintenance was argued for him before ,lord ,coleridge #afi by ,mr ,crump and ,mr ,w4 ,a4 ,hunter1 he himself giving evidence on his own behalf4 ,the broad ground of action was that ,newdegate had maliciously maintained ,clarke1 having himself no interest in the ground of action1 which was the penalty sued for1 and being desirous only to make ,bradlaugh bankrupt4 ,there was no question of principle1 as ,bradlaugh was already unseated1 and was held disentitled to sit either on oath or on affirmation4 ,bradlaugh incidentally gave testimony that already he had had to spend on the action two legacies1 and in addition #aajj he had borrowed2 while ,clarke testified that the total costs on his side were estimated at about #bjjj4 ,footnote #afi3 ,a jury had been sworn in1 but it was agreed all round that there was no question of fact for them1 and they were discharged on the #ith1 ,lord ,coleridge trying the case as one of law4 ,lord ,coleridge reserved his decision2 and before he gave it1 the appeal by ,bradlaugh against ,clarke's action had been heard and decided in the ,house of ,lords4 ,it was argued on #eth and #fth ,march1 before the ,lord ,chancellor 7,selborne71 and ,lords ,blackburn1 ,watson1 and ,fitzgerald--,bradlaugh1 as usual1 pleading his own cause4 ,his main argument was1 as before1 that only the ,crown could recover penalties against him when the statute did not specify that some or any one else could2 and the discussion turned on this point1 on which ,lord ,justice ,bramwell1 the senior judge in the ,court of ,appeal1 had expressed some doubt4 ,bradlaugh1 however1 cited on the disputed point as to the ,crown's prerogative two fresh cases--the ,king v4 ,hymen#agj and the ,king v4 ,clarke2 and a good deal of argument turned on the point as to whether a common informer could ever have costs allowed him4 ,as for the case of the respondent1 ,bradlaugh pointed out that ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard's argument was now directed against the very reasons on which the intermediate court had based its judgment in his favour1 thus asking their lordships to support the judgment of the ,court of ,appeal for new and contrary reasons4 ,footnote #agj3 ,this had been cited in the ,court of ,appeal for another purpose4 ,on #ith ,april their lordships delivered judgment4 ,the ,lord ,chancellor in an elaborate and lucid judgment showed that the penalty really was suable for by action of the ,crown in any of the superior courts1 and that1 as no permission had been given by the statute to the common informer to sue1 he was not entitled to do so4 ,lord ,blackburn dissented1 but not strongly1 arguing very judicially that there were good and mutually neutralising arguments on both sides1 and pronouncing himself only on the whole in favour of the view that the common informer could sue under the statute4 ,lords ,watson and ,fitzgerald1 however1 agreed with the ,lord ,chancellor4 ,the eccentric ,lord ,denman1 who was not a law lord1 chose to take part in the proceedings 7the first time a lay peer had done so1 it is said1 since the decision of the writ of error in ,daniel ,o',connoll's case71 and declared himself in agreement with ,lord ,blackburn4 ,even if he were counted1 however1 the majority was for the appellant1 who accordingly won the appeal with costs4 ,this judgment1 of course1 would have affected the suit for maintenance1 had that been brought later4 ,giving judgment on #bcrd ,april1 ,lord ,coleridge remarked that as the ,house of ,lords had decided that ,clarke had no right to sue1 it seemed to follow that ,newdegate had no right to do so either4 ,but he went on to decide in the appellant's favour on the merits of the case1 giving a long and interesting judgment4 ,unless maintenance were to be struck out of the law-books1 said the ,lord ,chief ,justice1 ,newdegate's procedure must be called maintenance2 and if maintenance were to be struck out of the books1 he added1 it must be done by some higher authority1 and ,i have not the power to do it1 nor1 if ,i had the power1 have ,i the wish to abolish an action which may in some cases be the only remedy for a very cruel wrong4 ,delivering himself later on the moral or political merits of the case1 he said3-- ,it may be my ill fortune to have to support such an action in a case in which the defendant is a man whose character is entitled to every respect1 and the plaintiff is a man with whose views1 openly avowed1 ,i have no sort of sympathy4 ,but ,i will not call it my 'ill fortune1' for many of the most precious judgments given by the ,courts in ,westminster ,hall were given in favour of men who1 if ,english justice could ever be warped by personal feeling1 would certainly have failed4 ,it is indeed an ill fortune of the case that in the minds of many the cause of religion should seem to be connected with the success or failure of a particular person1 whose defeat or success is really to the cause of religion a matter of supreme indifference1 but as to whom 7speaking only of what has been proved before me71 a course has been taken and proceedings have been pressed which1 in the case of any other1 would be strongly and universally condemned1 and by which certainly the cause of religion has not been advanced4 ,but my duty is simply to decide the cause according to the best opinion ,i can form of the law--a duty which the rules of ,christian teaching make quite clear4 ,as to costs1 ,lord ,coleridge remarked that the decision of the ,house of ,lords1 though giving costs on the appeal1 left ,bradlaugh mulcted in a considerable sum of costs which were not recoverable from ,clarke4 ,for the recoverable costs he assumed ,newdegate would now hold himself responsible2 but further1 for the residue of the costs and the expenses which ,mr ,bradlaugh has been put to as between attorney and client1 and the various expenses he has had to bear--for all these ,mr ,newdegate is responsible in damages4 ,i think that ,mr ,bradlaugh is entitled to an indemnity for every loss which ,mr ,newdegate's maintenance has caused him1 and if this cannot be agreed on between the parties it must go to the official referee to ascertain the amount1 and when he has reported to me ,i will give judgment for the amount he finds to be due1 applying the principles ,i have thus laid down4 ,newdegate's counsel gave notice of an appeal1 but after six months' delay abandoned it4 ,thus by two concurrent successes ,bradlaugh inflicted a crushing and final defeat on one of the men who had sought to ruin his political career out of hate for his opinions4 ,he could not have1 in addition to the solace of triumph1 the stern joy which warriors feel in foemen worthy of their steel2 but he had the satisfaction1 such as it was1 of knowing that his victory was a source of intense chagrin to thousands of bigots who had reckoned on1 betted on1 and generally predicted his defeat and bankruptcy4 ,and his victory on the points of civil law was effectually secured by his acquittal in the action for blasphemy4 ,a new excitement had been added to that issue by the commencement1 on #bnd ,february1 of a new prosecution of ,mr ,foote 7now owner as well as editor7 and ,mr ,ramsey 7now publisher only71 with ,ramsey's shopman1 ,henry ,arthur ,kemp1 for the publication of a special ,christmas number of the ,freethinker1 in which there occurred certain woodcuts1 ridiculing the ,hebrew ,deity and the ,jesus of the ,gospels4 ,in this case there could be no pretence of implicating ,bradlaugh1 as the incriminated number had not even been sold on the ,freethought ,publishing ,company's premises4 ,whether ,tyler saw the necessity of putting a better colour of religious zeal on his ill-conditioned action against ,bradlaugh1 or whether the recent strife had stirred up smouldering bigotry independently of personal animus against ,bradlaugh1 this prosecution was undertaken by the ,city of ,london4 ,the new trial1 which took place at the ,central ,criminal ,court on #ast ,march #ahhc1 before ,mr ,justice ,north and a jury1 is likely to be long remembered in respect of the extraordinary display of medival prejudice by the judge4 ,he repeatedly and angrily interrupted ,mr ,foote in his defence1 declining to allow him to quote current printed matter which would show at once how much permitted blasphemy went on among ,salvationists1 and how perfectly in keeping was his freethinking blasphemy with the popular religion which it attacked4 ,the jury1 after two hours' discussion1 could not agree1 and the judge discharged them1 arranging for a fresh trial on the #fth with a fresh jury1 and refusing in the harshest and most peremptory manner to let the prisoners out on bail1 though in law they were perfectly entitled to it4 ,applications made next day to other judges fell through on the score1 not of being wrong in law1 but of want of jurisdiction on the part of the judges applied to4 ,the second trial was even more disgraceful to the judge than the first4 ,at the outset1 ,mr ,foote objected to one of the jurors as having expressed animus1 and the judge1 in suggesting the juryman's withdrawal1 declared that he should be sorry to have a gentleman upon the jury who had expressed himself as prejudiced4 ,his own summing-up to the jury1 however1 was again scandalously prejudiced2 and when the jury promptly returned a verdict of guilty1 he addressed ,mr ,foote as follows3-- ,you have been found guilty by the jury of publishing these blasphemous libels4 ,this trial has been to me a very painful one1 as ,i regard it as extremely sad to find that a person to whom ,god has given such evident intelligence and ability should have chosen to prostitute his talents to the work of the devil in the way it has been done 7sic7 under your auspices4 ,the sentence was a year's imprisonment4 ,the announcement called forth a display of indignation among the audience such as has perhaps never been seen in modern times2 and the judge had to sit for some minutes in a storm of hisses and outcries1 the epithets ,jeffries and ,scroggs expressing the prevailing sentiment4 ,mr ,foote's words3 ,my lord1 ,i thank you3 it is worthy of your creed1 were followed by a renewal of the tumult1 and it was with difficulty that the ,court was cleared4 ,then the judge sentenced ,ramsey and ,kemp to nine and three months' imprisonment respectively4 ,the same judge1 it is recorded1 had let off with three months' imprisonment a ruffian who had killed a coffee-stall keeper with a kick on the face when he was refused a second cup of coffee till the first had been paid for4 ,the impression made among thoughtful people by the judge's action was one of general displeasure4 ,canon ,shuttleworth pronounced the sentence a calamity4 ,mr ,foote's methods had been widely and strongly disapproved of among cultured ,freethinkers1 including ,bradlaugh2 and ,mr ,john ,morley1 in the ,pall ,mall ,gazette1 had gone to the indefensible length of justifying the prosecution1 on the very inadequate ground that the ,freethinker had been thrust on the public1 it having been exhibited in the publisher's window in a side street4 ,but the infamous sentence at once turned feeling the other way1 though protests like ,canon ,shuttleworth's were needed to teach ,mr ,morley and other ,liberal journalists that renunciation of ,liberal principles is not really necessary1 even in cases of persecution1 to propitiate the public4 ,bradlaugh1 on his part1 took the--for him--unprecedented course of addressing a public letter to the judge1 reprobating his conduct4 ,my lord1 he wrote1 ,i pen this public letter with considerable regret and much pain4 ,i have always in my public utterances tried to teach respect for the judicial bench4 ,i have never1 ,i hope1 allowed hostile decisions against myself personally to tempt me to undue language when exercising my journalistic right to criticise judgments delivered4 ,my own experience of the judges of our land has1 with slight exception1 been that they always listened with great patience1 and when disagreeing1 have expressed their disagreement in a dignified manner4 ,when ,i read the report of the first trial of ,messrs ,foote1 ,ramsey1 and ,kemp1 ,i was inexpressibly shocked4 ,the character of some of the evidence you admitted alarmed me1 and your refusal to reserve the objection taken to the admissibility of such evidence for the consideration of the ,court of ,crown ,cases ,reserved seemed to me so extraordinary that ,i even now hardly dare trust myself to characterise it4444 ,but the point that most afflicts me is the fashion in which you over and over again interrupted the defendant ,foote in his defence4444 ,there are plenty of precedents showing that prisoners have been permitted in defence the indulgence so peremptorily denied by your lordship to ,mr ,foote4444 ,that you should have held the defendants in custody after the jury had disagreed1 and when you had determined to again try them four days later1 was mischievously and wantonly cruel4 ,they had duly surrendered to their bail1 which had been small in amount4 ,there was no suggestion or supposition that they would try to avoid justice1 nor did the prosecution ask for their detention4 ,i am afraid1 my lord1 that you sent them to ,newgate because they had been over-bold in their defence4444 ,if you had meant the three defendants to have no chance of escape1 if you had been prosecutor instead of impartial judge1 you could hardly have done more to embarrass their defence than by sending them to this sudden and unexpected close confinement4 ,the letter concluded3 ,when you sat as judge in these blasphemy trials your lordship was practically omnipotent4 ,there is yet no court of criminal appeal4444 ,the very knowledge of your uncontrollable authority in the conduct of the trial 444 should have prompted your lordship to hold the judicial balance with a steady hand1 its inclining1 if at all1 being to the side of mercy4 ,but your lordship1 in the spirit of the old inquisitor1 threw into the scale your own prejudices against the heresy for which the defendants were reputed1 your own dislike of the manner in which they had made their heresies known4444 ,i ask your lordship what would be the outcry through the civilised world if1 either in ,switzerland or in ,hindostan1 those ,salvation ,army propagandists who thrust their blasphemies furiously in all men's faces were so hardly dealt with as you have dealt with ,george ,william ,foote1 ,william ,james ,ramsey1 and ,henry ,kemp8 ,presumably the scandal caused by ,justice ,north tended to procure a fairer hearing for the original action1 still unheard1 in which ,bradlaugh was indicted4 ,it came on before the ,lord ,chief ,justice and a jury on #ajth ,april--,bradlaugh1 as usual1 defending himself1 while ,messrs ,foote and ,ramsey were represented by counsel4 ,bradlaugh was permitted by ,lord ,coleridge1 in spite of the opposition of the prosecuting counsel 7,giffard71 to have the charge against him tried separately from that of his co-defendants1 whose testimony might be important to him2 and he was thus enabled to put his defence solely on the question of his responsibility1 saying nothing as to the papers prosecuted being blasphemous or otherwise4 ,his case was a clear and detailed proof1 made good at every point1 that he had ceased to be in any way concerned even in the selling of the ,freethinker before the issue of any of the incriminated numbers1 he and ,mrs ,besant having decided to drop the publication on account of a change early made in the character of the paper2#aga and that this abandonment of the publication--which was the only sort of connection he had ever had with the paper at all--was made independently of any outside pressure or threat4 ,for the rest1 the malevolent tactics of ,sir ,henry ,tyler were once more made the subject of a stinging invective2 and the procedure of the prosecution in regard to the bank account came in for very severe handling4 ,this was one of the most striking details in the trial4 ,it came out1 to the amazement of the legal part of the audience1 that not only had ,bradlaugh's banking account been ransacked and his cheques gone over to see if any had been dishonoured1 but the junior counsel for ,tyler1 ,mr ,moloney1 had actually attended the inquisition in person4 ,bradlaugh naturally did not spare him1 declaring that he had done work generally left to some private detective or inquiry agent1 and never done by any one having the dignity of the bar to guard4 ,and all the while1 the search had been made in a bank branch in ,st ,john's ,wood1 ,n4,w41 in the county of ,middlesex1 on a warrant from the ,lord ,mayor1 whose jurisdiction was limited to the ,city4 ,on this head the ,lord ,chief ,justice indicated a very strong feeling that the ,lord ,mayor's warrant for such a purpose ought not to be valid anywhere4 ,vile in its inception and dishonourable in its conduct1 was ,bradlaugh's account of the prosecution generally1 and he even had a suspicion1 based on an awkward statement by one of the legal witnesses1 that the examination of the bank account had been made some days before the summons against him was issued4 ,footnote #aga3 ,the introduction as a regular feature of ,comic ,bible ,sketches1 of a kind which ,mr ,bradlaugh and ,mrs ,besant were not prepared to defend4 ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard1 now prosecuting for the ,crown1 fought the case as he might have done it for ,tyler1 declaring in his opening speech that he would call witnesses to prove certain things1 and afterwards carefully omitting to call them1 seeing that that course would help ,bradlaugh to clear himself4 ,in replying1 he did not attempt to rebut the criticisms passed on his client and on his conduct of the case1 professing to take the attitude of dignified disregard4 ,his main line of argument was that one or two isolated woodcuts had been published in the ,freethinker during the few months in which the ,freethought ,company published it1 that ,bradlaugh was an original promoter1 and that the change made in the registration was only a stratagem1 ,bradlaugh remaining the real publisher4 ,as regarded the blasphemy charged1 ,sir ,hardinge did not take the customary line of distinguishing between vulgar and refined blasphemy1 describing the contents of the ,freethinker as deadly poison to men's soul--an expression which could not be supposed to apply to the mere element of vulgarity4 ,he spoke with horror of a cartoon which exhibited ,ignorance1 ,money1 and ,fear as the true ,trinity1 and would doubtless have spoken similarly of the account of the ,trinity as three ,lord ,shaftesburys1 given by ,lord ,coleridge's esteemed personal friend1 ,mr ,matthew ,arnold4 ,the blasphemous matter on which the learned counsel expressed himself most strongly in detail1 however1 was a vulgar travesty of the extremely silly and artistically worthless religious picture known as ,the ,calling of ,samuel4 ,you have that picture1 he told the jury1 represented as a startled child1 roused from his slumber by two cats on the tiles4 ,and this is the sort of thing which is to be scattered broadcast over the land--6 ,lord ,coleridge1 on his part1 summed up with great literary skill and dignity1 carefully guarding against theological prejudice on the part of the jury by the avowal that he himself1 despite his years and comparative detachment from the world1 found it difficult to clear his mind of it4 ,incidentally he remarked that it was to ,bradlaugh's credit that he did not disavow a general sympathy with the opinions of his co-defendants1 while clearing himself of all complicity in the publications indicted4 ,but on the point of the blasphemy charge he also incidentally expressed an opinion1 which is worth citing as showing how little even an exceptionally considerate judge with strong religious feelings can get rid of the vulgar notion that irreverence to his--the popular--religious opinions is immeasurably more reprehensible than irreverence towards other less popular opinions1 or vilification of unpopular men's characters4 ,his objection to blasphemy prosecutions was mainly that they injured the cause of religion3-- ,i say not how far the institution of a prosecution of this kind wounds the most sacred feelings and does injury to the holiest convictions4 ,some persons may think that this is not so2 some may think that by such prosecutions the most sacred truths are pierced through the sides of those who are their enemies4 ,with all that we have nothing to do4 ,we may dislike1 we may--,i do not hesitate to say1 we may loathe--the expressions made use of in these libels4 ,we may think the persons who can speak in this way of things which they themselves may disapprove of and disbelieve1 which they themselves may possibly think superstitious and mischievous1 but which they must know have been the life and the soul of the virtue1 the morality1 the self-denial1 the civilisation of hundreds1 and thousands1 and millions of people in all ages1 are persons who forget--,i will not say what is due to ,god1 for they do not believe in ,him1 but to man1 for they are men--what is due to themselves1 and to the community of which they form a part1 and for whom they ought to have some consideration4 ,all that may be perfectly true1 but it has nothing to do with the question4 ,here the judge assumes that there is no dispute whatever as to the claim that the ,christian religion is the essence of morality and modern civilisation1 and proceeds to express disgust for a line of polemic which was zealously followed by the early ,christians for centuries1 which is invariably followed in the ,old ,testament when there is any question of alien religions1 which is endorsed by ,paul1 which is commonly followed by ,christian missionaries and by ,protestant assailants of ,catholicism1 and which was even then being followed by the ,christian multitude in the very case of ,bradlaugh4 ,the ,christian position is that it is right to ridicule and asperse ,freethinkers1 materialists1 and polytheists2 and the ,protestant position is that it is right to deride the ,catholic worship of saints1 images1 and relics2 but ,christians in the mass hold it abominable for unbelievers and heathen in turn to deride their opinions1 these being holy and dear4 ,and all the while1 in the case under notice1 the people who thus felt the most intense animal resentment towards a handful of men for speaking irreverently of a supposed ,infinite1 which by no possibility could human folly or contumely disturb or hurt1 were as often as not zealous accomplices in casting the vilest personal insults against a representative ,atheist who confessedly could not be shown to have attacked their opinions in such a way as to lay him open to a successful prosecution for blasphemy4 ,the ,christian plea is that unbelievers should not be free to cause ,christians pain4 ,yet the whole of ,bradlaugh's life was and is in evidence to show that the first instinct of the average ,christian is to cause not merely endless mental pain but material ruin to every man who ventures1 however decorously1 to pronounce the ,christian creed untrue4 ,perhaps the profoundest impeachment of the religious instinct in general is this very fact that the express conviction of the absolute supremacy of a personal power over all things human never by any chance enables the believer to regard with serenity and compassion the human denials which that power in the terms of the case is alleged to permit4 ,some approach to the recognition of all this must have taken place in connection with the trial of ,bradlaugh on the score of the ,freethinker1 although of course it was on the point of non-complicity that the jury gave their verdict of acquittal4 ,they deliberated for an hour and ten minutes1 calling for several of the documents in the case4 ,the foreman's pronouncement of ,not ,guilty was received with loud cheers1 which the judge indignantly rebuked1 with the customary remark that this is not a place of entertainment2 but a ,conservative journal1 endowed with the regulation horror of ,atheism1 commented that the cheer expressed a sentiment not at all confined to ,atheists4 ,in general1 the press rejoiced with the acquitted man1 who had now won in rapid succession three decisive successes in his long battle4 ,it was noted1 too1 that he had won them against one leading counsel1 ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard4 ,asked later how it was that he had so often and so signally defeated this counsel1 ,bradlaugh remarked that he believed it was because ,giffard despised him as an antagonist1 and neglected precautions against him1 while he1 ,bradlaugh1 was careful at all times to do his utmost1 and never to undervalue the enemy's strength4 ,the moral is an old one4 ,in addition to the discredit put upon the prosecution in ,court1 it happened that ,sir ,henry ,tyler about this time figured rather dubiously before the public in his capacity of company-promoter4 ,his treatment of the financial affairs of the ,anglo-,american ,brush ,electric ,light ,corporation1 in which he was deeply concerned1 gave such dissatisfaction to most of the shareholders that they took the unusual course of presenting a memorial insisting on his resignation1 after he had been hissed and hooted at a shareholders meeting4#agb ,it may have been a sense of the unfitness of such a personage to represent the cause of religion that led to the foundation of a ,society for the ,suppression of ,blasphemous ,literature1 the secretary of which wrote to the newspapers#agc as follows3-- ,footnote #agb3 #bcrd ,january #ahhc4 ,footnote #agc3 ,march #ahhc4 ,we propose to get up cases1 as our funds will allow1 against ,professor ,huxley1 ,dr ,tyndall1 ,herbert ,spencer1 ,swinburne1 the author of ',supernatural ,religion1' the publishers of ,mill's works1 the publishers of ,strauss's works1 ,leslie ,stephen1 ,john ,morley1 the editor of the ,jewish ,world1 ,dr ,martineau1 and others1 who by their writings have sown widespread unbelief1 and in some cases rank ,atheism1 in cultivated families4 ,that goodly project1 however1 came to nothing1 though in the view of ,justice ,stephen most if not all of the writers and publishers named were certainly open to conviction for blasphemy under the existing law4 ,it would appear that the spiritual interests of cultivated families arouse less solicitude than do those of the poor1 in matters religious as well as ,malthusian4 ,above all1 none of the writers threatened1 save ,mr ,john ,morley1 was likely to give the ,tory party any chance of turning his heresy to political advantage1 and ,mr ,morley was already safe in his seat1 having taken the oath without demur and without opposition1 after editorially criticising ,mr ,bradlaugh for his willingness to take it4 ,mr ,morley had perhaps put himself right with the religious party by applauding the prosecution of ,foote and ,ramsey--he who had expressly justified the polemic of ,voltaire4#agd ,a clergyman of the ,church of ,england1 the ,rev4 ,stewart ,headlam1 whose championship of the principle of religious equality has all along been above all praise1 wrote to ,mr ,morley in his editorial capacity1 protesting as a ,christian priest against a policy which made it almost impossible for ,christians to meet ,atheists on equal terms4 ,it seems1 ,mr ,headlam began1 as though you were one of those who say1 ',there is no ,god1 but it's a family secret4' ,the letter was suppressed4 ,it is bare justice to cite it here#age as being perhaps the most telling protest made against the blasphemy prosecutions1 albeit written by a sincerely orthodox clergyman4 ,footnote #agd3 ,to do ,mr ,morley justice1 it should be acknowledged that he unsaid his vindication in the same book4 ,footnote #age3 ,it was printed in the ,national ,reformer of #ast ,april #ahhc4 ,the original case against ,bradlaugh's co-defendants1 ,messrs ,foote and ,ramsey1 who had been already sentenced to imprisonment on the second prosecution by ,mr ,justice ,north1 came on before ,lord ,coleridge and a special jury on #bdth ,april4 ,the judge treated the prisoners with signal consideration and courtesy2 and when the prosecuting counsel1 ,mr ,moloney1 persisted in putting a question to which ,lord ,coleridge had objected1 his lordship indignantly asked1 ,why cannot this case be conducted like any other case8 ,it seems all of a piece with the learned counsel inspecting a man's bank-book4 ,the accused defended themselves1 ,mr ,foote making a particularly able speech1 on which the judge1 in his summing-up1 repeatedly complimented him4 ,that summing-up 7delivered on the #beth7 was in its way a masterly performance1 marking the judge as the most admirably persuasive of pleaders4 ,deeply averse to all punishment of opinion1 he showed the jury that the blasphemy law1 as interpreted by past judges1 was not nearly so outrageous as had been supposed2 and the definition of the late ,mr ,starkie1 of which a scanty quotation had been given by the prosecution1 he showed to be much less illiberal than it had been understood to be1 though nothing could make it out to be a precise or practical formulation of law4 ,as in the previous trial1 he demolished the absurd plea that ,christianity is part of the law of the land1 by the reductio ad absurdum that the marriage law and the monarchy are part of the law of the land1 but are yet open to being argued against--at least in all modern opinion4 ,as1 however1 no interpretation could do away with the hard facts of the blasphemy laws1 and the accused had unfortunately put their heresy at times with extreme pictorial crudeness1 his lordship could not definitely charge the jury that no blasphemy had been committed in law4 ,he admitted that the objection against their practice on the score of violence would apply to some passages read by ,mr ,foote from prominent modern writers1 which were new to him2 but while the law stood as it was1 that was no defence for ,mr ,foote1 as the writers in question would be equally open to indictment4 ,the jury1 thus unavoidably left in doubt1 disagreed4 ,the prosecution1 acting judiciously for the first time1 took the course of entering a nolle prosequi1 and the case dropped1 but not without the ,lord ,chief ,justice having to point out that the petition grossly misrepresented him as having pronounced the prosecution unadvisable1 which he had carefully abstained from doing4 ,unluckily1 the dropping of this case did not affect the sentence passed by ,justice ,north1 and the then ,home ,secretary1 ,sir ,william ,harcourt1 declined to mitigate the punishment1 on the score of the offensiveness of one of the incriminated woodcuts1 which he called an obscene libel1 though the charge was one of blasphemy4 ,some ,liberal journals indignantly protested2 but the ,liberal leaders felt they must show no consideration to blasphemy1 though even the ,spectator censured them for their timidity4 #ai4 ,while the decisive trials were yet in the future1 ,bradlaugh had never slackened his energetic action on the political side of the fight4 ,the last move in the ,house had been taken on #ahth ,july #ahhb1 when ,mr ,labouchere moved that ,bradlaugh be appointed a member of the ,committee to consider the ,agricultural ,tenants' ,compensation ,bills4 ,the right of a member in ,bradlaugh's position to serve on committees had been established by the precedents of ,alderman ,salomons and ,baron ,rothschild4 ,the point was a curious one1 and could not be got over argumentatively1 but of course the ,house could outvote the motion1 which it did by #abj to #ce4 ,not till the next year was the campaign indoors reopened4 ,on #aeth ,february #ahhc1 the day of the reassembling of ,parliament1 a great demonstration was held in ,trafalgar ,square in support of ,bradlaugh's and ,northampton's claim1 about a thousand delegates attending from some four hundred ,radical associations of provincial towns4 ,at first some of the railway companies were understood to be willing to run cheap excursion trains1 but that concession was of course violently opposed1 and at a meeting of representatives of the companies held in the ,railway ,clearing ,house on #bith ,january a resolution was carried by a majority of votes1 binding all the companies to give no special facilities whatever4 ,an attempt to get the use of the ,floral ,hall1 ,covent ,garden1 for the meeting was defeated by the veto of the ,duke of ,bedford's agent1 though the ,directors were willing to grant it2 and no other sufficiently large hall was available for the date4 ,the meeting1 which would have been several times larger had the railway companies given the desired special trains1 was nevertheless a great success1 the square being densely packed1 despite bad weather2 and despite some attempts at rioting by hired roughs1 there was almost perfect order throughout4 ,the ,pall ,mall ,gazette had deprecated the meeting as held in an illegal place1 though for a perfectly legal purpose4 ,this was a misconstruction of the ,act #egth ,geo4 ,,iii4 cap4 #ai1 sec4 #bc1 which prohibited meetings within a mile of ,parliament ,house for the purpose of petitioning the ,crown or ,parliament for alteration of matters in ,church or ,state4 ,as there was no petition under consideration1 the meeting was perfectly legal4 ,other papers went further1 the ,daily ,telegraph applauding the railway companies for refusing to start trains in order to bring up country roughs2 and generally it must be recorded that some of the leading ,liberal journals discouraged the whole procedure4 ,the ,daily ,news and ,daily ,chronicle even suppressed resolutions sent them in support of ,bradlaugh's claim from provincial clubs before the demonstration--such resolutions being part of the manifold machinery of preparation for a great public demonstration2 and the ,tory papers as a rule suppressed all reports tending to show the support given to ,bradlaugh in the country4 ,other forms of boycotting were freely employed4 ,in the cathedral town of ,peterborough a debating society set up by the local ,young ,men's ,christian ,association was deprived of the use of the ,association's rooms because it carried a motion in favour of ,bradlaugh's right to sit and vote4 ,this episode typified hundreds4 ,the most skilful device employed1 perhaps1 was the issue of a forged circular1 purporting to come from ,bradlaugh1 calling on all ,atheists1 as well as ,socialists1 to assemble in their thousands round the ,house of ,commons1 and show that the ,atheists of this country have a right to be represented in ,parliament4#agf ,newspapers which had no space for genuine news about ,bradlaugh gave prominence to this4 ,footnote #agf3 ,cited in ,national ,reformer1 #ahth ,february1 p4 #aja4 ,as the meeting of ,parliament drew near1 expectation naturally rose high on both sides4 ,the sentiment of many ,tories may be presumed to have been expressed by ,lord ,newark1 son of ,earl ,manvers1 when at the annual dinner of the ,nottinghamshire ,agricultural ,society he was ruffianly enough to say3 ,he supposed that ,mr ,bradlaugh meant to make himself objectionable as usual4 ,he heard from an honourable member who sat near him#agg that he thought of going with a big stick1 and he 7,lord ,newark7 hoped that if he came within reach of ,mr ,bradlaugh he would make use of it4 ,footnote #agg3 ,the hon4 members were3 ,lord ,galway1 ,messrs ,foljambe and ,nicholson1 and ,colonel ,seely4 ,the stick1 however1 was not on exhibition at the ,house of ,commons4 ,bradlaugh's course was to send to the ,speaker a letter stating the then position of matters1 in view of the action of the law courts2 and stating that he proposed to present himself as before4 ,this letter was read to the ,house before any other business was taken4 ,on ,mr ,labouchere asking the ,government what course they meant to take1 ,lord ,hartington at once answered that on the following night they would move for leave to bring in an ,affirmation ,bill4 ,sir ,richard ,cross1 on the ,conservative side1 at once announced that he would oppose the ,bill1 and his statement was loudly cheered4 ,at this stage ,inspector ,denning asked ,bradlaugh to leave the ,house and reassure the multitude outside1 who were beginning to fancy they might be ill-using him inside4 ,on #bjth ,february the motion for leave was made1 when ,sir ,henry ,drummond ,wolff was understood to express himself with ironical approbation1 while ,mr ,chaplin opposed1 and ,northcote explained that he should vote against the second reading4 ,the motion was carried by #ahd votes to #ec1 most of the ,irish party voting in the minority4 ,not till #bc;d ,april did the ,bill reach its second reading2 and in the meantime a desperate effort was made by the entire ,tory party to arouse feeling against the ,bill4 ,in the previous session the petitions in ,bradlaugh's favour had been signed by #bge1jjj persons1 and those against him by only #fe1jjj1 many of these being children4 ,the leeway was now made up4 ,the machinery of the ,anglican and ,catholic ,churches was worked to the utmost to beat up petitions2 schools were swept wholesale for signatures1 not only in ,england but abroad2#agh and large employers of labour were got to procure the signatures of employees en masse1 reluctant workers being not obscurely threatened with the consequences of refusal4 ,by these means half a million signatures were got up by the #bcrd of ,april1 the great majority being those of school-children and coerced employees4 ,tantum religio----4 ,the ,tory press likewise put its best foot foremost4 ,in the ,st ,james's ,gazette of #bbnd ,february1 ,mr ,greenwood made an abominable attack on ,bradlaugh1 the foulest of many foul blows1 describing him as a preacher of certain theories of the sexual relation which1 in the opinion of the great majority of ,englishmen1 are not only immoral but filthy1 going on to speak of him as having long been known as the publisher of an obscene tract1 and representing him as an advocate of ,free ,love1 and sundry other doctrines and practices which benefit greatly by the impossibility of referring to them distinctly among decent people4 ,the pamphlet formerly put together by ,varley1 largely consisting of matter ,bradlaugh never wrote1 falsified even at that1 and partly of passages from him1 wrested from their context and falsified in application1 was circulated more widely than ever4 ,many members of ,parliament repeated the palpable falsehood that ,bradlaugh had been declared by the ,house of ,commons and the courts of law incapable of sitting in ,parliament2 and ,mr ,h4 ,s4 ,northcote1 son of ,sir ,stafford1 in addition to making this statement to his constituents at ,exeter1 told them that when ,mr ,bradlaugh led a mob of unwashed ruffians down to ,parliament ,yard the ,government introduced their ,bill4 ,footnote #agh3 ,a barrister wrote to ,bradlaugh enclosing a letter from his daughter1 aged fifteen1 at school at ,frankfort1 telling how the ,english chaplain there called and asked all the ,english girls at the school to sign a petition against the ,affirmation ,bill 7,national ,reformer1 #aeth ,april #ahhc74 ,on the second reading1 ,sir ,richard ,cross opened the opposition1 and began by making the statement that it was a former ,government whip1 ,mr ,adam1 who first invited ,mr ,bradlaugh to go to ,northampton--the grossest form ever given to that particular untruth4 ,he was seconded by ,mr ,m',cullagh ,torrens1 a nominal ,liberal1 who in his work on ,empire in ,asia had affected a high esteem for the principle of religious toleration--in other countries4 ,the ,bill1 he said1 tended to begin the abjuring of all responsibilities to heaven4 ,mr ,w4 ,e4 ,baxter1 following1 declared that not only had ,atheists been members of ,parliament1 but they had sat on the ,treasury ,bench--and a member called out ,and sit6 ,giffard1 seeking his revenge at once on ,bradlaugh and ,lord ,coleridge1 repeated without the smallest fear of contradiction that ,christianity was a part of the common law of the kingdom4 ,mr ,illingworth happening to speak of recreant members of the ,jewish community1 ,baron de ,worms rose to order1 and the ,speaker ruled the term out of order4 ,none of the epithets directed at the ,atheist had struck him in that light4 ,the debate was thrice adjourned4 ,on #bfth ,april ,sir ,h4 ,d4 ,wolff took it upon him to accuse ,lord ,chancellor ,selborne of using his position to help his political party2 and ,lord ,r4 ,churchill1 in a later speech1 said the same thing of ,lord ,coleridge4 ,on the ,liberal side1 ,gladstone made the greatest speech delivered by him during the whole controversy4 ,at first he was elaborate and deprecatory1 but gradually he rose to warmth and cogency4 ,do you suppose1 he asked-- ,do you suppose that we are ignorant that in every contested election which has happened since the case of ,mr ,bradlaugh came up you have gained votes and we have lost them8 7,opposition cheers and counter cheers47 ,you are perfectly aware of it4 ,we are not less aware of it4 ,but if you are perfectly aware of it1 is not some credit to be given to us--we giving you the same under circumstances rather more difficult--for presumptive integrity and purity of motive8 ,it was a nave and a vain appeal1 but the speech was none the less fine4 ,the most powerful part of its argument was the demonstration that those who consented to drop the ,christian element from the oath and held by the ,theistic were treating ,christianity1 as such1 as a thing that could be dispensed with4 ,i am not willing1 sir1 that ,christianity--if the appeal is to be made to us as a ,christian legislature--shall stand in any rank lower than that which is indispensable4 ,he would not accept bare ,theism as the main thing4 ,the adoption of such a proposition as that--and it is at the very root of your contention--seems to me in the highest degree disparaging to the ,christian faith4 ,and then1 contending that a bare belief in a remote and abstract ,deity could exist with a complete disbelief in that ,deity's having any relation with men1 he rolled out the noble and majestic lines1 for such they are1 of the ,latin poet3-- ,omnis enim per se divom natura necesse'st ,immortali aevo summa cum pace fruatur ,semota ab nostris rebus sejunctaque longe2 ,nam privata dolore omni1 private periclis1 ,ipsa suis pollens opibus1 nil indiga nostri ,nec bene promeritis capitur neque tangitur ira4#agi ,footnote #agi3 ,lucretius1 ii4 #fdf-fea4 ,it was thought notable that the orator did not allude to the kindred passage in his beloved ,homer 7,odyssey1 vi4 #da71 splendidly rendered by ,lucretius 7iii4 #ah-bb71 and choicely paraphrased by ,tennyson in his poem ,lucretius4 ,the best expression in ,english verse of the idea in the passage quoted by ,gladstone is again ,tennyson's--the great passage a the close of the ,lotos ,eaters4 ,there was no one to follow him up with a citation of the lines which follow on these where they used to stand misplaced in the first book of ,lucretius' poem3-- ,humana ante oculos foede cum vita jaceret ,in terris oppressa gravi sub religione2 but some listeners there must have been who bethought them how perfectly this long controversy had answered to the ,roman's picture of life crushed to the earth under the weight of religion2 and they may fitly have murmured primum ,graius homo of the man whose long battle was even then visibly tending to relieve them one day of the old hypocrisy of adjuring the unknown ,god4 ,touching his mother earth of classic verse1 ,gladstone drew new strength of eloquence4 ,the ,deity exists1 as those ,i must say magnificent words set forth1 in the remote1 inaccessible recesses of which we know nothing1 but with us it has no dealing1 with us it has no relation4 ,i have purposely gone back to ancient times1 but ,i do not hesitate to say that the specific evil or specific form of irreligion with which in the educated society of this country you have to contend1 and with respect to which you ought to be on your guard1 is not blank ,atheism4 ,that is a rare opinion that is seldom met with2 but what is frequently met with are those forms of opinion which say that whatever is beyond the visible scene1 whatever there be beyond this short span of life1 you know1 and can know1 nothing of it4 ,it is a visionary and bootless undertaking to try to fathom it4 ,that1 sir1 is the specific mischief of the age2 but that mischief of the age you do not attempt to touch4444 ,whom do you seek to admit8 ,you seek to admit ,voltaire4 ,you would admit ,voltaire1 and that is a specimen of your liberality4 ,voltaire was no taciturn unbeliever4 ,he was the author of that phrase which goes to the heart of every ,christian1 and of many a professor of religion who is not a ,christian--',ecrasez l',infme4' ,voltaire would not have had the slightest difficulty in taking your oath2 and yet that is the state of the law for which you are working up the country to madness4 7,loud ministerial cheers47 ,speeches followed varying between imbecility and commonplace2 and on the debate being again adjourned1 it was re-opened 7#ast ,may7 by ,churchill in a speech of characteristic scurrility4 ,the personal supporters of the representative of ,atheism1 said the noble ,lord1 were the residuum1 and the rabble1 and the scum of the population4 ,the bulk of them were men to whom all restraint1 religious1 moral1 or legal1 was odious and intolerable4 ,an effective reply to other parts of the speech was made by ,mr ,labouchere1 who incidentally made the startling revelation that to his knowledge there were several members who had never taken the oath at all1 having signed the roll1 but missed swearing in the scramble for the ,testaments4 ,at length1 on a third adjournment1 the question came to the vote4 ,northcote made an ignominious speech1 in which he defended himself on the point of having formerly urged that special legislation was the right course for the ,government to take4 ,he admitted that he had said so1 but contended that saying so did not commit him to voting for that course when taken4 ,the positive part of the argument was worthy of the negative4 ,but bad as the pleading on the ,tory side was1 it had with it a majority of votes4 ,on the division there voted only #bhi for the second reading1 and #bib against4 ,irish and renegade ,liberal votes had just turned the scale2 and it was noted that in the majority there voted several members too drunk to walk straight without support4#ahj ,the result was received with a positive frenzy of delight by the ,tories and their ,home ,rule allies1 all alike shouting that they had beaten ,bradlaugh4 ,the ,irish have beaten ,bradlaugh1 was the cry of ,mr ,sexton4 ,the ,liberals who voted with the majority were the three ,hon4 ,fitzwilliams of ,yorkshire1 ,sir ,edward ,watkin1#aha ,dr ,lyons1 ,messrs ,guest1 ,nicholson1 and ,torrens1 and ,mr ,jerningham1 a ,roman ,catholic1 who had owed his recent election for ,berwick mainly to his having promised to support ,bradlaugh's claim to sit1 and who all along broke his word in the ,house4#ahb ,footnote #ahj3 ,bradlaugh later publicly specified ,newdegate as having been tipsy1 not for the first time2 and ,newdegate1 though denying the charge1 did not bring an action for libel4 ,footnote #aha3 ,it should be said that ,sir ,edward ,watkin is understood to regret his action4 ,footnote #ahb3 ,mr ,jerningham defended himself by asserting that ,bradlaugh had written a ,comic ,history of ,christ1 which was one lie more4 ,on being corrected1 he told another1 saying that ,bradlaugh admitted having written the ,introduction4 ,bradlaugh without hesitation took his usual course1 with a difference4 ,he sent a letter to the ,speaker1 asking to be called to the table in the usual way to take the oath1 and1 in the case of that course being declined1 to be heard at the bar4 ,on #dth ,may he duly re-presented himself at the bar1 and the letter was read by the ,speaker4 ,northcote moved as usual that ,bradlaugh be not allowed to swear2 and ,mr ,labouchere moved that he be heard at the bar1 which being allowed1 he made his ,fourth ,speech at the ,bar4 ,it was comparatively brief1 tersely repeating the old pleas1 and the old protest-- ,i submit that any hindrance which is not prescribed by law is an act which in itself is flagrantly wrong1 whoever may commit it1 and that the mere fact that a majority of voices in one ,chamber may prevent a citizen from appealing to the law in no sense lessens the iniquity of the illegal act1 and that history will so judge it1 whatever to-day you may think it your right and your duty to do4 ,after disposing of the old falsehood that the late ,liberal whip had recommended him to the ,northampton electors1 he remarked3-- ,i have always regarded the ,liberal party as standing in the way of my election1 rather than as in any way helping my return4 ,this1 however1 ,i submit1 was matter unworthy of this ,house4 ,no such consideration has ever entered at any time into the discussion of any other candidature4 ,i submit that a great ,house1 which claims the powers of one of the highest courts of these realms1 should try to be judicial4 ,again he exposed the persistent lie that he had paraded his views1 pointing out that even when1 at official request1 he named the statutes under which he claimed to affirm1 he did not in law profess ,atheism1 since a ,theist was legally incompetent to swear if he did not believe in future rewards and punishments1 and such ,theists were only entitled to affirm under the ,acts under which he claimed4 ,again he protested that he had never uttered his opinions in the ,house4 ,under great temptation ,i have refrained from saying a word which could wound the feelings of the most religious1 although ,i have heard within these walls1 within but a few hours1 language used by one who had declared his religion which ,i should have felt ashamed to use in any decent assembly4 ,this referred to an exhibition by ,callan1 the ,catholic henchman of ,cardinal ,manning1 who had repeatedly appeared in the ,house drunk1 and who1 in the division of the #crd1 had used such filthy and blasphemous language towards another ,irish member who proposed to vote for ,bradlaugh1 that he had to make a formal apology to prevent the matter being raised4 ,on #cjth ,april1 in the adjourned debate1 another ,irish member1 ,m',coan1 had read some of the false quotations compiled by ,varley1 and1 on being challenged1 impudently asserted that ,bradlaugh had never repudiated them4 ,a third ,irish member1 ,mr ,o',brien1 had observed that he did not believe that any greater number of persons favoured ,mr ,bradlaugh than would be content to go naked through the streets4 ,yet another religious member1 an ,english ,tory1 ,mr ,ritchie1 had declared that the ,affirmation ,bill would be the triumph of ,atheism and ,socialism1 and further quoted to the ,house1 as words used by ,bradlaugh1 words which he had never used1 and which were described in the very document quoted as taken from a report for which he was not responsible4 ,the filthy book1 too1 had been mentioned2 and on this ,bradlaugh read the words of ,lord ,chief ,justice ,cockburn1 hereinbefore printed1 with the exculpatory words of the jury4 ,but all these things1 he added1 although they were as true as they are false1 give you no right to stand between me and my seat4 ,his peroration was perfect3-- ,i heard a strange phrase from a noble lord1 that both sides had gone too far to recede4 ,the ,house honours me too much in putting me on one side and itself on the other4 ,the ,house1 being strong1 should be generous4 ,the strong can recede1 the generous can give way2 but the constituents have a right to more than generosity--they have a right to justice4 7,cheers47 ,the law gives me my seat4 ,in the name of the law ,i ask for it4 ,i regret that my personality overshadows the principles involved in this great struggle2 but ,i would ask those who have touched my life1 not knowing it1 who have found for me vices which ,i do not remember in the memory of my life1 ,i would ask them whether all can afford to cast the first stone--7cheers7--or whether1 condemning me for my unworthiness1 they will as just judges vacate their own seats1 having deprived my constituents of their right here to mine4 7,loud cheers47 ,it remained to discuss the closing step1 as usual4 ,mr ,labouchere moved the previous question in a speech which pointedly raised the issue of the actual presence of other ,atheists in the ,house4 ,since ,mr ,bradlaugh has been re-elected--since you refused to allow him to take the oath--it is well known by every member of this ,house that a gentleman has been elected who is of great position in the literary world2 and every man who knows anything of ,english literature knows perfectly well that that gentleman has avowed himself to be an unbeliever in a superintending ,providence as clearly as ,professor ,huxley himself4 7',hear1 hear4'7 ,i ask1 is it not monstrous hypocrisy to allow that hon4 member to take the oath1 and prevent ,mr ,bradlaugh from taking it1 because you assert that three years ago he had stated within the precincts of this ,house that he was an ,atheist8 ,the member referred to was ,mr ,john ,morley1 who1 destined to be ,mr ,gladstone's most trusted lieutenant1 had listened to the ,premier's account of the mischief of the age1 but had taken no part in the debate4 ,his ,atheism1 or non-,theism1 was as notorious as ,bradlaugh's4 ,it had been zealously used against him by the ,tories in his recent election at ,newcastle4 ,the fact that he had spelt ',god' with a small 'g' through a whole book was known to the whole newspaper-reading public2 and the ,tories would certainly have been glad enough to exclude him if they could4 ,but they knew all along that there were ,atheists on their own side2 and ,mr ,morley's case could not be raised without raising these4 ,so the profanation of the oath was permitted without a murmur by the party which had declared itself incapable of tolerating such a thing2 and the flagitious persecution of the avowed ,atheist was recommenced all the same4 ,to ,mr ,labouchere's charge of monstrous hypocrisy no answer was attempted4 ,gladstone and ,northcote with one consent ignored it4 ,on a division1 though ,gladstone supported ,mr ,labouchere's motion 7which if carried would have enabled ,bradlaugh to take the oath71 only #afe voted for it1 and #bga against4 #bj4 ,three years had now passed since ,bradlaugh first sought to take the seat to which he was alike morally and legally entitled--three years of manifold exhausting and sorely burdensome strife1 of iniquitous and vile calumny1 of lawless and shameful persecution1 in part brutally fanatical1 in part dishonest and hypocritical in the lowest degree4 ,it had been made to embrace all who were closely connected with him4 ,first ,mrs ,besant was insultingly refused leave to use the garden of the ,royal ,botanic ,society for her studies1 on the score that the daughters of the ,curator used it4 ,later 7#ahhc7 the ,misses ,bradlaugh were denied membership of the ,somerville 7,women's7 ,club on the score that their names were sufficient objection4 ,yet later 7#bnd ,may #ahhc7 ,mrs ,besant and ,miss ,bradlaugh were refused admittance to the practical ,botany ,class at ,university ,college1 ,london4 ,on applying by letter1 they were requested to present themselves1 and then they were told in person by the secretary and the lady superintendent that they could not be admitted1 because there was some prejudice against them4 ,it seemed as if nothing short of the personal insult would suffice the officials concerned2 but the ,council#ahc endorsed their action at its meeting of #gth ,may1 though the very purpose for which the ,college had been founded was to dispense with religious qualifications4 ,a memorial requesting the ,council to summon an extraordinary general meeting to consider this action was signed by1 among others1 ,professors ,huxley1 ,bain1 and ,frankland1 and ,dr ,e4 ,b4 ,tylor2 but on the meeting being held1 the medical graduates came in large numbers to support the action of the ,council1 greatly outvoting the others4 ,only nine voted against4 ,the ,university ,college was thus committed to a course of ethical rivalry with the ,house of ,commons1 outdoing that body1 however1 in declining to assign any reason for its action4 ,at the meeting ,mr ,justice ,denman took an active part in justifying the action of the ,council1 and it went from him to the country that the excluded ladies had refused to comply with the rules of the ,college4 ,this was pure fiction4 ,mrs ,besant described it at the time as a cruel and malignant falsehood1 for we complied with every condition laid down to us4 ,informed of his mis-statement1 ,mr ,justice ,denman made no correction4 ,later in the year an attempt was made to deprive of his chair a ,professor of ,mathematics in the ,south ,wales ,university1 ,mr ,lloyd ,tanner1 who was a member of the ,national ,secular ,society1 and had helped the movement in support of ,bradlaugh's claim4 ,it was1 however1 defeated by a majority of votes4 ,footnote #ahc3 ,the ,president was ,lord ,kimberley2 the ,treasurer ,sir ,julian ,goldsmid2 and the ,council included ,lord ,belper1 ,sir ,b4 ,n4 ,ellis1 ,sir ,a4 ,hobhouse1 ,lord ,reay1 and ,sir ,george ,young4 ,i cannot ascertain who were present1 save that ,sir ,a4 ,hobhouse was one4 ,these endless acts of persecution1 parodied as they were in a thousand acts of less publicity1 only roused the persecuted party to more energetic action4 ,the ,freethought propaganda was carried further than ever1 and naturally did not grow more gentle4 ,on the political side1 ,bradlaugh set himself afresh to rouse the constituencies1 bating no jot of heart or hope4 ,to his own constituents he offered his resignation if they wished it1 and once more they emphatically refused4 ,he accordingly issued one more ,appeal to the ,people1 organised a series of addresses and demonstrations in the large towns1 and in particular took fresh steps for overthrowing the ,liberals who had helped to throw out the ,affirmation ,bill4 ,previous menaces had reduced the number of these renegades in the last trial of strength2 and ,torrens in particular now received hundreds of letters warning him that he need not again stand for ,finsbury4 ,in the course of a few months1 ,bradlaugh had addressed audiences numbering in all over #cjj1jjj1 and nearly all were unanimously in his favour1 while at none did the malcontents number above two per cent4 ,in some towns1 as at ,halifax and ,leeds1 he had enormous open-air demonstrations1 the numbers coming to some fifty thousand4 ,a densely packed meeting took place in ,st ,james's ,hall in ,july2 and another ,trafalgar ,square demonstration was held in ,august1 attended by some thirty thousand men1 of whom hundreds came as delegates from the provinces2 and concurrently with these constitutional gatherings there was carried on the work of the ,association for the ,repeal of the ,blasphemy ,laws1 largely conducted by advanced ,unitarian clergymen1 who worked with a disinterested zeal worthy of the very highest praise1 considering how little of personal sympathy they could have had with the imprisoned ,freethinkers4 ,in the way of more direct action1 ,bradlaugh on #eth ,july notified ,gladstone that he proposed again to present himself to take the oath1 and on the #ith ,northcote interrogated the ,premier on the subject4 ,left to do as he would1 ,northcote once more moved that ,bradlaugh be excluded from the ,house until he should engage not to disturb its proceedings2 and on a division #bcb voted for the motion and only #fe against1 ,gladstone deprecating any division at all4 ,on the next day1 on receipt of the order of exclusion1 ,bradlaugh notified ,captain ,gossett1 the ,sergeant-at-,arms1 that if ,captain ,gossett would say he interpreted the order to involve the use of physical force to resist ,bradlaugh's entry1 he would take legal proceedings to obtain a restraining injunction from the ,high ,court of ,justice against such resistance4 ,in this way the legal question might be raised and settled without a fresh scuffle4 ,in the ,house the ,speaker declined to let this letter be made ground of discussion as a matter of privilege1 though he allowed the letter to ,gladstone to be so treated4 ,the ,sergeant-at-,arms1 however1 made the requisite answer1 and the action was duly begun 7#aith ,july74 ,the ,treasury defended1 and on ,bradlaugh's appeal the case was tried by a full ,court4 ,it came on before ,lord ,chief ,justice ,coleridge1 ,mr ,justice ,stephen1 and ,mr ,justice ,mathew1 on #gth ,december1 the defence arguing by ,demurrer to the ,statement of ,claim4 ,bradlaugh's pleading was one long argument with the judges1 who followed him with great care2 and on #ith ,february #ahhd they gave their judgment1 not unexpectedly1 against him4 ,the view taken was1 broadly1 that if injustice has been done1 it is an injustice for which the courts of law afford no remedy1 which had been the contention of the ,attorney-,general4 ,mr ,justice ,stephen1 while concurring with ,lord ,coleridge to the above effect1 delivered a separate and very careful judgment4 ,they could not1 he said in effect1 assume that the ,house intentionally defied the law4 ,it must have supposed it was within the law4 ,then the ,court could not pronounce its action illegal without hearing its reasons4 ,but the ,house could not without loss of dignity give the ,court its reasons1 or allow the ,court to overrule them4 ,therefore the plaintiff1 right or wrong1 had no legal redress4 ,if wronged1 he must go to the constituencies4 ,in fine1 the breaking of any law by the ,house in its own procedure would not be illegal1 or1 if it were1 the illegality could not be redressed by the law courts4 ,the ,house of ,commons might be restrained in the case of an illegal order against a stranger1 but not in the case of an illegal order against one of its own members4 ,if it erred or did injustice1 it was in the position of an erring or unjust judge1 from whose decision there was no appeal4 ,the rights of the constituency of ,northampton and their member were strictly legal rights2 but it lay with the ,house to override them if it would4 ,expecting this decision1 ,bradlaugh had already laid the new situation before his constituents1 in order to have their assent to his action on the re-opening of ,parliament1 and once more they declared their entire confidence in him4 ,he had also arranged with the ,tories1 through his colleague1 to take no action in the ,house before #aath ,february1 if they would take none4 ,his course now was to go to the ,house on #aath ,february1 go up to the table with ,mr ,labouchere and ,mr ,burt as his introducers1 and once more administer the oath to himself4 ,the ,speaker gave the customary order to withdraw1 and ,northcote1 after stating that ,bradlaugh had not taken the oath according to the statute1 absurdly moved that he be not allowed to go through the form of repeating the words of the oath prescribed by the statutes4 ,then ensued the customary miscellaneous debate4 ,gladstone at much length suggested that there should be no division4 ,mr ,labouchere offered to agree if ,northcote would limit his motion to the time within which it would be possible to obtain a legal decision on the legality of ,bradlaugh's latest act of self-swearing2 but ,northcote would not agree1 and ,mr ,labouchere proceeded forcibly to argue the point1 not only declaring the act to be in his opinion legal1 but adding3-- ,i confess that1 for my part1 ,i do regard these words of the oath which ,bradlaugh had called an unmeaning form as an utterly unmeaning form--7,opposition cries of ',oh1 oh'7--utterly and absolutely an unmeaning form4 ,to me they are just the same superstitious incantation--7',hear1 hear1' laughter1 ',oh1 oh1' and ',order'7--as the trash of any ,mumbo-,jumbo among ,african savages4 7,renewed laughter1 cries of ',oh1 oh1' and ',order4'7 ,why do hon4 gentlemen say ',oh1 oh'8 ,are they aware that there are many in this ,house who regard these words as a blasphemous form8 7',hear1 hear4'7 ,i say ,i regard them as an unmeaning form4 ,from this point at least1 if not before1 the proceedings against ,bradlaugh in the ,house may without fear of contradiction be described as an indecent farce4 ,his colleague had in the most aggressive fashion1 and within the ,house1 declared the oath to be in his opinion a superstitious1 barbarous1 and senseless incantation4 ,mr ,john ,morley1 as ,positivist1 had taken the oath without contradiction4 ,and before either of these episodes ,mr ,ashton ,dilke1 whose vacated seat for ,newcastle ,mr ,morley obtained1 had declared in the ,house1 in course of debate1 that he was without belief in the reigning religion4 ,bradlaugh1 who heard the avowal1 remarked on the stilled surprise with which it was received4 ,but no one ever sought to challenge the right of ,mr ,dilke1 ,mr ,morley1 or ,mr ,labouchere to sit in virtue of having taken an unbelieving oath4 ,the ,tory talk in the ,house of profanation is thus stamped once for all as a tissue of the worst hypocrisy2 and the ,tory leader and all his men stand convicted of a course of dissimulation as cowardly as it was shameless4 ,they would attack the unpopular man2 they would not obstruct ,mr ,morley1 since that would bring up the question of ,tory ,atheism2 they would not proceed against ,mr ,labouchere1 since he was likely to publish in his journal the names of some of the ,tory ,atheists4 ,gross as it had become1 the farce went on4 ,forster1 who now spoke on the subject for the first time1 gave a touch of dignity to the debate by protesting against ,mr ,labouchere's remarks on the oath 7though without proposing to have him proceeded against71 and saying1 as ,gladstone and others had said before1 that the opposition to ,bradlaugh was one of the greatest blows against the cause of religion that had been struck for many years4 ,northcote1 making no comment whatever on ,mr ,labouchere's hardy avowal1 briefly explained the force of his motion2 and after this irregularity the debate grew more and more confused4 ,it was known that ,bradlaugh meant as before to vote in the division2 and the ,speaker was repeatedly appealed to to prevent it4 ,he declared he had not the power2 and ,mr ,healy--in one of a series of grossly insolent speeches1 in which he spoke of the ,government1 ,bradlaugh ,co4--moved immediately after the division1 before the numbers were announced1 that the vote be expunged4 ,after much squabbling1 the ,house divided on this point1 when there voted #beh ,ayes and #afa ,noes4 ,bradlaugh's vote with the ,noes was thus disallowed2 but after the voting on the original motion had been stated--#bhj ,ayes and #afg ,noes--,mr ,labouchere announced that ,bradlaugh had voted with the ,noes on the motion to expunge his previous vote4 ,the farce was thus pretty complete4 ,northcote then made his usual motion to exclude ,bradlaugh from the precincts of the ,house until he shall engage not further to disturb the proceedings of the ,house4 ,again the debate broke out4 ,mr ,labouchere offered to undertake that if the motion was withdrawn ,bradlaugh should not disturb the proceedings until he had obtained a legal decision on this last oath-taking2 and ,gladstone and ,bright pointed out the hardship and indignity of excluding ,bradlaugh from the very library and lobbies of the ,house2 but ,northcote1 swayed as usual by the worst of his followers1 pressed his motion1 disregarding ,mr ,burt's final repetition of the undertaking that ,bradlaugh should not disturb the proceedings till his law case was settled4 ,on a division1 #bbh voted for the final indignity1 and only #abj against4 ,the farce had become as ignoble as meanness could make it2 and ,northcote was admitted by most people to have fully realised the character in which he was more than once presented by the caricaturists--of pantaloon to ,churchill's clown in the ,tory pantomime4 ,churchill took the lead on the following evening when1 ,bradlaugh having applied for the ,chiltern ,hundreds1 ,mr ,labouchere moved that a new writ be issued for ,northampton4#ahd ,the hereditarily noble lord saw that if ,bradlaugh were re-elected they would be no further forward2 and his object was to exclude him permanently4 ,he had lately given notice of a motion that ,bradlaugh be declared incapable in perpetuity of sitting1 but had dropped it as hopeless4 ,he now moved the adjournment of the debate4 ,a straggling and noisy debate ensued1 in which ,mr ,healy was pronounced disorderly by the ,speaker for his interruptions of ,northcote1 whose ally he had been4 ,on a division1 only #ade voted for the adjournment1 and #bjc against4 ,then more discussion as to whether the ,chancellor of the ,exchequer had the right to grant the ,chiltern ,hundreds1 the motion for the new writ being finally agreed to4 ,footnote #ahd3 ,in this case the ,government arranged to sue ,bradlaugh in the ,courts for the penalties that would be incurred if his last oath-taking and voting were pronounced illegal by the ,courts4 ,it was accordingly left to ,bradlaugh to vacate his seat by his own act4 ,unseated for the third time since his perfectly valid return in #ahhj1 ,bradlaugh appealed to his constituents to elect him for the fourth time1 and was received by them with if possible greater enthusiasm than ever4 ,a new ,tory candidate1 ,mr ,h4 ,c4 ,richards1 had been for some time in the field1 and the seat was fought in the old fashion2 but whether owing to the feebleness of the candidate1 whom ,bradlaugh generally treated with humorous contempt1 or a sense of shame among some of the local ,tories1 the opposition vote now fell away4 ,the forces of bigotry had squeezed the last possible vote out of the borough1 and after a short and strenuous struggle the poll 7#aith ,february #ahhd7 ran3 ,bradlaugh1 #djcb2 ,richards1 #cffd4 ,bradlaugh had clearly touched bottom1 and begun to rise again4 ,at the general election he had polled #chbg1 and been #fie above the highest ,tory2 in #ahha he had only polled #cdcg1 a majority of only #acb2 in #ahhb1 polling #cgif1 he was only #ajh above his opponent with #cfhh2 now he had reached a higher figure than ever1 polling #cfh more than the ,tory1 who was #bd below the last ,tory vote4 ,the ,tory game was now hopeless so far as ,northampton was concerned4 ,the badgered ,northcote1 goaded by his lawless following1 now proposed to take the step of preventing ,bradlaugh from entering the ,house on his new return4 ,learning this1 ,bradlaugh on the #bjth wrote a letter of protest to the ,speaker and the ,premier1 and the anticipatory course was prevented4 ,but when on the #bast the ,speaker read to the ,house a second letter in which ,bradlaugh formally undertook 7as his introducers had undertaken for him before7 not to present himself at the table until judgment should be given in the test action to be laid against him by the ,government4 ,all the same1 ,northcote moved1 amid cries of ,shame1 his old resolution of exclusion from the precincts4 ,the ,tory army had to be solaced somehow for ,bradlaugh's decisive victory at the poll4 ,gladstone opposed1 and yet again there was a miscellaneous debate1 in the course of which ,churchill made the worthy suggestion that the ,government meant that ,mr ,bradlaugh was to be allowed once more to appeal to the mob1 in order that not only the ,house of ,commons might be prejudiced1 but that even the courts of law might be biased by the demonstration in his favour4 ,on a division1 #bbf voted for ,northcote's motion and only #agc against4 ,bradlaugh was now denied the use of the ,house's library for the lawsuit pending against him on the ,house's behalf4 ,he addressed to ,northcote1 and printed in his journal1 an open letter touched with indignant contempt4 ,the critical part of the letter1 and perhaps the special sting of some of the phrases--as1 ,you wear knightly orders4 ,you should be above a knave's spitefulness--moved ,northcote to send a long defensive reply1 repeating the profanation formula1 and concluding3 ,the inconveniences of which you complain are inconveniences which you might1 if you chose1 put an end to to-morrow--which meant that ,bradlaugh might have the use of the ,house if only he would undertake never again under any circumstances to try to take his seat4 ,to this knightly suggestion#ahe ,bradlaugh replied with perhaps too scrupulous courtesy of form1 but with sufficient emphasis1 and turned himself once more to the struggle outside4 ,footnote #ahe3 ,the harping on the chivalry of ,northcote by ,mr ,lang and others is an interesting light on the nature of their ideals4 ,northcote was certainly more of a gentleman than were his accomplices in the ,bradlaugh struggle1 but barring his comparative moderation1 there was not a gleam of chivalry in his whole conduct of the business4 ,as for the mass of his followers1 they had1 as ,sir ,george ,trevelyan has said of the ,tories who ostracised ,wilkes1 as much chivalry in them as a pack of prairie wolves round a wounded buffalo4 ,mr ,lang 7,life1 ii4 #acf7 writes that an acute and well-informed critic has singled out ,sir ,stafford ,northcote's treatment of the questions raised by ,mr ,bradlaugh as the best example of ,sir ,stafford ,northcote's tact and adroitness4 ,the adroitness need not be disputed4 ,but ,mr ,lang1 on his own part1 holds that it would throw no light on ,sir ,stafford ,northcote's leadership to follow the details of this tedious and protracted struggle4 ,for light and leadership1 read credit and character1 and the proposition would be quite valid4 #ba4 ,from this point forward it is difficult to record the course of the ,parliamentary struggle with the serious patience hitherto spent on the narrative4 ,on the side of the ,house it had become a revolting hypocrisy1 since ,bradlaugh was being ostracised for what other men were allowed to do freely2 and the form of legality put on in the resort to the law courts was only a new simulation4 ,the law courts had declared that they could have no possible jurisdiction over the ,house in such matters however it might break the law1 and still the ,house was formally proceeding to obtain from the law courts penalties against ,bradlaugh for trying to fulfil the law when the ,house hindered him4 ,the ,house knew quite well that if it had even declared him entitled to affirm under the existing law1 no court would have decided otherwise4 ,the hostile decision was here a foregone conclusion2 for a fortiori the courts1 after their last emphatic decision1 would not prevent the ,house from interpreting the law as to swearing in its own way4 ,only the strenuous energy of ,bradlaugh1 joined with his chivalrous belief in the ideal rectitude and jurisdiction of the judges1 could have set any man in his position on a fresh legal adventure4 ,begun in ,march #ahhd1 the lawsuit at the instance of the ,government came on before ,lord ,chief ,justice ,coleridge1 ,mr ,justice ,grove1 ,mr ,baron ,huddleston1 sitting at bar1 and a special jury1 on #acth1 #aeth1 #agth1 and #ahth ,june4 ,against ,bradlaugh were arrayed five counsel1--the ,attorney-,general1 the ,solicitor-,general1 ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard1 ,mr ,danckwertz1 and ,mr ,r4 ,s4 ,wright1 and the case was argued at enormous length on a multitude of minuti as to ,bradlaugh's original evidence before the first ,select ,committee1 the practice of the ,house1 the position of the ,speaker on #aath ,february1 the law as to what constituted the oath1 the force of an oath taken by an atheist1 and so on4 ,after two delays1 caused by the illness of ,lord ,coleridge1 his summing-up1 which was proportionately long and elaborate1 was given on #cjth ,june4 ,it advised the jury that the weight of evidence was to show that ,bradlaugh was all along an unbeliever in a ,supreme ,being--a point which ,bradlaugh argued should not have been raised--that in law a person on whose conscience an oath would have no binding effect was a person who could not legally take a oath2 and that ,bradlaugh had not taken the oath in accordance with the practice of ,parliament4 ,the other judges concurred2 but ,lord ,coleridge having spoken of inquisitorial questions on belief in general 7not those in the ,bradlaugh case in particular7 as hateful and disgusting1 ,mr ,baron ,huddleston desired to express dissent on that head1 while ,mr ,justice ,grove said he would call them1 to use a mild term1 extremely objectionable4 ,the ,lord ,chief ,justice1 remarking that he felt strongly on the matter1 gracefully agreed that his words should be discounted on that score4 ,formally1 there went to the jury eight questions1 to this effect3 7#a7 ,was the ,speaker sitting when ,bradlaugh took the oath on #aath ,february8 7#b7 ,was he sitting to prepare notes for use in addressing ,bradlaugh8 7#c7 ,had he resumed his seat to let ,bradlaugh swear8 7#d7 ,was ,bradlaugh then without belief in a ,supreme ,being8 7#e7 ,was he a person on whose conscience an oath1 as an oath1 had no binding force8 7#f7 ,had the ,house full cognisance of these matters through ,bradlaugh's avowal8 7#g7 ,did he take the oath according to ,parliamentary practice8 7#h7 ,generally1 did he take and subscribe the oath8 ,the jury's answers were1 in brief3--7#a7 ,sitting2 7#b7 ,sitting to prepare notes as stated2 7#c7 ,no2 7#d7 ,he had no such belief2 7#e7 ,yes2 7#f7 ,yes2 7#g7 ,not according to the full practice2 7#h7 ,not as an oath4 ,bradlaugh at once asked for a stay of judgment in order to enable him to move for a new trial to move to enter judgment for the defendant non-obstante veredicto1 and to move for arrest of judgment4 ,outsiders had supposed that the jury trial ended the matter1 but it was not so4 ,bradlaugh wrote in his journal undauntedly3 ,if my constituents still give me their confidence1 nothing can defeat me2 and when friends wrote that they could see no hope of good from the wearisome and disappointing litigation1 he characteristically answered3-- ,there are only two weapons to defend the right with3 ,law and ,force4 ,as yet ,i try the law2 and so long as ,i believe1 as ,i do believe1 the law to be on my side1 it is to the law and to public opinion ,i ought to appeal4 ,my opponents rely on force and trick4 ,if the law was actually against me they would take away my seat by law4 ,this they do not even try to do4 ,they hope to weary my constituents1 and to tire and ruin me in this contest4 ,hampden1 resisting ship-money1 fought more than three years in the law courts2 but his wearisome litigation was not quite in vain4 ,wilkes1 backed by ,earl ,temple with purse and power1 struggled with the ,commons through several weary years1 and at last ,middlesex gave him victory4 ,the appeal was1 on the face of it1 a better case than ,bradlaugh had had in defending the action of the ,crown4 ,it came on1 on #fth ,december1 before the same judges1 sitting in banc1 who had tried the action at bar1 ,bradlaugh turning out to be right in his theory of the proper procedure1 whereas the judges had all been avowedly in doubt4 ,but the greater apparent force of the case as now put did not avail4 ,bradlaugh cogently argued that no ,act of ,parliament gave the least countenance to the notion that ,atheists were to be disabled from swearing4 ,the ,parliamentary ,oaths ,act of #ahff1 cap4 xix41 enjoins on members of ,parliament1 with the exception only of those qualified to affirm1 the taking of an oath of allegiance of uniform phrasing1 thus admitting of no disability1 and making an end of any disability which may be supposed to have previously existed4 ,yet again1 an ,act of #ahfg expressly provided that any subject of ,her ,majesty1 without reference to his religious belief1 should take the oath of allegiance on taking office4 ,but ,lord ,coleridge had in the previous trial fully made up his mind that oath must mean adjuration made by one believing in the ,deity adjured1 and he early indicated that this conviction overthrew all arguments from the mere wording of statutes4 ,on the ,act of #ahfg he remarked 7with a discourtesy which for him was unusual1 and which disappears in the report7 that a little common sense and a little knowledge of history would have made the appellant aware that that ,act was passed on behalf of a ,roman ,catholic judge4 ,bradlaugh knew the facts well enough1 and capped the ,lord ,chief ,justice's history with some more1 all going to show that the wish of the legislature had then been to sweep away all religious disabilities whatever4 ,it was all to no purpose4 ,lord ,coleridge was rather a man of strong sentiments than a strong lawyer4 ,he hated all persecution on behalf of religion2 and on behalf of ,messrs ,foote and ,ramsey he stated the law of blasphemy in the mildest possible way--a way to which ,mr ,justice ,stephen1 albeit a rationalist1 declared he could not subscribe4 ,but ,lord ,coleridge was also an emotional ,christian2 and though his admired friend ,arnold would readily have taken the oath without any belief in the ,deity adjured1 his ,lordship was strongly averse to having it taken by an aggressive ,atheist2 and though he must have known perfectly well that in ,parliament there had for generations been known holders of atheistic views1 and that nobody proposed their exclusion1 he yet chose to assume that all laws as to oath-taking were meant to exclude oath-taking by ,atheists4 ,one or two notable passages took place between him and the appellant4 ,lord ,coleridge1 in his nervous irritation at being persistently argued against1 once so far forgot himself as to say ,bradlaugh was wasting time4 ,the charge was too bad3 ,bradlaugh was one of the closest and concisest of pleaders1 as many judges had admitted2 and at a later stage in this trial the ,lord ,chief ,justice took back his words4 ,at another point he somewhat impatiently deprecated a particular line of argument1 and ,bradlaugh quietly answered1 ,my ,lord1 ,i must fight with what weapons ,i can4 ,once or twice more his lordship was rather idly petulant1#ahf but this was transient2 and he was very genial when1 on his remarking1 ,it may be1 of course1 that you are right and we are all wrong1 the appellant answered1 ,with the utmost respect1 my lord1 that is practically what ,i am going to contend4 ,footnote #ahf3 ,i was present at this trial1 and took notes for an article4 ,justice ,grove1 an amiable and fair though unsubtle judge1 argued very courteously 7while incidentally avowing that his sympathies were on the side of minimising oaths7 that the legislature could not be held to have enacted an oath in the tolerant expectation that it would be taken by some men for whom the adjuration had no meaning4 ,that was no doubt a perfectly reasonable point for a judge to put2 but1 on the other hand1 nothing is more common than the plea of judges--it was made by ,justice ,grove himself--that they have only to do with the law as it stands2 and if in this case they were to look into the probable state of mind of the legislature1 it was plainly their business to take into account all the well-known facts of the case1 including the notorious fact that members known to their fellow-members to be ,atheists or ,lucretian ,theists had repeatedly sat in the ,house4 ,their lordships1 of course1 repeated their former decision--,lord ,coleridge giving the very inaccurate reason that no new point or new argument had been raised--and the rule for a new trial was refused4 ,immediately ,bradlaugh appealed2 and the case was heard 7on the motion for a new trial1 and1 secondarily for seven days' time to move for arrest of judgment after the first motion should have been adjudged upon7 in the ,court of ,appeal on #aeth ,december by ,lords ,justices ,brett 7,master of the ,rolls71 ,cotton1 and ,lindley4 ,these judges heard the appeal with great patience1 and on the #ahth gave judgment to the effect that they could not grant a rule for a new trial on the ground that the verdict was against the evidence4 ,but on many other questions in the case which it is not improbable might all be raised upon the appeal by way of arrest of judgment1 they thought it right to grant a rule nisi to show cause upon all the other points taken by the defendant1 upon condition that the appeal in arrest of judgment is brought on at the same time4 ,the argument on this rule was taken on #bfth ,january #ahhe1 when the ,attorney-,general and ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard argued 7a point which had been left open before7 that no appeal lay1 the case being technically a criminal one4 ,this plea1 after voluminous argument1 was overruled--the point being settled by ,bradlaugh's references to portions of the ,crown ,suits ,act which the other side had not dealt with4 ,then came the argument on the main issue4 ,to a lay listener ,lord ,justice ,brett seemed to give a more strictly judicial attention to the problem than did any of the judges who had dealt with it hitherto1 and never was the subject more fully illuminated4 ,in a previous trial ,justice ,grove had noticed the anomaly that whereas an oath or affirmation was set up as a means of securing true answers1 the judge had to satisfy himself beforehand on a witness's bare word as to the nominally all-important point whether an oath would be binding on his conscience4 ,bradlaugh now brought out another no less precious anomaly1 namely1 that the ,speaker1 at the opening of ,parliament1 must of necessity administer the oath to himself2 and that the first forty members must positively break the law1 seeing that they swear while there is not a full ,house sitting4 ,another curious issue was raised by the ,court4 ,an unbeliever could certainly be punished for perjury2 how1 then1 could his oath be no oath1 when perjury expressly meant false testimony given on oath8 ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard's answer was that no man may take profit from his own wrong4 ,it might have been more dramatically put that the ,christian law says to the ,atheist1 ,heads1 we win2 tails1 you lose4 ,despite the fairness of the hearing given1 it soon became apparent that the ,master of the ,rolls held that religious test could only mean test as between different forms of religion1 and that to exclude an ,atheist from civic rights is not to impose a religious test4 ,now1 the ,english tests of last century were as between sects1 not as between religions2 that is1 they were denominational2 that is1 political4 ,still1 they were always known as religious tests4 ,it would surely follow that religious test meant any test connected with religious matters4 ,in that case ,lord ,justice ,brett's distinction was completely arbitrary and fallacious4 ,but on grounds such as these1 among others1 the judgment was given 7#bhth ,january7 against the appellant4 ,it was certainly an able judgment--as able as it was lengthy4 ,it raised1 among other things1 the exquisitely complicated anomaly that ,bradlaugh could satisfy a judge on his bare statement that he was an ,atheist1 and yet1 after affirming on that ground1 could be solemnly examined as to whether he was an ,atheist4 ,and the judge very explicitly laid it down that if a non-believer in a falsehood-punishing ,deity were to take the oath unopposed1 with all the customary formalities1 he could on proof be sued for the penalty of #ejj for every vote he had given4 ,this meant1 if anything1 that the ,atheists or ,agnostics then sitting in ,parliament were all so liable4 ,lord ,justice ,cotton1 with much simplicity1 laid it down that the law of ,england undoubtedly was that if a person in the unhappy position of not believing in a lie-avenging ,deity took the oath1 it was not a real oath4 ,and ,lord ,justice ,lindley1 with a certain cynical candour1 dealt with ,bradlaugh's main argument1 that it was absurd to hold that a man is by law incapable of doing that which the law requires him to do4 ,i agree in the absurdity1 said his lordship1 but not in the argument adduced from it4 ,he held that the only solution would be that the defendant could not be properly elected4 ,it is a mistake to suppose1 said ,lord ,justice ,lindley further1 and ,i think it is as well the mistake should be known1 that persons who do not believe in a ,supreme ,being are in the state in which it is now supposed they are4 ,there are old ,acts of ,parliament still unrepealed by which such people can be cruelly persecuted4 ,whether that is a state of law which ought to remain or not is not for me to express an opinion upon2 but having regard to the fact that these ,acts of ,parliament still remain unrepealed1 ,i do not see my way to hold judicially that this oath was not kept alive by ,parliament for the very purpose1 amongst others1 of keeping such people out of ,parliament4 ,this last deliverance is memorable on several grounds--memorable as showing the need1 from the point of view of one more judge1 for a repeal of the brutal laws of the past against heresy2 and further memorable as showing once more how ready are judges to rest alternately on mutually exclusive principles of interpretation4 ,on the point as to whether the case was one in which an appeal lay1 ,lord ,justice ,lindley grounded his opinion on the fact that there was not to be found in the ,judicature ,act the slightest indication of any intention on the part of the legislature to prevent appeals in cases which were previously made civil proceedings for the purposes of appeals4 ,on the same principle1 he ought to have looked whether there were the slightest indication of any intention on the part of the legislature in modern acts to exclude all ,atheists from oath-taking4 ,there is no such indication4 ,not a word is said of excluding unbelievers4 ,on the contrary1 it was only with difficulty that the legislature could be got to meet the fact that there were many ,atheists who at times had to give testimony in courts of law4 ,had the legislature really desired to exclude all ,atheists from oath-taking it would surely have said so1 knowing as it must have done how common unbelieving oath-taking had been4 ,and all the judges1 as individuals1 must have known perfectly well that privately known ,atheists had sat in every ,parliament for generations4 ,such are the conditions of legal judgment on questions of legal principle4 ,bradlaugh at once gave notice of appeal to the ,house of ,lords2 and1 all things considered1 he had as good chances of success as ever he had4 ,but this litigation had now reached its climax1 and the appeal did not come off4 ,the struggle had gone far towards completing its fifth year1 and relief was almost within sight4 ,it was not to come from legislation4 ,mr ,hopwood had undertaken to introduce an affirmation ,bill grappling with the whole position1 which was not merely an affair of the admission of ,atheists1 but of providing also for certain religionists who1 not being ,quakers1 ,moravians1 or ,separatists1 were not entitled to affirm1 though strongly objecting to the oath4 ,and there were yet further matters to be dealt with1 as the position of freethinking jurors4 ,but the saving credit of passing such a measure was not in store for the ,liberal ,parliament4 ,at the ,liberal ,conference on ,reform in #ahhd1 presided over by ,mr ,john ,morley1 a resolution had been unanimously carried in favour of ,northampton's right2 and at the ,conference of the ,national ,liberal ,federation in #ahhe1 ,mr ,hopwood's ,bill was unanimously approved of2 but though this action was backed up by countless resolutions of ,liberal and ,radical ,clubs1 and hundreds of petitions1#ahg ,footnote #ahg3 ,by ,august1 #fee petitions had been presented1 with #gg1fci signatures4 the ,anglican and ,roman ,churches set to work as zealously as ever to oppose1 the ,liberal ,government would make no attempt to grant facilities in the ,house1 the ,bill was blocked1 and nothing was done while that ,government remained in office4 ,but when1 on their being defeated at their own wish on the ,budget1 a ,conservative ,ministry took office1 ,bradlaugh at once presented himself 7#fth ,july7 to be sworn4 ,he might have presented himself before the re-elected ,tory ministers1 in which case they could not have taken part in the proceedings against him1 but he treated them with the chivalry they never showed to him1 and allowed the ministers first to be sworn in4 ,the new ,chancellor of the ,exchequer1 ,sir ,michael ,hicks ,beach1 took up the matter on the lines of ,northcote1 who was now made a peer1 and moved that ,bradlaugh be as before excluded from the precincts4 ,mr ,parnell and ,mr ,healy went further1 appealing to the ,speaker to have ,bradlaugh 7who was standing below the bar7 wholly excluded from the ,house at once1 before the motion was debated4 ,to this stretch of malice the ,speaker could not accede1 and the debate proceeded in the usual way4 ,mr ,hopwood moved an amendment declaring legislation to be necessary on wider grounds than the interests of a constituency4 ,gladstone1 though deprecating any general legislation on the subject1 supported the amendment4 ,only #bai voted for it1 however1 and #bfc against1 the majority again including many ,home ,rulers and a number of ,liberals1 while many more ,liberals had absented themselves4 ,against most of these1 vigorous measures were taken in the constituencies1 which now had before them the imminent prospect of a fresh general election4 ,in this election it had been arranged that ,bradlaugh should stand for the new borough of ,east ,finsbury1 ,london1 as well as for ,northampton1 on the understanding that if elected for both he should sit for ,northampton4 ,this was a generous attempt on the part of the ,finsbury ,radicals to strengthen his case2 but other ,radical candidates being less generous1 he finally withdrew from the ,finsbury candidature to avoid a split in the ,radical camp4 ,in ,northampton the fight had little excitement in it1 the conclusion being foregone4 ,mr ,richards at one of his meetings claimed credit for avoiding personalities1 and mentioned that he had in his pockets letters from several persons offering to flood ,northampton with slanderous tracts4 ,he did not add that that device had been played out1 and had become just a little unsafe besides4 ,towards the election day virulent placards were resorted to1 from force of habit4 ,bradlaugh did not post a single bill4 ,the poll 7#beth ,november7 stood3--,labouchere1 #dhde2 ,bradlaugh1 #dcae2 ,richards1 #chij2 ,bradlaugh thus standing higher than ever before4 ,the difference between him and his colleague was represented by #cff plumpers for ,mr ,labouchere1 and #cjj votes split with the ,tory1 less #abf plumpers for ,bradlaugh1 and #aj split for him and the ,tory4 ,the news was received everywhere with special enthusiasm4 ,but still more significant was the havoc wrought among those pseudo-,liberal members who had turned the scale against ,bradlaugh in the ,house4 ,mr ,samuel ,morley had been forced to retire from ,bristol1 ,mr ,m',cullagh ,torrens from ,finsbury1 the ,hon4 ,h4 ,w4 ,fitzwilliam from ,dewsbury1 ,mr ,jerningham from ,berwick1 and then later from ,blackpool1 the selection being cancelled before the election2 ,mr ,george ,courtauld1 ,unitarian1 from ,maldon1 ,sir ,alexander ,gordon from ,aberdeenshire1 ,sir ,thomas ,chambers from ,marylebone1 and ,baron de ,ferrires from ,cheltenham4 ,these were all opposed by former supporters on the express ground of their votes in the ,northampton question4 ,others who went to the poll1 again1 were defeated on the same score4 ,mr ,norwood at ,hull was defeated by the running of a special ,radical candidate in protest against his anti-,bradlaugh action in the ,house4 ,mr ,a4 ,p4 ,vivian1 a frequent absentee on the question1 was defeated in ,north-west ,cornwall1 and ,sir ,w4 ,charley at ,ipswich4 ,mr ,b4 ,whitworth1 formerly of ,drogheda1 chosen and then dismissed at ,hackney1 was defeated at ,lewisham4 ,prominent ,tory and other enemies suffered in a hardly less degree4 ,newdegate1 after beginning his candidature1 withdrew rather than meet certain defeat2 ,sir ,henry ,drummond ,wolff was defeated1 so was ,earl ,percy1 so was ,sir ,j4 ,e4 ,wilmot1 so was ,mr ,warton1 so was ,o',donnell4 ,dr ,lyons collapsed at nomination in ,dublin4 ,m',coan was thrown out at ,lancaster1 ,mr ,nicholson at ,petersfield1 and ,mr ,denzil ,onslow at ,poplar4 ,of new ,tory candidates who had been specially offensive in their hostility1 ,mr ,hammond was beaten at ,newcastle1 ,mr ,bruce ,wentworth at ,barnsley1 ,mr ,holloway at ,stroud1 and ,mr ,edwardes-,moss at ,southport4 ,there was no mistaking the ,bradlaugh element in these cases2 and though some ,radicals who had stood by him were also defeated1 as ,mr ,hopwood and ,mr ,hugh ,mason1 that was solely owing to the hostility of the ,irish vote1 then being manoeuvred by ,parnell to weaken the ,liberals4 ,much of the work of destroying the renegade ,liberals had been done by ,bradlaugh in person in his lecturing tours4 ,i think ,i have settled a round dozen of them1 he remarked some time before the election4 ,one former ,liberal member1 who had been his persistent enemy in the ,house1 finding defeat staring him in the face through ,bradlaugh's action1 came to him in his hotel when he was lecturing in the constituency concerned1 and humbled himself to ask for mercy4 ,bradlaugh gravely refused4 ,you are very hard1 whined the petitioner1 who had thought fit to work iniquity with the majority for five long years1 with as little thought of justice as of generosity4 ,the tables thus turned1 it is probable that in the first ,parliament which assembled in #ahhf1 an ,affirmation ,bill could have been carried in the teeth of the ,tory minority1 seeing that even some ,tory members had had to pledge themselves to support such a ,bill2 and ,mr ,serjeant ,simon had arranged to re-introduce ,mr ,hopwood's4 ,but the settlement was precipitated in an unexpected way4 ,bradlaugh wrote ,sir ,michael ,beach asking how the ,government would treat the ,bill if introduced1 and received a non-committal answer4 ,soon afterwards it was announced that communications had passed on the subject between ,sir ,michael and the new ,speaker-elect1 ,mr ,peel2 and ,bradlaugh wrote to ask ,sir ,michael what they were1 but was refused the information1 whereupon he strongly protested4 ,the mystery was only cleared up when the new ,parliament assembled on #acth ,january #ahhf4ahh ,the new ,speaker had determined to reverse the policy of his predecessor in the ,bradlaugh case1 and the ,tory ,cabinet in vain sought to dissuade him4 ,on the opening day1 before any members were sworn1 he informed the ,house that he had had two communications--one from ,sir ,michael ,hicks ,beach1 and one from two other members1 ,mr ,raikes and ,sir ,john ,kennaway1 appealing to him not to let ,bradlaugh take the oath4 ,to these requests he flatly declined to accede4 ,in the former ,parliament1 he pointed out1 the ,speaker had taken no independent authority on himself1 but had always acted on the instructions of the ,house4 ,we are assembled1 he went on1 ,footnote #ahh3 ,this ,parliament is alluded to as of #ahhe by ,mr ,walpole1 ,mr ,lang1 and others4 ,it was elected in #ahhe1 but did not assemble till #ahhf4 in a new ,parliament4 ,i know nothing of the resolutions of the past4 7,cheers47 ,they have lapsed2 they are void2 they are of no effect in reference to this case4 7,renewed cheers47 ,it is the right1 the legal1 statutable obligation of members1 when returned to this ,house1 to come to the table and take the oath prescribed by statute4 7',hear1 hear4'7 ,i have no authority1 ,i have no right1 original or delegated1 to stand between an hon4 member and his taking of the oath4 7',hear1 hear4'7 ,i have been further asked whether1 when the ,house is completed1 and after a quorum has been constituted1 it would be competent for a motion to be made intervening between the hon4 member for ,northampton and his taking of the oath4 ,i have come clearly and without hesitation to the conclusion that it would neither be my duty to prohibit the hon4 gentleman from coming1 nor to permit a motion to be made standing between him and his taking of the oath4 7,opposition cheers47 ,the hon4 member takes that oath under whatever risks may attach to him in a court of law4 7',hear1 hear4'7 ,but it is not for me--,i respectfully say it is not for the ,house--to enter into any inquisition--7cheers7--as to what may be the opinions of a member when he comes to the table to take the oath4 ,i am bound1 and the ,house is bound1 by the forms of this ,house1 and by the legal obligations and rights of members4 ,if a member comes to this table and offers to take the oath1 ,i know of no right whatever to intervene between him and the form1 of legal and statutable obligation4 7,cheers47 ,the ,chancellor of the ,exchequer in vain sought to make a declaration3 he was called to order4 ,bradlaugh was duly sworn1 with a ,tory ,ministry in nominal command of the ,house4 ,the protesters against profanation had to stand by and see what they had defined as profanation solemnly--as the law courts defined solemnity--authorised by the supreme authority of the ,house4 ,they had refused to permit affirmation2 their oath was now1 on their own declaration1 outraged and trampled upon4 ,at the same time1 the whole past procedure of the ,house1 the whole course of the last ,speaker1 was overruled and impeached as unwarrantable4 ,the ,house had drunk its cup to the dregs4 #bb4 ,the ,tory press naturally solaced itself by repeating the well-tried falsehood that ,bradlaugh had originally refused to take the oath1 and declaring that he had now eaten his words4 ,on #bfth ,january1 dissatisfied with that unsubstantial comfort1 ,mr ,raikes asked the ,government if they would prevent ,bradlaugh from sitting and voting until he had proved his capacity to take the oath1 or until the judgment of the ,court of ,appeal was reversed by a higher tribunal4 ,sir ,m4 ,hicks ,beach formally replied that he was not prepared to take action1 and no action of the kind was ever taken4 ,soon the ,tories1 being in the minority in the ,house1 were turned out and the ,liberals installed in their places4 ,appealed to to enter a stet processus in the action in which ,bradlaugh had appealed1 they timorously declined1 dreading ,tory comment4 ,but when the ,tories later in the year were returned to power by the election following on ,mr ,gladstone's defeat on his first ,home ,rule ,bill1 and ,lord ,randolph ,churchill became leader of the ,house of ,commons1 that versatile personage1 desirous of placating if possible so formidable and so avowed an enemy as ,bradlaugh1 gave the relief which the ,liberals had refused4 ,bradlaugh was thus finally secured in his seat by the capitulation of one of the most unscrupulous and offensive of his old enemies4 ,churchill's allusion in the ,house to ,bradlaugh's supporters as the scum and dregs of the nation had elicited from ,bradlaugh1 in connection with his agitation against perpetual pensions1 a short tractate on the manner of the founding of the ,churchill family1 which struck his lordship in a fashion he had not been used to at the hands of ,gladstone1 or even of ,mr ,chamberlain2 and he desired to make peace4 ,he did not obtain it4 ,but not only did the ,tory party1 as represented by its new leader in the ,commons1 thus give up all it had contended for3 it was finally to make personal submission to the man it had wronged4 ,the ,affirmation ,bill introduced by ,mr ,serjeant ,simon never reached a debate2 and it was left to ,bradlaugh to carry one on his own initiative in #ahhh1 by the votes of the men1 ,tory and ,parnellite1 who had defeated former ,bills4 ,last of all1 it was in the same ,tory ,house of ,commons1 while ,bradlaugh lay dying1 that there was carried the resolution he had repeatedly put down1 expunging from the journals of the ,house the old votes for his exclusion1 even as the resolutions against ,wilkes had been expunged4 ,if the act was one of repentance1 it the more certainly implied an infamous wrong done4 ,there were certainly many reasons why the ,tory party should repent4 ,they had struck for themselves an evil blow1 though the sudden rising of the ,home ,rule issue served to obscure the consequences of their course in the ,northampton struggle4 ,it was impossible that as a party they could have gained in credit by it either among the masses or among thoughtful and earnest men4 ,nothing was more notorious than that nine-tenths of the leading ,bradlaugh-baiters were the least worthy men in the ,house4 ,wolff1 described by ,bradlaugh as a noted retailer of choses grivoises2 ,churchill1 the noisy and reckless charlatan of the new ,toryism1 the ,demosthenes of bad taste and vulgar vehemence2#ahi ,tyler1 the company-promoter1 hooted by the shareholders he had impoverished2 ,o',donnell1 the turncoat2 ,callan1 the drunken2 ,newdegate1 besotted with more fumes than those of fanaticism2 ,fowler and ,warton1 the gross and blatant2 ,healy1 the ever-rowdy--these could not gain good repute from alliance with types like ,mr ,samuel ,morley1 and could not be made respectable by the leadership of ,northcote1 whom they hustled and humiliated4 ,it is not possible to say with entire certainty what had been the general view of ,beaconsfield on the case while he lived2 but it is difficult to believe that he could have taken any satisfaction in seeing the most prominent function of the new ,toryism made out to be the rowdy resistance to the sitting of a freethinking member1 and the insolent refusal of a constituency's rights4 ,footnote #ahi3 ,byron's description of a better man4 ,there can be no doubt1 ,i think1 that one effect of the whole episode was to create a new and widespread intensity of antagonism to the prevailing religion and to the ,conservative cause4 ,men who had before regarded ,christianity with indifference or disfavour or contempt1 as a delusion1 began to detest it as a living fountain of injustice2 and men who had seen in recent ,conservatism a policy of diverting the people's attention from home needs by foreign adventure1 now saw in it a great machinery for working iniquity within the ,state4 ,the party which had been seen making gun-wadding of the decalogue in its wars of aggression had now made a crass ,semitic ,theism the pretext for a dastardly effort to crush one man1 partly by way of embarrassing the opposite side2 and the party which denounced disloyalty took sides with the disloyalists to the same end4 ,of course1 the heat of the immediate struggle did not last on one side any more than on the other2 above all1 it did not last with ,bradlaugh himself2 but it is certain that thousands of ,freethinkers date their conversion from the time of ,bradlaugh's fight with the bigots2 and ,i fancy there are still many who preserve the impression they then gained of what ,voltaire meant by the infamous1 and the purpose they then formed to make war on it throughout their lives4 ,as regards ,toryism1 too1 though each day brings its petty dust1 our soon-choked souls to fill1 the adherents of that cause may rely on it that for many a citizen1 for many a day to come1 their declarations of concern for justice and right1 in any case whatever1 are made derisory by memories of their five-year-long course of gleeful injustice to the ,atheist4 ,time brings its revenges4 ,if ,liberals in mass have deserved ten years of frustration1 in an effort to do right1 by their former treatment of ,ireland1 ,tories in turn have wrought for the cup of defeat they have tasted1 and are yet to drain to the dregs4 ,and the ,irishmen who1 claiming freedom for themselves1 shamelessly withheld from another even the rights they already enjoyed--they1 too1 have paid and are paying for their misdeeds1 despite their avowed repentance4 ,as for the ,conservative party1 despite its practical recantation1 it would be too much to say that there is any real concern among the mass of its members for the five years' carnival of injustice over ,bradlaugh4 ,i have gone through ,mr ,lang's ,life of ,northcote without finding one word of regret for the whole shameful business1 though he quotes a passage in which ,northcote expressed in his diary a mild deprecation of the ruffianism of some of his followers in the matter4 ,but1 indeed1 the capacity to do the thing as it was done excludes the capacity to be ashamed of it4 ,toryism is transmuted1 but does not repent4 ,at best1 new ,tories may at times deprecate the action of their predecessors4 #bc4 ,whatever be the sympathies with which the matter is looked at1 there is no gainsaying the historical fact that ,bradlaugh's struggle is a decisive episode in constitutional history4 ,it will always rank in ,english annals with the partially parallel case of ,wilkes1 dating a hundred and twenty years earlier2 and it will be a very bold or a very blind majority which ever again attempts to exclude from the ,house of ,commons a duly-elected member against whom no legal objection lies4 ,of ,wilkes1 ,mr ,gladstone has declared that whether we choose it or not1 his name must be enrolled among those of the great champions of ,english freedom4 ,if that be so1 ,bradlaugh's name must stand still higher1 in that it represents not only the principle of the rights of constituencies1 but the principle of freedom of conscience in the last and most serious issue4 ,and in every moral respect1 ,bradlaugh's case stands above that of ,wilkes4 ,the point in which they best compare is their courage2 but even the undoubted courage with which ,wilkes faced an unpopular king and unpopular ministers was a less rare thing than the fortitude which faced the hate and the slander of half of the more articulate part of the nation4 ,for the rest1 though he had the merit of geniality1 ,wilkes was a poor creature enough in many ways--a rascal towards his wife1 a leader of ribald orgies1 a prurient poetaster1 a briber of constituencies1 while professing to be uncorrupting and incorruptible4 ,he was a blasphemer in the strict and really bad sense of a man deriding a ,deity in whom he did not profess to disbelieve2 he wrote and privately printed indecent verse for the indecency's sake4 ,and if he is to be remembered for courage in that he resisted an unpopular ,ministry with a great and aristocratic party to support and salary him1 much more so is ,bradlaugh1 who was scouted and insulted by many even of the ,liberals that felt constrained at times to vote on his behalf1 and who had little save poor men's help in his long and costly fight4 ,it is significant of the worth of common opinion that ,wilkes was much more readily forgiven for real and ill-meant and undisputed obscenity than was ,bradlaugh for the earnest and scrupulous defence of true doctrines infamously miscalled obscene4 ,on the point of politics1 ,wilkes is hardly more justly notable than on the point of character4 ,he had no higher mission than to attack an autocratic and unpopular minister2 his very animus was partly the evil and vulgar spirit of racial animosity2 he had no high purpose of political reform4 ,after unwilling drudgery in a public office of dignity1 he found his chosen reward in a semi-sinecure4 ,bradlaugh stood for great causes in the world of thought as well as in the world of action3 he was a thinker and a high-minded reformer where ,wilkes was at best a high-spirited adventurer4 ,and as ,wilkes was the worse man1 so he had the worse case4 ,when elected in #agfh1 he was legally an outlaw--albeit under an unjust sentence2 and his supporters signalised his success by a riot1 breaking windows wholesale1 mobbing and insulting leading opponents4 ,afterwards he was elected while a prisoner4 ,certainly ,parliament1 in his case1 took a more courageously illegal course than it did in ,bradlaugh's1 not only refusing to admit him1 but declaring him disqualified1 voiding his seat1 and declaring ,luttrell member when elected by the minority4 ,the jugglers of #ahhj-he kept a member out of his seat without daring to declare the seat therefore vacant1 though the law courts hinted not obscurely that an ,atheist was hors la loi in respect of the chief civic rights4 ,certainly in the case of ,wilkes the ,king was known to be the main mover in the breaking of the law1 and so was more openly putting the liberties of the whole people in jeopardy4 ,but the fact that in ,bradlaugh's case the tyrants were bigots and partisans1 representing masses of electors1 and the wronged man a heretic1 only made the danger the more profound4 ,the final triumph of the law-breakers would in his case have been a worse blow to freedom than it could have been in that of ,wilkes1 just because so many hundreds of thousands of bigots would have rejoiced in it4 ,it would have been more dangerous to democracy1 because undermining democracy from within1 whereas the ostracism of ,wilkes was an ostentatious blow from without4 ,the many-headed tyranny of an unscrupulous senate is a more sinister thing when it rests on the fanaticism of thousands than when it is the mere subservience of time-servers to the sovereign2 for if the principle were to be practically established that a man may be politically ostracised for theological heresy1 the axe would be laid to the root of a greater thing than political privilege4 ,what the ,inquisition did for ,spain1 brainless bigotry might have begun to do for ,england4 ,it had become clear that the law courts would not give any decision which struck at the freedom of the ,house of ,commons to act as it pleased1 our constitution being thus seen to lack the safeguard set up in the ,supreme ,court of the ,united ,states2 though the ,house went through the form of arguing its case before the judges4 ,the value of their decisions was seen when1 after ,bradlaugh took the oath before ,mr ,speaker ,peel1 he was allowed to sit in peace though he had been declared legally incapable of taking an oath4 ,evidently the principle of legality had little remaining validity4 ,it may be1 nevertheless1 that the time is not yet come for the majority of ,englishmen to realise fully how much was saved to their heritage by ,bradlaugh's long stand against nefarious faith4 ,the language of sincere conviction still blends with the language of cant in calling his opinions peculiar or worse2 and half of those who stood beside him on the political issue were anxious in avowing their repudiation of his doctrines and his personality4 ,but even in the few years between his struggle and his death there was a change2 and to say that he has not yet had his full share of honour is only to say that his fame will be at its clearest in the larger air of a more enlightened day4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,closing ,,yeabs4 #ahhf4 ,admitted at last to the seat for which he had fought so long and so hard1 ,bradlaugh set himself strenuously to work to make up for lost time4 ,with nearly every quality that goes to make a good legislator1 and with the most abundant political experience from his youth up1 he had reached his fifty-third year before he sat in his place in ,parliament by secure tenure4 ,he had fought for that place1 in all1 eighteen years--chronically during twelve of them1 against constitutional opposition2 continuously through six of them1 against gross injustice4 ,and in these last six years1 unhappily1 his life went very much quicker than the years4 ,those who had lived by him through it all recognised that it had made him an old man4 ,a certain aging effect seems to have come from the terrible attack of typhoid fever in ,new ,york in #ahge2 but still in #ahhj his portraits show him in his prime1 the face mature without being furrowed4 ,in #ahhf he looked far more than ten years older4 ,the long battle had left its dire marks4 ,no private member in his prime1 however1 went to work in the ,parliaments of #ahhf with such energy4 ,before ,january was out he had obtained leave to bring in his ,land ,cultivation ,bill1#aij which was backed by ,mr ,joseph ,arch1 ,mr ,thomas ,burt1 and ,mr ,labouchere2 and he was extorting from the officials exact details as to the ,perpetual ,pensions1 against which he had already for years agitated outside4 ,in ,march he obtained from the new ,liberal ,ministry the appointment of a ,select ,committee on the subject4 ,the debate on ,mr ,jesse ,collings' amendment to the ,address1 calling for labourers' allotments--the amendment on which the ,tory ,ministry were thrown out--gave him his first opportunity of striking a blow at the party which for him was identified as much with tyranny in general as with tyranny towards himself4 ,in ,february he gave the first notice of his intention to raise a question which he later pushed far--that of market rights and tolls2 his first move being to call for a return giving minute particulars as to the state of the case in each municipal borough in ,england and ,wales4 ,and in the same month he was vigorously pressing his proposal for a ,labour ,bureau on the lines of that of ,massachusetts--a proposal to which the ,government promptly acceded4 ,in ,march he took a step abundantly justifiable on public grounds1 in moving the reduction of the monstrous vote of #ab1jjj to ,sir ,h4 ,d4 ,wolff for six months' unprofitable service abroad1 and #cjjj more for telegrams in connection with his mission4 ,and he was further able to connect another enemy1 ,sir ,henry ,tyler1 with systematic breaches of the ,truck ,act on the part of the ,rhymney ,iron ,company1 of which he was a director4 ,bradlaugh characterised the action of the ,company as part of an infamous system by which poor men are defrauded of part of their earnings4 ,the result was a ,government prosecution and the infliction of the fullest statutory penalty4 ,in the way of direct service to labour1 he was in the same month appointed a member of the ,select ,committee on the ,employers' ,liability ,bill1 on which he worked hard and carefully4 ,in ,april came the epoch-marking ,home ,rule ,bill1 in the debate on which he made a powerful speech in support1 loudly cheered by the ,home ,rulers who had so long helped to exclude him4 ,he was emphatic against the exclusion of the ,irish members1 but urged that such points should be left for discussion in committee2 and he did his best outside for the second reading by organising a great mass meeting in ,st ,james's ,hall1 presided over by ,mr ,labouchere1 which was in its way a great success1 a multitude coming sufficient to fill the hall twice over4 ,his own ,land ,cultivation ,bill came to its second reading2 and his speech upon it was well received1 though he saw fit not to try to press it to a division4 ,again in ,june1 shortly before the decisive division1 he delivered a second and longer speech in support of the ,home ,rule ,bill1 to listen to which to the end ,mr ,gladstone delayed his dinner2 and on the dissolution he issued an ,appeal to the ,electors3 ,mr ,gladstone or ,lord ,salisbury3 ,which8 ,he had done more than justice by the people whose representatives had most zealously done him injustice4 ,readers of his journal had written to urge this on him as one reason for opposing ,home ,rule4 ,he answered3 ,if ,i cannot try to do justice to my political and religious enemies1 ,i am unfit to be a legislator4 ,on the merits of the reform he tersely observed3 ,home ,rule is no four-leaved shamrock1 but it is the beginning of justice4 ,footnote #aij3 ,described in a previous chapter1 p4 #ahb4 ,in the new ,general ,election1 a new excitement was given to the contest in ,northampton by the candidature of a ,liberal ,unionist1 ,mr ,turner1 a leading local manufacturer1 in coalition with a ,conservative4 ,his supporters were extremely confident2 but when the vote was counted the figures stood3 ,labouchere1 #degj2 ,bradlaugh1 #dcec2 ,turner1 #chej2 ,lees1 #cdef4 ,on the declaration of the poll1 ,mr ,turner1 being shouted down by the crowd1 addressed to the reporters the intimation that he came forward for the first time to wrest the representation of the town from the greatest and most mischievous demagogue of the present century4 ,but by this time the old obloquy had considerably quieted down4 ,at the beginning of the year the ,bishop of ,peterborough1 ,dr ,magee1 had published a review article in which1 while making hostile allusion to ,bradlaugh--doubtless in recollection of old criticisms--as an ,atheist whose name certainly neither softens nor sweetens any controversy with which it is connected1 he declared forcibly against the ,parliamentary ,oath altogether4 ,as he truly observed1 ,whatever else our present ,parliamentary ,oath was designed to effect1 it was never designed to keep ,atheists out of ,parliament4 ,it was1 and is1 strictly a political test1 and for a purpose happily quite remote from modern ,english politics4 ,it is dynastic4444 ,it does not even 444 exclude ,republicans2 for1 should the ,parliament which imposes it decide at any time upon the ultimate abolition of monarchy1 there would then be no 'successors according to law' to whom to be faithful4444 ,as a political test1 it is practically all but obsolete4444 ,it does not even incidentally and indirectly act as a religious test1 for no ,atheist that we know of has ever refused to take it4 ,oddly enough1 while arguing for the abolition of the ,parliamentary ,oath1 the ,bishop proposed to retain the oath in courts of justice1 being apparently unaware that there it was already to some extent optional4 ,his opinion on the other point1 however1 counted for something2 and though an appeal was made to the ,liberal ministry1 as it had been made to their predecessors1 to prosecute ,bradlaugh afresh for sitting and voting1 the ministry refused1 and the matter dropped once for all4 ,there was also1 of course1 a cessation of the attacks on him by ,conservative members4 ,one1 a ,mr ,e4 ,h4 ,llewellyn1 at a ,primrose ,league meeting early in the year1 scurrilously spoke of him as having seemed more as if he spat upon than kissed the ,testament in taking the oath2 but for this congenial indulgence ,mr ,llewellyn had to make a public apology to ,bradlaugh and to the ,house of ,commons alike4 ,bradlaugh was an excessively inconvenient enemy to have at close quarters4 ,no one knew this better than ,lord ,randolph ,churchill1 who was now promoted to the leadership of the ,house of ,commons over the head of ,sir ,michael ,hicks ,beach4 ,the most bitter enemy of the ,tory party1 wrote ,bradlaugh1 could hardly have planned for it greater degradation than this leadership4 ,one ,tory journalist attributed to him1 quite falsely1 a proposal to hiss ,churchill on his first rising to address the ,house4 ,that was not his way of fighting4 ,the new leader1 on his part1 was extraordinarily conciliatory4 ,when the new ,parliament met in ,august1 ,churchill made not even a sign of wish to stand again between ,bradlaugh and the oath2 and when ,bradlaugh made his important motion that the ,house do not assent to the usual ,sessional ,order prohibiting the interference of peers in elections1 his lordship actually offered him a committee for the following year to frame another ,order instead1 admitting that the existing one was habitually ignored4 ,bradlaugh1 however1 pressed the matter to a division1 when #abf members supported him1 the ,liberal leaders voting with the ,tory majority against him4 ,his object had been1 as the vigilant ,newdegate noted1 to take the first step to getting rid of the ,house of ,lords4 ,by allowing peers to interfere freely in elections1 he proposed to strike at their hereditary privilege4 ,but the time for such a measure was not yet4 ,it was understood to be on ,churchill's urging1 again1 that two months afterwards the ,tory ,attorney-,general entered a stet processus in the still outstanding appeal to the ,house of ,lords1 thus ending an action which the ,gladstone ,ministry had declined to end at ,bradlaugh's request4 ,but ,bradlaugh in no way slackened his hostility on this score4 ,on #aith ,september1 in a discussion on the committal of ,father ,fahy for using threatening language towards magistrates1 he reminded the ,house how its leader had once declared in the ,house that the ,crown could procure the decisions it wanted from certain judges4 ,churchill1 entering the ,house later1 and learning what had been stated1 assured ,bradlaugh that he had been entirely mistaken1 and gave the statement an unqualified denial4 ,on ,bradlaugh saying he thought he was right1 ,churchill made the curious answer3 ,i am sure he cannot find anywhere a record of my having said such a thing4 ,bradlaugh immediately went to consult ,hansard1 and not finding the passage he had expected1 came back and frankly confessed the fact to the ,house4 ,but on turning back he found that he had made an equivalent statement in his letter to ,northcote on #ast ,march #ahhd1 and that ,northcote1 while disputing in his reply certain of ,bradlaugh's assertions1 lest he should be taken to admit them1 did not dispute this4 ,a more leisurely search in the newspaper files cleared up part of the mystery4 ,churchill had repeatedly said in effect what ,bradlaugh had attributed to him4 ,in at least three speeches 7#cjth ,april #ahhc2 #bast ,february #ahhd2 #abth ,june #ahhd7 he had directly and indirectly insinuated that the ,government could get the decisions they wanted in a collusive action against ,bradlaugh by bringing it before judges who had been ,liberal ,attorneys-,general4 ,what had apparently happened was that the noble lord had struck at least one passage out of the ,hansard report when1 according to custom1 the proofs of his speeches were sent to him as to other members for correction afterwards4 ,having done this1 he felt safe in saying that ,bradlaugh could not find anywhere a record of such a statement on his part4 ,it was a mistaken confidence2 and besides publishing the newspaper extracts at the time1 ,bradlaugh later found an opportunity to pay off his score with interest4 ,in the ,october of #ahhf1 meantime1 he addressed to the noble lord an open letter of scathing comment on his policy1 his tactics1 his speeches1 and his character4 ,it contained the sentence--referring to old ,english gentlemen--,these belong to a class to which ,i1 as well as yourself1 am a stranger--,i from birth1 and you from habit2 and in reference to his lordship's language 7outside7 towards ,mr ,gladstone1 it had the passage3 ,he has often been generous to you--the great can be generous4 ,you might1 in taking a leader's place1 at least have for the moment aped a leader's dignity4 ,noblesse oblige2 but no such obligation weighs on you2 o il n'y a rien le roi perd ses droits4 ,yet even after this ,churchill sought to make his personal acquaintance and disarm his resentment making repeated attempts to be introduced1 and on one occasion actually intervening with a broad compliment in a conversation between ,bradlaugh and another member in the smoking-room4 ,bradlaugh bowed with the old-fashioned ceremony which he adhered to in such cases1 but would not further accept the obtruded friendship4 ,he had1 however1 passed beyond his former disposition to square accounts with the lordling who had called his supporters the mob1 scum1 and dregs4 ,i once heard him remark that it was pitiful to see ,churchill1 with his fidgety1 lawyer's-clerk manner and tactics1 trying to rise to the dignity of the leadership of the ,house1 trying not to twist his moustache all the time1 and to listen to opponents like a statesman4 ,and some story he heard of an act of generosity on ,churchill's part helped further to disarm his never very vindictive hostility4 ,nothing1 indeed1 could well surpass the magnanimity with which he put away from him all rancour for the endless insults he had received4 ,new ,tory members1 expecting perhaps to see in him a truculent demagogue1 were disarmed on finding a genial gentleman and comrade1 who bore no malice1 was excellent company1 and played chess as sociably as skilfully4 ,as the years went on1 there actually arose a sort of enthusiasm for him among the younger ,tories1 more than one of whom assured him that they deplored the treatment he had met with at the hands of their party4 ,of course they did not suffer from the embarrassment of the ,liberals at the prospect that the irrepressible ,atheist1 with his extraordinary gift for legislation1 would possibly have to be included in the next ,liberal administration4 ,this feeling began to arise very rapidly among the ,radicals outside4 ,his prompt success in securing the ,labour ,bureau1 and in checking the practice of truck in ,scotland and ,england1 brought him immediate votes of thanks from labour organizations1 though the press at this stage practised against him such a boycott that at a time when he was constantly speaking on the estimates1 correspondents wrote deploring his silence in the ,house4 ,the old tactic of ostracism was not easily unlearned2 and the official ,liberal journals1 as the ,daily ,news1 for years on end sought to suppress the fact that it was he who had brought about the ,labour ,bureau4 ,so anxious were such journals to keep him out of sight1 that when the important return moved for by him as to market rights and tolls was issued1 and had to be discussed1 the ,news dealt with it elaborately without mentioning that it was ,bradlaugh who had obtained it4 ,no conspiracy1 however1 could suppress general knowledge of such a mass of work as he got through1 outside the ,house as well as inside4 ,when it was not sitting1 he was on lecturing tours1 and ,i find that in the last three months of #ahhf1 ,parliament being in recess1 he addressed nearly sixty political meetings in all parts of the country1 in addition to his ,secularist lecturing1 which he never abandoned1 though he devoted a larger proportion of his lectures to politics than formerly4 ,in the ,house1 besides working specially at his questions of truck and land cultivation and perpetual pensions1 and serving on the committee to consider the effects of the ,employers' ,liability ,act1 he was one of the most generally industrious of legislators4 ,all this strain was not for nothing1 and at the end of the year we find him suffering from erysipelas and neuritis4 #ahhg4 ,in the session of #ahhg1 however1 he went to work with unslackened energy4 ,in a long speech delivered to a full house in the debate on the address1 he attacked the ,government on their permission of illegal truck practices1 on their ,egyptian policy1 on their ,burmese policy1 and on their ,irish policy4 ,on the resignation of ,lord ,randolph ,churchill1 the new ,commons leader1 ,mr ,w4 ,h4 ,smith1 continued the ,tory policy of concession to the former victim of the party2 and he was granted a ,select ,committee on ,perpetual ,pensions1 himself being a member4 ,the point raised by him last year as to peers' interference in elections was made the subject of investigation for another committee 7of seven71 moved for by the ,government1 and on this too he sat4 ,the majority of the committee1 of course1 soon reported in favour of leaving the ,sessional ,order unaltered1 ,bradlaugh and ,mr ,whitbread dissenting4 ,meanwhile1 he was continuing his attacks on the practice of truck1 and got down for discussion a ,truck ,act ,amendment ,bill in addition to the ,affirmation ,bill which he had introduced when ,sir ,john 7formerly ,mr ,sergeant7 ,simon's came to nothing4 ,in ,march1 too1 he took an active part with ,mr ,howell and ,mr ,labouchere in the attack on certain members of the ,corporation of ,london1 including1 and specially1 his own old enemy1 ,alderman ,sir ,r4 ,n4 ,fowler1 for corrupt expenditure4 ,in ,fowler's presence ,bradlaugh on his part undertook to specifically connect the hon4 baronet with the issue of ,city funds under conditions which compelled the knowledge on his part that they were corruptly used for the purpose of influencing the decisions of that ,house4 ,he would prove that up to the hilt4 ,and again he renewed his energetic action against the huge expenditure on ,sir ,h4 ,d4 ,wolff's mission to ,cairo1 a mission which1 he declared1 amid ,radical cheers1 to be a gross ,conservative job2 and he had the support of #adf members to his motion to quash the vote4 ,the charges against the ,corporation were formally heard before a ,select ,committee of the ,house of ,commons1 ,bradlaugh acting as prosecutor4 ,fowler1 without really denying the charges in the ,house1 had described them as anonymous tittle-tattle2 and on the insufficiency of this disclaimer being pointed out1 one of the ministers1 ,lord ,g4 ,hamilton1 formally denied the charges on ,fowler's behalf4 ,before the ,committee--consisting of ,lord ,hartington1 ,sir ,joseph ,bailey1 ,mr ,dillwyn1 ,mr ,houldsworth1 and ,mr ,stevenson--the statements made as to expenditure were proved1#aia as ,bradlaugh had promised1 up to the hilt4 ,fourteen witnesses were examined by him2 the ,city accounts for five years and other documents were closely gone into2 and when the alleged payments could no longer be disputed1 the defence 7conducted by ,mr ,j4 ,compton ,lawrence1 ,q4,c47 took the line of arguing that the challenged payments were within the right of the ,corporation4 ,they had been made during a number of years by way of resisting the popular movement for the reform of the municipal government of ,london4 ,in the words of ,bradlaugh3-- ,footnote #aia3 ,see the ,blue-,book1 ,report ,london ,corporation 7,charges of ,malversation71 together with the ,proceedings of the ,committee1 ,minutes of ,evidence1 and ,appendix1 ,parliamentary ,paper1 #afa1 #ahhg4 ,a brief account of the matter was written by ,bradlaugh for ,our ,corner1 ,july and ,august #ahhg1 under the title1 ,how the ,city ,fathers ,fight4 #ai1eej1 #ajs4 #aj;d4 was proved to have been expended in financing ,associations such as the ,metropolitan ,ratepayers' ,association1 ,metropolitan ,local ,self-,government ,association1 ,anti-,one-,municipality ,league1 and ,south ,london ,municipal ,association1 described by ,mr ,howell as 'bogus' ,associations1 which were mostly started by paid agents employed by ,city officials1 under the direction of1 and with the knowledge of1 the ,special ,committee2 and which ,associations were used as a means of creating a fraudulent1 unfair1 and collusive opposition to the proposed legislation for ,london municipal reform4 ,improper use and malversation of funds were also shown in promoting and carrying on collusive and fictitious charter movements in ,lambeth1 ,woolwich1 ,greenwich1 and other places in the metropolis1 with the view of representing these to ,parliament and to the ,privy ,council as spontaneous and bona-fide movements1 when they were really only intended as opposition to the ,government ,bill4 7,the fictitious nature of the charter movement is especially illustrated by ,mr ,stoneham's answer3 ',when the ,london ,government ,bill was dropped1 the charter movements were let fall through by the ,city to a great extent4'7 ,improper use was further shown in paying men to attend in very large numbers for the purpose of opposing1 sometimes with violence1 the meetings in favour of the reform of the ,corporation2 in paying for sham deputations1 sham meetings in favour of the ,city1 and for unfair reports which were published in the press2 in procuring signatures to petitions1 etc4 ,the most extraordinary thing of all was the fact that in the case of one municipal reform meeting in #ahhc1 at least #bjjj forged tickets had been issued1 and their distribution was not obscurely traced to ,corporation officials4 ,in regard to this matter1 ,fowler was shown to have helped to evade inquiry when it was challenged at the time2 and in regard to the improper expenditure1 he was shown to have been officially cognisant2 and though the ,committee let off their fellow-member as lightly as they could1 he had a very bad quarter of an hour under ,bradlaugh's examination4 ,one by one1 the champions of the religiosity of the legislature against the ,atheist had been shown to do their cause small credit in their persons4 ,about the same time ,bradlaugh took a leading part in exposing in the ,house a gross and systematic fraud in the preparation of a certain petition from ,haggerston1 signatures having been forged and invented wholesale1 to the extent even of putting names of infant children and racehorses2 and this again was done for payment made by ,city officials4 ,but on ,bradlaugh's side there was no subordination of the public to his private interest2 and when1 in ,april #ahhg1 ,newdegate died in the odour of sanctity1 he displayed no vindictiveness in his comments on the local obituary biography1 which of course dealt freely with his own name4 ,i am credibly informed1 he wrote1 that1 apart from his bigotry against ,catholics and heretics1 ,mr ,newdegate was a kindly country gentleman1 well liked by those who knew him4 ,i regret to learn from his biographer that he treated the six years' harassing anxiety and cost to myself1 which he did so much to continue1 as a subject for merriment4 ,in respect of his legislative work he was as successful as he was industrious4 ,by the end of ,april he had got his ,truck ,bill into the ,committee stage2 and he secured from the ,government1 without a blow1 the ,royal ,commission on ,market ,rights and ,tolls for which he moved in a speech of an hour's length4#aib ,the manner of this success was singular4 ,in the words of one ,tory journal3 ,it was no secret that the ,government intended at first to oppose ,mr ,bradlaugh's motion1 but it gave way on receiving an intimation from a large number of ,conservative members sitting below the gangway that1 if a division took place1 they would be compelled to vote with the junior member for ,northampton4 ,so oddly had the tables been turned4 ,yet he had in no way slackened his opposition to ,tory policy4 ,on the ,coercion ,bill he had made three forcible speeches1 and he was always pursuing ministers with awkward questions4 ,his success with the enemy was due simply to the irresistible impression he created of honesty and industry and single-mindedness4 ,and when in ,may he made a merciless exposure of ,churchill on the point above alluded to1 of his old imputations on the integrity of ,liberal judges1 it did not appear that ,conservatives failed to enjoy the proceedings4 ,it was in the course of the privilege debate on the ,times' articles on ,parnellism and ,crime4 ,bradlaugh first elicited from ,churchill a repudiation of one of his former utterances1 and then proceeded to quote in full the passage from ,hansard1 with the now verified reference4 ,another challenge elicited another denial1 and yet another quotation1 with the reference4 ,they were all ready for this occasion4 ,i am not responsible for ,hansard1 cried the noble lord1 in much agitation2 whereupon ,bradlaugh added new and sharper punishment1 going on to quote yet more of the damnatory passages from ,hansard4 ,the noble lord1 he went on1 was of opinion in #ahhd that the courts of law were not fair tribunals1 whereupon ,churchill again indicated dissent4 ,it was perhaps1 admitted ,bradlaugh1 not quite correct to say that the noble lord was of that opinion--he only said it4 ,and still the castigation went on1 the ,house punctuating it with laughter1 till ,churchill rose and protested that in regard to his recent speeches on the ,times question he had been utterly misrepresented4 ,whereupon ,mr ,bradlaugh said he was not dealing with the noble lord's views--he did not know what they were4 7,opposition cheers and laughter47 ,he was only giving the noble lord's words4 ,at the close of the speech1 which as a whole was unanswerable1 ,churchill rose to offer a personal explanation on the ,hansard business4 ,delivered with anxious prolixity1 it was primarily to the effect that in #ahhd his speeches were greatly compressed in ,hansard1 as is invariably the case with ordinary members1 and that the compressed reports could not be taken as true and faithful4 ,this gave ,bradlaugh his final opportunity4 ,footnote #aib3 ,circulated as a pamphlet in immense numbers by the ,cobden ,club1 and reprinted among his speeches4 ,i accept the explanation of the noble lord on the bearing of his words on the ,times case1 and ,i can corroborate his statements as to the compression of his speeches1 because ,i used at one time to hear from him expressions which1 having unguardedly repeated them without verification1 ,i could not find in ,hansard when ,i went to look for them4 7,loud laughter and cheers47 ,the only mental difficulty ,i have is to imagine how any process of compression could put words on record which were never spoken4 7,loud laughter and cheers47 ,it was as sufficient and artistic a piece of punishment as the ,house had witnessed for a long time2 and ,bradlaugh thenceforth considered his accounts with his former vilifier reasonably squared4 ,besides1 in his anxiety to propitiate his powerful opponent1 ,churchill immediately afterwards declared in a letter to the ,times that he did not see how ,bradlaugh's ,oaths ,bill could with propriety be opposed by the ,conservative party1 whose duty it was1 by supporting and passing it1 to secure that the ,parliamentary oath in future will in all probability only be taken by those who believe in and revere its effective solemnity4 ,this was written in anticipation of the action of a few ,conservatives who1 rebelling against their own leaders1 obstructed the measure when it came on for discussion after other matters about five o'clock in the morning4 ,sir ,edward ,clarke1 who had zealously resisted all previous bills of the kind1 gave his support to this4 ,twice over1 in a ,house of #cjj1 ,bradlaugh had large majorities--of #ia and #ajd--;against adjournment1 but still the motions went on4 ,at length1 having sat in the ,house for eleven hours1 he gave way1 an act for which some outsiders thought fit to blame him4 ,some journals1 however1 took the opportunity to speak of him1 on the merits of the question1 with a civility they had never before seen occasion to show him4 ,others made use of the occasion to point out how fully it proved the utter dishonesty of most of the previous ,tory opposition to ,bradlaugh4 ,some of the details in the debate gave dramatic corroboration to this view4 ,colonel ,hughes had stood forward as one of the representatives of religion2 on which ,mr ,healy--himself once in that galley--observed that it was to be hoped ,christianity would not be defended by a gentleman who had been scheduled for bribery4 ,while the ,oaths ,bill was thus delayed1 ,bradlaugh contrived by incessant vigilance to get the ,truck ,bill through ,committee in ,july4 ,he confessed that if he had known beforehand the enormous labour such a ,bill involved--the receiving deputations1 the large explanatory correspondence1 the huge mass of suggested amendments1 the objections from various interests to each amendment1 and the utter impossibility of conciliating or satisfying the various sections1 some friendly1 some hostile1 some well-meaning but impracticable--he might have shrunk from the task4 ,for twenty-seven nights he had watched till the morning hours on the chance of his ,bill being reached1 and when all was done it seemed for a time as if the ,upper ,house1 in its customary manner1 would wreck everything4 ,their lordships' first amendments were insufferable1 and were sent back to them1 the ,house of ,commons backing up ,bradlaugh with vigour4 ,finally their lordships agreed to limit their amendments to a few which1 while of course doing harm1 did not affect the main work of the ,bill1 and though some ,irish and other members desired to reject it on the score of these1 the measure was at length passed4 ,he had thus in one session carried an important ,act1 made considerable progress with another1 and obtained a ,select ,committee on ,perpetual ,pensions and a ,royal ,commission on ,market ,rights and ,tolls1 apart from the ,committee appointed by the ,government on his former initiative to discuss the action of peers in elections4 ,in the ,committee on ,pensions his report was unanimously adopted1 barring the clauses which dealt with certain payments to the ,duchy of ,cornwall--in other words1 to the ,prince of ,wales4 ,he had further prosecuted the ,corporation of ,london before yet another ,select ,committee of the ,house1 effectively damaging one of his enemies in the process1 as he had in the previous year secured the prosecution of another for breach of the law in his capacity of a company director4 ,he had seen yet another enemy1 ,churchill1 deposed from his place of pride1 and had incidentally overthrown him in debate4 ,all the while he was doing hard work on the ,employers' ,liability ,committee besides speaking often on the ,estimates and on the ,coercion ,bill1 putting an ever-increasing number of solid questions to ministers on grievances submitted to him1 many of which were redressed1 and in particular pertinaciously pursuing the ,indian ,office as to certain underhand dealings in the matter of the ruby mines of ,burmah4 ,no other member's work could compare with it all2 and the press decided that ,bradlaugh's ,session was the proper summary of the ,parliamentary season4 ,but1 of course1 such success evoked jealousy no less than tribute4 ,in the carrying of the ,truck ,act he had not a little experience of the jealousy of labour leaders and others2 and while the official ,liberal press still partly boycotted him1 the ,socialist press made a point of belittling or perverting everything he did4 ,despite his continuous attacks on ,tory policy1 his ,truck ,bill was declared to owe its success to ,government adoption4 ,the ,socialist ,reynolds declared that he did little or nothing in ,parliament2 while the ,tory ,england protested that he spoke far too often4 ,as a matter of fact1 he had made some sixty-five speeches up to ,whitsuntide1 thirteen of them against ,coercion4 ,but the circumstance which made his ,parliamentary industry absolutely unique was that it was carried on alongside of a continuous course of ,sunday lecturing1 with special attendances at week-day demonstrations thrown in4 ,when the ,sunday lectures were in ,london the strain was comparatively light1 as only two were given in the day at the ,hall of ,science2 but in the provinces it is the ,secularist practice to have three discourses on the ,sunday when a ,london lecturer comes1 and the physical strain of this1 it need not be said1 is heavy4 ,thus for ,bradlaugh the two days of the week which other members of ,parliament could give to rest and recreation were oftenest simply days of travelling and extra speaking4 ,now and then he could get a ,saturday's pike-fishing on the ,lea or on a ,thames backwater2 once or twice in the year he could even run down to ,loch ,long for two or three days of the very much more bracing fishing there4 ,even the holiday became a source of fresh work1 for he took up with his usual energy the case of the pollution of ,loch ,long by ,glasgow sewage2 and it was due to his persistent pressure that the nuisance was at length stopped4 ,he thus made a rich return for the measure of rest and strength gained from his days of fishing--a gain which was at times wonderful4 ,but though his powers of recuperation were great1 the rest-days were far too few2 the balance was always heavily on the side of overwork2 and so his intimates now saw him year after year showing ever heavier traces of the overwhelming strain of his life4 ,whether he got to bed early or in the late morning hours1 he was always up and at work before eight1 attacking his great pile of correspondence1 which alone would have seemed to many men to supply a good day's work4 ,every day's post brought him on an average a round dozen of grievances to be submitted to ,parliament1 and in every case which he thought worth attention he made careful investigation1 always declining to trouble ,ministers without good grounds4 ,then there were the continual letters from poor men of all denominations asking for legal advice gratis--a kind of request he never refused4 ,yet with it all he found time to write for his journal2 and his articles and speeches at this time are as pregnant and efficient as any he ever penned or spoke4 ,among other things he wrote a weighty little pamphlet3 ,the ,channel ,tunnel3 ,ought the ,democracy to ,oppose or ,support it8 which was widely circulated as the strongest possible popular plea for the undertaking4 ,when next the public is effectively challenged for a vote on that question1 it will probably be found that there has been a great transformation of opinion2 and not a little of the credit will be due to his pleading4 ,of the extent of his influence in this and other ways the average metropolitan reader never had any accurate idea1 between the grossly unjust attacks of ,socialists on the one hand1 and the boycotting of the ,liberal press on the other4 ,thus we find him delivering in ,birmingham1 in ,october #ahhg1 a great fighting speech on the party situation1 of which no report whatever appears in the ,london papers4 ,it dealt with the question raised by ,mr ,chamberlain1 ,is a ,national ,party possible8 and the answer it gave was a determined and uncompromising attack on the ,unionist coalition1 this at a time when ,liberals and some ,radicals were insinuating that he was ingratiating himself in the ,tory counsels4 ,this was a type of dozens of provincial addresses delivered by him every year1 some of them at immense open-air demonstrations of miners1 who always invited him to their great gatherings4 ,of all this activity the ,london press revealed hardly a trace1 any more than of his hundreds of ,sunday lectures every year1 of which one or two out of every three were devoted to politics4 ,it is safe to say that no other ,english politician of his time spoke publicly to such numbers of his fellow-countrymen in the course of each year4 ,a striking illustration of the new animus against him among advanced propagandists came up on the occasion of the deplorable ,trafalgar ,square episode of #acth ,november #ahhg4 ,the ,socialist press and some ,radical journals sedulously circulated the intimation that somehow or other ,mr ,bradlaugh was very conspicuous by his absence1 while pointing to his old proceedings in similar crises4 ,he was actually lecturing at the time at ,west ,hartlepool1 in fulfilment of an engagement made months before2 and next day he was at ,hull4 ,on his return he contributed to the ,pall ,mall ,gazette a careful statement of the law on the point of the use of ,trafalgar ,square1 criticising and condemning the action of the authorities1 and he followed this up with further protests1 while advising the ,radical ,m4,p4's concerned to fight out the case at law1 and begging those who trusted him to await such legal settlement4 ,yet several times since his death it has been stated in the press that he exhumed a forgotten law which entitled the ,home ,secretary to prevent meetings in the ,square4 ,the laws he cited were all to the contrary effect1 and were well enough known to those officially concerned2 the point having been raised1 as above mentioned1 over one of his own ,trafalgar ,square demonstrations a few years before4 ,and when ,mr ,cunninghame ,graham and ,mr ,burns were prosecuted1 he gave evidence on their behalf1 making a hasty and difficult journey across the country from ,leek to ,london on a telegraphic summons to arrive in time when they were tried at the ,old ,bailey4 ,a paragraph which he published in his journal in this connection will serve to mark the degree of political severance which1 with no diminution of mutual regard1 had arisen between him and his long-tried colleague and partner1 ,mrs ,besant4 ,it ran3-- ,as ,i have on most serious matters of principle recently differed very widely from my brave and loyal co-worker1 and as that difference has been regrettably emphasized by her resignation of her editorial functions on this journal1 it is the more necessary that ,i should say how thoroughly ,i approve1 and how grateful ,i am to her for1 her conduct in not only obtaining bail and providing legal assistance for the helpless unfortunates in the hands of the police1 but also for her daily personal attendance and wise conduct at the police-stations and police-courts1 where she has done so much to abate harsh treatment on the one hand and rash folly on the other4 ,while ,i should not have marked this out as fitting woman's work1 especially in the recent very inclement weather1 ,i desire to record my view that it has been bravely done1 well done1 and most usefully done2 and ,i wish to mark this the more emphatically as my views and those of ,mrs ,besant seem more wide apart than ,i could have deemed possible on many of the points of principle underlying what is every day growing into a more serious struggle4 ,the severance spoken of had arisen over ,mrs ,besant's adoption of ,socialist principles1 a change of attitude on her part which began about #ahhe1 and soon went the length of a somewhat extreme propaganda1 afterwards modified in common with the general tone of the ,fabian ,society1 of which she had speedily become the most active member4 ,the joint editorship had now become a practical difficulty as well as a source of complaint among readers2 and in ,october #ahhg it was amicably ended1 ,mrs ,besant continuing to act as sub-editor and contributor4 ,she had fought beside ,bradlaugh and for him loyally and well1 and though the suddenness and vehemence of her new departure had startled and troubled him1 his friendship1 as the above paragraph shows1 had in no way weakened4 ,he was not the man to break a tie for even a serious difference in opinion2 though he was also the last man to do what some ,socialists contemptibly accused him of doing--arrange that his colleague should take one line and he another in order to promote the circulation of his journal4 ,he did for ,socialists what he did for everybody who got into legal trouble on political grounds1 and he gave ,mrs ,besant ample assistance in fighting the case of those who were arrested by the police for open-air propaganda4 ,the most serious change of position on ,mrs ,besant's part1 her conversion to ,madame ,blavatsky's ,theosophy1 was soon to come4 ,even when that came1 in the following year1 he neither withdrew his friendship nor asked her to cease contributing to the ,reformer2 but1 coming after political differences1 the new and deep division of opinion undoubtedly pained and depressed him4 ,he was to find1 as so many have found1 that when success comes something is sure to go which leaves success a different thing from what was dreamt of4 #ahhh4 ,the first important task of ,bradlaugh on the re-assembling of ,parliament was to fight this cause of the right of public meeting in ,trafalgar ,square4 ,it had been badly enough managed by others4 ,in ,january he wrote3-- ,the conviction of ,messrs ,cunninghame ,graham and ,burns for unlawful assembly is1 ,i fear1 in great part due to the foolishly boastful evidence of ,mr ,hyndman and ,mr ,tims4 ,if the first had been a ,crown witness1 his evidence on cross-examination could not have been more mischievous to the accused1 on the count on which a verdict was found against them2 and the incautious replies of ,mr ,tims to the counsel for the ,crown were almost as fatal4 ,the ,government on their part had carried adroitness to the point of cowardice1 refusing to arrest ,mrs ,besant when she sought to have a legal trial on the merits of the right of meeting4 ,the effect of it all was that not only the ,liberal leaders1 but such journals as the ,daily ,chronicle and the ,daily ,news1 took the line of deprecating any further public meetings in the ,square4 ,bradlaugh1 standing firmly to the claim of right1 commented gravely on the promoters of the meeting for bringing together a huge mass of people whom nobody was prepared to lead or to control2 and he expressed his regret that ,mr ,saunders1 a prosecution against whom was laid and then departed from1 should have let the legal question drop4 ,before the assembling of the ,house certain metropolitan members1 learning that ,bradlaugh was determined to raise the question by an amendment on the ,address1 took the unworthy line of protesting that1 as a metropolitan matter1 it was no business of his4 ,he offered to leave it to ,sir ,charles ,russell1 as the most capable of dealing with it4 ,sir ,charles promptly replied that no one could handle it better than ,bradlaugh1 but undertook the moving of the leading amendment4 ,in addition to such difficulties ,bradlaugh had the trouble of opposing the action of ,mrs ,besant on the newly-founded ,law and ,liberty ,league1 promoted by herself and ,mr ,stead1 with its ,ironside ,circles1 and other risky arrangements for meeting force with force4 ,when the ,house met1 ,bradlaugh took occasion1 before the debates began1 to make a personal statement on a matter that had of late frequently come before the public4 ,in ,february of #ahhf he had offered in the ,house to show that large sums of money1 excessive for such a purpose1 had been supplied by leading ,conservatives of both ,houses of ,parliament for the promotion of a ,trafalgar ,square demonstration for ,fair ,trade1 organised by a ,tory agitator named ,peters1 which had culminated in a riot4 ,peters had at the time blusterously denied this1 but had declined ,bradlaugh's challenge to a formal investigation before an arbitrator as at nisi prius4 ,in the recent prosecution of ,messrs ,burns and ,cunninghame ,graham at ,bow ,street1 ,bradlaugh had been pressed by the ,crown ,counsel on this point1 had reaffirmed his statement1 and had added that one of the cheques1 which he had seen and was prepared to trace1 was from ,lord ,salisbury4 ,this statement was first denied by ,lord ,salisbury in a letter to the ,times 7#bnd ,december71 and was afterwards characterised as wilful perjury in a published letter from his secretary to one ,kelly1 a colleague of ,peters4 ,on the first denial ,bradlaugh promptly offered to have the matter investigated before a ,committee of the ,house of ,commons4 ,this offer ,lord ,salisbury neither accepted nor declined4 ,bradlaugh now asked the ,government to agree to a ,select ,committee of ,investigation1 pointing out that he lay under an imputation of perjury from the ,prime ,minister on a statement which he had made in ,parliament4 ,an action for libel1 however1 had been already begun against ,bradlaugh by ,peters2 and the ,ministry1 after waiting a few days1 answered that the matter was not a proper one for a ,select ,committee1 especially as a lawsuit on it was pending4 ,bradlaugh1 however1 pointed out that the action in question could not raise the real issue1 and offered to raise it if ,lord ,salisbury would acknowledge the publication of the letter to ,kelly1 signed by his secretary4 ,this acknowledgment he sought to obtain by letter1 but after delay the noble lord took the singular course of declining to accept legal responsibility for the publication of the letter1 as he had not consented to it4 ,when1 however1 ,bradlaugh read this letter of disclaimer in the ,house1 ,lord ,salisbury sent him a secretarial letter 7#bbnd ,february7 referring to the original letter to the ,times over his lordship's own signature 7in which the truth of ,bradlaugh's statement had been denied without charging perjury71 and admitting his lordship's legal responsibility for that4 ,that letter1 however1 was not actionable1 and ,bradlaugh had replied to it at the time1 as he now pointed out4 ,lord ,salisbury then wrote 7#beth ,february71 repeating that he could accept no responsibility for his letter to ,kelly1 concerning whom he made the curious statement that he1 too1 was affected by ,bradlaugh's false and injurious charges1 though ,bradlaugh had never mentioned ,kelly's name in the matter4 ,his lordship1 however1 professed his readiness to facilitate a legal investigation of ,bradlaugh's statements1 which his lordship inaccurately professed to reproduce4 ,bradlaugh1 protesting against his lordship's tolerating the publication of the charge of perjury1 and never once apologising for it1 answered that he preferred to have the charge stated in the words in which he made it1 and in none other4 ,no reply was offered1 and the matter was left to be settled by ,peters' action for libel4 ,the debate on the ,trafalgar ,square question did not come on for a week or two1 and in the meantime one notable episode occurred over a remark made by ,bradlaugh in the discussion on an amendment to the ,address concerning the ,scotch ,crofters4 ,the report runs3-- ,mr ,bradlaugh said he understood the ,chief ,secretary to say that the cause of the evil they had to deal with in the ,highlands was over-population1 and that the sole remedy for this difficulty was emigration4 ,he also understood the right hon4 gentleman to denounce the reckless increase of population in that district during the last forty or fifty years4 ,he felt some astonishment that the right hon4 gentleman should put forward such an argument1 when he remembered that the right hon4 gentleman1 and those who sat around him1 tried before all ,england to make him appear as one of the most immoral men alive1 because he had tried to teach the people for the last quarter of a century these very evils of over-population1 and these very difficulties of their condition connected with reckless increase4 ,it was astounding to hear from the other side such a doctrine put forward to be supported1 because1 when urged by him in olden times1 it had made him the mark for some of the most wicked language that one man could use against another4 ,mr ,a4 ,j4 ,balfour3 ,i never in my life used any such language against the hon4 gentleman2 never1 never4 7,cheers47 ,mr ,bradlaugh said that1 at any rate1 the important party of which the right hon4 gentleman was then a prominent member1 flooded the country with literature containing such attacks1 without then one word of repudiation from the right hon4 gentleman4 ,but he would not discuss the personal position of the matter further4 ,the sole remedy for the existing distress1 according to hon4 members opposite1 was emigration4 ,but how were they going to apply it8 ,was the ,state to undertake the emigration8 ,were the people to be sent away by force1 and to what lands were they to go8 ,in every case they would have to struggle for existence against hostile life-conditions1 extremes of heat and cold1 hard for starving men to hear4 ,everywhere they would be confronted with the labour struggle1 for we were no longer the sole1 or even the principal1 colonising people2 masses of ,germans and other thrifty colonising races were now found in every distant land4 ,of course1 emigration resulted in a few successes1 and of these much was heard2 but nothing was said about the many miserable failures4 ,medical men in ,america and ,canada could tell many heart-rending stories of madness supervening on the home-sickness that embittered the emigrant's life4 ,there was no country where pauper emigration would be welcomed4 ,state emigration1 if at all1 must include on a large scale other distressed subjects4 ,this was impracticable4 ,emigration of charity was mockery save to the veriest few4 ,no2 emigration ought not to be thought of as a remedy until other means had been tried1 until the unjust conditions which hampered the poor1 and which had been artificially created by the class to which the hon4 gentlemen opposite belonged1 had been swept away4 7',hear4 hear4'7 ,thus again did ,bradlaugh prove that his ,neo-,malthusianism was anything but an argument against the political improvement of the lot of the people4 ,the emphatic declaration of ,mr ,balfour may be held to class him with ,mr ,john ,morley1 ,mr ,leonard ,courtney1 and the late ,lord ,derby1 as a believer in the importance of restriction of population2 but it is not on record that he1 any more than they1 has sought to communicate his belief to the public or his party2 and it is certain that1 as ,bradlaugh remarked1 he never said a word in deprecation of the attacks of his fellow-,tories on ,bradlaugh as a ,neo-,malthusian at a time when such attacks were a main means of keeping him out of his seat4 ,when at length the ,trafalgar ,square question was reached 7#ast ,march71 being raised in a masterly speech by ,sir ,charles ,russell1 ,bradlaugh followed with one perhaps not less effective1 which1 lasting till midnight1 had to be continued on the following evening4 ,it included a sharp indictment of the conduct of the police1 and a broad suggestion that the authorities seemed to have made use of agents provocateurs2 and it made short work of the official pretence that the ,square was ,crown property1 as having been constituted out of the ,king's ,mews--a statement on a par with ,mr ,burdett ,coutts' citation of the old ,act against certain meetings near ,parliament without the all-essential clause specifying the kind of meetings forbidden4 ,the ,king's ,mews1 ,bradlaugh pointed out1 had formed only a very small part of the ground1 while the rest had been bought and paid for with public money4 ,he challenged an investigation of the conduct of the police1 and wound up with an earnest appeal to those who were elected as ,liberals to resist the tyrannous policy of the ,government4 ,the ,home ,secretary was stung into promising an investigation of the charges against the police2 but it is matter of history that the ,liberal leaders homologated the action of the ,tory ,ministry4 ,a few weeks afterwards 7#bast ,march7 came the decisive struggle on ,bradlaugh's ,affirmation ,bill 7otherwise ,oaths ,bill71 which he had failed to force through in the previous session4 ,he moved the second reading in a tersely argued and conciliatory speech2 and though some ,conservatives1 as ,mr ,stanley ,leighton and ,mr ,de ,lisle 7,catholic71 made foolish speeches against it1 the great majority of the ,house was with him4 ,one member1 ,mr ,gedge1 made a success of absurdity by arguing that the promoters of the ,bill had defined an ,atheist as one on whom conscience had no binding effect1 and this nonsensical phrase he repeated again and again without recognising its nature1 entirely failing at the same time to see the point that the definition he meant to quote was that given by a court of law1 and not by the promoters of the ,bill at all4 ,at length1 the second reading was carried over the amendment 7which proposed a ,royal ,commission7 by #bdg votes to #acg4 ,on the substantive motion being put that the ,bill be read a second time1 obstruction was attempted1 which ,bradlaugh met by moving the closure4 ,on this he had #ccd votes to #ej2 and the second reading was then formally carried by #bej votes to #ajj1 a majority which surpassed his most sanguine expectations4 ,to secure the passage of the measure1 however1 he had to meet the old ,christian plea that the permission to affirm--which his ,bill gave alike to witnesses1 jurors1 officials1 and members of ,parliament1 in ,scotland and ,ireland as well as ,england--should not be given to believing ,christians who1 having no conscientious objections to swearing1 might seek to evade it because they felt freer to lie on affirmation than on oath4 ,this was urged on the ,conservative side as a concession essential to acceptance of the ,bill1 and ,bradlaugh consented to make the provision in ,committee4 ,no ,liberal opposed2 but trouble was to arise later in the matter4 ,months after ,bradlaugh's undertaking had been given1 and after he had put down the promised amendment1 some leading ,liberal members1 who had not before made any protest1 raised a strong objection to the concession made1 inasmuch as it placed upon every one desiring to affirm the necessity of avowing whether he objected to the oath on religious grounds1 or as having no religious opinion4 ,there ought1 these members argued1 to be no questioning whatever as to reasons4 ,this was a perfectly reasonable objection to make on principle2 but it ignored the fact that only by making concessions to the ,christian side1 to meet the case of superstitious and dishonest ,christians1 could any relieving measure be carried at all2 and it was brought forward surprisingly late in the day4 ,it is not clear1 further1 that the objectors realised what the amendment actually did1 for they protested that while it was all right for ,freethinkers1 it put a stigma on those who were not prepared to say they had no religious beliefs4 ,the plain answer to this was that such persons1 if they objected to an oath1 had only to say it was inconsistent with their religious belief4 ,although the objectors included such able heads as ,mr ,e4 ,robertson and ,dr ,w4 ,a4 ,hunter1 it must be said that their opposition was not justified by their arguments4 ,it was less difficult to follow the complaint of ,mr ,j4 ,a4 ,picton1 who said he would have no relief from the ,bill1 inasmuch as he was not without religious belief1 but regarded oath-taking as a humiliating and barbarous custom4 ,in that case1 however1 ,mr ,picton might with perfect propriety say that oath-taking was inconsistent with his religious belief4 ,further1 though it is quite fair for ,agnostics1 ,theists1 and others to protest that they ought not to be asked for any account of their opinions in a court of justice1 it was less than fair for them to propose to leave without any relief whatever the ,freethinking jurors who were liable to much worse odium and annoyance than is involved in saying that the oath is inconsistent with one's religious belief2 the witnesses who in ,scotland could not affirm on any condition whatever1 and in ,england could only affirm on answering a grossly invidious question2 and the members of ,parliament who had to take the oath while very much disliking it4 ,with the single exception of ,dr ,hunter1 none of the ,liberal objectors to the added clause had made any fight against oaths2 the whole brunt of the battle had been left to the ,freethinkers4 ,yet some of those objectors1 who had not specially moved a finger for any reform whatever1 were now prepared to throw over the measure4 ,mr ,john ,morley1 who had voted for the second reading after hearing ,bradlaugh's undertaking to insert the qualifying clause1 now made some heated remarks against it1 which ,bradlaugh dryly characterised as not very philosophic4 ,they certainly came ill from the editor who had deprecated ,bradlaugh's willingness to take any oath4 ,by dint of more forcible remonstrances with other members in the lobby1 ,bradlaugh secured a majority of #hg votes for the third reading1 the figures being #adg to #fj4 ,many of the ,liberal objectors1 recognising that to vote with the ,noes1 who were mostly bigots1 would be to put themselves in a false position1 abstained from voting2 and of the #adg in the majority1 #ib were ,liberals4 ,the trouble1 however1 was not yet over4 ,the ,liberal and ,radical ,union of ,northampton passed by a majority a resolution complaining that the value of the ,bill was taken away by the amendment2 and some ,liberal journals accused ,bradlaugh of giving away the principle of religious equality by agreeing to the imposition of a new test4 ,he met these criticisms in a very temperate letter ,to ,liberal ,editors in general1 and the ,editor of the ,south ,wales ,daily ,news in particular1 the latter journal having been one of those which had been most just to him throughout his struggle4 ,the editor replied1 acknowledging the courtesy of the criticism1 and making his own less extravagant1 but making the extraordinary blunder of alleging that even then any member of ,parliament could affirm on the ground that oath-taking was contrary to his religious belief--this while avowing that he only dealt with the measure as regarded the ,parliamentary oath4 ,his main argument was that there were many people who detested the oath1 but could not say it was condemned by their religious belief2 and on the score of his measure not relieving such persons1 ,bradlaugh was pronounced ungenerous4 ,the truth was that he had done his best to make affirmation absolutely unconditional1 but could only carry his ,bill at all by making it conditional on the giving of a reason4 ,he had done all he could for all classes of objectors1 and he rightly thought it better to relieve those who suffered most than to secure no relief at all4 ,the further relief claimed by believers should be demanded by them from their fellow-believers4 ,the rational course1 clearly1 is to abolish oaths altogether1 and this ,bradlaugh would gladly have done2 but it is neither rational nor candid to talk as if this or even a somewhat less measure of reform could possibly be secured by him within two years of his admission to ,parliament after a desperate struggle with a majority who stood for the grossest irrationality and injustice4 ,those who condemned him ought in consistency and decency to have begun an agitation either for making affirmation unconditional--a course which would still leave some people open to annoyance--or for the entire abolition of oaths4 ,yet1 after six years have elapsed1 there is still no word of any such movement4 ,it is the old story of the half-way people leaving all the stress of the fighting to the more advanced4 ,these may be permitted to say that it is a little too much to put on avowed ,freethinkers1 fighting for bare rights under all sorts of calumny and ostracism1 the burden of securing an effortless immunity for those who all along stood at best in the rear-guard1 if they did anything in the matter at all4 ,close on the heels of the second reading of the ,affirmation ,bill 7,march7 came the debate on the report of the ,perpetual ,pensions ,committee1 on which he moved a resolution that steps should be taken by the ,government to give effect to the ,committee's recommendations4 ,he had a ,tory seconder1 ,mr ,louis ,jennings2 and the debate included a friendly speech1 with an acceptable amendment1 from ,mr ,w4 ,h4 ,smith1 and a very interesting speech from ,gladstone2 whereafter the amendment 7amended7 was incorporated1 and the ,government stood pledged to determine all hereditary pensions with due regard to justice and economy1 and to revise the pension system in general4 ,in ,may1 ,bradlaugh again 7as told in the chapter above1 on his ,political ,doctrine and ,work7 pressed his resolution as to the expediency of ,compulsory ,cultivation of ,waste ,lands1 only to see the ,house counted out after his seconder 7,mr ,munro ,ferguson7 and the mover of an amendment had spoken4 ,he was not to succeed alike in everything4 ,later in ,may he had an unpleasant experience in respect of the ,government's breach of faith over his motion of a new ,rule1 to the effect that on a new member presenting himself in due form1 the ,speaker should forthwith call him to the table4 ,mr ,smith agreed to accept the motion as an amendment to going into ,supply1 on its being amended by the clause unless the ,house otherwise resolve1 which ,bradlaugh was advised was a harmless provision2 but when1 on the pressure of ,sir ,henry ,james 7who in the ,courts had argued for the ,house's right to resolve to an extent to which ,bradlaugh's clause would not allow7 and others1 he withdrew the clause1 the ,government threw over the whole motion1 though nobody objected to the withdrawal1 and the ,unionists who had urged the withdrawal of the clause left the ,house without voting on the motion4 ,it was accordingly rejected by #ahj votes to #aeb4 ,his main undertaking for #ahhh1 however1 succeeded finally1 to a marvel4 ,in the ,house of ,lords1 the ,affirmation ,bill might have been held to run considerable risk2 but singularly enough1 though amendments were talked of1 none were pushed1 and the ,bill passed its third reading 7,december #ahhh7 absolutely unchanged4 ,in the absence of ,lord ,herschell1 it was taken charge of by ,earl ,spencer and ,lord ,coleridge2 but what was no less important1 it was endorsed by the ,archbishop of ,canterbury as a desirable measure4 ,as usual1 the ,church took credit for lending itself to a reform which it had violently resisted4 ,outsiders were left asking which policy had been the more insincere--the old outcry against all ,affirmation ,bills or the new pretence of welcoming one4 ,the ,lord ,chancellor1 who1 as ,sir ,hardinge ,giffard1 had so often opposed ,bradlaugh and all his works1 was more true to his antecedents1 and confessed his jealousy and dislike of the measure1 while grudgingly abstaining from trying to defeat it4 ,to ,lord ,esher1 who as a judge had always administered the law as to oaths dead against him1 but who now helped the ,affirmation ,bill through the ,upper ,house1 ,bradlaugh tendered grave and chivalrous thanks in his journal1 adding that none were necessary in the case of the ,lord ,chancellor4 ,while the ,affirmation ,bill was on its way the libel action by ,peters was heard and decided4 ,before it came on1 the editor of the ,st ,stephen's ,review 7,mr ,allison71 who had made a libellous attack on ,bradlaugh in respect of the case1 was on ,bradlaugh's suit tried before ,justices ,manisty and ,hawkins1 and submitting himself apologetically to the ,court 7,march #bbnd71 was let off with a fine of #bj and full costs for his contempt of ,court1 ,mr ,justice ,hawkins observing that he very much doubted whether such a fine was an adequate punishment for so gross a contempt4 ,he did not think he had ever seen a worse attempt to affect the administration of justice4 ,the judge added some no less forcible remarks on ,mr ,allison's explanation that he had made his attack to advance the interests of the ,conservative cause4 ,but that principle was destined to have a still more remarkable illustration within the law courts themselves1 when the libel suit was tried 7,april #ahth7 before ,mr ,baron ,huddleston and a special jury4 ,if the action of ,peters for libel1 in inception and upshot1 be not the most extraordinary libel case of modern times1 it is only because the judge who tried it gave a no less extraordinary turn to another libel case which came before him eighteen months later4 ,peters' contention was1 in brief1 that ,bradlaugh had libelled him by stating that he got money from leading ,conservatives1 including ,lord ,salisbury1 for the promotion of a ,fair ,trade demonstration in ,trafalgar ,square4 ,his counsel1 ,mr ,lockwood1 argued that if ,mr ,peters was doing what ,mr ,bradlaugh accused him of1 then ,mr ,peters was doing a very corrupt thing--a plea only intelligible as resting on the fact that ,peters was the secretary of the ,workmen's ,national ,association for the ,abolition of ,foreign ,sugar ,bounties1 and as implying that it would be corruption on the part of such a ,society to take money from a lord4 ,the evidence led was to the effect that ,lord ,salisbury had given money1 not to ,peters1 but to ,kelly1 who was the fidus ,achates of ,peters1 but was also secretary to the ,riverside ,labourers' ,association4 ,both had for years been known to ,lord ,salisbury in connection with the sugar protection movement4 ,kelly had gone down to ,hatfield and seen ,mr ,gunton1 the secretary1 and in consequence of that interview had sent a letter to ,lord ,salisbury explaining that money was wanted to give a piece of beef each to #abj of our best men at ,christmas4 ,the said best men were all fathers of families1 and had never been in receipt of parochial relief4 ,lord ,salisbury1 who gave evidence1 remembered getting this letter and sending ,kelly a cheque for #be2 but had no recollection of any talk with ,mr ,gunton as to ,kelly's previous visit to ,hatfield1 in consequence of which the letter was sent4 ,he thought it unlikely that ,kelly would have seen ,mr ,gunton in that way1 but confessed his error when shown that ,kelly's letter to him actually mentioned the interview4 ,the landlord of a temperance hotel1 which was the headquarters of ,peters' and ,kelly's activities1 testified to having spent this money on provisions1 which he distributed to needy working men1 all save a small balance1 which was otherwise distributed4 ,he kept no books4 ,peters was on the committee of distribution4 ,now1 granting that the money had been honestly spent in the way alleged1 there was clearly no libel on ,peters in saying that the money had been sent him to promote the ,trafalgar ,square demonstration4 ,there would be no wrongdoing in getting money from any one for such a purpose4 ,he declared in his evidence that ,lord ,salisbury had never given him anything--nothing1 only his friendship4 ,the buffoonery of the plaintiff's evidence1 which kept the audience in chronic laughter1 was not more remarkable than the bluster of his statements as to his accounts4 ,never was a demonstration apparently got up with a more enthusiastic zeal by working-men promoters1 or with a more simple-minded financial reliance on ,providence4 ,only #d had been spent on the demonstration--to obtain bands and banners4 ,what the placards had cost witness could not say2 he could not even say whether they had been paid for4 ,the evidence of his colleague1 ,kelly1 was hardly less edifying4 ,he had been one of those who had received ,corporation money to get up meetings against municipal reform4 ,bradlaugh's defence was that even on the evidence there was no libel4 ,when ,baron ,huddleston interrupted him to suggest that he should apologise1 he answered that he was ready to do so as regarded ,lord ,salisbury1 but he could not deal with the rest of the case on those lines4 ,on the evidence led he was bound to admit that he had been inaccurate as regarded ,lord ,salisbury's cheque2 but his statement had been wider than that1 and neither in general nor in particular had it been of the nature of a libel4 ,further1 he had spoken in good faith and on distinct evidence4 ,peters had on pressure admitted receiving subscriptions from persons outside his ,association2 and ,peters had refused the investigation originally invited in #ahhf1 when the other facts could have been better traced4 ,and ,bradlaugh had led evidence as to the receipt by ,peters of such cheques1 two of which had been shown to him4 ,in pleading his case1 ,bradlaugh perhaps made the mistake of being too concise in putting to the jury the point that on any view of the facts no libel had been committed4 ,baron ,huddleston was more circumspect4 ,he turned affably to the jury1 and in the most intimate manner laid before them his view that ,bradlaugh had directly or indirectly accused ,peters of getting up bogus meetings--a statement which ,bradlaugh had distinctly repudiated1 and which was entirely wide of the facts and the evidence4 ,the whole drift of ,bradlaugh's charge1 as he stated1 was that the ,conservative party were playing with edged tools in assisting any such meetings4 ,as the summing-up went on1 indeed1 it became clear that ,baron ,huddleston felt this also1 and that in his view there had been a libellous statement against ,lord ,salisbury1 who1 however1 was not the suitor in the action4 ,on the point of law he made no intelligible attempt to rebut ,bradlaugh's plea that the statement sued on was in no sense a libel2 but he thoughtfully suggested to the jury1 with regard to the evidence of a witness called by ,bradlaugh1 that they could consider what value should be put on the evidence of a man who objected to take the oath4 ,he further took much pains to impress on the jury that a man could never be allowed to say things against a man1 and then1 when he found that they were false1 to say he was very sorry1 but he honestly believed them true4 ,such a thing would never do4 ,on this instruction the jury found a verdict for ,peters1 with #cjj damages4 ,and yet in the following year 7,november #ahhi71 when ,mrs ,besant sued the ,rev4 ,mr ,hoskyns for libelling her1 during her ,school ,board candidature1 in a circular which had the statement3 ,a ,freethinker thus describes the practical outcome of her teaching3 ',chastity is a crime2 unbridled sensuality is a virtue1' the same judge hardily instructed the jury that the question was not whether ,mrs ,besant's books were obscene1 but as to the defendant's honesty of belief at the time he had published the handbills4 ,he himself became conscious as he went on of the iniquity of this instruction1 and proceeded to cite and vilify passages from ,mrs ,besant's works1 thus doing everything in his power to prejudice the jury on the real issue4 ,but in the end1 while professing to put to them the separate issues of publication1 libel1 and truth in fact1 he added the issue3 ,if untrue1 then did the defendant when he published it honestly and reasonably believe it to be true1 and that it was his duty to publish it1 and did he do so without malice8 ,and yet again he urged that even if the libel were found untrue1 they would have to say whether the defendant had been guilty of mala fides in the sense he had explained4 ,his own obtruded opinion was that a priest might justifiably issue such a circular to his parishioners4 ,thus he laid down for the trial of ,mrs ,besant's action against a priest the exactly opposite principle to that which he laid down in ,peters' action against ,bradlaugh4 ,the priest was now adjudged free to do what the judge had said would never do4 ,the priest confessed in the witness-box that he had not read any of ,mrs ,besant's books when he issued his circular4 ,he had availed himself of the libel of a pseudonymous scoundrel1 making no attempt to ascertain its truth ,bradlaugh in his statement as to the ,fair ,trade demonstration had spoken on the actual evidence of cheques which he saw1 and on his knowledge of the habitual co-operation of ,peters and ,kelly4 ,but the ,conservative judge contrived to find the priest right and ,bradlaugh wrong4 ,and it is on the strength of a verdict thus procured that ,bradlaugh has since been spoken of as a convicted libeller4 ,the view taken of the case by ,bradlaugh's fellow-members of ,parliament was shown by their instantly getting up a subscription to pay the damages and costs in which he had been mulcted2 and the view taken by the legal profession may be gathered from the following verses1 which appeared in the ,star3-- ,,halves4 7,,an ,,historical ,,poem47 ,,december1 #ahhe4 ,take this cheque1 my gentle ,kelly1 ,fill our starving ,london's belly3 ,hie thee down with dearest ,peters ,to the lowly primrose eaters2 ,tell the unemployed refiners ,cecil sends them of his shiners2 ,let each toilworn ,tory striver ,batten on this twenty-fiver4 ,spread my bounty ,through the county2 ,but my right hand must not know ,what my left hand doth2 and so1 ,if thou value my attention1 ,full details must thou not mention4 ,,february1 #ahhf4 ,riots6 whew6 too bad of ,kelly4 ,i must ask him what the---- ,well1 he ,can't at least pretend that ,i ,had any finger in this pie4 ,,april1 #ahhh4 ,halves1 ,peters1 halves6 ,honour 'mongst us1 my sonny2 ,had ,i but tipt the wink a year ago1 ,you might have gone and whistled for your money1 ,and my straightforwardness been spared a blow4 ,i was ashamed of giving you the cash3 ,you were ashamed of getting it from me ,three hundred is the value of that splash ,on our fair fame1 unspotted previouslee4 ,remember1 sonny1 when your freethought flesher ,showed ,charles your name and mine upon that cheque1 ,had ,i owned up1 ,i think you must confess your ,foot would not now have been on ,charles's neck4 ,so halves1 my ,peters3--nay1 ,i crave not coin3 ,to touch the brass would not befit my station3 ,i only ask that ,kelly you'll rejoin1 ,and pay your debt in ,tory agitation4 ,this1 unfortunately1 was not the only libel suit forced upon ,bradlaugh during the year4 ,he had himself to raise another1 against a gang of enemies who had laid their heads together to produce a so-called ,life of him1 which was but a tissue of the most malignant libel from beginning to end4 ,it attacked his daughters as well as himself1 and was so flagrantly malicious that no legal defence was possible4 ,the nominal author was one ,charles ,r4 ,mackay1 and the nominal publisher was one ,gunn--a name which was afterwards admitted by ,mackay to be fictitious4 ,believing that the real author or promoter of the work was ,mr ,stewart ,ross1 editor of the ,agnostic ,journal 7then the ,secular ,review71 one of his most persistent and scurrilous assailants1 ,bradlaugh set about bringing him to account1 and soon procured adequate evidence of his complicity4 ,a friend had accidentally discovered for him that the book was printed by the ,edinburgh house of ,colston ,co42 and on proceeding against that firm in the ,court of ,session1 he obtained from them an apology1 costs1 and payment of #be to his usual beneficiary1 the ,masonic ,boys' ,school4 ,but the most effective assistance was supplied by those concerned in issuing the book1 who were soon flying at each other's throats4 ,in ,august #ahhh ,mr ,stewart ,ross prosecuted ,mackay1 with a solicitor named ,harvey and his clerk named ,major1 for conspiracy to obtain from him #bbe with intent to defraud4 ,mackay had previously brought two actions against ,ross1 one for slander1 and one to recover #ejj1 which actions were settled on the basis that ,mackay withdrew all claim against the defendant for writing the ',life of ,charles ,bradlaugh1 ,m4,p41' the plaintiff admitting the claim to be based on an erroneous conception1 while ,mr ,ross was to pay ,mackay in respect of the other claims the sum of #bbe1 besides writing ,mackay a letter denying the slanders alleged1 and opening his columns for subscriptions to a ,defence ,fund on ,mackay's behalf4 ,mr ,ross now alleged1 in his prosecution for conspiracy1 that ,major 7whose employer was ,mackay's solicitor7 had called on him and alleged that he had seen some pages in ,ross's handwriting in the ,,ms4 of the ,mackay ,life1 and that he 7,ross7 who had denied all share in the authorship of that work1 would be prosecuted for perjury unless he recovered possession of those pages4 ,ross admittedly agreed to pay #bej 7afterwards reduced to #bbe7 to recover the pages4 ,in ,court he would not admit that he had written any part of the ,life1 but explained that he thought some unpublished ,,ms4 of his might have been got hold of for it4 ,the promised ,,ms41 he stated1 was not returned1 and he stopped the cheques he had given towards the promised payment4 ,in cross-examination he confessed to having supplied ,mackay with books and materials to help him in writing the ,life1 and had seen the proofs of it4 ,another of ,ross's coadjutors fiercely quarrelled with him1 and handed over to ,bradlaugh's solicitor further evidence of his concern in the publication4 ,mackay1 who became bankrupt1 did likewise1 expressing to ,bradlaugh his regret for having been led into the publication by ,ross4 ,bradlaugh was advised1 however1 that he had evidence enough without their testimony2 and at length1 after various delays1 ,mr ,ross1 through his solicitor1 begged ,bradlaugh's solicitors to intercede with their client to let him make a voluntary settlement4 ,this being acceded to by ,bradlaugh1 ,mr ,ross agreed in ,court 7#aeth ,february #ahhi1 before the ,hon4 ,robert ,butler1 ,master in ,chambers7 to account for and destroy within four days all copies of the book which had come into his possession or control1 to pay #ej to the ,masonic ,boys' ,school1 and to pay all ,bradlaugh's costs as between solicitor and client4 ,soon afterwards ,mr ,ross wrote to the ,star3 ,i am not and never was the publisher of the ',life1' and ,i cannot 'destroy all the copies of the work' for the reason that ,i never possessed more than one copy4 ,bradlaugh commented that he was still willing to have the case tried in court2 and that he had evidence of ,ross's sending out a large number of copies of the book for review1 and once having close on #bjj bound copies on his premises4 ,mr ,ross is understood since to protest that he had been victimized in the matter1 and at ,bradlaugh's death he penned a remorseful and eulogistic article4 ,copies of the book are still believed to be on sale in underhand ways2 and ,mrs ,bonner has recently had to take legal proceedings against one ,london bookseller who announced it in his catalogue1 knowing it to be a libel1 and not legally saleable4 ,in connection with the same matter ,bradlaugh in #ahhh-hi brought an action against the ,warrington ,observer for a libellous article founded on the ,life2 and the proprietors1 after undertaking to justify1 finally withdrew the plea1 apologised1 and paid the costs and a sum of #be to the ,masonic ,boys' ,school4 ,a ,scotch journal1 the ,dumfries ,standard1 had previously apologised with promptitude1 paying costs and #aj to the ,masonic ,boys' ,school1 which institution thus netted #aaj in all from the proceedings in this one matter4 ,yet further1 ,bradlaugh sued the ,warrington ,observer for another libel1 consisting in the publication of a malicious report of a silly proceeding in which a man who had been subpoenaed by him in the ,peters' case applied to a ,london police magistrate to know whether he could recover costs for a day's attendance at the court4 ,the man had actually been paid #ajs41 and ,bradlaugh had refused to pay more4 ,this case was tried 7,april #ahhi7 before ,justice ,manisty and a special jury1 who awarded ,bradlaugh #be damages--another windfall for the ,masonic ,boys' ,school4 ,as against the manifold annoyance of libels1 ,bradlaugh had in #ahhh one great and solacing relief from a strain which had sorely tried him4 ,his various lawsuits over the ,oath question1 despite the success of those against ,newdegate1 and the saving of outlay through his pleading his own cases1 had left him saddled with a special debt of between #bjjj and #cjjj1 on which interest was always running4 ,and1 even as the lawsuits themselves helped to cripple his power of earning while they were going on1 his intense application to his ,parliamentary work had limited his earnings in the years following on his admission4 ,his whole sources of income were his lectures1 his journal1 and his publishing business4 ,but he could no longer give proper personal attention to the pushing of the business2 the lecturing was curtailed2 and the journal fell off in circulation just when it might have helped him most4 ,thousands of miners had been among its subscribers1 despite its non-democratic price of twopence2 but prolonged distress among the miners caused many of these subscribers to emigrate1 while many more could no longer buy it4 ,in villages where forty or fifty copies had been bought1 one or two had to do duty for all the remaining readers4 ,all the while the borrowed capital on which the ,freethought ,publishing ,company had opened business in ,fleet ,street had to bear interest1 whereas1 in the ordinary course of things1 it had been hoped that the principal would have been repaid in the years that1 as the event came about1 had to be devoted to a desperate struggle against political injustice4 ,freethinking friends1 who knew how he was worried by the fresh debts incurred in the struggle1 started a fund in #ahhf to meet the more pressing burden of #gej1 which then had to be repaid1 and over #ejj was then collected4 ,but in ,august of #ahhh his embarrassments became so serious that1 answering correspondents who urged a holiday on him1 he wrote3 ,my great trouble now is lest ,i should be unable to earn enough to meet my many heavy obligations1 in which case ,i should be most reluctantly obliged to relinquish my ,parliamentary career4 ,he was then addressing seven and eight meetings a week1 while other members were recruiting on the moors and on the ,continent4 ,the avowal1 through no action of his1 got into the newspapers1 and was the means of setting agoing a general public subscription1 the credit for starting which is due to ,mr ,w4 ,t4 ,stead1 then the editor of the ,pall ,mall ,gazette1 whose action in the matter was chivalrous and generous in the highest degree4 ,another fund was opened in the columns of the ,star1 another at ,northampton1 another in the ,halifax ,courier1 and the upshot was that in a month's time there had been subscribed close upon #bejj4 ,there were over #fjjj separate donations1 and the subscribers' names indicated a remarkable range of recognition4 ,in addition to ,freethinkers and ,northampton friends who had helped nobly before and now helped again1 there were remittances from sympathisers whose goodwill had not before been known to the subject4 ,sir ,t4 ,h4 ,farrer1 ,lady ,ripon1 ,mr ,d4 ,f4 ,schloss1 ,lord ,hobhouse 7in acknowledgment of gallant service done for mankind71 ,mr ,stansfeld1 ,mr ,t4 ,b4 ,potter1 ,mr ,m',ewan1 ,m4,p41 ,admiral ,maxse1 ,w4 ,m4 ,rossetti1 ,auberon ,herbert1 ,mrs ,ernestine ,rose1 ,mr ,labouchere1 ,lord ,rosebery1 ,mr ,newnes1 ,lord ,j4 ,hervey1 ,mr ,munro ,ferguson1 are a few of the best-known names that catch the eye in the long lists1 which include thousands of signatures4 ,a number of ,churchmen and ,conservatives subscribed as such1 some of them largely2 #bjj was given by one ,freethinker over an initial1 and #ajj from ,melbourne2 groups of workers and clerks made up sums among them2 clubs collected goodly totals2 widows gave their mites2 and hundreds of scattered toilers gave yet again of their scanty pence to the man they believed in4 ,at his wish1 the funds were closed1 as far as possible1 on his birthday1 #bfth ,september1 when he counted fifty-six years1 bien sonns4 ,had he allowed the subscription to continue1 the amount would probably have been doubled4 ,as it was1 he paid off all his outstanding law debts1 and had a clear #ajjj to put towards the others2 and he turned with new cheerfulness and courage to his tasks1 his holiday1 as usual1 being of the shortest4 ,but hard upon the great relief came a great blow1 of the kind that turns good fortune to ashes4 ,on #bnd ,december his daughter ,alice died of typhoid fever1 after sixteen days' illness1 aged thirty-two4 ,she was her father's daughter in her high spirit1 in her generosity1 in her energy1 and in the thoroughness of her work as a student and teacher of biology1 though for all her years of ungrudging service in the latter capacity there is only left to show1 apart from the gain and the gratitude of those she taught1 her little tract on ,mind considered as a ,bodily ,function4 ,it had been her wish that her body should be cremated2 but the crematorium just then chanced to be out of order1 and she had to be buried4 ,briefly acknowledging condolences1 and replying to the request of many friends to be permitted to attend the funeral1 her father wrote1 to appear after it was over1 the lines3 ,any public funeral would have been painful to me2 and ,i trust ,i offend none in not acceding4 ,the funeral1 private and silent1 will have taken place at ,woking ,cemetery4 ,the funeral wreaths and flowers sent are reverently laid on the grave4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the year thus grievously closed had been for ,bradlaugh as full as the preceding ones of political work1 which involved strife over and above that of the lawsuits1 and over the ,oaths ,bill4 ,on two issues he came in conflict with sections of the democracy4 ,the first was ,sir ,john ,lubbock's ,early ,closing ,bill1 one of those measures in which legislatures go about to remove1 as it were1 tumours and swellings by applying a vice to them4 ,declaring himself strongly in favour of the shortening of hours by voluntary effort1 ,bradlaugh vigorously attacked the ,bill as an arbitrary and capricious application of force on wrong principles1 pointing out that it would close shops irrespectively of the length of the shifts worked in them by the assistants1 and that it left untouched public-houses and tobacco-shops1 which were kept open latest4 ,it had the further demerit of renewing the old ,sunday ,trading ,act of ,charles ,,ii4 and increasing the penalties4 ,on a vote 7,may7 it was rejected by #bgh to #ie4 ,this was one of several points at which ,bradlaugh came in conflict with the policy of empirical regulation in which some ,socialists go hand in hand with some ,conservatives4 ,he was blamed1 as before mentioned1 for rejecting ,state interference in some cases1 while urging it in others1 as that of truck4 ,the criticism failed to note that he opposed truck as a form of fraud1 not at all necessarily arising out of the economic situation1 whereas hours of labour are determined by the whole economic situation4 ,while offending some ,radicals as well as ,socialists by opposing time-laws1 he offended the extreme ,individualists by supporting ,public ,libraries1 which he justified as he had justified ,state education1 and as being a rather more defensible form of public expenditure than much of the outlay on armaments1 to which so few individualists strongly demur1 on principle or in practice4 ,but his sharpest conflict with men usually on his own side was over the ,employers' ,liability ,bill1 to which he had given constant and laborious attention as a member of the ,committee appointed to consider the subject in #ahhf4 ,he had then and afterwards taken every possible pains to get at the views of the workers1 had spoken on the subject before many thousands of them1 and had done all he could to make the ,bill as strong a measure as could be carried4 ,he did not like it in every respect2 he objected to the retention in any form of the doctrine of common employment1 and of the principle of contracting-out1 both of which he had sought to restrict by his action as far as possible2 but the measure was in several respects an improvement on the ,trade ,unions ,bill of #ahhf1 then introduced by ,mr ,broadhurst1 ,mr ,burt1 and others1 to amend the ,liberal ,act of #ahhj4 ,that ,bill had been referred to a ,select ,committee under the ,gladstone ,government1 which ,committee duly reported4 ,the ,bill now 7#ahhh7 under discussion was1 save for one or two points1 either the re-enactment of the ,act of #ahhj1 or the formulation of the suggestions of the ,select ,committee of #ahhf4 ,it was1 however1 strongly opposed by the labour leaders1 especially by ,mr ,broadhurst1 who denounced it as a sham1 misleading1 mischievous--the worst ,bill ever introduced to the ,house1 and moved its rejection on the second reading 7,december71 after it had been amended by the ,standing ,committee on ,law4 ,on this1 ,bradlaugh had a sharp brush with him1 pointing out that with two exceptions all the complaints urged against the #ahhh ,bill struck equally at ,mr ,broadhurst's own ,bill of #ahhf4 ,the hon4 gentleman denounced the new ,bill as protecting the ,london and ,north ,western ,railway ,company1 whereas it did exactly1 in that regard1 what his own ,bill had done2 and an amendment which he had moved1 as expressing his latest wishes1 would equally have legalised that ,company's arrangement with its employees4 ,bradlaugh's criticism was perhaps the sharper1 inasmuch as he believed that the ,liberal labour leaders were mainly concerned to throw out the ,bill because it was introduced by a ,conservative ,government1 who would in due course have claimed the credit if it had passed4 ,bradlaugh knew well enough that the ,conservative party systematically facilitated certain popular measures which the same party would have strongly resisted when introduced by ,liberals2 but that was for him no reason for refusing to pass the measures so facilitated4 ,he took all he could get1 and fought for the return of a ,liberal ,government all the same4 ,mr ,broadhurst1 it is believed1 afterwards regretted in some respects the attitude he took up1 as did ,sir ,william ,harcourt1 who hastily supported ,mr ,broadhurst by accusing ,bradlaugh of attacking the trade unions in general--a charge which ,bradlaugh instantly and warmly repudiated4 ,however that may be1 ,bradlaugh's case may be read by those who care in his letter to his friend1 ,thomas ,burt1 ,m4,p41 published as a pamphlet4 ,mr ,burt sent a reply1 to which ,bradlaugh gave prominence in his journal1 in which one of his phrases1 as to setting the employed against the employer1 was objected to2 and on this point ,bradlaugh explained the precise limit within which he applied it4 ,he always opposed those workers who sought to make it illegal for masters to insure themselves against loss through accidents to their men2 and on that point ,mr ,burt fully agreed with him4 ,a less prominent but important part of his dealings with labour problems was his service on the ,committee which investigated the subject of the immigration of destitute aliens1 and on that which investigated the working of ,friendly ,societies and ,industrial ,assurance ,societies4 ,as to the destitute immigrants1 he was satisfied that they were not then numerous enough to justify any legislative action4 ,while to some extent in conflict1 as we have seen1 with some of his fellow ,radicals1 he was able to co-operate actively with the ,irish party4 ,on the ,bill for the ,commission to investigate the charges against the ,irish members1 he made what he confessed he believed to have been one of his best parliamentary speeches1 but found it either ignored or cut down to nothing in the press4 ,recognition was forced1 on the other hand1 by his ever-increasing work on behalf of ,india1 which in the course of the remaining two years of his life was to make his name known to every ,indian interested in the affairs of the dependency4 #ahhi4 ,though already showing sad signs of failing health1 ,bradlaugh seemed to begin the session of #ahhi with even extra energy4 ,he laid down for himself at once a resolution dissenting from the ,government's rate of commutation for perpetual pensions2 a motion to expunge from the journals of the ,house the old resolutions excluding him2 a fresh resolution on the utilisation of waste lands2 a repetition of his motion for a new ,rule as to the calling of members to the table2 and a motion for a ,royal ,commission to consider the grievances of the native population of ,india2 and he further introduced his ,bill for the repeal of the ,blasphemy ,laws1 and a ,bill for abolishing political pensions4 ,on the first paragraph of the address he made a strong speech in opposition1 criticising the foreign1 ,indian1 and colonial policy of the ,government2 and in regard to ,ireland he made another of still greater vigour1 setting out and ending with a telling attack on ,mr ,chamberlain1 and vehemently impeaching the whole drift of ,mr ,balfour's policy in ,ireland4 ,yet1 again1 he spoke on the ,trafalgar ,square question4 ,the first reached of his motions was that for the expunging of the resolutions excluding him in #ahhj1 on which 7#hth ,march7 he made an extremely temperate speech1 assuring the ,house1 however1 that on behalf of his constituents he would certainly go on making his motion until it should be carried4 ,the ,government strongly opposed1 through ,sir ,michael ,hicks ,beach and ,sir ,edward ,clarke1 who were however answered by ,sir ,henry ,james and ,sir ,william ,harcourt1 and ,bradlaugh had #gi votes to #abb4 ,he certainly did little about this time to propitiate the ,government1 making repeated attacks on their ,irish policy and their colonial administration1 besides keeping up such a fire of questions on grievances of every description1 submitted to him from all parts of the world--miscarriages of justice1 official misdeeds and tyrannies1 breaches of the ,truck ,act1 jobs domestic and foreign1 misdirection and ruin of emigrants1 fleecing of workers in ,government employ1 waste of money on royal palaces1 ,irish oppression1 and a score of things which cannot even be catalogued4 ,probably no non-official member had such a budget of daily business2 and certainly none was more in earnest4 ,at the beginning of ,april we find him writing3-- ,i confess that ,i left the ,house about #a ,a4,m4 on ,tuesday1 after a long sitting1 in a very bad temper4 ,all our front bench voted in favour of the ,government resolution to spend #ba1ejj1jjj on the ,navy1 and to raise #aj1jjj1jjj of this by increasing the ,national ,debt4 ,of ,state finance he was the most vigilant of critics2 and he caused much ,tory resentment by habitually impugning the claim that the old purchase of ,suez ,canal shares had been a good investment4 ,at least ten millions1 he pointed out1 had been spent in ,egypt in pursuit of the policy of looking after the shares in question4 ,there was thus small sign of ,conservative complaisance towards his ,bill for the ,abolition of the ,blasphemy ,laws4 ,as always on such measures1 he spoke with extreme concision and moderation1 packing his argument with authoritative deliverances1 and making only a quiet and simple appeal to good feeling4 ,similar bills had been introduced by ,professor ,courtney ,kenny and other ,nonconformists in the two preceding years1 but had come to nothing4 ,at first the promoters had inserted what is known as the ,indian clause1 an extraordinary form of enactment which provides that any use of language likely to hurt religious feelings and cause disturbance1 with the intention of so hurting feelings1 should remain punishable4 ,this clause had been unanimously rejected by ,freethinkers as making fully a worse law than the old1 the vague expressions as to intention and feeling being capable of a construction such as bigots had not ventured to put on the blasphemy laws1 and the principle being plainly destructive of that of free discussion4 ,even one or two religious bodies petitioned against the ,bill on the latter score4 ,the dissatisfaction with the clause was so great that it was dropped1 but even then it was not till ,bradlaugh took up the ,bill that it reached a second reading 7#abth ,april74 ,it was now opposed not only by ,tories1 but by pious ,liberals1 ,mr ,samuel ,smith and ,mr ,waddy in particular taking pains to get up a panic about the possibility of having impious caricatures distributed at the doors of churches and ,sunday schools1 and children's minds blasted by blasphemous placards4 ,finally there voted only #df for and #ada against the second reading4 ,most of the ,liberal leaders were conspicuous by their absence4 ,he was better supported in the following month in his motion to dissent from the ,government's system of commuting perpetual pensions4 ,it was seconded by ,mr ,hanbury2 and after a debate1 in which ,mr ,gladstone spoke at some length in support of the resolution1 the closure was carried on ,bradlaugh's motion by #cei votes to #if1 and the resolution was only rejected by #bfd votes to #bje4 ,the moving of the closure in the midst of a speech by ,dr ,clark--a step which ,bradlaugh declared to be fully justified by all the circumstances--gave some offence among ,liberals2 and just before1 ,bradlaugh had been made the subject of a furious newspaper attack by ,mr ,john ,burns1 who pronounced him the greatest enemy of labour in the ,house of ,commons1 and an opponent of ,employers' ,liability ,bills and other measures affecting the real interests of the people2 described him as shirking the ,trafalgar ,square question2 and attacked him for having resisted a motion to reduce the ,lord ,chancellor's salary4 ,the last step would have struck most people as one of peculiar chivalry1 seeing that the ,lord ,chancellor had been one of ,bradlaugh's most persistent and embittered personal enemies2 but as the other items show1 ,mr ,burns was not much concerned as to the validity of his charges4 ,he even chose to speak of ,bradlaugh as having sought an interview with him1 when the fact was that ,mrs ,besant had introduced him to ,bradlaugh to get the benefit of his legal advice4 ,a more offensive attack was made on ,bradlaugh shortly afterwards by ,mr ,f4 ,c4 ,philips in a serial in the magazine ,time4 ,the novelist made one of his characters allude to a ruffian in the ,united ,states--a colonel1 ,i believe--who is a kind of ,yankee ,bradlaugh1 only that he has the courage of his convictions1 which ,bradlaugh has not4 ,this was by far the least offensive part of the passage2 and ,bradlaugh1 after expressing his surprise that any editor or publisher should permit such a wanton attack1 added3-- ,f4 ,c4 ,philips is right in saying1 at any rate so far as he is concerned1 that ,i have not the courage of my opinions1 for my opinion is that ,i ought to horsewhip him4 ,as ,i will not do that1 ,i reprint his words4 ,the publishers promptly and cordially apologised for the outrage1 which had taken place entirely without their knowledge1 and which was really a piece of gratuitous literary ruffianism1 not easily to be matched in modern times4 ,much more troublous than any scurrilities or injustices from without was the shock which now came upon him from ,mrs ,besant's definite avowal of her conversion to the so-called ,theosophy of ,madame ,blavatsky4 ,no persistence of personal regard could countervail the complete sense of intellectual sundering from the friend and colleague of so many years which this involved for him2 and the change was the more felt by him for that his physique was now fast giving way4 ,but he held on his course with unchanging fortitude1 adding fresh ,freethought work to the ever-growing bulk of his work for ,india1 and adding to his earnings as he could by articles for the reviews which were now open to him4 ,an article on ,humanity's ,gain from ,unbelief1 contributed in the spring to the ,north ,american ,review1 elicited an invitation to debate the point with the ,rev4 ,mr ,marsden ,gibson1 ,m4,a41 a ,newcastle clergyman4 ,this was accepted1 and the debate took place at ,newcastle in ,september1 before densely packed audiences1 on two successive nights4 ,it was conducted with good feeling on both sides1 the nearest approach to personalities being in respect of ,mr ,gibson's using the argument that ,bradlaugh stood alone1 since at least eleven apostles of the ,secularist party had left it within twenty years1 ,mrs ,besant's being the only name given4 ,bradlaugh drily replied that he doubted whether the assertion was material to the question1 but that if it were he could remind ,mr ,gibson that eleven apostles deserted his founder in the sorest hour of his need4 ,one bystander1 not a ,secularist1 summed up the debate as a matter of ,bradlaugh launching cannon-balls while his opponent spun cobwebs1 a criticism partly justified by the rev4 gentleman's defining unbelief as a state of mental indecision1 whereas ,bradlaugh1 of course1 used the term to signify the critical and challenging spirit4 ,but the open-minded reader can judge for himself on the published verbatim report4 ,it elicited a number of sermons1 some decent and courteous1 others otherwise4 ,if ,bradlaugh could have spent his autumns on ,loch ,long 7where at last he had secured for the dwellers and health-seekers an almost complete stoppage of the pollution of the waters by the discharge of ,clyde dredgings and other horrors7 instead of in the usual round of lecturing1 he might still have been among us4 ,but he could never have the rest needed to build up his strength after the session's long drain on it2 his vascular system was fast running down1 and in ,october #ahhi he was at length prostrated by a dangerous illness1 a manifestation of the ,bright's disease which was soon afterwards to destroy him4 ,a surprising and touching proof of the change in public feeling towards him was given in the offering up of prayers in many churches for his recovery--a display of goodwill not undone by shoals of religious tracts1 or even by the already started legend that he was altering his opinions4 ,one clergyman1 the ,rev4 ,f4 ,e4 ,millson of ,halifax1 generously gave a lecture specially to make a collection to help the sick man financially1 which realised #aj2 and ,mr ,m',ewan1 ,m4,p41 with characteristic munificence1 sent him a cheque for #bjj to enable him to take a health voyage to ,bombay1 as advised by the doctors4 ,after weeks of extreme danger1 he began slowly to regain ground4 ,the great frame was not to be overthrown by one attack4 ,but the seizure had been a terrible one3 he had looked as close on death1 he told us1 as a man could look and live2 and it was with heavy hearts that those who loved him saw him set sail in cold ,november for ,india4 ,before going1 he penned a few notes1 calmly contradicting the absurd story of his change of opinions1 and other legends4 ,it would be ill-becoming to boast1 he wrote1 but ,i may say that my convictions and teachings have not been with me subjects of doubt or uncertainty4 ,one of the legends1 circulated by the ,british ,weekly1 was to the effect that on one occasion he said that he had almost been persuaded by a sermon of the ,rev4 ,arthur ,mursell4 ,on this he remarked that the story was pure fiction2 that though he had had friendly services from him1 he had only heard ,mr ,mursell preach once in his life2 and that all he remembered of it was the concluding intimation3 ,my subject next ,sunday will be ',beware of the ,dog4' ,the reverend editor of the ,british ,weekly had thought fit to add to his tale the judgment3 ,he 7,mr ,bradlaugh7 has the earthliest of minds1 is without a touch of poetry1 imagination1 or yearning--a ,christian characterisation which the patient treated with the charity it so eminently lacked4 ,there was a pathetic fitness in the advice which sent the sorely shaken man to ,india to recover1 if it might be1 health wherewith to work4 ,it was just after delivering a lecture on ,india that he felt the first grasp of his illness4 ,what strength he had had1 he had indeed freely spent for ,india4 ,in #ahhh he had handled more ,indian matters than in any previous year2 and in particular had made 7#bgth ,august7 an important speech 7reprinted under the title3 ,the ,story of a ,famine ,insurance ,fund and what was done with it7 by way of protest1 in the discussion on the ,indian ,budget1 against the mismanagement of ,indian affairs4 ,early in the session he had obtained a first place for his notice of motion on ,indian grievances1 but the ,government took away the time2 and he now made his criticism none the less forcible4 ,none of his preserved speeches will better show the peculiar energy of his grasp of ,indian questions1 and of his pressure on the ,indian ,government2 few indeed will better show one of the great characteristics of his speaking--the intense and constant pressure of his argument1 the continuance of the highest stress of thought and feeling without a moment's lapse into incoherence or verbiage4 ,it was in particular a crushing indictment of the action of ,lord ,lytton--the most destructive ever brought against him1 ,anglo-,indians say2 and the ultimate effect of it was that the misapplied famine insurance fund was at length restored to its proper and solemnly pledged purpose4 ,it was a very different pulse and note that marked the short and grave address delivered by the stricken orator to the ,indian ,congress of ,december #ahhi4 ,on board the ,ballarat1 jotting down a voyager's log for the friendly readers of his journal1 he declared on the third day3 ,my health is coming back very fast2 my hopes are rising even more rapidly2 but a man does not come back in a week or two to health from the door of death2 the recovery slackened2 and when he reached ,bombay on the #bcrd he was still far from convalescence4 ,his reception would have electrified him into strength again if enthusiasm could4 ,in the ,congress ,building1 for the occasion of his coming1 there were added to the #bjjj delegates #cjjj spectators1 and the whole multitude rose to their feet in mass to cheer him as he appeared on the platform4 ,hundreds of addresses for presentation had been sent to him from all parts of ,india1 some of them in rich cases1 or accompanied by beautiful gifts in gold and silver and ivory and sandalwood4 ,the address prepared by the ,congress itself was read in lieu of all by the chairman1 ,sir ,william ,wedderburn1 and then the guest made his speech1 a grave oration1 touched with the tremour of recent suffering and restrained by the sense of broken strength1 but full of greatness and dignity--a speech worthy of the man and of the occasion1 weighty and wise in its counsels1 urging patience1 and disclaiming praise4 ,it is impossible to read it without catching the vibration of its deep emotion1 and as it were the breath of the listening host4 ,the sight of the living mass1 and the hearing of the actual proceedings at the ,congress1 gave him a new and illuminating knowledge of the great forces he had been dealing with2 but he had nothing to unsay or unthink4 ,of the vitality of the ,congress movement he was well assured1 and he could gather for himself how much of sympathy among ,english civil servants had as yet to be concealed4 ,he had no time to give to seeing the regions and the peoples which the ,congress represented2 and in any case it was the voyage that was to restore him if anything would4 ,so on #crd ,january he set sail from ,bombay for home1 receiving a tremendous ovation at the ,apollo ,bunder1 where the carriage could scarcely get through the crowds that rained flowers on him and ,sir ,william ,wedderburn4 ,the end of ,january found him once more at his library table and at his work1 marvellously better1 indeed1 but not restored4 ,there was to be no restoration4 #ahij-ahia4 ,before sailing for ,india ,bradlaugh had issued a summons to an extraordinary and special general meeting of the members of the ,national ,secular ,society1 to be held after his return on #afth ,february1 to receive from him a special statement1 and his resignation of the ,presidentship1 and to elect a successor4 ,this last was a step he had hoped to postpone until he had carried a ,bill repealing the blasphemy laws4 ,freethought and ,freethinkers would in that event stand free and equal before the law2 and1 with endless tasks before him as a legislator1 he felt he might fitly withdraw from the more militant and organising work of ,secularism1 of which he had done so much4 ,but looking to his defeat on his ,bill in #ahhi1 and to the desperate illness he had just gone through1 he felt he must needs lighten his burdens forthwith as best he could4 ,the scene of his resignation was a touching one4 ,from all parts of ,england came men who had fought with and for him1 some of them for a good thirty years listening to his teaching and spreading it around1 criticising him at times1 but always admiring him1 standing by him in battle and rejoicing with him in victory2 and when he rose to lay down his leadership1 and the cheers of welcome on his recovery rang warmer and warmer1 it was some time before he could command himself to speak4 ,a few moving periods told of the necessity he lay under of giving up a task which he was no longer fulfilling as he held it ought to be fulfilled4 ,the party would have rejoiced to have him hold the office nominally1 letting another do the work4 ,but he must be a real ,president or none4 ,my fault1 he went on1 has sometimes been that ,i have been too real a one 7laughter71 but it is no easy matter to lead such a voluntary movement as ours4 ,i think ,i am entitled to say that the movement is stronger when ,i am giving up this badge of office 7holding up ,richard ,carlile's chairman's hammer7 than when ,i first took the presidential chair4 ,and a thunderous cheer endorsed the claim4 ,the office had no emoluments whatever4 ,the little wooden hammer and its memories had been the prize for a generation of work involving much spending4 ,he calculated that during thirty years he had given to the ,society and its branches1 as proceeds of benefit lectures1 some #cjjj2 and the members on their part gladly relieved him of certain money obligations of considerably less amount4 ,he ended3-- ,i do not say1 ',we part friends1' because this is not parting4 ,the movement is still as much to me as ever1 as much as it has been during my life4 ,for more than forty years ,i have been a speaker among you4 ,now ,i lay down the wand of office1 and the right to give command1 but ,i hope always to remain with you a trusted counsellor4 ,and to you1 ,i hope unstained--to you1 ,i hope untarnished1 ,i give back the trust you gave4 ,when the cheering and the addresses and resolutions had been got through1 he proposed as his successor in the ,presidentship ,mr ,g4 ,w4 ,foote1 the able editor of the ,freethinker and the leading lecturer in the movement2 and on ,mr ,foote's being unanimously elected1 he handed over to the new ,president the hammer of office1 with the words3 ,i give it to you1 ,george ,william ,foote2 and ,i trust that when it becomes your painful duty to resign1 as ,i do now1 the progress that has been made in the cause while you have held it will be such as to compensate for the pain4 ,in dismissing the meeting he gave it some grave words of counsel3-- ,the battle of ,freethought in this country is not over4 ,there are signs1 not far off1 of possible strife1 and there will be needed wise heads1 cool heads1 and firm hearts4 ,there is a tendency to renew the anti-,jewish cry2 and you may easily1 in connection with the lower phases of the ,salvation ,army1 get excitement and tension that need a greater self-command than is always shown among us1 if personal conflict is to be avoided4 ,the forthcoming report on sweating may bring about an attempt to raise the anti-,jewish cry2 and it is impossible to have strife between religions without the possibility of the various religions turning on the one party that is outside all4 ,one element of danger in ,europe is the approach of the ,roman ,catholic ,church towards meddling in political life4444 ,beware when that great ,church1 whose power none can deny1 the capacity of whose leading men is marked1 tries to use the democracy as its weapon4 ,there is danger to freedom of thought1 to freedom of speech1 to freedom of action4 ,the great struggle in this country will not be between ,freethought and the ,church of ,england1 nor between ,freethought and ,dissent1 but--as ,i have long taught1 and now repeat--between ,freethought and ,rome4 ,to his political work he turned with all the strength he could command4 ,at ,northampton his constituents welcomed him back with joyful enthusiasm1 and an address from the ,liberal and ,radical ,association formally expressed their felicitations4 ,when he addressed them1 he had to stand for several minutes on end before the cheering and singing would subside4 ,the speech had some pregnant passages3-- ,i1 personally1 am not so hopeful as my colleague of a democratic ,parliament in ,england4 ,and why8 ,because a democratic ,parliament in ,england can only come when you pay each servant there for the work and the service he renders you--7cheers7--and when the worry and the wear-and-tear of earning a livelihood beside his work do not--he ended the sentence shortly--sometimes break the man down4 ,on points of policy he went on to express himself firmly and uncompromisingly as to the ,eight ,hours' movement1 against which he had already written and spoken as being utterly fallacious on the side of practice and pernicious in point of principle2 and taking the demand for a time-law as the prelude to a demand for a wage-law1 he assailed the entire movement as illustrating the practical application of ,socialist theory to practice1 both democratic and despotic3-- ,as you all know well1 ,i have always been in favour of ,trade ,unions2 as you know also1 ,i have spoken for them1 and ,i have worked with them4 7,cheers47 ,but ,i say here1 ,i am utterly against--and though it should cost me my seat in ,parliament to-morrow1 ,i would be against--the doctrine and opinion that ,parliament could thus add one farthing to a man's wage1 or one jot to a man's comfort4 7,cheers47 ,what ,parliament can do is1 remove restrictions2 what ,parliament can do is1 reduce expenditure2 and what the ,emperor of ,germany had better do1 instead of summoning a conference of the nations of the world1 is to disarm twenty regiments 7great cheering71 and send back to the plough and to the machine a huge number of men who now live upon the labour of others1 and lessen the wage of others1 by being soldiers instead of working men4 7,loud cheers47 ,i speak most strongly on this1 because ,i feel most strongly on it 7',hear hear4'7 ,i am not one of those1 as you will know1 who have ever yet1 and ,i have passed too close to the end of my life to have any thought at anyrate to become one now--,i am not one of those who have ever flattered the people1 or striven to win their favour by telling them that from the ,crown or from the ,parliament that could be got which could not be got from themselves1 by themselves4 7,cheers47 ,i would impress upon you this4 ,what the ,state gives to you1 the ,state takes from you first2 it further charges you with the cost of collection1 and with the cost of distribution4 7',hear1 hear4'7 ,better by far for you that you should save for yourselves and spend for yourselves1 than put into the purse of the ,state your earnings1 of which only part can at best come back4 7,cheers74 ,just after the ,northampton meeting came the death of the man who had been his right hand in all his struggles there from the first--,thomas ,adams1 now ex-,mayor4 ,mr ,adams had been a valued friend as well as a trusted agent1 and his death came as another of the thickening blows of fate upon the rapidly aging man4 ,in ,parliament1 all the same1 he stuck sternly to his tasks4 ,at the opening he had set down for himself important amendments to the ,indian ,councils ,amendment ,bill and to the ,criminal ,law ,practice ,amendment ,bill2 a repetition of his motions as to waste lands and the expunging of the old resolutions excluding him2 and a motion on behalf of the financial ,reform ,association1 calling for the abolition of the gold and silver duties and compulsory hallmarking2 and he introduced besides an ,india ,bill of his preparation4 ,he at once resumed work1 too1 on the ,royal ,commission on ,vaccination1 on which he had done careful work in the previous year1 charging himself as he did to watch over the case for the anti-vaccinators1 though not committing himself definitely to their view of the facts4 ,he had been left out of the previous ,royal ,commission 7moved for by himself7 on ,market ,rights and ,tolls--partly1 it was thought1 because ,her ,majesty could hardly be asked to include the ,republican and ,atheist in a list of trusty and well-beloved counsellors2 but in the ,vaccination ,commission the difficulty was somehow overridden4 ,in the ,house1 his first long speech was in opposition to the motion of ,mr ,cunninghame ,graham on the ,address with regard to the restriction of adult hours of labour by international legislation1 and the sending of a delegate to the ,berlin ,conference to support such proposals there4 ,the speech was a very vigorous one1 and besides exposing some bad blunders in ,mr ,graham's figures1 argued strongly against the policy of a time-law as a crude and superficial treatment of a far-reaching economic problem4 ,during the course of the year he developed this criticism in various review articles and otherwise2 and a systematic treatment of it was to have made a large part of the book on ,labour and ,law on which he was engaged at his death4 ,among his other ,parliamentary discussions he fought his colleague's battle on the occasion on which ,mr ,labouchere was suspended for persisting in the declaration3 ,i do not believe ,lord ,salisbury--in connection with the escape of ,lord ,arthur ,somerset from a criminal prosecution4 ,he continued to incur a fair share of the personal abuse of which he had had such ample experience4 ,the ,observer told him that he was an object of loathing to ,hindoos on account of his religious and ,malthusian views2 ,mr ,hyndman described him and ,mr ,burt as friends of the plundering classes2 ,mr ,william ,morris's ,commonweal dubbed him a renegade2 and ,mr ,cunninghame ,graham1 by way of retaliation for punishment1 declared his work to have consisted mainly in fighting about the oath and the existence of a ,deity4 ,the ,lady's ,pictorial ,journal more subtly described him as no longer the rough1 rugged1 carelessly-dressed man of the people1 who once vainly sought admission to the popular ,chamber1 but a grave1 dignified1 and well-groomed senator2 and this legend of his transformation did duty with many as an exculpation of their own past brutalities4 ,it almost seems heartless1 as against such self-absolved penitents1 to record the fact that in his costume he had always been the most conservative of men1 and that he dressed in #ahij exactly as he had dressed in #ahhj and #ahgj4 ,the clerical stories of awful examples of ruined infidels1 tacked on somehow to his name1 and the more obviously knavish stories of his having been shown up or confounded on the platform1 continued to have their customary circulation2 and during his illness and his absence the libellous ,life1 of which the surplus copies had not been destroyed1 was more actively circulated4 ,accustomed as he was to the steadfast repetition of religious fictions against him after all manner of refutation and contradiction1 he was somewhat astonished at the length to which some of the labour leaders had contrived to mislead their followers as to his action in the ,house4 ,at a ,labour ,electoral ,congress at ,hanley1 in ,april1 one speaker1 who declared himself otherwise friendly1 actually moved a resolution ,that this ,congress regrets the determined opposition of ,mr ,charles ,bradlaugh to the ,employers' ,liability ,bill1 as the working men of this country desire it to be passed1 and refuses to recognise him as a labour representative4 ,as has been above told1 he had been the strongest supporter of the ,bill1 whereas its rejection had been moved by ,mr ,broadhurst4 ,the mover may have been under a hallucination in which the roles of ,mr ,broadhurst and ,bradlaugh were reversed2 but the extent to which working men can go astray under such hallucinations was shown by the fact that the resolution was actually carried4 ,the irrational hostility thus shown was of course not lessened when1 in the debate on ,mr ,bartley's motion for an inquiry into profit-sharing1 ,bradlaugh administered another unsparing correction to ,mr ,cuninghame ,graham1 who in his excitement became so interruptious as nearly to get himself suspended4 ,the hon4 member1 said ,bradlaugh among other things1 charged ,liberals and ,nationalists with having done nothing to prevent the starvation of one man whose terrible death he had brought before the ,house2 but what did he do himself except promote a strike in the district1 one result of which was that many men were now without employment who had theretofore at least been kept from starving8 ,mr ,graham1 with his youth and health1 was no match for ,bradlaugh1 out of health4 ,while politics were thus growing increasingly contentious for him1 he paradoxically found calm in new resorts to the theological controversy4 ,a series of serenely trenchant papers on the question ,are the ,hebrew ,scriptures ,impregnable8 in criticism of the treatise of ,mr ,gladstone--a criticism to which the right hon4 gentleman offered no reply--were among his writings during the session4 ,he had increasing satisfaction1 too1 in his work for ,india2 and on the occasion of a reception at ,northampton to the delegates of the ,indian ,congress1 he delivered a most eloquent speech1 full of his old fire1 though towards the end he was fain to express the wish that he had the force and fire of the old years4 ,in the ,house1 in the course of the session1 besides constantly pressing ,indian needs on the ,secretary of ,state1 he made an important speech on the case of the ,maharaja of ,kashmir1 whose high-handed deposition by the ,indian ,government1 on the scantiest justification1 had seemed to him as worthy of reprobation as wrongs to common folk4 ,republican as he was1 he would never admit that an ,imperial ,government1 which itself professed to rest on hereditary monarchy1 had the right to tread underfoot at pleasure the titles of ,indian princes2 and he saw at once what the ,imperialists are so slow to see1 that a brutal disregard of the established titles of such princes is the surest way to breed disaffection to ,british rule1 which has the least satisfactory title of all4 ,the official ,liberal press1 of course1 lectured him for his failure to see that the official course was the right one1 and charged him with championing a corrupt native despot4 ,the sufficient answer to such deliverances was and is that within three years the ,maharaja of ,kashmir was restored1 just as the famine fund was restored on ,bradlaugh's previous pressure4 ,from such eloquent facts we may infer what he might have done for the reform of ,indian administration had he lived1 and what a loss to the cause was his death1 just as his most important plans were coming within sight of effective discussion4 ,in his last enfeebled years he did for ,india what some men might have reckoned good work for a lifetime4 ,weakened as he was1 he entered on one undertaking during the summer1 which1 in the state of his health1 was anything but prudent4 ,mr ,john ,burns1 in a public speech1 spoke vaguely of challenging him to a debate in some very large hall on the ,eight ,hours question2 but on being asked to come to business1 declared that nothing would meet his wishes short of an open-air debate which could be heard by #bjj1jjj persons1 who were to vote on the issue--a farcical proposition which made an end of the matter so far as ,mr ,burns was concerned4 ,mr ,hyndman1 however1 who from endorsing ,mr ,burns' denunciations of ,mr ,bradlaugh had in due course passed to denouncing ,mr ,burns1 wrote to ,bradlaugh challenging him in ,mr ,burns' place4 ,i observe1 he put it1 that ,john ,burns imposes such terms in relation to his debate with you1 that he obviously does not wish it to come off4 ,after some contentious preliminaries1 a debate on the ,eight ,hours question came off between ,mr ,hyndman and ,bradlaugh in ,st ,james's ,hall on the evening of #bcrd ,july4 ,it was1 like most of the debates on ,socialism held in ,london1 a noisy scene1 many of the ,socialists present being disorderly in the extreme2 and it was grievous to some of us to think that ,bradlaugh1 with his failing health and slackening nerves1 should have the strain of such a meeting for such a grossly inconsiderate audience as made up the following of his opponent4 ,the published report will serve to show whether the advocacy on the other side made the debate worth holding4 ,twice in this year did ,bradlaugh seek fresh strength on his fishing ground of ,loch ,long1 far from the madding crowd4 ,failing still to build himself up to anything like his old standard of health1 he grew more and more anxious about his money matters1 the successful management of which depended so much on his keeping up his personal earnings4 ,physically unable to lecture so much as formerly1 he sought by writing review articles to keep up a sufficient income to meet all his obligations4 ,but on the other hand1 he found himself at length obliged to close the ,freethought ,publishing ,company's shop in ,fleet ,street1 which meant too burdensome a cost for a bookselling business1 even were that business not one-half boycotted by the trade1 and catering for only a section of the reading public4 ,appealing to that section to help him in the way of clearance sales1 he wrote3 ,there are some folk who repeatedly say that ,i am rich4 ,i should be a very happy man if to-morrow ,i could assign all my assets1 except my library1 which ,i should not like to lose1 to any one who would discharge my liabilities4 ,the closing of the shop was made the occasion of another painful step--the dissolution 7,december #ahij7 of the partnership which had for so many years subsisted between him and ,mrs ,besant4 ,they had diverged too far in thought to permit of the old community of interest1 though to the last ,mrs ,besant continued to write for the ,national ,reformer1 and there was no cessation of friendly intercourse4 ,hardly was the dissolution accomplished when once more the overwrought man was struck down by the malady which had barely let him go a year before1 and which this time was not to be fought off4 ,on the #ajth of ,january #ahia he came home very ill indeed1 hypertrophy of the heart having followed on the old ,bright's disease4 ,after the first seizure was over1 he went to see his physician1 who diagnosed the trouble4 ,still he did not take to bed1 and about midnight on the #acth an attack of spasm of the heart1 as he wrote in the last notes he penned or dictated1 nearly finished my chequered life4 ,it was soon to end indeed4 ,he rose to work as usual the next morning1 and was unwilling even to have the doctor called in again2 but on the day after he was persuaded to take to bed1 though he went reluctantly1 not dreaming at first that the end was so near4 ,he had the best of doctoring and nursing2 being attended by his old friend1 ,dr ,ramskill1 and by his near neighbour1 ,dr ,bell2 while he had in his daughter a nurse for whom the doctors had nothing but praise2 but the case was past cure4 ,he faced the end1 as he had done twice before1 with perfect tranquillity1 sorry to close his work1 but calm with the calmness of a perfectly brave and sane man4 ,coming from ,scotland to see him a little before the end1 ,i found him in the perfect possession of his judgment1 occupying himself among other things by auditing the peculiar accounts of the ,salvation ,army1 which he had mastered much more thoroughly than their framers liked2 and at that time1 though they had no hope1 the doctors thought his illness would be a long one4 ,he himself1 ,i saw1 was prepared for the worst4 ,the one regret he expressed was that he probably should not be able to move once more the motion he had put down yet again at the beginning of the winter session1 for the expunging from the journals of the ,house of the old resolutions excluding him4 ,he had set his heart on carrying that motion1 even as a similar one had been carried after the lapse of years in the case of ,wilkes4 ,and1 happily1 across the very shades of death there came for him a light of comfort on this his last desire4 ,dr ,w4 ,a4 ,hunter1 ,m4,p41 on being appealed to without the dying man's knowledge1 instantly and kindly consented to move the resolution on his behalf on #bgth ,january1 when its turn came2 and ,bradlaugh1 when told of what had been arranged1 declared that that was the very choice he should have made1 and turned contentedly to his rest1 though he did not suppose the motion would even now be carried4 ,dr ,hunter's success1 however1 was complete4 ,the motion was opposed at great length by the ,solicitor-,general1 ,sir ,edward ,clarke2 but after ,gladstone had delivered a conciliatory speech1 the front bench agreed to accept the motion on condition that the words characterising the resolutions to be expunged as subversive of the rights of the whole body of electors of the kingdom should be dropped4 ,these words had been copied from the motion in the ,wilkes case1 so as to follow precedent2 but of course the essential thing was the consent to the expunging of the resolutions1 which very sufficiently implied all that was said in the withdrawn words4 ,so1 after ,sir ,edward ,clarke had protested against a deletion1 which he admitted to be a mark of ignominy1 ,mr ,w4 ,h4 ,smith agreed to the motion2 and although ,mr ,de ,lisle made a foolish speech in opposition1 even he expressed his deep regret at the illness of ,mr ,bradlaugh1 while ,sir ,walter ,barttelot not only deplored that there should be any lack of unanimity1 but expressed his admiration of the straightforwardness ,mr ,bradlaugh had shown in the discharge of his duties as a member4 ,god grant that the junior member for ,northampton might recover2 but whatever happened1 hon4 members would feel that1 by accepting this motion1 they had done a generous act towards a man who had endeavoured to do his duty4 ,so the motion was finally carried without dissent1 amid cheers1 and the wrongful resolutions were formally expunged4 ,alas1 when the news of the triumph was telegraphed by ,dr ,hunter1 it was too late to tell the dying man4 ,day by day he had grown weaker1 albeit cheerful and even sanguine when he drowsily talked of himself2 and now he had sunk so low that his daughter dared not rouse him with so exciting a message4 ,he never fully regained consciousness2 and those about him learned how bitter a thing it could be ,to hear the world applaud the hollow ghost ,which blamed the living man4 ,the end came on the morning of #cjth ,january #ahia4 ,he was fifty-seven years and four months old4 ,as in his previous illness1 prayers had been offered up for him in many churches2 and many were the tributes of those who had been opposed to him in religion and in politics2 still more1 of course1 of those more in agreement with him4 ,but his daughter had been driven to take the precaution of procuring signed testimony1 from those who had been attending him1 that during his illness he was never heard to utter one word either directly or indirectly bearing upon religion or any religious subject4 ,the eternal pretence of a recantation was already current afresh1 as it had been after he resigned his presidentship of the ,national ,secular ,society1 even while he was writing his arguments against ,mr ,gladstone's book1 and re-stating his ,atheism as explicitly as ever in his ,doubts in ,dialogue4 ,one of the last non-political lectures he had given1 in ,november1 had been a manifesto on ,my ,heresy now and ,thirty-six ,years ago2 and in ,december he had discoursed on ,life1 ,death1 and ,immortality with no faltering in his doctrine4 ,the funeral was on #crd ,february1 at ,brookwood ,cemetery4 ,he had never troubled himself as to how his body should be dealt with1 so his daughter chose that it should be in the earth to earth fashion4 ,at his express wish1 written in a will dated some years before1 the burial was perfectly silent--an arrangement which caused some regret among friends1 and some characteristic phrases about being buried like a dog from others1 who could not feel the pathos and solemnity of the silent sepulture1 amid the uncovered multitude who had come to pay their last tribute at the grave of the man they had honoured and loved4 ,as he had always disliked the shows of mourning and the badges of grief1 those who knew his tastes wore none4 ,but the grief of the thousands who filled the trains from ,london to the burial-place was such as needed no other attestation4 ,they were of both sexes and all classes1 from costermongers to right honourables2 they came from all parts of ,england2 and soldiers' red coats and the bronzed faces of hundreds of ,hindus gave a wide significance of aspect to the throng4 ,hundreds1 many of them from ,northampton1 had brought the little tri-coloured rosettes they used to wear in the old fighting days2 and many threw these in the grave1 some saying as they did so that their work too was done1 now that he was gone4 ,over an hour after the coffin had been laid in the earth1 when it was thought that the multitude had passed away1 the immediate friends and mourners of the dead went back to take a last look1 and they found that a lingering band of devoted men had got the shovels from the workmen1 and were one by one obtaining the last sad privilege of casting their handful of earth into the grave4 ,,conclusion4 ,if the foregoing volumes have not shown what manner of man ,bradlaugh was1 as well as what he did1 they have been written in vain4 ,but it may be fitting to attempt1 in a closing page or two1 some general estimate of his personality4 ,the present writer is1 indeed1 conscious of unfitness for the task1 were it only because of a personal affection which must somewhat bias criticism4 ,but when a man has had so much evil said of him as ,bradlaugh had throughout his life1 the inclining of the balance a little way towards love and admiration may be forgiven4 ,indeed1 most men would find it hard to write of him with perfect impartiality4 ,he inspired1 as a rule1 either aversion or admiration1 and the furious enmities of which these pages bear record were in a way the correlative of the intense devotion given to him by thousands4 ,such a description would in some cases suggest an intensely passionate and ill-balanced nature1 at once winning and grievously faulty2 hardly a man of keenly analytic intellect1 remarkable self-control1 and extreme sagacity4 ,yet these latter qualities he certainly had4 ,he was in truth a singular combination of chivalrous heroism and practical wisdom--a combination such as ,i cannot find a parallel for in memory4 ,he had the quixotic ardour of a young enthusiast1 an ardour which never left him to the end2 and he combined it with a political foresight and judgment such as few modern ,english statesmen have exhibited4 ,it was the ardour for justice and truth1 the forthright sincerity and disregard of convenient conformities1 that won him the love and allegiance of men who possessed and valued courage2 and it was his keen sagacity that kept their adherence4 ,in modern ,england he stands out singularly as a powerful and prominent man who chose to set his face openly and systematically against what he held to be shams and delusions1 though the impeaching of them brought him the bitterest hostility1 the foulest calumny1 and a perpetual struggle1 where a mere tacit conformity would have meant manifold success1 wealth1 and ease4 ,there is no country in which straightforwardness and single-mindedness are more belauded than in ,england1 and perhaps none in which they are scarcer4 ,the praise of them forms part of the cant that does not know it is cant1 which ,carlyle denounced1 and exemplified4 ,men declare their esteem for courage and sincerity2 and when they meet a shining example of these virtues they cast their mud with the unthinking vulgar4 ,no amount of reiteration of phrases about prophets who have been stoned by the ,scribes and ,pharisees can withhold the average moralist from joining the ,scribes and ,pharisees when the next prophet shows face4 ,to panegyrise old prophets in platitudes is such a very different thing from recognising a new one in the market-place and taking him by the hand4 ,of course1 while men do unquestionably dislike an innovator and fighter for being more honest and plain-spoken than themselves1 they do not openly put their enmity on those grounds4 ,they must find sins and faults for him3 what faults he has they will magnify and multiply4 ,and as1 of course1 all of us who practise any self-criticism at all can realise that the hostilities we set up1 however unjust we hold them to be1 have a certain basis in our shortcomings1 it is only reasonable to look for part of the pretext of ,bradlaugh's enemies in his4 ,what then were his faults8 ,we have seen and heard enough of those falsely imputed3 what was his real share of human infirmity8 ,i have heard him accused1 by people who were not rabidly hostile1 of egoism1 vanity1 love of flattery1 and a tendency to be overbearing4 ,for perhaps all of these charges he would himself have more readily admitted a foundation than would his sympathetic friends4 ,he used to make humorous allusion1 in his speeches at ,freethought gatherings1 to his despotism in the chair4 ,he ruled conferences with a rod1 not of iron but of ivory--the rod of absolute technical law4 ,he was the most swift and unyielding of chairmen2 and men unwittingly out of order called him not only hard but unjust4 ,but some who had resented his way in these matters have been known spontaneously to wish for his ruling hand when it was still4 ,in all matters where authority and command belonged to the situation1 and he was in authority1 he ruled with a military firmness and quickness2 and as no man can miss making mistakes1 he must have made some1 though they would be hard to prove4 ,nay1 he himself avowed a certain stress of nervous energy which1 on bustling occasions1 made him abrupt and impatient of meddling and dilatoriness4 ,this overplus of energy came out quaintly in his inveterate habit of being much too early for a train4 ,he had1 in fact1 the relative defect of the ,napoleonic quality of swift decision and intense determination4 ,thus1 as one ,freethinker once told him1 his manner was not always economical2 and the hostilities he aroused were apt to be as intense as the admirations1 and to be hindrances to his career4 ,most of his enemies were themselves certainly faulty men1 and not a few were very bad men indeed2 but he would not have denied that he might at times have made an honest man his unfriend4 ,such an abnormal will-power as his#aic cannot miss making some of the manifestations of excess of driving power in the human machine4 ,but nothing could be more mistaken1 or more unjust1 than to make out that this stress of will-power made him an unjust or an inconsiderate man4 ,on the contrary1 tried by the decisive tests of his family life and his relation to his colleagues1 he was the fairest and most tolerant of men4 ,of his family virtues his daughter has told3 of his considerateness as an editor all who worked with him can speak4 ,i never knew or heard of one who even came near him in his regard for the independence of his contributors1 and in his concern to give the fullest hearing to opponents4 ,in all the essentials of just-mindedness he was singularly well endowed2 it was only in respect of physiological over-emphasis that he could ever be impeached4 ,and even on that score1 as has been above abundantly shown1 it is utterly false that he was ever brutal in speech1 or arrogant or discourteous in intercourse or controversy4 ,he was even criticised at times for a certain old-world courtliness1 more continental than ,english1 and this long before he had won general recognition4 ,a thousand printed reports and testimonies go to dispose of vague and unsupported aspersions4 ,i am told that in the last year or two of his life1 when his nervous and vascular system was breaking up1 he was at times sharply impatient of incompetent opposition on the secular platform1 but that is a small matter against the self-control of a lifetime4 ,tried by1 or in comparison with1 his peers1 he needs no vindication4 ,footnote #aic3 ,his head gave a remarkable corroboration to the classification of the old phrenology1 now being revindicated by the posthumous work of ,mr ,mattieu ,williams4 ,it had a highly intellectual cast at the brow1 but the whole head sloped up to the organ of will1 which dominated everything in his skull outline as in his character4 ,on the points of egoism and vanity ,i have heard him forestall criticism4 ,he confessed that he sought power1 and shaped his life to attain his ambitions--these being what they were4 ,he had simply the egoism of an extremely powerful man with an end in view4 ,but it was never the egoism of a ,napoleon1 stooping to meanness as readily as it hazarded battles4 ,he was an honourable gentleman to the end4 ,those who deprecated his legal way of fighting legal battles simply failed to appreciate the lawyer's method4 ,that he was a born as well as a trained lawyer many lawyers have admitted2 and he fought technically1 and thwarted his enemies by technicalities1 because law was to him a technique4 ,nobody but a man with a genuine belief in it as a technical system would have gone to law as often as he did1 even to resist gross injustice4 ,on the point of vanity1 again1 he frankly anticipated criticism4 ,oh1 don't say that3 ,i am very vain1 ,i once heard him say to ,madame ,venturi when she was protesting that a certain statesman's vanity was insufferable4 ,of course such a confession could not come from a really vain man4 ,he once spoke of the ,irish part of my character as something that his friends must allow for4 ,a man who can thus detect foibles in himself is not badly swayed by them4 ,as for the charge that he was susceptible to flattery--a variant on the trite and stupid charge of love of notoriety--it came latterly1 ,i think1 only from ,liberals in the ,house who grudged his popularity among the ,tories1 they themselves seeing in him a stumblingblock to that species of success which both parties are so apt to set above pursuit of principle4 ,the later ,tories1 having nothing to suffer in the esteem of the pious from friendship with him1 showed him some consideration2 while the official ,liberals uneasily anticipated the demand from their supporters outside that ,bradlaugh should be in the next ,liberal ,cabinet4 ,it is painful to have to say that to such ,liberals his death was a relief4 ,and it is intelligible that they should prefer to see in his geniality and courtesy a fishing for ,tory flattery rather than a manly merit4 ,if after years of desperate strife1 conscious of failing health1 the aging fighter had been sedulous to win goodwill1 it would have been small harm2 but he was genial out of the very warmth of heart that had made him a fighter4 ,of his unwavering fidelity to the ,radical principles of his life it would be vain to say anything here if the preceding pages have not made it clear4 ,the respect which he won from political opponents in the ,house was no result of compromise on his part1 or of his resistance to certain ,socialist doctrines4 ,he was in sharp collision with them on other issues to the last4 ,a good testimony to the genuineness of their respect is that which comes from the late ,mr ,w4 ,h4 ,smith1 in his biography by ,sir ,herbert ,maxwell4 ,it is there told that once in #ahhf ,mr ,smith's private secretary1 travelling in the same railway carriage with ,bradlaugh1 happened to mention the station at which he was going to stop4 ,ah1 you are going to stay with ,mr ,smith1 said ,bradlaugh4 ,well1 ,i don't suppose there is a man in the ,house of ,commons or in ,england with whom ,i am more widely at variance on many subjects1 yet there is none for whom ,i have more sincere respect4 ,in the evening the secretary told his host that he had travelled down with ,bradlaugh4 ,indeed1 said ,smith4 ,well1 it's a strange thing2 ,i don't believe there is a man whose opinions ,i hold in greater abhorrence than ,bradlaugh's2 but ,i cannot help feeling that there is not an honester man in ,parliament4 ,and ,i have myself heard ,bradlaugh speak in private of the genuineness and simplicity of ,smith's character--in respect of such a matter as private donations to churches--even at a time when he had penned humorous paragraphs on ,smith's head-butler manner of leading the legislature4 ,both men were honest1 and that was a ground of sympathy4 ,and though the professor of the religion of love had to express abhorrence of the opinions he rejected1 he called to make friendly inquiry when ,bradlaugh lay on his deathbed--an attention paid by none of the ,liberal leaders4 ,but this honesty1 which won him the regard of antagonists when they came close enough to see it1 was simply the manifestation in political life of the fundamental and propulsive love of truth and reason which made him an ,atheist propagandist4 ,he happened to care for truth and justice all round1 where other men were satisfied with a measure of homage to one or two principles they cared to recognise1 or prejudices they cared to gratify4 ,he had leapt forward1 from his youth up1 at the sound of the trumpet in every good cause1 where they had mostly been careful to count the cost4 ,no fetter but galled his wrist2 ,no wrong that was not his own4 ,and to his last days1 he never learned the sordid lessons of prudent conformity even where they might have meant a serious lightening of his burdens4 ,once in the last year of his life1 ,i commented jestingly1 as laying down the code of commercial journalism1 or his devotion of columns of his journal to dry details of the ,indian grievances he took up1 when he might have raised the circulation by lampooning his fellow-members4 ,he felt so strongly on the subject of ,english disregard of ,indian claims that even the jest disturbed him1 and he met it with an ,et tu1 ,brute4 ,no man was saner in the adjustment of a necessary compromise in legislation2 but no man was ever more innocent of the spirit of ,nothingarianism4 ,good ,god1 ,bradlaugh1 said a friendly ,conservative member to him one day1 reproaching him for his quixotry1 what does it matter whether there is a ,god or not8 ,the amiable indifferentists who subscribe to that philosophy1 though they may have been able to appreciate him as a companion1 will never be able to understand the enthusiasm which ,bradlaugh aroused in thousands of those who followed him1 and even in some whose way of thought diverged far from his4 ,i have heard of one eminent professional man who long wore ,bradlaugh's portrait next his breast1 and long hesitated between following him and turning ,catholic4 ,men who never had any leanings that way could the more heartily give their devotion4 ,certain it is that ,bradlaugh evoked a passion of love and loyalty from thousands1 such as no other public man of his day called forth4 ,his followers followed him as ,nelson's men did ,nelson4 ,mr ,gladstone has the enthusiastic reverence of myriads2 but men who would go through fire and water for their leader1 and give up their tobacco to send him a weekly sixpence1 were to be looked for rather in ,bradlaugh's following than his4 ,men turned instinctively to ,bradlaugh as to a born leader4 ,had any great social convulsion arisen in his time1 such as some foretell for the near future1 he would infallibly have come to the front as none of his political contemporaries were fitted to do--as ,cromwell did and as ,danton did4 ,in him the faculty of action was not limited to the sphere of the forum and the bureau4 ,it has been told#aid how1 when in ,spain1 he offered to the ,republican leaders to go with fifty horsemen and shoot the traitorous general in the north2 and we may safely hold with the narrator of this episode that he would have done it had the offer been accepted4 ,among the many adventures of his younger days1 the details of which will probably never now be put together1 was a singular attempt in which he took part to secure the election of a ,liberal ,pope4 ,he carried letters to and fro in ,europe on behalf of ,italian and other democrats who had conceived the scheme4 ,all ,i learned from him was the fact of his positively taking part in the enterprise1 which1 of course1 failed4 ,in these and other journeys he ran many risks2 and he told a funny story of how1 travelling one night in a ,german train with a good deal of money in his possession1 and being awakened from his sleep1 with the train at full speed1 by the conductor's lamp presented to his face1 after the continental fashion1 where on his lying down there had been no one else in the compartment1 he in an instant had that startling and startled functionary by the throat in the opposite corner of the carriage4 ,his army training and his later experiences had developed in him a remarkable turn for dealing promptly with physical emergencies2 and persons who sought1 in the old days1 to block the ,reform processions for the leading of which he was responsible1 came to swift and serious confusion4 ,to the last he had in him something of ,cromwell's ,berserker temper1 though at his blood's hottest he could never have been guilty of the ,puritan's ferocity4 ,it came out in him in such acts as his personal seizure and expulsion of rowdies from his meetings4 ,i saw him effect this dramatically enough at one of the great ,st ,james's ,hall meetings he organised about #ahhf4 ,tories had come with forged tickets1 but were detected and ejected2 and these1 or others1 determined to give due trouble1 took the course of keeping up a loud and distracting tapping on the glass door at the off end of one of the balconies4 ,the disturbers being in great force outside1 the doorkeepers were helpless2 the loud click-click was disconcerting the speaker then on his feet2 and the audience were growing more and more irritated and restless4 ,bradlaugh left the chair1 passed down and then up to the balcony1 made his way along to the door1 opened it sharply and disappeared1 but in a moment re-entered1 holding a man by the collar4 ,this was the ringleader with the stick4 ,startled at the apparition of ,bradlaugh1 he had involuntarily raised that weapon2 but in a flash it was out of his hands and broken across ,bradlaugh's knee4 ,the pale disturber was then taken by his captor--still by the collar--along the crowded balcony to the platform end1 where he was ejected by the other doorway4 ,he did not return3 his followers broke up2 and the meeting proceeded in peace1 after a spontaneous expression of its satisfaction at the manner of the relief4 ,that there was nobody like ,bradlaugh for an awkward emergency1 was the fresh verdict of his followers4 ,footnote #aid3 ,national ,reformer1 ,february #h1 #ahia4 ,and these things1 and his shaping of his life1 were all of a piece with the extraordinary effectiveness of his oratory4 ,in tempestuous power and intensity of feeling it surpassed any that it has ever been my lot to listen to3 it roused men to great thrills of sympathy apart from any of that foregone approbation which swells the cheering for so many political leaders4 ,he could make enthusiastic followers at one hearing1 and keep them for a generation4 ,oratory was with him not an art1 but an inspiration2 he even misused his wonderfully powerful voice2 but he sounded easily all the notes of eloquence1 giving at times the whole gamut of effect1 jest1 pathos1 gravity1 reasoning1 epigram1 and thunderous vehemence1 in a quarter of an hour's speech4 ,the platform was pre-eminently his place2 and no one who merely reads his articles written for reading1 tersely strong as his style generally is1 can know the extent of his power over language4 ,it did not lie in any special sonority of vocabulary or choice of cadence1 but in a volcanic sincerity and spontaneous fire of speech which yet never passed beyond the control of logic and judgment--something equally removed from the measured passion and forceful dignity of ,bright1 and the copious mellifluence of ,gladstone4 ,it was the oratory of unswerving conviction1 grave or impassioned or satirical in turn1 but always felt and never factitious4 ,he spoke as he lived and fought1 going straight for his mark1 and staking all on the issue4 ,to those whom his career leaves cold and whom his character cannot attract1 it is enough to say that those who applaud the career and honour the character recognise in them1 in their special kind1 that invincible and unforgettable something which marks men for remembrance long after their immediate influence has passed away--the something which in artists and poets and warriors we call genius4 ,what ,mr ,john ,morley has called the dmonic elements of character1 but may perhaps better be called the dynamic elements1 were present in ,bradlaugh in a degree which gives a personality a lasting interest4 ,beside the cautious and merely judicious or clever men1 he stands out as one of larger mould and greater fibre1 a battling and conquering ,titan1 sure of the sympathetic retrospect of happier days4 ,it is not merely that as a statesman he impressed friends and foes alike with his insight and his sagacity2 and that he combined the fire of the orator with the exactitude of the scholar and the rigorous thinking of the born reasoner2 but that in him sagacity never ceased to be heroic1 and that his commanding powers rested on a character more commanding still4 ,when1 in ,september #ahib1 twenty months after his death1 a gathering was held in his memory on the occasion of the completion of the bust for his grave1 the enthusiasm was as strong1 the throng as dense1 the tributes as warm1 the sympathy as keen1 as on the day he was struck down4 ,his name is verily not written in water4 ,and the bronze bust on his tomb1 recalling as it does the high front and the unflinching eye which his friends loved to associate with him1 and seeming as it does to face fate with an immovable strength and firmness1 will for many a year say to passers-by what has been sought to be told in these pages--,this was a man4 ,,the ,,end4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,appendices4 ,,appendix ,i4 ,,mr4 ,,bradlaugh',s ,,birthplace4 ,on p4 #c it is stated that ,mr4 ,bradlaugh was born at ,no4 #e1 ,bacchus ,walk1 ,hoxton1 but this appears to be an error1 of which ,i only became aware in #aije4 ,in that year the ,london ,county ,council had under consideration the question of placing a tablet on the house in which my father was born1 and they wrote me for the purpose of obtaining documentary or other evidence as to the identity of the house4 ,as a result of careful inquiries ,i found that the birthplace of my father was ,no4 #ca1 and not ,no4 #e1 as ,i had previously believed4 ,as it was possible that the street had been renumbered1 the ,london ,county ,council undertook to try to find out1 and ,mr4 ,gomme1 ,clerk to the ,council1 subsequently wrote me that although this point could not be determined with exactitude3 ,the probabilities are that the street had not been renumbered since the date of ,bradlaugh's birth4 ,if such is the case the house in which he was born has disappeared1 for about #ahhc1 ,no4 #ca ,bacchus ,walk was with a block of other houses in the street demolished to provide a site for the present ,st4 ,john's ,road ,school1 ,hoxton4 ,on my reporting these facts1 the ,committee of the ,council dealing with the matter regretfully decided that under the circumstances they could take no further action with regard to this house4 ,it will interest you to know that the ,committee have also taken steps with a view to the erection of a tablet on ,no4 #bj1 ,circus ,road1 ,s4 ,john's ,wood1 where your father died1 after having resided there for a considerable period4 ,the owner of the house1 however1 refused to consent to the erection of a tablet1 and the ,committee were thus compelled to abandon the idea of indicating this house4 ,h4 ,b4 ,b4 ,,appendix ,,ii4 ,,lord ,,dufferin ,,and ,,charles ,,bradlaugh4 ,the following significant correspondence between ,lord ,dufferin and ,mr4 ,bradlaugh is now 7#aijh7 included for the first time in this biography4 ,lord ,dufferin's letters are written throughout in his own handwriting1 and the draft of my father's letter is written by his own hand4 ,i am the more fortunate in having this1 because it was very rare indeed for him either to make a draft of his letters or to write at such length4 ,the occasion was1 however1 one of more than usual importance4 ,lord ,dufferin sent with his letter a copy of the speech he delivered at the ,st4 ,andrew's dinner1 ,calcutta1 on ,november #cj1 #ahhh1 ten days before he ceased to be ,viceroy of ,india4 ,it makes a booklet of #ba quarto pages1 and it is to this that reference is made in the letters4 ,h4 ,b4 ,b4 ,lord ,dufferin presents his compliments to ,mr4 ,bradlaugh1 and1 well knowing that even his bitterest opponents are ready to recognise not only ,mr4 ,bradlaugh's ability1 but also his perfect sincerity1 uprightness and honesty of purpose1 he takes the liberty of addressing him in reference to a lecture which ,mr4 ,bradlaugh delivered in the ,tyne ,theatre at ,newcastle on the subject of our ,indian ,empire4 ,in that lecture1 though ,mr4 ,bradlaugh did not refer to ,lord ,dufferin in unduly harsh or unfriendly terms1 he did certainly misrepresent both the words and the tenor of his ,calcutta speech4 ,this probably arose from the fact of the ,times correspondent having only telegraphed those parts of the speech with which he himself especially sympathised4 ,under these circumstances1 ,lord ,dufferin has taken the liberty of sending ,mr4 ,bradlaugh a full copy of the speech as it was delivered4 ,the statements in ,mr4 ,bradlaugh's lecture to which ,lord ,dufferin particularly objects are3--,first1 that ,lord ,dufferin has misrepresented the avowed views of the ,congress and its supporters4 ,he can assure him that he has not done so4 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh may be quite certain that1 before saying what he did1 ,lord ,dufferin took every precaution to verify his references1 and that the proceedings of the ,congress and of the ,committees whose conclusions the ,congress adopted1 were precisely what he described4 ,it is true1 at the last meeting1 thanks to the friendly warnings which ,lord ,dufferin had given1 the attitude and suggestions of the ,congress were much more reasonable and moderate4 ,the second statement in ,mr4 ,bradlaugh's address to which ,lord ,dufferin objects1 is where he says that ,lord ,dufferin asserted that these ,congresses were seditious4 ,again he begs to assure ,mr4 ,bradlaugh that he never1 either directly or by implication1 gave utterance to such an opinion4 ,he has always referred to the ,congress in terms of sympathy and respect1 and treated the members with great personal civility4 ,what he criticised was the distribution1 amongst an ignorant population1 under the auspices of some ill-advised persons who were not even natives1 but with the authority of the ,congress1 of pamphlets which were calculated to excite the hatred of the people against her ,majesty's ,government in ,india4 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh also seems to imply that ,lord ,dufferin has opposed himself to the native demands for a reform in the ,civil ,service4 ,so far from this being the case1 before the ,congress even put forward any such suggestions1 ,lord ,dufferin had appointed a ,commission1 with ,sir ,charles ,aitchison 7one of the most liberal-minded men that have ever been in ,india7 as chairman1 and some leading natives as members1 to propound a scheme for the larger admission of natives into the higher ranks of the ,civil ,service4 ,this ,commission has recommended that over #abj offices now closed to natives should be thrown open to them4 ,however1 if ,mr4 ,bradlaugh will only read ,lord ,dufferin's speech1 ,lord ,dufferin thinks he will see that it is conceived in a totally different tone and spirit from that which ,mr4 ,bradlaugh has himself imagined1 and he may tell ,mr4 ,bradlaugh in confidence--though1 of course1 he would desire that it should remain unknown to anyone else--that he himself has been doing his very best to forward such a reform of the ,provincial ,councils in ,india as ,mr4 ,bradlaugh appears to advocate4 ,in further illustration of his position1 ,lord ,dufferin may mention that ,mr4 ,yule1 the gentleman who acted as chairman of the last ,congress at ,allahabad1 was present on the occasion on which ,lord ,dufferin delivered the speech which ,mr4 ,bradlaugh has criticised1 and1 at its conclusion1 went out of his way to thank him for it as being calculated to do the very greatest good4 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh has also fallen into an error in considering that ,lord ,dufferin's speech is likely to cause embarrassment to ,lord ,lansdowne4 ,it was intended1 on the contrary1 to produce the very opposite effect1 and to smooth ,lord ,lansdowne's way for him2 and it is in this light that both ,lord ,lansdowne himself and his friends regard it2 for it is obvious that ,lord ,dufferin having undertaken the disagreeable task of pointing out the extravagances into which the ,congress was being insensibly led1 there will remain to ,lord ,lansdowne the agreeable duty of inaugurating whatever concessions it may be possible to make4 ,in conclusion1 ,lord ,dufferin hopes ,mr4 ,bradlaugh will understand what perhaps is not readily appreciated by those who have not lived in ,india2 namely1 that the ,government of ,india is perpetually fighting1 on behalf of the great masses of the population1 against the encroachments and usurpations of what may be called the specialised interests2 for1 unlike almost all other ,governments1 it is unconnected by ties of prejudice or self-interest with any particular class or section of the community it governs4 ,lord ,dufferin is quite satisfied that ,mr4 ,bradlaugh will forgive him for troubling him with this short letter of explanation4 ,british ,embassy1 ,rome4 #gth ,february1 #ahhi4 99 99 99 99 99 7,draft ,letter47 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh1 in acknowledging ,lord ,dufferin's 'private and confidential' letter of ,february #gth1 desires to specially recognise the frank and more than kindly tone of that letter1 and trusts that in the observations which ,mr4 ,bradlaugh feels called upon to submit to ,lord ,dufferin's consideration1 he may be pardoned if he ventures sometimes to wholly differ1 even on statements of fact1 from one so eminent1 and one whose recent ,vice-regal position entitles him to special respect and attention in matters concerning ,india4 ,it is true that at the time of the ,newcastle speech and until the receipt of the letter of ,february #gth1 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh had only seen the ,calcutta speech as given in the ,times1 and he is exceedingly obliged to ,lord ,dufferin for the more accurate and complete report enclosed in his ,lordship's letter4 ,perhaps ,mr4 ,bradlaugh may be permitted to add that although the report of his own ,newcastle speech as given in the ,newcastle ,daily ,leader is very full and1 on the whole1 fairly accurate1 it is necessarily not verbatim1 and has appeared without any correction4 ,the report in the ,newcastle ,daily ,chronicle was less full1 and though fair1 has1 in abbreviating1 occasionally varied the meaning4 ,this observation is only offered because of the importance the speech acquires by ,lord ,dufferin's notice of its purport4 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh1 in charging ,lord ,dufferin with misrepresenting the avowed views of the ,congress1 was careful to express his opinion that ,lord ,dufferin had been misled by inaccurate information1 and if now ,mr4 ,bradlaugh had alone the ,calcutta speech to guide him1 he would still incline to that view2 for the words on p4 #i1 line #bf1 'the ideal authoritatively suggested1 as ,i understand' seem to imply that ,lord ,dufferin spoke rather on information received than on his personal knowledge1 but in view of ,lord ,dufferin's declaration that 'he took every precaution to verify his references1 and that the proceedings of the ,congress and of the ,committees whose conclusions the ,congress adopted were precisely what he described1' ,mr4 ,bradlaugh trusts that he may be permitted to justify and maintain his criticism of ,lord ,dufferin's words as follows 7,calcutta speech1 p4 #i1 line #bj1 to p4 #aj1 line #a73-- ',some intelligent1 loyal1 patriotic1 and well-meaning men are desirous of taking1 ,i will not say a further step in advance1 but a very big jump into the unknown--by the application to ,india of democratic methods of government and the adoption of a ,parliamentary system1 which ,england herself has only reached by slow degrees and through the discipline of many centuries of preparation4 ,the ideal authoritatively suggested1 as ,i understand1 is the creation of a representative body or bodies in which the official element shall be in the minority who shall have the power of the purse1 and who through this instrumentality shall be able to bring the ,british ,executive into subjection to their will4' ,on this ,mr4 ,bradlaugh ventures to refer ,lord ,dufferin to the only authoritative suggestion of which he is aware1 i4e41 the actual resolutions of the ,congresses defining their 'tentative suggestions' of reform and which seem to him to so essentially contradict the understanding arrived at by ,lord ,dufferin that ,mr4 ,bradlaugh requotes their tenor from ,resolution #d1 with its sub-sections1 as printed in the report of the ,calcutta ,congress1 which1 he respectfully submits1 completely justify his ,newcastle speech2 he believes that these resolutions were precisely re-affirmed at ,madras and ,allahabad3-- '7#a47--,the number of persons composing the ,legislative ,councils1 both ,provincial and of the ,governor-,general1 to be materially increased4 ,not less than one-half the ,members of such enlarged ,councils to be elected4 ,not more than one-fourth to be officials1 having seats ex-officio in such ,councils1 and not more than one-fourth to be ,members1 official or non-official1 nominated by ,government4 '7#b47 ,the right to elect members to the ,provincial ,councils to be conferred only on those classes and members of the community1 prim facie1 capable of exercising it wisely and independently4' ,and1 after suggesting possible elective bodies1 it concludes3-- ',but whatever system be adopted 7and the details must be worked out separately for each province7 care must be taken that all sections of the community and all great interests are adequately represented4' ,in sub-section #f providing that3-- ',all legislative measures and all financial questions1 including all ,budgets1 whether these involve new or enhanced taxation or not1 to be necessarily submitted to1 and dealt with by1 these ,councils4' ,and giving right of interpellation1 it is 'provided that if the subject in regard to which the inquiry is made involves matters of foreign policy1 military dispositions or strategy1 or is otherwise of such a nature that1 in the opinion of the ,executive1 the public interest would be materially imperilled by the communication of the information asked for1 it shall be competent for them to instruct the ex-officio ,members1 or one of them1 to reply accordingly and decline to furnish the information asked for4' ,and by sub-section #g it is expressly declared that3-- ',the ,executive ,government shall possess the power of overruling the decision arrived at by the majority of the ,council in every case in which1 in its opinion1 the public interests would suffer by the acceptance of such decision4' ,as it was on the faith of his reading of these resolutions1 which he had in his hand when speaking at ,newcastle1 that ,mr4 ,bradlaugh made the statement to which ,lord ,dufferin objects1 he ventures to submit that such resolutions show clearly 7#a7 that there is no attempt whatever at 'the application to ,india of democratic methods of government'2 or 7#b7 at 'the adoption of a ,parliamentary system which ,england herself has only reached by slow degrees'2 7#c7 there is no creation of a representative body or bodies1 there is simply the proposal that an existing body shall be enlarged and half of it made representative under special limitations of electorate2 7#d7 the ,executive is only mentioned to preserve it as paramount and with overruling power over the ,legislative ,councils which alone are meant or referred to2 7#e7 though it is true that it is proposed that the purely 'official element' shall be a minority1 as sitting ex-officio1 it is also stated that a moiety of the ,legislative ,council shall be non-elected ,government nominees1 such nominees being either official or non-official as the ,executive may decide4 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh notes that ,lord ,dufferin considers that 'the attitude and suggestions of the ,allahabad ,congress were much more reasonable and moderate1' and as ,mr4 ,bradlaugh has not yet received any authorised report of that ,congress he differs from ,lord ,dufferin with great hesitation2 but so far as he is able to judge from the newspaper reports1 and from the comparison of these with the official reports of the three previous ,congresses1 the attitude in each case was that of moderate statement of grievances with explicit declaration of loyalty to the ,british ,empire4 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh feels that on this point ,lord ,dufferin1 who tendered hospitality to the ,congress of #ahhf1 speaks with more perfect knowledge than himself1 but1 judging as an outsider1 from the official reports and guided by the extremely amicable relations between ,lord ,dufferin as ,viceroy and the ,congress of #ahhf1 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh1 whilst gladly recognising the justice of ,lord ,dufferin's judgment that the attitude and suggestions of the ,congress just held were reasonable and moderate1 can find no ground for supposing that there was any difference in these respects at ,allahabad from the former ,congresses at ,bombay1 ,calcutta1 or ,madras4 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh is in the highest degree grateful to ,lord ,dufferin for his repudiation and contradiction of the view urged by ,mr4 ,bradlaugh at ,newcastle1 that ,lord ,dufferin had described the ,congresses as seditious4 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh trusts that he may be permitted to point out that in a question put on the notice paper of the ,house of ,commons by ,mr4 ,j4 ,m4 ,maclean1 ,m4,p41 immediately on the publication in the ,times of the telegraphic summary of ,lord ,dufferin's ,calcutta speech1 ,mr4 ,maclean claimed1 under cover of that speech1 to describe the ,congress as one which 'aims at destroying the security of ,english ,rule in ,india4' ,on this point ,mr4 ,bradlaugh1 in speaking in the future1 will take care that it shall be clearly understood that ,lord ,dufferin 'has always referred to the ,congress in terms of sympathy and respect1' and ,mr4 ,bradlaugh tenders to ,lord ,dufferin his sincere apology that1 misled by the ,times version and by ,mr4 ,maclean's gloss1 he attributed to ,lord ,dufferin any views hostile to the ,congress4 ,with reference to the publications to which ,lord ,dufferin refers1 but which he does not specifically quote1 it would ill become ,mr4 ,bradlaugh1 without more complete information1 to do more than submit that he is unaware of any pamphlets issued by the authority of the ,congress 'calculated to excite the hatred of the people against her ,majesty's ,government in ,india4' ,if ,lord ,dufferin refers to 'the ,catechism1' ,mr4 ,bradlaugh observes that the author appeals to the people 'to lay aside their petty jealousies and race antipathies and learn their duties as loyal citizens of the ,british ,empire4' ,mr4 ,bradlaugh does not think that1 either at ,newcastle or elsewhere1 he has ever implied that ,lord ,dufferin was opposed to ,indian ,civil ,service ,reform1 and he is glad to know that the natives of ,india may count on ,lord ,dufferin's powerful help4 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh has not yet had the opportunity of fully considering the report1 and may possibly underrate its favourable character to the natives4 ,the recommendations to open some #ajh offices to natives must be considered with reference to the contention that1 under the statutory service rules1 at least #aej offices should be so open4 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh pleads guilty to a little confusion as to dates1 probably the result of insufficient knowledge4 ,lord ,dufferin speaks of the ,commission 7appointed ,october #dth1 #ahhf7 as 'before the ,congress ever put forward any such suggestions4' ,mr4 ,bradlaugh ventures to think that ,lord ,dufferin has overlooked the resolution on this subject of the ,bombay ,congress1 ,december1 #ahhe4 ,as desired by ,lord ,dufferin1 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh has most carefully read the authorised report of his ,lordship's ,calcutta speech1 and especially thanks ,lord ,dufferin for the confidential intimation 'that he himself has been doing his very best to forward such a reform of the ,provincial ,councils in ,india as ,mr4 ,bradlaugh appears to advocate'2 this ,mr4 ,bradlaugh assumes is intended by the parts underlined by ,lord ,dufferin on p4 #ah2 but it is respectfully submitted that the words on p4 #ag might1 without ,lord ,dufferin's kindly confidential assurance1 not unreasonably have been held to imply that his ,lordship charged the ,congress with seeking to effectuate constitutional changes by a stroke of the pen and without deliberation1 when1 in fact1 the very first resolution of the first ,congress asked for enquiry by ,royal ,commission1 and it is for such an enquiry that ,mr4 ,bradlaugh has already placed a notice on the order book of the ,house of ,commons4 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh is pleased to learn that he has fallen into error in considering that ,lord ,dufferin's speech was likely to cause embarrassment to ,lord ,lansdowne1 and he entirely accepts ,lord ,dufferin's assurance that it was intended to produce the opposite effect2 but1 in justice to himself1 he thinks it right to submit that confidential information from ,india leads him to the belief that same embarrassment has actually already arisen4 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh fears that1 although he has left many points untouched1 he will already have exhausted ,lord ,dufferin's patience1 but he trusts that the generous disposition and courteous frankness which prompted ,lord ,dufferin's letter of the #gth will serve as excuse for any brusquerie in ,mr4 ,bradlaugh's present letter4 99 99 99 99 99 #e1 ,upper ,berkeley ,street1 ,w4 #bbnd ,feb41 #ahhi4 ,my dear ,mr4 ,bradlaugh1-- ,i hope you will forgive me for taking the liberty of addressing you in the above direct manner2 but ,i am so sensible of the friendly tone of your letter of the #aith1 and so shocked at having given so much trouble to a busy man like yourself1 that ,i presume to slip into the more familiar way of writing4 ,with regard to the points you raise in your letter3--one thing has evidently escaped your observation1 namely1 that my remarks in the main were not addressed specially to the ,congress1 but to 'some of our friends1 who1 etc41 etc41' and in this category ,i embraced all those1 whether speakers1 writers1 or other persons1 who 7for the sake of briefness7 ,i may denominate the advanced party in ,india4 ,again1 where ,i said 'the idea authoritatively suggested as ,i understand1' ,i referred to a speech1 or rather1 ,i think1 a letter of ,mr4 ,hume's4 ,mr4 ,hume is the ,chief ,secretary of the ,congress1 and certainly speaks with authority1 if not in the name of the ,congress itself1 at all events in that of the ,congress party4 ,i also had in my mind the speeches of the two previous ,presidents of the ,congress1 as well as the manifestoes put forth by the ,congress ,press4 ,the only respect in which ,i criticised the conduct of the ,congress itself was in regard to its official sanction to the distribution of the pamphlets1 and ,i do not think anybody can say that the terms ,i used were very severe4 ,however1 ,i am most unwilling to give you any further trouble in writing1 but ,i should esteem it a great pleasure if ,i might be allowed to make your acquaintance1 and to have an opportunity of talking over some of these matters with you4 ,i make this suggestion because ,i believe ,i could not be doing a greater service both to ,india and to the public than by placing myself at your disposal in regard to any information you may desire to have about ,india4 ,i shall be in town till next ,thursday1 when ,i return to ,rome2 but ,i shall be happy to wait upon you at any day or hour you may name1 or to receive you here1 if that should be more convenient to you4 ,on ,sunday ,i shall be engaged2 but every other day up to the date of my departure ,i shall be free4 ,believe me1 my dear ,mr4 ,bradlaugh1 ,yours sincerely1 ,,dufferin ,,and ,,ava4 99 99 99 99 99 #e ,upper ,berkeley ,street1 ,w4 ,feb4 #bd1 #ahhi4 ,my dear ,mr4 ,bradlaugh1-- ,many thanks for your kind little note of to-day4 ,it will give me the greatest pleasure to receive you here at #a4ae to-morrow1 ,monday4 ,yours sincerely1 ,,dufferin ,,and ,,ava4 99 99 99 99 99 ,british ,embassy1 ,rome1 #bnd ,april1 #ahhi4 ,my dear ,mr4 ,bradlaugh1-- ,i am very much obliged to you for your kindness in sending me the notice of your motion4 ,there are already indications of the willingness1 both of the present ,viceroy and of the ,government at home1 to modify the existing rgime in ,india1 and ,i have no doubt that you will obtain some satisfactory assurances in regard to1 at all events a portion of your suggestions4 ,i am strongly of opinion1 however1 that for the present it would be wiser to apply whatever reforms may be found desirable to the ,provincial ,councils1 and to leave the ,governor-,general's ,council untouched1 except so far as allowing the ,budget to be discussed1 and giving to the members the right of asking questions under certain specified conditions4 ,the ,supreme ,council of the ,governor-,general is almost always engaged in the consideration of large ,imperial questions1 in regard to which it would not be likely to receive any great assistance from the native members who might be added to it2 and1 even if this were not the case1 it would be well to watch how the proposed changes in the ,provincial ,councils had worked4 ,moreover1 ,i think our efforts should be applied rather to the decentralisation of our ,indian ,administration than to its greater unification1 and ,i made considerable efforts in ,india to promote and expand this principle4 ,in any event1 ,i am sure the discussion which you will have provoked will prove very useful2 and ,i am very glad that the conduct of it should be in the hands of a prudent1 wise1 and responsible person like yourself1 instead of having been laid hold of by some adventurous franc-tireur1 whose only object might possibly have been to let off a few fireworks for his own glorification4 ,yours sincerely1 ,,dufferin ,,and ,,ava4 ,,appendix ,,iii4 ,a ,,note ,,on ,,the ,,motion ,,to ,,expunge ,,the ,,resolutions ,,of ,,exclusion ,,from ,,the ,,journals ,,of ,,the ,,house4 ,when1 with the kind help of his ever-devoted friend1 ,mr4 ,john ,m4 ,robertson1 ,i was writing this record of my father's life and work1 there was one matter upon which neither of us felt able to enter very fully4 ,i refer to the carrying of the motion to expunge from the journals of the ,house the resolution to exclude him passed on the #bbnd of ,june1 #ahhj4 ,i believe that the time has now come when ,i may1 without unfairness to anyone1 and without the slightest violation of confidence1 state exactly what took place in regard to the moving of that resolution4 ,it may be remembered that ,mr4 ,bradlaugh fell ill on ,january #ajth1 #ahia1 and that some five days later he had to take to that bed from which he never rose again4 ,mr4 ,john ,m4 ,robertson was at the time in ,edinburgh1 on the staff of the ,scottish ,leader1 and on the evening of ,friday1 the #afth1 a mutual friend told me that ,mr4 ,robertson had desired to know if ,mr4 ,bradlaugh became worse1 and that if he could be of any service he would come to ,london at a moment's notice4 ,send for him now1 then1 ,i said1 for my father is dying4 ,mr4 ,robertson came by the night mail on ,saturday4 ,he asked what he could do1 and ,i put my difficulty before him4 ,mr4 ,bradlaugh had secured the first place on ,january #bgth to move the resolution rescinding the resolution of #ahhj2 he now knew that he would not be able to go to the ,house on that day1 and he was troubling very much about it4 ,he had had small hope of carrying the resolution1 but he expected to get a substantial vote1 and that would have satisfied him for the present4 ,my ideas of the standing orders and rules of the ,house were not very definite1 and ,i consulted ,mr4 ,robertson whether we could not get someone to move the resolution in his place4 ,i suggested that if it were thought wise1 ,i would go to ,mr4 ,gladstone--for ,i knew well that a small man would not do--and urge him to do it4 ,i1 at least1 could not take an impartial view of the ,bradlaugh incident1 and1 rightly or wrongly1 thought that ,mr4 ,gladstone owed my father some amends for certain expressions he had used1 and also for not having taken a bolder and stronger position from the very first4 ,mr4 ,robertson1 however1 was doubtful about ,gladstone2 other names were mentioned1 and amongst them1 that of ,dr4 ,hunter4 ,however1 we were still ignorant of whether it would be possible to substitute anyone's name for my father's1 and this we had to find out4 ,i then returned to my father's bedside1 and mentioning that ,mr4 ,robertson had come on a flying visit to ,london1 asked if he would like to see him for a few minutes4 ,this my father was very pleased to do1 and ,mr4 ,robertson went to have a little chat with him4 ,the subject of the resolution soon came up1 and my father told ,mr4 ,robertson how deep his vexation was that he would be unable to be in his place in the ,house1 and1 in answer to careful inquiries1 said no other name could be substituted for his2 but it happened that the impression was so general that he would take the whole time of the ,house that no one had thought it worth while to put his name down for the second place4 ,mr4 ,robertson left him without1 of course1 giving any hint of what was in our minds2 it was so likely that we should fail that we did not wish to disturb him about it4 ,if we should succeed that would be ample time to tell him2 if we should fail1 he would never know4 ,at the earliest possible moment on ,monday morning ,mr4 ,robertson went to see ,dr4 ,hunter1 and explained the whole matter to him4 ,but before ,mr4 ,robertson had actually reached the point of asking him to move the resolution1 ,dr4 ,hunter offered to do so if the second place was still open4 ,then ,i told my father of ,dr4 ,hunter's offer1 without1 of course1 saying anything of our share in inviting it4 ,we had our reward in his delighted surprise4 ,hunter will do it1 you say8444 ,the very man ,i would have chosen4 ,i was more than pleased1 for ,i had aimed high in my thoughts1 and was doubtful whether ,dr4 ,hunter was big enough6 ,a little later1 in thinking it all over1 he asked1 ,you think ,i can quite rely upon ,hunter doing it8 ,on my answering in the affirmative1 he dictated letters to ,dr4 ,hunter and two or three other members of ,parliament4 ,when a day or two after it was rumoured that ,gladstone was to speak1 he was quite pleased1 although1 as he said1 ,if ,gladstone speaks that settles it2 the ,government will be bound to take it up2 and1 of course1 they hold the majority2 but ,i shan't mind that4 ,on the morning of ,friday1 the #bcrd1 he was shockingly ill1 and waited in restless anxiety until the messenger should bring the ,order ,paper4 ,when he found that ,dr4 ,hunter had been able to secure the place for his motion1 and that his name was actually down on the ,paper for that purpose1 he was satisfied1 and after dictating a couple of letters he gave himself up to rest4 ,on ,friday night came the hemiplegia and unconsciousness2 my father's work was done4 ,letters came from friends in different parts of the country1 telling how they were urging their members to be present in their places on the #bgth2 letters came from ,members themselves1 promising their support2 but they came to a man who could no longer read them4 ,at last came the morning of ,january #bgth1 and with the first post the following letter from ,dr4 ,hunter3-- #b1 ,brick ,court1 ,temple1 #bf_/a_/ia4 ,dear ,mrs4 ,bonner1--,mr4 ,w4 ,h4 ,smith has sent for me and speaking in the kindest manner of your father and of his appreciation of his valuable services in the ,house of ,commons said that it would be extremely painful to him to discuss the motion1 in the present state of your father's health4 ,he is1 therefore1 prepared to give a day during the present ,session so as to put the motion in as good a position as it is to-morrow1 if ,i do not proceed to-morrow4 ,i stated that1 subject to ,mr4 ,bradlaugh's own opinion1 ,i considered it a fair offer1 and personally would have no hesitation in leaving the motion to be taken up at a more convenient time by your father himself4 ,you will exercise1 of course1 your discretion in consulting him on the subject1 and ,i stated to the ,first ,lord that ,i should let him know before business begins to-morrow what course ,i should follow4 ,if you approve1 or your father is well enough to enter upon the question and approves1 kindly send me a telegram to #b1 ,brick ,court1 ,temple1 to-morrow morning4 ,i am1 yours very truly1 ,w4 ,a4 ,,hunter4 ,i was in despair4 ,here was my father lying absolutely unconscious and dying4 ,i knew that if that resolution was not moved that day it never would be moved4 ,i had assured him positively that ,dr4 ,hunter would do it2 he had trusted me1 and now ,i felt like a traitor4 ,i sat down and wrote to ,dr4 ,hunter1 telling him that it was impossible for me to consult my father1 since he was lying unconscious1 that he had sunk into unconsciousness believing that this resolution would be moved1 and1 when he recovered1 how was ,i to tell him that he had been deceived8 ,i thanked ,mr4 ,smith for his kindness1 but ,i was firmly of opinion that the resolution should be moved whether it were carried or not2 it was due to the treatment he had received from the ,members of the ,house that ,mr4 ,bradlaugh lay where he was1 and they owed it to him to at least consider a resolution which should wipe out from the records of the ,house the resolution expelling him4 ,i hardly knew what ,i wrote2 ,i was so agitated4 ,i hardly know now1 except that it was to the effect as ,i have written1 and through all my agitation ,i preserved two dominant ideas3 first1 to say all ,i could to induce ,dr4 ,hunter to move the resolution2 and1 next1 while picturing the very serious condition in which my father lay1 not to let it be known that he was then actually dying4 ,the letter was despatched by special messenger1 but after it was gone ,i felt ,i had not said half enough4 ,my husband then went to find ,dr4 ,hunter1 and see him personally1 but was unable to see him until about mid-day at the ,house4 ,dr4 ,hunter then said he had shown my letter to several members2 they agreed1 in consequence1 that the resolution ought to be moved2 and that he had decided to do so4 ,some of the members thought that the letter ought to be read to the ,house1 but in any case he wished to know if ,i had any objection to its being shown to ,mr4 ,smith4 ,dr4 ,hunter then saw ,mr4 ,smith1 who not only withdrew all opposition to the moving of the resolution1 but also agreed to withdraw the ,government opposition to the resolution itself4 ,this decision was arrived at so late that it was 7so it was said7 unknown to the ,solicitor-,general when he got up to oppose the resolution4 ,when the telegrams of congratulation--the first1 if ,i recollect rightly1 was from ,sir ,john ,mowbray--began to pour in1 and he to whom they were addressed lay there unconscious of all1 the tragedy of it seemed almost more than one could bear4 ,on the same evening ,dr4 ,hunter considerately wrote me this further letter1 acquainting me with what had taken place3-- ,national ,liberal ,club1 ,whitehall ,place1 ,s4,w41 #bg_/a_/ia4 ,dear ,mrs4 ,bonner1--,i cannot say how glad ,i am that the ,house has unanimously accepted your father's ,resolution4 ,i trust that he will have improved sufficiently to be made acquainted with the news4 ,after seeing your husband ,i had no scruple in showing your letter to ,mr4 ,smith1 and1 without assuming any violent assumption1 ,i think it had something to do with the result4 ,on taking his place this afternoon1 he nodded to me significantly1 as much as to say he recognised the necessity of my proceeding with the ,resolution4 ,the soundness of your opinion has been shown by the result4 ,many members spoke to me1 all expressing their deepest sympathy1 and on both sides there was a general feeling of relief that an agreement was come to4 ,the reports in the papers will1 when you have time1 fully inform you of the course of the debate2 but ,i may add that ,mr4 ,gladstone was extremely gratified1 on many grounds1 and turning round offered me his warmest congratulations4 ,there is but one universal feeling among members of all sections of opinion--an earnest desire and hope that your father may be spared to continue his services to the ,state4 ,yours very truly1 ,w4 ,a4 ,,hunter4 ,those who have followed the story of my father's life will be interested in learning how narrowly this resolution failed to be moved and carried4 ,that it turned out as it did was owing1 in the first place1 to ,mr4 ,robertson1 who found the man to move it1 in the next1 to ,dr4 ,hunter who carried it through1 and1 finally1 to the real goodness of heart of ,mr4 ,w4 ,h4 ,smith4 ,,hypatia ,,bradlaugh ,,bonner4 ,april1 #aijf4 ,,index4 ,adam1 ,the ,hon4 ,mr1 ii4 #bee1 #ccg4 ,adams1 ,thomas1 i4 #cih2 ii4 #baj1 #dac4 ,adams1 ,w4 ,e4 7,caractacus71 i4 #fd1 #fh1 #hj1 #aji1 #abc1 #abe1 #adb4 ,affirm1 ,allowed to1 ii4 #bdf4 ,affirmation ,bills 7see also ,oaths ,bill and ,evidence ,amendment71 i4 #afi2 ii4 #bcd1 #bdf1 #bgb1 #bha1 #cjd1 #cab1 #cae1 #ccf1 #ceh1 #cfa1 #cgd4 ,agnosticism1 ii4 #aag4 ,agricultural ,hall1 i4 #bbf1 #bca4 ,agricultural ,labourers' ,movement1 i4 #cgd1 #cgh4 ,aliens1 ,destitute1 ii4 #djd ,allsop1 ,thomas1 i4 #fd1 #fh1 #bgc4 ,america1 ,visits to1 i4 #chj2 ii4 #a4 ,amusements1 ,boyish1 i4 #e4 ,andrews1 ,s4 ,pearl1 i4 #chd4 ,arago1 ,emanuel1 i4 #cah1 #cbj4 ,arch1 ,joseph1 i4 #cgd1 #cib2 ii4 #cfh4 ,arms ,bill1 ii4 #aif4 ,army1 ,flogging in1 ii4 #bja1 #bei4 ,army life1 i4 #be1 #ce4 ,arnold1 ,matthew1 i4 #bcj2 ii4 #aea1 #cbi4 ,arnold1 ,rev4 ,t41 i4 #bgi4 ,atheism and ,secularism1 i4 #ccb4 ,atheistic position stated1 i4 #hg1 #baj1 #ccg1 #cdj2 ii4 #aae4 ,atheistic morality1 i4 #ccd1 #cci2 ii4 #aeg4 ,ayrton1 ,hon4 ,a4 ,s41 i4 #adb1 #adi2 ii4 #bji4 ,b4 ,v4 7,see ,thomson47 ,ball1 ,john1 i4 #cgd1 #cgh4 ,ballincollig1 ,an ,eviction at1 i4 #ca4 ,baptism1 i4 #d4 ,bar1 ,speeches at the1 #ast1 ii4 #bda2 #bnd4 ii4 #bfg2 #crd1 ii4 #bie2 #dth1 ii4 #cda4 ,barker1 ,j41 i4 #aba4 ,barker1 ,rev4 ,w41 i4 #bjg4 ,barttelot1 ,sir ,w41 ii4 #bci1 #bgb4 ,beaconsfield1 ,lord4 7,see ,disraeli47 ,beales1 ,edmund1 i4 #bbj4 ,beesly1 ,prof41 i4 #cad1 #cai4 ,bendall1 ,s41 i4 #ahi2 ii4 #gi4 ,bernard1 ,s41 i4 #fd1 #gi1 #ii1 #bjd4 ,besant1 ,annie1 i4 #djj2 ii4 #ab1 #cc1 #fe1 #gj1 #hg1 #ib1 #acf1 #age1 #bbc1 #bhf1 #bia1 #cjh1 #cdc1 #chb1 #cie1 #djf1 #dah4 ,biggar1 ,j41 ii4 #ce1 #aie4 ,birth1 i4 #c4 ,bismarck1 i4 #cab1 #caf4 ,bizoin1 ,a4 ,g41 i4 #cag4 ,blanc1 ,l41 i4 #fe1 #cba4 ,blasphemy ,laws1 i4 #abi2 ii4 #cai1 #dje4 ,blasphemy prosecutions1 ii4 #caf1 #cbd4 ,bohn1 ,h4 ,g41 ii4 #bd4 ,bolingbroke1 ii4 #aaf4 ,bonner's ,fields1 i4 #h1 #bj1 #bc1 #be4 ,bradlaugh1 ,alice1 i4 #di1 #aaf2 ii4 #ic1 #ajd1 #bia1 #cdc1 #dja4 ,bradlaugh1 ,charles 7jun471 i4 #ie1 #aag1 #cjj4 ,bradlaugh1 ,charles 7sen471 i4 #b1 #c1 #ac1 #bg4 ,bradlaugh1 ,elizabeth 7,mrs ,norman71 i4 #ac1 #ae1 #bj1 #bg1 #ce1 #cg1 #cdi4 ,bradlaugh1 ,harriet1 i4 #aad4 ,bradlaugh1 ,james1 i4 #b4 ,bradlaugh1 ,mrs 7sen471 i4 #c1 #d1 #cf1 #da1 #di4 ,bradlaugh1 ,mrs ,s4 ,l41 i4 #di1 #agc1 #aha1 #bgf1 #cjj4 ,bradlaugh1 ,w4 ,r41 i4 #aad1 #cdh4 ,bradlaugh for ,northampton1 i4 #bgf4 ,bright1 ,john1 i4 #bgj2 ii4 #aja1 #bad1 #bbh1 #bcd1 #bff1 #bga1 #bhh1 #cdh4 ,brimont1 ,mde4 de1 i4 #cad1 #cdg4 ,brindley1 ,dr1 i4 #afj4 ,british ,banner1 i4 #bj4 ,broadhurst1 ,h41 ii4 #aje1 #cjh1 #djb1 #dad4 ,bryce1 ,prof41 ii4 #baf4 ,bchner1 ,dr ,l41 i4 #cha2 ii4 #abi4 ,buckle1 ,h41 ii4 #aai4 ,burns1 ,j41 ii4 #chb1 #djf1 #dag4 ,burt1 ,t41 i4 #bdi1 #cgf1 #cib2 ii4 #cdg1 #cdh1 #cfh1 #djb1 #dad4 ,business life3 office boy1 i4 #g2 wharf clerk1 i4 #g2 coal merchant1 i4 #ag2 selling braces1 i4 #ai2 soldier1 i4 #bf2 errand boy1 i4 #da2 solicitor's clerk1 i4 #dh1 #ij1 #ii2 city merchant1 i4 #ajj1 #bii2 financier1 i4 #aja2 publisher1 ii4 #ag1 #ajj1 #dag2 and printer1 ii4 #aja4 ,butler1 ,bishop1 ii4 #aaf1 #aej4 ,campbell1 ,alexander1 i4 #hh4 ,capper1 ,c41 i4 #bgd2 ii4 #fe4 ,caractacus4 7,see ,w4 ,e4 ,adams47 ,cardinal's ,broken ,oath1 ,a1 ii4 #cji4 ,carlile1 ,r41 i4 #i1 #aei1 #ccc2 ii4 #afe4 ,carlile1 ,mrs ,sharples1 i4 #i1 #ai1 #bj1 #bd1 #da4 ,carlile1 ,mrs ,sharples1 ,the ,daughters of1 i4 #i1 #aa1 #ai1 #chh2 ii4 #d4 ,carlist country1 ,through the1 i4 #cee4 ,carlyle1 ,t41 ii4 #afe1 #dbb4 ,castelar1 ,emilio1 i4 #aed1 #cec1 #cei1 #cfd2 ii4 #d4 ,cavendish1 ,lord ,f41 ii4 #bag4 ,chancellor's salary1 ,the ,lord1 ii4 #djf4 ,channel ,tunnel1 ,the1 ii4 #cha4 ,chaplin1 ,h41 ii4 #bbg1 #bca1 #bga1 #ccf4 ,character1 ,alleged change of1 i4 #baa1 #bgi2 ii4 #dae4 ,characteristics1 i4 #bgi2 ii4 #di1 #ii1 #aja1 #aeb1 #dbc4 ,childhood1 i4 #d4 ,christian1 ,the1 ii4 #fg4 ,christian ,globe1 ,the1 ii4 #bfd4 ,christian ,times1 ,the1 i4 #baj4 ,chronicle1 ,the ,daily1 ii4 #bfd4 ,churchill1 ,lord ,r41 i4 #ad2 ii4 #bcj1 #bfa1 #bgb1 #bih1 #cch1 #cdi1 #cfc1 #cga1 #cgd1 #cgg1 #chj4 ,city ,solicitor1 ,the1 ii4 #ba1 #bg4 ,clarke1 ,sir ,e41 ii4 #bfh1 #cgh1 #dje1 #dai4 ,clergy1 ,letters to the1 i4 #abh4 ,clerical libeller1 ,a1 i4 #ii4 ,clerical feeling on the ,oath question1 ii4 #bej1 #bge1 #bia1 #cad1 #cai4 ,clerkenwell explosion1 ,the1 i4 #beg4 ,clifford1 ,prof41 ii4 #acc4 ,clock ,tower1 ,imprisoned in the1 ii4 #bde4 ,closing years1 ii4 #ajb1 #cfh4 ,cluseret1 ,general1 i4 #aae1 #bec1 #bfb4 ,cob of ,coal story1 ii4 #gf4 ,coercion ,bill1 ,the1 ii4 #aif1 #beh1 #bij1 #cgg4 ,collet1 ,c4 ,d41 i4 #aci1 #adb4 ,commune1 ,the1 i4 #cbb4 ,compulsory ,education1 i4 #bfe4 ,congreve1 ,dr1 i4 #cad4 ,conway1 ,moncure ,d41 ii4 #i1 #da1 #dc1 #bgf1 #cab4 ,cooper1 ,robert1 i4 #gh4 ,cooper1 ,r4 ,a41 i4 #bfg1 #cfd4 ,cooper1 ,thomas1 i4 #hd1 #bji4 ,corbett1 ----1 ii4 #bfd1 #cjb4 ,corporation1 ,the ,london 7,malversation ,charges71 ii4 #cgd4 ,counsel in the various lawsuits-- ,chitty1 ,t41 i4 #big4 ,coleridge1 ,sir ,j4 ,d4 7,sol4-,gen471 i4 #add4 ,collier1 ,sir ,r4 7,att4-,gen471 i4 #add1 #ahb4 ,crump1 ,f4 ,o41 ii4 #cbb4 ,danckwertz1 ,w4 ,o41 ii4 #ceb4 ,giffard1 ,sir ,h4 7see also ,giffard71 ii4 #bc1 #gc1 #agg1 #bfj1 #bib1 #cbb1 #cbg1 #cee4 ,grantham ,w4 7see also ,grantham71 ii4 #ge1 #gi4 ,hunter1 ,dr ,w4 ,a4 7see also ,hunter71 ii4 #cbb4 ,hutton1 ,crompton1 i4 #ade4 ,james1 ,sir ,h4 7,att4-,gen47 7see also ,james71 ii4 #cee4 ,karslake1 ,sir ,j4 7,att4-,gen471 i4 #ada4 ,keane1 ,d41 i4 #bhd4 ,moloney1 ,m41 ii4 #gc1 #cag1 #cbh4 ,o',malley1 i4 #ij4 ,russell1 ,sir ,c4 ii4 #gc4 ,seymour1 ,digby 7see also ,seymour71 i4 #bij4 ,straight1 ,douglas1 ii4 #bj4 ,smith1 ,lumley1 i4 #bhd4 ,smith1 ,montague 7see also ,judges71 i4 #adj1 #ahd4 ,solicitors-,gen41 i4 #adb1 #add2 ii4 #cee4 ,wood1 i4 #bhe4 ,wright1 ,r4 ,s41 ii4 #ceb4 ,courtney1 ,l4 ,h41 ii4 #agg4 ,courtship1 i4 #dd4 ,cowen1 ,joseph1 i4 #hc1 #cgf2 ii4 #bgj1 #bgf1 #bhh4 ,crawford1 ,j4 ,g41 i4 #acj1 #aci1 #adc4 ,cremer1 ,w4 ,r41 i4 #bbj4 ,crmieux1 ,a41 i4 #cag4 ,cross1 ,sir ,r4 ,a41 ii4 #ccf4 ,darwin1 ,c41 ii4 #bc1 #aai4 ,davey1 ,sir ,h41 ii4 #bff4 ,death1 ,the fear of1 i4 #aih4 ,death and funeral1 ii4 #aaj1 #dbj4 ,debates3-- ,armstrong1 ii4 #ej2 ,barker1 i4 #bjg2 ,baylee1 i4 #afa2 ,bowes1 i4 #hg2 ,brindley1 i4 #aei2 ,browne1 ii4 #dd2 ,burns1 i4 #cdc2 ,cooper1 i4 #bji2 ,court1 i4 #hh2 ,douglas1 i4 #fc2 ,marsden ,gibson1 ii4 #djg2 ,gordon1 ii4 #dg2 ,grant1 i4 #hd1 #aeh2 ii1 #ch2 ,harrison1 i4 #cch1 #cda1 #cdb2 ,holyoake1 i 4#cbb2 ,hutchings1 i4 #afg2 ,hyndman1 ii4 #ahi1 #dag2 ,father ,ignatius1 i4 #cdb2 ,king1 i4 #ccb2 ,lawson1 i4 #agj2 ,lightfoot1 ii4 #di2 ,mackie1 i4 #agj2 ,mahalm1 i4 #agj2 ,matthias1 i4 #hg2 ,m',cann1 i4 #bdd2 ii4 #adb2 ,mensor1 i4 #hg2 ,porteous1 i4 #bab2 ,roberts1 ii4 #df2 ,robertson1 i4 #ccf2 ,rutherford1 i4 #agj2 ,simpson1 ii4 #dg2 ,smart1 i4 #hi2 ,westerby1 i4 #ea2 ii4 #acb1 #ach2 ,woodville ,woodman1 i4 #agj1 #bab4 ,denning1 ,inspector1 ii4 #bhg1 #bhi1 #ccf4 ,derby1 ,lord1 ii4 #agg1 #bid4 ,devonport case1 ,the1 i4 #age4 ,dickson1 ,col41 i4 #bbj1 #cae4 ,dilke1 ,ashton1 ii4 #baf1 #bhi1 #cjh1 #cdg4 ,dillwyn1 ,l4 ,l41 ii4 #bbd1 #cjc1 #cge4 ,disestablishment1 i4 #bfe4 ,dispatch1 ,weekly1 i4 #ahf1 #bcc2 ii4 #bfe4 ,disraeli1 ,b41 i4 #bbb1 #cji2 ii4 #he1 #bde4 ,donnybrook ,fair1 ,at1 i4 #cb4 ,drysdale1 ,dr ,c41 ii4 #bd4 ,drysdale1 ,dr ,j41 ii4 #ach4 ,dublin1 ,in1 i4 #bfa4 ,duel1 ,challenged to a1 ii4 #bei4 ,early closing legislation1 ii4 #dja4 ,echo1 i4 #cai2 ii4 #bci4 ,education1 i4 #d2 of his children1 i4 #aaf1 #cdg4 ,eight hours' question1 ,the1 ii4 #ahi1 #dac1 #dag4 ,election addresses1 i4 #bfd1 #cic4 ,election colours1 i4 #bfg4 ,election funds1 i4 #bfc1 #bfg1 #bgh1 #cif1 #djj2 ii4 #bfe4 ,election work1 gratuitous1 i4 #bff4 ,emerson1 ,r4 ,w41 i4 #chh4 ,employer and employed4 7,see ,master and ,servant47 ,employers' ,liability ,bill1 i4 #bfi2 ii4 #di1 #bei1 #cfi1 #cgd1 #chj1 #djb1 #djf1 #dae4 ,enfield1 ,viscount1 i4 #adg4 ,enlisting1 i4 #bf4 ,esquiros1 ,a41 i4 #aad4 ,evidence ,amendment ,act 7see also ,affirmation and ,oath71 i4 #abi1 #afi1 #bhd1 #bhh2 ii4 #baf4 ,examiner1 i4 #cec1 #djj4 ,expunge the resolutions of exclusion1 ,motion to1 ii4 #djd1 #dai4 ,fanatical ,monkeys1 ,the1 i4 #acc1 #bcc1 #bia2 ii4 #gf1 #aea4 ,farrar1 ,archdeacon1 ii4 #aaf4 ,favre1 ,jules1 i4 #cad1 #cbj1 #cbb4 ,fawcett1 ,prof4 ,h41 ii4 #bc4 ,fencing1 i4 #ci4 ,fenian ,brotherhood1 ,the1 i4 #bec4 ,ferrier1 ,dr1 ii4 #ach4 ,financial ,reformer1 ,the1 ii4 #fh4 ,first pamphlet1 i4 #bc4 ,firth1 ,j4 ,f4 ,b41 ii4 #baf4 ,fishing1 i4 #f1 #aaf2 ii4 #ii1 #ajc1 #chj1 #dag4 ,flint1 ,professor1 ii4 #ef1 #abj1 #abe4 ,flourens1 ,g41 i4 #cbb4 ,foote1 ,g4,w41 i4 #cei1 #cid2 ii4 #hg1 #ib1 #caf1 #cbd1 #dab4 ,forcibly ejected from the ,house of ,commons1 ii4 #bhf4 ,forster1 ,w4 ,e41 ii4 #aie4 ,fournichon1 ,l41 i4 #cag4 ,fowler1 ,sir ,r41 ii4 #bbf1 #bga1 #bhg1 #cgd4 ,fowler1 ,w41 i4 #cig4 ,france1 i4 #aed1 #cab4 ,fraser1 ,bishop1 ii4 #afa4 ,freeman1 ,the1 ii4 #bhe4 ,freemasonry1 i4 #bjc4 ,freethinker1 ,the1 ii4 #caf1 #cbd4 ,french elections1 ,nominated at the1 i4 #cba4 ,friendly ,societies1 ii4 #djd4 ,g4 ,r4 i4 #abc4 ,gambetta1 ,l41 i4 #cag1 #cba4 ,garibaldi1 i4 #fg1 #aad1 #aej1 #agj1 #bjc1 #bad4 ,garrison1 ,w4 ,l41 i4 #chd1 #chf4 ,gibson1 ,rev4 ,marsden1 ii4 #ada1 #djg4 ,gibson1 ,milner1 i4 #adb4 ,gibson4 ,j4 ,g4 7,att4-,gen4 for ,ireland71 ii4 #bbf4 ,giffard1 ,sir ,h4 7,lord ,halsbury71 i4 #bgd1 #caa2 ii4 #bce1 #bci1 #bee1 #ccg4 7,see also ,counsel47 ,gilpin1 ,c41 i4 #bfe1 #bfh1 #cid2 ii4 #fe4 ,girardin1 ,e4 de1 i4 #ccj4 ,gladstone1 ,w4 ,e41 i4 #add1 #adh1 #bbb1 #bea1 #beh1 #bfb1 #bfg1 #bgb1 #caj1 #cij2 ii4 #afd1 #aib1 #bji1 #bbf1 #bci1 #bdb1 #bfi1 #bhb1 #big1 #cch1 #cde1 #cfe1 #cfi1 #cia1 #daf1 #dai1 #dbf4 ,goldsmith's ,row1 ,working ,men's ,hall in1 i4 #dg4 ,gorst1 ,sir ,j41 ii4 #bdc1 #bfa1 #bfg1 #bid4 ,gospels1 ,early ,criticism of the1 i4 #af1 #bb1 #fc1 #hd2 ii4 #adh4 ,gospels and the ,thirty-nine ,articles1 ,the1 i4 #h4 ,grahame1 ,cuninghame1 ii4 #chb1 #chd1 #dad4 ,grand ,orient of ,france1 i4 #bjd4 ,grant1 ,rev4 ,b41 i4 #ai1 #gc1 #hd1 #aeh1 #afj1 #aff2 ii4 #ci4 ,grantham1 ,w41 ii4 #ge1 #beg4 7,see also ,counsel47 ,granville1 ,lord1 i4 #cad4 ,grote1 ,g41 ii4 #af1 #agf4 ,guernsey methods1 i4 #ahi4 ,gurney1 ,j41 i4 #aec1 #bfd1 #bgf1 #cid1 #cih4 ,guyot1 ,yves1 i4 #cca4 ,habits and surroundings1 ii4 #ig4 ,hall of ,science1 ,city ,road1 i4 #bai4 ,hall of ,science1 ,old ,street1 i4 #bdh1 #ccf1 #cdc4 ,hamilton1 ,lord ,g41 ii4 #cjh1 #cge4 ,hamilton1 ,sir ,w41 ii4 #bac4 ,harcourt1 ,sir ,w4 ,v41 ii4 #bie1 #ccd1 #dje4 ,harrison1 ,rev4 ,a4 ,j41 i4 #cch1 #cda1 #cdb1 #ced2 ii4 #ci4 ,harrison1 ,frederic1 i4 #cai4 ,hartington1 ,lord1 ii4 #ccf4 ,harvey1 ,t41 i4 #id4 ,headlam1 ,rev4 ,s41 ii4 #bc1 #bge4 ,henley1 ,lord1 i4 #bfe1 #bfh1 #bid4 ,herbert1 ,auberon1 ii4 #hb4 ,herzen1 ,a41 i4 #aae1 #bjd4 ,hicks-,beach1 ,sir ,m41 ii4 #ceh1 #cfa1 #cfb1 #cga1 #dje4 ,hobbes1 ,t41 ii4 #aae1 #abi4 ,holbach1 ii4 #aaf4 ,holker1 ,sir ,j41 ii4 #bai1 #bfe1 #bfi4 ,holyoake1 ,austin1 i4 #ba1 #acb1 #aci1 #adb1 #add1 #bah1 #bfg1 #bhe1 #ccb1 #cij1 #cid2 ii4 #ab1 #af4 ,holyoake1 ,g4 ,j41 i4 #ba1 #fd1 #fi1 #gh1 #abh1 #age1 #ccb2 ii4 #af1 #ce1 #fe1 #adb1 #bbc1 #bgg4 ,home life1 i4 #aaa4 ,home ,rule1 i4 #beh2 ii4 #aib1 #bjj1 #cfc1 #cfi4 ,home sold up1 ,the1 i4 #cja4 ,homeless1 i4 #aag4 ,hooper1 ,a41 i4 #be1 #db1 #bgf4 ,hopps1 ,rev4 ,j4 ,page1 i4 #adc4 ,hopwood1 ,c4 ,h41 ii4 #bai1 #ceh4 ,horsley1 ,rev4 ,j4 ,w41 ii4 #bc4 ,howell1 ,g41 i4 #bbj1 #cai4 ,hubbard1 ,j4 ,g41 ii4 #bga4 ,huddersfield1 ,difficulties at1 i4 #bdj4 ,huddersfield ,examiner1 ,the1 ii4 #ff1 #gc4 ,hugo1 ,v41 i4 #fe2 ii4 #afb ,humanity's ,gain from ,unbelief1 ii4 #ada1 #djg4 ,hunger1 i4 #be4 ,hunter1 ,dr ,w4 ,a41 ii4 #chi1 #dai4 7,see also ,counsel47 ,hutchings1 ,w41 i4 #aff4 ,huxley1 ,prof41 i4 #cda2 ii4 #abh1 #aea4 ,hyde ,park ,meetings3-- ,sunday ,trading ,bill1 i4 #eb2 ,government ,reform ,bill1 i4 #ha2 ,garibaldi1 i4 #bad2 ,reform ,league1 i4 #bbd1 #bcd2 ,parks ,regulation ,bill1 i4 #cgb2 ,peace ,demonstrations1 ii4 #hb2 ,grant to ,prince of ,wales1 ii4 #hd2 ,constitutional ,rights1 ii4 #cjh4 ,hyndman1 ,h4 ,m41 ii4 #dad1 #dag4 ,i ,believe1 i4 #afh ,iconoclast1 ,use of the name1 i4 #db1 #add4 ,illingworth1 ,a41 ii4 #beh1 #ccg4 ,impeachment of the ,house of ,brunswick1 i4 #cjf2 ii4 #bbe1 #bcj4 ,india1 ii4 #ajh1 #aih1 #dji1 #daf1 #dbf4 ,india1 ,visit to1 ii4 #ajf1 #dji4 ,inniscarra1 ,right of way at1 i4 #cc4 ,investigator1 i4 #fd1 #gi1 #hg1 #ie1 #ig1 #aaa1 #aai4 ,italy1 ,the cause of liberty in1 i4 #aea1 #bad2 ii4 #aib1 #aih4 ,ireland1 i4 #bi1 #beb2 ii4 #aib4 ,ireland ,society1 ,the1 i4 #bei4 ,irish ,question1 ,essay on the1 i4 #beg4 ,irish ,land ,bill1 ,the1 ii4 #bgd4 ,james1 ,sir ,h41 ii4 #bae1 #bgc1 #cia1 #dje4 7,see also ,counsel47 ,jessel1 ,sir ,george1 ii4 #ai1 #bi4 ,jingoism1 ii4 #hb4 ,john ,street ,institution1 ,the1 i4 #ba4 ,jones1 ,b4 ,b41 i4 #ag1 #fb1 #bah4 ,jones1 ,ernest1 i4 #hb1 #bcb1 #bfh1 #cgh4 ,jones1 ,lloyd1 i4 #cai4 ,judges before whom ,mr ,bradlaugh appeared-- ,baggallay1 ,l4 ,j41 ii4 #bfb1 #bib4 ,blackburn1 ,lord1 i4 #bhh1 #bij2 ii4 #cbb ,bovill1 ,l4 ,c4 ,j41 i4 #bhg4 ,bramwell1 ,l4 ,j41 i4 #aci1 #add2 ii4 #bg1 #bfb1 #cbb4 ,brett1 ,l4 ,j41 i4 #bhf2 ii4 #bg1 #bib1 #cje1 #cjg1 #cee4 ,byles1 ,j41 i4 #ahg4 ,channell1 ,baron1 i4 #ahg1 #bhg4 ,cleasby1 ,baron1 i4 #adg1 #bhg4 ,cockburn1 ,l4,c4,j41 i4 #bhg1 #bic2 ii4 #ba1 #bc1 #cf1 #agi4 ,coleridge1 ,l4,c4,j41 ii4 #bae1 #bgh1 #bib1 #cbb1 #cbg1 #cdf4 ,cotton1 ,l4,j41 ii4 #bg1 #cje1 #cjg1 #cee4 ,denman1 ,j41 ii4 #bgh1 #bib1 #cje4 ,erle1 ,l4,c4,j41 i4 #ahg4 ,field1 ,j41 ii4 #gi1 #cbj1 #cba4 ,fitzgerald1 ,lord1 ii4 #cbb4 ,grove1 ,j41 ii4 #gd1 #bgh1 #bhj1 #cjf1 #cea4 ,hawkins1 ,j41 ii4 #bib1 #cje1 #cib4 ,holker1 ,l4,j41 ii4 #cje4 ,huddleston1 ,baron1 ii4 #cjf1 #cea1 #cic4 ,keating1 ,j41 i4 #ahg1 #bhg4 ,kelly1 ,l4,c41 ,baron1 i4 #adg1 #bhg1 #bhh4 ,lindley1 ,j41 ii4 #gd1 #bhj1 #cee4 ,lush1 ,j41 ii4 #bb1 #bfb4 ,manisty1 ,j41 ii4 #cjf1 #cbj1 #cib4 ,martin1 ,baron1 i4 #ada4 ,mathew1 ,j41 ii4 #bfj1 #cbj1 #cdf4 ,mellor1 ,j41 i4 #bhh1 #bid1 #bie2 ii4 #ba1 #be4 ,prentice1 ,s41 ,q4,c4 7arbitrator71 i4 #bhe4 ,selborne1 ,lord ,chancellor1 ii4 #cbb4 ,smith1 ,montague1 ,j41 i4 #bhd1 #bhg4 7,see also ,counsel47 ,stephen1 ,j41 ii4 #cah1 #cbj1 #cdf1 #ced4 ,watkin ,williams1 ,j41 #bgh1 #bib1 #cjf1 #cbj4 ,watson1 ,lord1 ii4 #cbb4 ,willes1 ,j41 i4 #ada1 #big4 ,williams1 ,j41 i4 #ahg4 ,wood1 ,vice-,chancellor1 i4 #bhb4 ,kant1 ii4 #abb4 ,kelly1 ,col41 i4 #aae1 #bec1 #bef4 ,kenealy1 ,dr1 i4 #cgg4 ,kipling1 ,rudyard1 i4 #bac2 ii4 #aih4 ,knowlton ,pamphlet1 prosecution of1 ii4 #af1 #bj1 #cc1 #age4 ,labouchere1 ,h41 i4 #djj2 ii4 #aig1 #bji1 #bae1 #bcd1 #bdj1 #bfa1 #bga1 #bge1 #bgi1 #bhd1 #big1 #cjc1 #cjh1 #cai1 #ccd1 #cda1 #cdg1 #cei1 #cfh1 #cgd1 #dad4 ,labour ,bureau1 ii4 #aia1 #cfi4 ,lancashire relief1 i4 #bjf1 #baf4 ,land laws1 ,reform of the1 i4 #abi1 #bfd1 #cge2 ii4 #agi1 #ahb1 #cfh4 ,lansdowne1 ,marquis of1 i4 #adi4 ,law1 ,harriet1 i4 #abi1 #bdi2 ii4 #fe4 ,law ,times1 ,the1 ii4 #cba4 ,lawson1 ,rev4 ,t41 i4 #agj4 ,lawsuits3-- ,att4 ,gen4 7trial at bar71 ii4 #ia1 #cea4 ,bolton1 i4 #gg4 ,clarke1 ii4 #ia1 #bfj4 ,de ,rin1 i4 #bhd4 ,devonport1 i4 #ahb4 ,edgcumbe1 ii4 #gc4 ,english ,joint ,stock ,bank1 i4 #bhb4 ,erskine1 ii4 #ia1 #if1 #aji1 #cjg1 #cba4 ,gossett1 ii4 #ia1 #cdf4 ,gurney1 ii4 #ia1 #cjf1 #cbj4 ,huddersfield1 i4 #bdc4 ,knowlton pamphlet1 ii4 #af1 #bj1 #cc4 ,laker1 ii4 #gi4 ,mackay's libellous ,life 7various suits71 ii4 #cig4 ,mirfield1 i4 #big4 ,national ,reformer1 i4 #acg4 ,newdegate1 ii4 #ia1 #cbb4 ,peters1 ii4 #aji1 #cic4 ,queen 7,sir ,h4 ,tyler71 ii4 #ia1 #caf1 #cbg4 ,razor1 i4 #bij4 ,st 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ii4 #cgg1 #cgi1 #dad4 ,marriage1 i4 #dh4 ,marriage1 ,views on1 ii4 #afa4 ,marsden1 ,mark ,e41 i4 #g4 ,martin1 ,emma1 ii4 #fd4 ,martineau1 ,dr1 ii4 #abc4 ,marx1 ,dr ,k41 i4 #cca4 ,master and servant1 i4 #abc1 #abi1 #bfd4 7,see ,employers' ,liability ,bill47 ,materialism1 ii4 #abg4 ,may1 ,sir ,e41 ii4 #baf1 #bcj4 ,mayne1 ,sir ,r41 i4 #bbb4 ,mazzini1 i4 #fi1 #aad1 #aej4 ,m',carthy1 ,j41 ii4 #bch4 ,m',sorley1 ,rev4 ,h41 i4 #ajb4 ,medical students1 ,rowdyism of1 ii4 #hc4 ,melvill1 ,w4,h41 i4 #acg4 ,memorials1 ii4 #aaj4 ,merewether1 ,c4,g41 i4 #bfh1 #cid2 ii4 #bji4 ,metaphysical ,club1 ,the1 i4 #cda4 ,mill1 ,james1 ii4 #afa4 ,mill1 ,j4,s41 i4 #abe1 #aci1 #adb1 #adi1 #bfg1 #bga1 #bge1 #bgh2 ii4 #abj1 #afa1 #age1 #bad4 ,miners1 i4 #cgf4 ,mitchell1 ,g41 ,one from the ,plough1 i4 #cgh4 ,money1 ,attacked for earning1 i4 #ig1 #agd1 #aig4 ,monkey story4 7,see ,fanatical ,monkeys47 ,moore1 ,r41 i4 #aci1 #adb4 ,morley1 ,j41 ii4 #aaf1 #agg1 #baf1 #bbg1 #bci1 #bgf1 #ccb1 #cdg1 #cij1 #dbj4 ,morley1 ,s41 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