Part 8 (2/2)
Such was the bearing of Theosophical teaching on Neo-Malthusianised, out of e of the ht, for a time at least, be recommended as a palliative, as a defence in the hands of a wo, she badeht to ree a woman,” she said, ”who has resort to such means of defence in the norance of the real causes of all thisat any relief But it is not for you, an Occultist, to continue to teach a method which you no must tend to the perpetuation of the sorrow” I felt that she was right, and though I shrank fro froe of the poor, so far as I could, a temporary palliative of evils which too often wreck their lives and bring e has touched them--yet the decision was made I refused to reprint the ”Law of Population,” or to sell the copyright, giving pain, as I sadly knew, to all the brave and loyal friends who had so generously stood by le, and who saw the results of victory throay on grounds to them inadequate andupward, that every step must be set on his own heart and on the hearts of those he loves?
CHAPTER X
AT WAR ALL ROUND
Coerous illness, I took up again its thread, heartsick, but with courage unshaken, and I find myself in the _National Refor in a brief note of thanks that ”neither the illness nor the trouble which produced it has in any fashi+on lessened ed into ith added vigour, for only in that did I find any solace, but the paainst Christianity were marked with considerable bitterness, for it was Christianity that had robbed me of my child, and I struck les of that ti, with its policy of annexation and aggression, I played ue and pen, andpolicy in India, against the invasion of Afghanistan and other outrages, laid in many an Indian heart a foundation of affection forIndians to which iven In Noveland, India, and Afghanistan” that has broughton of the suit against Mr Besant before alluded to, two and often three lectures every Sunday, to say nothing of the editorial work on the _National Reforue, and stray lectures during the week,I developed a tendency to let hts wander from the subject in hand, and that they would drift after aps inup for so form of recreation fro e exact, render me more useful as a speaker on behalf of the causes to whichof the new year (1879) I met for the first time a man to whom I subsequently owed , a DSc of London University, and a marvellously able teacher of scientific subjects, the very ablest, in fact, that I have ever ift for lucid exposition, enthusiastic in his love of science, and taking vivid pleasure in ie to others, he was an ideal teacher This youngunder initials for the _National Reformer_, and in February I beca in June at the London University, an object which was duly accomplished And here let ht find an i up so, in addition to --and the lecturing land to the other--I translated a fair-sized French volu hter in the Court of Appeal, as well as the case before the Master of the Rolls; and I found it the very greatest relief to turn to algebra, geoles in wrestling with forained tobattle of Freethinkers against disabilities, for, as noted in the _National Refor unequalled in any case on record for the boldness of its affirenerously said that it deserved well of the party as ”thefor freedoood fortune to listen”
In the London _Daily News_ some powerful letters of protest appeared, one from Lord Harberton, in which he declared that ”the Inquisition acted on no other principle” than that applied to me; and a second from Mr Band, in which he sarcastically observed that ”this Christian co her Majesty's courts repeatedly springing engines of torture upon a young ree with his creed--and her evident anguish, her long and expensive struggles to save her child, have proved that so far as heretical mothers are concerned modern defenders of the faith need not envy the past those persuasive instru Mrs Besant an example, the Master of the Rolls and Lord Justice James have been careful not to allow any of the effect to be lost by confusion of the main point--the intellectual heresy--with side questions There was a Malthusianthat without any reference whatever to that, they would siious, opinions,' take her child froreat provincial papers took a si so far as to say of the ruling of the judges: ”We do not say they have done so wrongly We only say that the effect of their judg of unpopular opinions is, in the eye of the law, an offence which, despite all we had thought to the contrary, may be visited with the severest punishment a woman and a mother can be possibly called on to bear” The outcole and of another case of sore injustice--in which Mrs Agar-Ellis, a Roman Catholic, was separated froainst her by her husband, a Protestant--was a change in the lahich had vested all power over the children in the hands of the father, and fronised to a liht ith the National Sunday League, the president of which, Lord Thurlow, strongly objected to me as one of the vice-presidents Mr PA Taylor and others at once resigned their offices, and, on the calling of a general , Lord Thurloas rejected as president Mr PA
Taylor was requested to assuned were, withacco years
And through all the struggles the organised strength of the Freethought party grew, 650 newenrolled in the National Secular Society in the year 1878-79, and in July, 1879, the public adhesion of Dr Edward B Aveling brought into the ranks a pen of rare force and power, and gave a strong impulse to the educational side of our movement I presided for hiust 10, 1879, and he soon paid the penalty of his boldness, finding himself, a few months later, dismissed from the Chair of Coh the Board aded with punctuality and ability One of the first results of his adhesion was the establishment of two classes under the Science and Art Departrew year after year, attended by nu men and wo, as well as Latin, and London University Matriculation classes; all these were taught by Dr Aveling and pupils that he had trained I took advanced certificates, one in honours, and so becaht different sciences, and Alice and Hypatia Bradlaugh followed a similar course, so that winter after winter we kept these classes going fro May, froh carried on a choral union
Personally I found that this study and teaching together with attendance at classes held for teachers at South Kensington, the study for passing the First BSc and Prel Sc Examinations at London University, and the study for the BSc degree at London, at which I failed in practical che that puzzled me not a little at the time, as I had passed a far more difficult practical cheave ood stead in ical and social hatred pursued h and myself applied for pere, ere refused, I for hter; when I had qualified as teacher, I stood back fronition from the Department for a year in order not to prejudice the claihters, and later, when I had been recognised, Sir Henry Tyler in the House of Copaid to the Hall of Science Schools because Dr Aveling, the Misses Bradlaugh, and myself were unbelievers in Christianity When I asked perent's Park the curator refused it, on the ground that his daughters studied there On every side repulse and insult, hard to struggle against, bitter to bear It was against difficulties of this kind on every side that we had to make our way, handicapped in every effort by our heresy Let our work be as good as it ht--and our Science School was exceptionally successful--the subtle fragrance of heresy was everywhere distinguishable, and when Mr Bradlaugh and myself are blamed for bitterness in our anti-Christian advocacy, this constant gnawing annoyance and petty persecution should be taken into account For hiirls of ability and of high character, whose only crime was that they were his--insulted, sneered at, slandered, continually put at a disadvantage, because they were his children and loved and honoured him beyond all others
It was in October, 1879, that I first h I did not become intimately acquainted with him till the Socialist troubles of the autumn of 1887 drew us into a coate from the Tower Hamlets Radical association to a prelih, at the Hall of Science, on October 11th, to consider the advisability of holding a great London Convention on Land Law Refordom He was appointed on the Executive Coh, Mr Mottershead, Mr Nieass, and others The Convention was successfully held, and an advanced platforh as a basis for some of the proposals he laid before Parliament
CHAPTER XI
MR BRADLAUGH'S STRUGGLE
And noned the year 1880, theParliale he was elected, with Mr Labouchere, as eneral election, and so the prize so long fought for on Shall I ever forget that election day, April 2, 1880? How at four o'clock Mr Bradlaugh cahters and I were sitting, flung hifor the declaration through the long, weary hours of suspense, till as the ti to the hoarsethat presently there would be a roar of triuer when the numbers were read out from the steps of the Town Hall And now silence sank, and we knew the moment had come, and we held our breath, and then--a roar, a wild roar of joy and exultation, cheer after cheer, ringing, throbbing, pealing, and then thehi hats, handkerchiefs, a very ht, and the shrill strains of ”Bradlaugh for Northa of triurave, somewhat shaken by the outpour of love and exultation, very silent, feeling the weight of new responsibility , as he left the town, the mass of men and women, one sea of heads fro everywhere, , the cries, ”Our Charlie, our Charlie; we've got you and we'll keep you” How they loved him, how they joyed in the triuht the struggle over, and it was only beginning; we thought our hero victorious, and a fiercer, crueller fight lay in front True, he was to win that fight, but his life was to be the price of the winning; victory for him was to be final, corave
[Illustration: _Froraph by T Westley, 57, Vernon Street, Northampton_ CHARLES BRADLAUGH AND HENRY LABOUCHERE]
The outburst of anger froe as the outburst of delight had been exultant, but we recked little of it Was he not member, duly elected, without possibility of assailht? Parlia on the following day, and Mr
Bradlaugh had taken counsel with soht of Freethinkers to affirm He held that under the Act 29 and 30 Vict c 19, and the Evidence Aht to substitute affir to take the oath as a necessary for it to be optional, he preferred affir to the evidence of Sir Erskine May, the Clerk of the House, given before the second Select Committee on his case, he ”ca stateht Honourable the Speaker of the House of Co respectfully to clai by law permitted toan oath
(Signed) Charles Bradlaugh' And being asked by the Clerk upon what grounds he claimed to make an affirmation, he answered: 'By virtue of the Evidence Amendment Acts, 1869 and 1870' Whereupon the Clerk reported to Mr Speaker” the claiht address the House on the h's observations were very short He repeated that he relied upon the Evidence Further Amend: 'I have repeatedly, for nine years past, hest courts of jurisdiction in this realm I am ready to make such a declaration or affirmation' Substantially those were the words which he addressed to the Speaker” This was the sinified scene which took place in the House Mr
Bradlaugh was directed to withdraw, and he withdrew, and, after debate, a Select Committee was appointed to consider whether he could ainst the clai day Mr Bradlaugh presented himself at the table of the House to take the oath in the form prescribed by the law, and on the objection of Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, who submitted a motion that he should not be allowed to take the oath, another Comh stated his case, and pointed out that the legal obligation lay on hih, any oath that I took, I should regard as binding upon h no for” He wrote in the saard himself ”as bound, not by the letter of its words, but by the spirit which the affirmation would have conveyed, had I been perainst him, and on June 23rd he was heard at the Bar of the House, and nified, that the House, in defiance of all its own rules, broke out over and over again into applause In the debate that preceded his speech, ht of the ordinary rules of decency, and had used expressions against rave rebuke to hi in chivalry, because, while I can answer forjustified the introduction of any other naht irrepressible cheers His appeal holly to the law ”I have not yet used--I trust no passion --any words that would seem to savour of even a desire to enter into conflict with this House I have always taught, preached, and believed the supremacy of Parliament of one Cha to deny the ideas I have always held; but I subrandest Chaht to override the law The law gives n that roll, to take and subscribe the oath, and to take esture towards the benches] I admit that the ood will, you can send ht You have full control over your members But you cannot send me away until I have been heard in htful audience that each member has always had I au and deserves punishment Let the law punish it If you say the law cannot, then you adainst the iniquity of a decision which overrides the law and deniesyour pardon, sir, and that of the House too, if in this warnity And as I shall have, if your decision be againstyou, before the step is taken in which we nity--land--I beg you, before the gauntlet is fatally thrown, I beg you, not in any sort of ainst six hundred, to give es would givethere before them”
But no eloquence, no plea for justice, could stay the tide of Tory and religious bigotry, and the House voted that he should not be allowed to take the oath Summoned to the table to hear the decision communicated by the Speaker, he answered that decision with the words firmly spoken: ”I respectfully refuse to obey the order of the House, because that order was against the law” The Speaker appealed to the House for direction, and on a division--during which the Speaker and Charles Bradlaugh were left together in the chah's withdrawal Once iven, once more the refusal made, and then the Serjeant-at-Are was the scene as little Captain Cosset walked up to the member of Herculean proportions, and men wondered how the order would be enforced; but Charles Bradlaugh was not the ht touch on his shoulder was to him the touch of an authority he adravely accoed in the Clock Tower of the House as prisoner until the House should further consider what to do with him--the most aard prisoner it had ever had, in that in his person it was i the law
In a special issue of the _National Refor an account of the Coh's co from my own pen: ”The Tory party, beaten at the polls by the nation, has thus, for the moment, triumphed in the House of Commons The man chosen by the Radicals of Northampton has been committed to prison on the motion of the Tory ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer, sie the duty laid upon him by his constituency and by the law of the land As this paper goes to press, I go to Westminster to receive frole with the nation into which the House of Co, prepared for all events, ready for a long i day a leaflet from my pen, ”Law Makers and Law Breakers,”
appealed to the people; after reciting what had happened, it concluded: ”Let the people speak Gladstone and Bright are for Liberty, and the help denied them within the House must come to them from without No time must be lost While we really held in prison Northareat constituency every constituency is threatened On freedom of election depends our liberty; on freedoress Tory squires and lordlings have defied the people and ainst the masses Let the masses speak” But there was no need to rowl of anger that on the very next day the prisoner was set free, and there cah-handed action of the House In Westh when he came to the House on the day after his liberation In less than a week 200 s had thundered out their protest Liberal associations, clubs, societies, sent up ar Square there gathered--so said the papers--the largest crowd ever seen there, and on the Thursday following--thewas held on Monday--the House of Coh to affirm, and admitted him on Friday, July 2nd, to take his seat after affirle is over,” I wrote, ”and law and right have triu the resolution passed by Tories and Ultraood name in the eyes of the world
The triuht over Christianity, nor is it over the House of Coood men--of all shades of opinion, but of one faith in justice--over Tory conteotry It is the reassertion of civil and religious liberty under the most difficult circumstances, the declaration that the House of Commons is the creation of the people, and not a club of the aristocracy with the right of blackballing in its own hands”
The battle between Charles Bradlaugh and his persecutors was now transferred to the law courts As soon as he had taken his seat he was served with a writ for having voted without having taken the oath, and this began the wearisos by which his defeated enemies boasted that they would ained Richforward a man of straw as noh kept all his ene each case hiht on, finally carrying the cases to the House of Lords, and there winning them triumphantly But they on at such heavy cost of physical strength and of th and burdened hiht in the law courts and to attend scrupulously to his Parlia and writing, so that his nights away fro and his days in incessant labour Many of his defeated foes turned their weapons against ive hie of ow Herald_ refused to print it, and the editor of the _Scotse so coarse that it could have hardly dropped froust 25th found h, to represent the English Freethinkers at the International Freethought Conference It was an interesting gathering, attended byBuchner, a man of noble and kindly nature An International Federation of Freethinkers was there founded, which did soether the Freethinkers of different countries, and held interesting congresses in the following years in London and As it did little, and lacked energy and vitality In truth, the Freethought party in each country had so ht could be given to international organisation For myself,correspondence, and I translated, with his approval, his ”Mind in Anied fourteenth edition of ”Force and Matter,” as well as one or two pamphlets This autumn of 1880 found the so-called Liberal Governainst the Irish leaders, and I worked hard to raise English feeling in defence of Irish freedoainst attack by one so much honoured as was Mr
Gladstone It was uphill work, for harsh language had been used against England and all things English, but I showed by definite figures--all up and down England--that life and property were far safer in Ireland than in England, that Ireland was singularly free froued that these would disappear if the law should step in between landlord and tenant, and by stopping the cri and most brutal eviction, put an end to the horrible retaliations that were born of despair and revenge A striking point on these evictions I quoted fro Mr Gladstone's words that a sentence of eviction was a sentence of starvation, told of 15,000 processes of eviction issued in that one year The autu of science classes, a debate with a clergyland, and an operation which kept me in bed for three weeks, but which, on the other hand, was useful, for I learned to write while lying on ood part of the translation of ”Mind in Animals”