Part 10 (1/2)

”Whatever ious aversion which is excited by Mr Bradlaugh, it is impossible for even his bitterest opponents to deny the brilliance of the series of victories which he has won in the law courts His acquittal in the blasphemy prosecution of Saturday was but the latest of a nu the tables upon his opponents in the h which has been persisted in so long, savours so strongly of a petty and nant species of persecution that it is well that those who indulge in it should be hty words used by the Lord Chief Justice in su up should be taken seriously to heart: 'Those persons are to be deprecated ould pervert the law, even with the best intentions, and ”do evil that good may come, whose da the severity of the apostle, we may say that it is satisfactory that the promoters of all these prosecutions should be condemned in costs”

In the separate trial of Messrs Foote and Raain defended hie as ”very striking” Lord Coleridge ly conde out that no prosecution short of exter on the very easy foreneral rule,” he said, ”persecution, unless far land in the nineteenth century is possible, is certain to be in vain It is also true, and I cannot help assenting to it, that it is a very easy form of virtue It is a more difficult form of virtue, quietly and unostentatiously to obey e believe to be God's will in our own lives It is not very easy to do it; and it makes much less noise in the world It is very easy to turn upon souise of zeal of God's honour to attack somebody of a difference of opinion, whose lifeto God and more conducive to His honour than our own And when it is done by persons whose own lives are not free from reproach and who take that particular for the criainst others, that, no doubt, does more to create a sympathy with the defendant than with the prosecutor And if it should be done by those who enjoy the wit of Voltaire, and who do not turn away from the sneers of Gibbon, and rather relish the irony of Huo with the prosecutors, and we are rather disposed to sympathise with the defendant It is still worse if the person who takes such a course takes it, not from a kind of notion that God wants his assistance, and that he can give it less on his own account than by prosecuting others--but it is , then nothing can be ious, or noble, in men's conduct; and indeed, it seems to me that any one ill do that, not for the honour of God but for the purpose of the ban, deserves the reed, and a _nolle prosequi_ was entered The net results of the trials were a large addition to the membershi+p of the National Secular Society, an increase of circulation of Freethought literature, the raising of Mr Foote for a tireat influence and popularity, and the placing of his name in history as a brave ood taste will be forgotten; the loyalty to conviction and to courage will remain History does not ask if h word; it asks, Were they brave in their steadfastness; were they faithful to the truth they saw? It may be well to place on record Mr Foote's punishment for blasphemy: he spent twenty-two hours out of the twenty-four alone in his cell; his only seat was a stool without a back; his e; his bed was a plank with a thinthe latter part of his imprisonment he was allowed some books

CHAPTER XIII

SOCIALISM

The rest of 1883 passed in the usual way of hard work; the Affiritation for Constitutional right grew steadily; the Liberal Press on over, and Mr Bradlaugh was beginning to earn golden opinions on all sides for his courage, his tenacity, and his self-control A successful International Congress at Amsterdam took some of us over to the Northern Venice, where awas held Tothe one in which h only partially, to the Socialist movement I had heard Louise Michelle lecture in the early spring; a brief controversy in the _National Reformer_ had interested me, but I had not yet concerned myself with the economic basis of Socialism; I had realised that the land should be public property, but had not gone into the deeper econo with ever-increasing force on heart and brain Of Socialist teaching I knew nothing, having studied only the older English Econoer days In 1884 a s was to come, and Ispoken by me to our readers in the first number of the _Refore, what strains on our endurance, what trials of our loyalty, none can tell But this we know--that every test of courage successfully met, every strain of endurance steadily borne, every trial of loyalty nobly surer, loyalty truer, than each was before And therefore, for our own and for the world's sake, I will not wish you, friends, an 1884 in which there shall be no toil and no battling; but I ish you, each and all, the hero's heart and the hero's patience, in the struggle for the world's raising that will endure through the co year”

On February 3rd I came for the first tih was attacked, and which gave an account of aof the Democratic Federation--not yet the Social Democratic--in which a man had, apparently unrebuked, said that ”all -class ends I protested strongly against the advocacy of cried the use of such ress A feeeks later the _Echo_ repeated a speech of Mr

Hyndman's in which a ”bloodier revolution” than that of France was prophesied, and the extinction of ”book-learning” seeain I com fro the advocacy of violence so long as free agitation was allowed

The spring was marked by two events on which I have not tih of his seat, on the reiteration of the resolution of exclusion, and his triumphant return for the fourth tiher poll than that of the general election; and the release of Mr

Foote, on February 25th, from Hollohence he was escorted by a procession a quarter of a th On the 12th of March he and his fellow-prisoners received a nificent reception and were presented with valuable testiain the thread of Socialisreat debate in St

Jah and Mr Hyndman on April 17th, roused me to a serious study of the questions raised Socialis advocate than Henry Hyndularly fascinating pen, with talents that would have made him wealthy in any career he adopted, he has sacrificed himself without a murmur to the people's cause He has borne obloquy from without, suspicion and unkindness from those he served, and surrounded by temptations to betray the people, he has never swerved fros, has been stirred to passionate outbursts and reckless phrases, but love to the people and sy lay at the root of his wildest words, and they count but little as against his faithful service Personally, my debt to him is of a mixed character; he kept me froonish; but it was the debate at St Jarily resented his injustice,ined, especially when I read it over afterwards, away fro eloquence and personal lish Socialists, froh so unfairly, so that his friends were set against Socialists ere they began to exauments I must confess that my deep attachment to him led me into injustice to his Socialist foes in those early days, and often nity instead of hasty and prejudiced assertion Added to this, their uncurbed violence in discussion, their constant interruptions during the speeches of opponents, their reckless inaccuracy inin the way of the thoughtful When I came to know them better, I found that the bulk of their speakers were very young men, overworked and underpaid, who spent their scanty leisure in efforts to learn, to educate themselves, to train therew out of the bitter sense of injustice, and which were due largely to the terrible pressure of our syste enough!--to bear grinding injustice without loss of balance and of impartiality None save those who have worked with them kno much of real nobility, of heroic self-sacrifice, of constant self-denial, of brotherly affection, there is ae Bernard Shaw, one of theof ” the enthusiastically earnest, and with a passion for representing himself as a scoundrel On my first experience of him on the platform at South Place Institute he described hiry snarl at him in the _Reformer_, for a loafer was my detestation, and behold! I found that he was very poor, because he was a writer with principles and preferred starving his body to starving his conscience; that he gave ti night after night in workmen's clubs; and that ”a loafer” was only an a himself because he did not carry a hod Of course I had to apologise forhim a serious injustice, but privately felt so been entrapped into such a blunder Meanwhile I wasmyself to the social condition of the people I find ainst Sir John Lubbock's Bill which fixed a twelve-hour day as the li person's”

toil ”A 'day' of twelve hours is brutal,” I wrote; ”if the law fixes twelve hours as a 'fair day' that laill largely govern custoht hours on five days in the week and not more than five hours on the sixth If the labour is of an exhausting character these hours are too long” On every side now the Socialist controversy grew, and I listened, read, and thought much, but said little The inclusion of John Robertson in the staff of the _Reforhly intellectual Socialist into closer touch with us, and slowly I found that the case for Socialism was intellectually coht was shown by urging the feeding of Board School children, breaking down under the combination of education and starvation, and I asked, ”Why should people be pauperised by a rate-supported e, road-, &c? ”Socialism in its splendid ideal appealed to my heart, while the economic soundness of its basis convinced ress of the people, the helping of er hope, the lofty ideal of social brotherhood, the rendering possible to all of freer life; so long had I been striving thitherward, and here there opened up a path to the yearned-for goal! How strong were the feelings surging in my heart may be seen in a brief extract from an article published second week of January, 1885: ”Christian charity? We know its work It gives a hundred-weight of coal and five pounds of beef once a year to a family whose head could earn a hundred such doles if Christian justice allowed hie for the work he performs It plunders the workers of the wealth they s back at them a thousandth part of their own product as 'charity' It builds hospitals for the poor whom it has poisoned in filthy courts and alleys, and workhouses for the worn-out creatures froy, every hope, every joy Miss Cobbe summons us to ad in the robes woven by the toilers, a glittering tinselled super-structure founded on the tears, the strugglings, the grey, hopeless misery of the poor”

This first ht on me the first attack for my Socialistic tendencies, from the pen of Mr WP Ball, rote to the _Reforraph, quoted above, in which I had advocated rate-supported meals for Board School children A brief controversy thus arose, in which I supported”at heart a Socialist” In truth, I dreaded tomyself with the advocates of Socialism, because of the attitude of bitter hostility they had adopted towards Mr Bradlaugh On his strong, tenacious nature, nurtured on self-reliant individualiseneration e histo the surface, and he did not see how different was the Socialism of our day to the Socialist dreams of the past--noble ideals of a future not immediately realisable in truth, but to be worked towards and rendered possible in the days to co ht strain the strong and tender tie so long existing between us? My affection,with those ronged hi children was ever in my ears; the sobs of women poisoned in lead works, exhausted in nail works, driven to prostitution by starvation, ard by ceaseless work

I saw their misery was the result of an evil system, was inseparable from private ownershi+p of the instruments of wealth production; that while the worker was hi his labour under the law of supply and de classes, and that trade combinations could only mean increased warfare--necessary, indeed, for the ti war, not brotherly co-operation of all for the good of all A conflict which was stripped of all covering, a conflict between a personal tie and a call of duty could not last long, and with a heavy heart I made up my mind to profess Socialisy Happily, Mr Bradlaugh was as tolerant as he was strong, and our private friendshi+p reain felt the sament as he felt before, nor did he any more consult me on his own policy, as he had done ever since we first clasped hands

A series of articles in _Our Corner_ on the ”Redistribution of Political Power,” on the ”Evolution of Society,” on ”Modern Socialisainst those who laud the present state of Society, with its unjustly rich and its unjustly poor, with its palaces and its slums, its millionaires and its paupers, be it ours to proclai first in the race for wealth, old Be it ours to declare steadfastly that health, comfort, leisure, culture, plenty for every individual are far le for existence, furious trae fortunes accumulated out of the toil of others, to be handed down to those who had done nothing to earn thereatness of a nation depends not on the nureat capitalists, or the splendour of its great nobles, but on the absence of poverty a its people, on the education and refinement of its masses, on the universality of enjoyh for each of work, of leisure, of joy; too little for none, too much for none--such is the Social ideal Better to strive after it worthily and fail, than to die without striving for it at all”

Then I differentiated the methods of the Socialist and the Radical Individualist, pleading for union aing union of all workers against the idlers For the weakness of the people has ever been in their divisions, in the readiness of each section to turn its weapons against other sections instead of against the coed classes, when they are attacked, sink their differences and present a serried front to their assailants; the people alone fight with each other, while the battle between the

I strove, as so htless and the careless the cry of the sufferings of the poor, endeavouring to make articulate their h slu: ”I saw in a 'house' which was e, which had no , and in which it was necessary to burn an oil la to the burden of the rent, a family of three--man, wife, and child--whose lot was hardly 'of their ownof heart disease; he could not do hard work, and he was too cluht work; so he sat there, after two days' fruitless search, patiently nursing his miserable, scrofulous baby in his di are heartbreaking In one rooht on by want of food 'It hae no faither,' sobbed thethat the father had left to the mother all the burden of a child unallowed by law In another lay the corpse of a entle-hearted women came in to take back to their overcrowded beds 'the mitherless bairns' In yet another a woli of cancer of the wonation to the inevitable so co for a few o; 'it's gey dull sitting here the day through'”

The article in which these, a other descriptions, occurred was closed with the following: ”Passing out of the slu the horror and the beauty, I felt, with a vividness more intense than ever, the fearful contrasts between the lots of ency the question see in my ears, 'Is there no remedy? Must there always be rich and poor?' Some say that it must be so; that the palace and the sluht and the shadow Not so do I believe I believe that the poverty is the result of ignorance and of bad social arrangee and by social change I admit that for many of these adult dwellers in the slums there is no hope Poor victims of a civilisation that hides its brutality beneath a veneer of culture and of grace, for them individually there is, alas! no salvation But for their children, yes! Healthy surroundings, good food, , plenty of play, and carefully chosen work--theseand prepare therow up as their parents were, and even when a few hours of school are given them the home half-neutralises what the education effects The scanty aid given is generally begrudged, the education is to be but elementary, as little as possible is doled out Yet these children have each one of them hopes and fears, possibilities of virtue and of crienerals and on nobles, we keep high-born paupers living on the national charity, we squander wealth with both hands on are every halfpenny that increases the education rate and hon every proposal to build decent houses for the poor

We cover our heartlessness and indifference with fine phrases about sapping the independence of the poor and destroying their self-respect With loathsome hypocrisy we repair a prince's palace for him, and let hiradation involved in his thus living upon charity; while we refuse to 'pauperise' the toiler by erecting decent buildings in which hea rent which shall cover the cost of erection and ives a yearly profit to a speculator And so, year after year, the reat city has on its wo its life-blood Every great city is breeding in its slue to the brute--a brute raded humanity has possibilities of evil in it beyond the reach of the mere wild beast

If not for Love's sake, then for fear; if not for justice or for human pity, then for sheer desire of self-preservation; I appeal to the wise and to the wealthy to set their hands to the cure of social evil, ere stolidity gives place to passion and dull patience vanishes before fury, and they

”'Learn at last, in some wild hour, how much the wretched dare'”

Because it was less hotly antagonistic to the Radicals than the two other Socialist organisations, I joined the Fabian Society, and worked hard with it as a speaker and lecturer Sidney Webb, G Bernard Shaw, Hubert and Mrs Bland, Grahaht, incessant work to the popularising of Socialist thought, the spreading of sound econoy toward social rather than merely political reforain a hearing, till we leavened London Radicalis the Radical as the unevolved Socialist rather than as the anti-Socialist, we gradually won him over to Socialist views We circulated questions to be put to all candidates for parliamentary or other offices, stirred up interest in local elections, educatedof the causes of their poverty, won recruits for the arer of the educatedclasses to-day are so largely Socialist is greatly due to the years of work done a them by members of the Fabian Society, as well to the splendid, if occasionally too y of the Social Deenerous genius, Willia this saland to draw attention to the terrible sufferings of the Russian political prisoners, and it was decided at aheld in my house to form a society of the friends of Russia, which should seek to spread accurate and careful infor were present Charles Bradlaugh, ”Stepniak,” andas honorary secretary It is noteworthy that some of the most prominent Russian exiles--such as Kropotkin--take the view that the Tzar hiely the victim of the bureaucracy that surrounds him

Another matter, that increased as the months went on, was the atte in the open air

Christians, Freethinkers, Salvationists, agitators of all kinds were, for the ainst the Socialists Liberal and Tory journals alike condemned the way in which in Dod Street, in Septes were attacked Quiet persistence was shown by the promoters--members of the Social Democratic Federation--and they ell supported by other Socialists and by the Radical clubs I volunteered to speak on October 4th ( of the speakers had commenced), but the attitude of the people was so deter Sunday that all interference ithdrawn