Part 5 (2/2)
that _vox populi, vox Dei_ had land--the producers--(called ”lower classes” by the ”upper”
_non_-producers) asses all over England, deh (their best friend) to his rightful seat in the English House of Co that the ”voice of the people” was even more potent than the ”voice of God,”
they prudently bowed to its mandate They perceived that no Clock Tower, or other tower in England would hold the workingh ht peradventure soon be in --not, probably, for spilled blood, but for a crown, aye, a crown! No wonder the English Governh enter the House of Commons He had impeached the House of Brunswick And it was no ”soft impeachment” No, but a terribly hard indictment! Was it ever answered?
No, it was too true to answer The only ansas from Lord Randolph Churchill in the House of Commons, and it was characteristic This rabid e or discretion, took Bradlaugh's ”Impeachment of the House of Brunswick” and cast it viciously under his feet on the floor of the House of Commons That was the way the ”Ialled jades wince!” But the Atheist had his revenge! They had put him in the Tower, but they very soon let hilish Govern beaten them twice, and he feared not He was imprisoned one day, but released the next
An Act was speedily passed givingevery ht to affirh has accordingly made his affirmation as he at first delish House of Commons as M P for Northahout the civilized world rejoice, for this is a great victory for our cause! The eloquent chalorious victory on the very threshold of the English Parliae! The indomitable and invincible Iconoclast has now attained a position where his voice will be heard in behalf of liberty and the rights of man the world over! He is called ”coarse” by some over-cultured people, but his coarseness is of the kind the world needs, and therefore _we_ do not object to it The superstitions, and errors, and wrongs, and oppressions still weighing down our fellow-loves, and Bradlaugh wears none of these, but fearlessly thron the gauntlet to falsehood and oppression whenever and wherever found
But I fear I a a little off the Oath Question here in h, Member of Parliament for Northampton
The press of Canada, with very few exceptions, have done Mr Bradlaugh a great injustice in connection with the oath question, as they have (perhaps unintentionally) utterly ed that he ”flaunted his Atheism before the House of Commons,” that he at first _refused_ to take the oath on conscientious grounds and subsequently ”sed his scruples” and offered to take the oath; and that, therefore, the Atheist is without conscience and without principle, sacrificing all for place
Now, this is all utterly untrue He did not flaunt his Atheism before the House He did not _refuse_ to take the oath, but si intih that if he desired to address the House in explanation of his claih said, ”I have repeatedly, for nine years past, hest courts of jurisdiction in this realm: I am ready to make such a declaration or affirh offered to take the oath, it was after he had h a portion of it to hiless form, yet that the oath as a whole, if he took it would be binding on his conscience substantially the same as an affirmation These are the facts, all taken frooted and prejudiced correspondents have sent us across the ocean My authority is the record of the proceedings of the Parliah case, where the facts I have stated were distinctly brought out in evidence, to which source I beg to refer the newspapers of this country and call upon theht before their readers
In conclusion, I beg to again urge upon hout Canada the necessity of taking such action as will secure for us our legal rights in the Courts of this country I trust that the petitions to Parlia to put in circulation, ently circulated by the liberal friends in the various places to which they will be sent
Selby, Lennox Co, Ont, July, 1880
”It can do truth no service to blink the fact, known to all who have the e portion, of the noblest andhas been the work, not only of men who did not know, but of men who knew and rejected, the Christian faith”--J S Mill
”The history of Christ is contained in records which exhibit contradictions that cannot be reconciled, ireatly detract from even admitted human compositions, and erroneous principles of morality that would hardly have found a place in the most incomplete system of the philosophers of Greece and Rome”--Rev Dr
Giles
”That any human creature, be he peer or peasant, man or woman, pauper or millionaire, should be visited with pains and penalties because of his or her speculative opinion on a subject whereon but few even of professing Christians are agreed, is a bitter satire on our vaunted liberty My Lords, it is the spirit which lighted the allant and noble souls such as Bruno
It is a noble; co me in, my Lords, and I shall thank you for it”--_Ibid_
”Who shall number the patient and earnest seekers after truth, from the days of Galileo until nohose lives have been eood name blasted, by the mistaken zeal of Bibliolators? Who shall count the host of weaker men whose sense of truth has been destroyed in the effort to harmonize impossibilities--whose life has been wasted in the atteenerous neine of Science into the old bottles of Judais party” _Prof
Huxley_
”Thou shalt not kill, even the smallest creature
”Thou shalt not appropriate to thyself what belongs to another
”Thou shah not infringe the laws of chastity
”Thou shalt not lie
”Thou Shalt not calumniate
”Thou shalt not speak of injuries
”Thou shalt not excite quarrels, by repeating the words of others
”Thou shalt not hate”
--_Moral Precepts from Buddhistic Sacred Books_