Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History

Book

Open Original Text

for and against
Freethought, coming from such representative men as the late learned
and eloquent Archbishop of York and Mr Bradlaugh, they cannot fail to
be of special interest.

[Footnote 136: "Christianity in Relation to Freethought Scepticism and
Faith: three discourses by the Bishop of Peterborough, with special
replies by Charles Bradlaugh."

A similar case in a small way happened at Deptford in April 1873. A
Rev. Dr Miller had delivered some addresses in the Deptford Lecture
Hall against "unbelievers," and it was proposed that Mr Bradlaugh
should reply to these addresses in the same place. He had frequently
spoken in the Deptford Lecture Hall before, but when the Deptford
Freethinkers sought to engage it for a lecture in answer to Dr
Miller, the Committee refused to let the hall for that purpose. This
intolerance the _Kentish Mercury_ applauded by referring to it in bold
type as "noble conduct."]

During the autumn my father gave a lecture on behalf of the London
Republican Club, and upon this speech all sorts of rumours were
founded, not indeed upon what my father actually did say, but upon
what his detractors chose to believe he said. Mr Disraeli had recently
stated at an agricultural meeting at Hughenden[137] that it could not
be concealed that Her Majesty was "physically and morally incapacitated
from performing her duties," and my father took these words as the text
of his lecture for the Republican Club in London. His speech, which
was unusually long, occupying close upon an hour and a half, was a
most careful recital of the duties of the Monarch and the rights and
duties of the people, with special reference to the course pursued
during the periods when George III. was officially declared incapable
of performing the royal functions. Shorthand writers were present,
and this address, or parts of it, was telegraphed all over the United
Kingdom, to America and to the Continent. Much of it appeared in the
American and Continental press of the next day or so, and after a short
interval distorted accounts of it were to be heard of in most parts
of England. There was one passage in particular upon which a whole
mountain of misrepresentation and worse[138] was afterwards based.
In the course of his address Mr Bradlaugh had said: "Many of you are
aware that I have lately repeatedly declared my most earnest desire
that the present Prince of Wales should never dishonour this country
by becoming its King. My opinion is that if four or five years of
political education are allowed to continue in this land, that worthy
representative of an unworthy race will never be King of England. My
thorough conviction is that neither his intelligence, nor his virtues,
nor his political ability, nor his military capacity--great as all
these are for a member of his family--can entitle him to occupy the
throne of Great Britain. I am equally opposed to his ever being Regent
of England. I trust that he may never sit on the throne or lounge under
its shadow."

[Footnote 137: September 26, 1871.]

[Footnote 138: See Chapter ix., vol. ii.]

Of course my father showed himself much too sanguine as to the time
necessary for the political education of this country towards a
Republican form of Government; but those who recall the seeming vigour
of the Republican movement in England during the early seventies will
know that he was not without excuse for his hopeful views. In any case,
one would have thought that his expression in regard to the Prince of
Wales was strong enough to have been dealt with by English Monarchists
as he made it; but instead, it was perverted into an "impudent and
disloyal announcement that he and a certain number of his friends
would take care that the Prince should never come to the throne."[139]
A very different thing indeed to the "desire" my father had uttered.
The effect of all this was to raise such a tremendous journalistic
storm against him, that a few weeks later he wrote: "As to the hostile
attacks, they are during the past fortnight so numerous that I have not
space even to catalogue them. Many journals call for my prosecution."
One paper, a century or so behind the times, recommended a pillory and
flogging.

[Footnote 139: Earl Fortescue at the King's Nympton Farmers' Club,
November 1871.]

A curious little incident which occurred ten or twelve days after
Mr Bradlaugh's lecture helped to strengthen the outcry against him,
especially on the part of Conservative speakers and the Conservative
press. On the 28th of October Mr Gladstone addressed a vast meeting
of his constituents on Blackheath. He spoke for two hours, defending
the conduct of his colleagues and himself since they had taken office
three years ago. During this important speech he quoted, from what he
called a "questionable book," these lines, which he said contained
"much good sense"--

 "People throughout the land,
 Join in one social band,
 And save yourselves;
 If you would happy be,
 Free from all slavery,
 Banish all knavery,
 And save yourselves."

This sentiment was greeted with deafening applause by the thousands
listening with eager ears to every word that fell from the Prime
Minister. But the epithet bestowed upon the book whence he drew this
example of the "good sense" it contained, roused a perfect frenzy of
curiosity. Literary Conservatives imagined that Mr A. C. Swinburne was
the author, and the dismay exhibited was almost beyond description when
it was discovered--by the horrified _Scotsman_, I believe--that Mr
Gladstone's "questionable book" was the "Secularists' Manual of Songs
and Ceremonies," edited by Austin Holyoake and Charles Watts, with a
preface by Charles Bradlaugh. The press comments upon the discovery are
amusing to read, especially as Mr Bradlaugh was often made in some way
responsible, not merely for the verse, but for Mr Gladstone's quoting
it on Blackheath. Mr Giffard, Q.C., was amongst those who thought it
"an outrage" that such a book should have been so quoted by the Prime
Minister of England. The publisher was indictable, said he wrathfully,
and the writer would have been sent to prison in the good old days when
the Christian religion was more thought of.[140] But neither he nor any
one else moved to prefer the indictment.

[Footnote 140: Address to the Cardiff Constitutional Association.]

CHAPTER XXXI.

FRANCE--THE WAR.

When hostilities were declared between France and Germany in 1870,
Mr Bradlaugh did not take sides with either nation; he entirely and
unreservedly condemned the war. He and his friends kept clear of the
war fever which seemed coursing through the blood of most people. "All
the evil passions of Europe are aroused," wrote Austin Holyoake, "and
even children gloat over the narratives of slaughter where thousands
perish. The soldier, instead of the schoolmaster, has become the
foremost man, and Rage, Revenge, and Murder are the gods of public
idolatry." Not a word would Mr Bradlaugh or his colleagues say to
commiserate the "insulted honour of Fr

Previous Next