THE "WATCH" STORY.
There have been some fictions so pertinaciously circulated about Mr
Bradlaugh that any story of his life would be incomplete without some
reference to them. Lies are so proverbially hard to kill, however,
that I dare not feel confident that even an exposure of them here will
altogether discredit these old favourites, but at least I hope that it
may have some little effect.
I think the most popular of all these is what has come to be known as
"the watch story," and for this reason I have taken the trouble to
trace back its history, not exactly to its origin, but for the last
hundred years or so. The defiance of Deity, which is really only the
converse of the prayer, is a very ancient idea, and the old stories
mostly ended in the punishment or death of the person who so rashly
defied the Omnipotent. The so-called Atheist who, in the time of the
French Revolution, defied God to prevent him drinking his cup of wine,
was struck dead to the ground, and the cup was dashed untasted from his
lips. Even during this century, as late as 1849 or 1850, the story was
told of a wicked soldier who rode out of the ranks, and turning his
horse's head, faced his companions, exclaiming, "If there be a God, let
Him now prove it by striking me dead before you." 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 comrades.
When this fable is related, not of vague personalities such as the
"Atheist" or the "wicked soldier," but of actual living persons, the
termination has to be amended,[25] and the moral loses something of
its point. The first time that it was told of Mr Bradlaugh was, as far
as I can trace, in the year 1867. There was at that time a certain
Conservative journal called the _British Monarchy_, the editor of
which, desiring to damage the Reform League, 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 shops,
... goaded on by the fool who says in his heart there is 'no God,'
which reminds us," he went on, "of a fact related of a resigned
leading member of the Reform League, and the supposed projector of
the 'Good Friday meeting'[26] of this year. This would-be lawgiver
and law-maker, travelling on the Great Eastern Railway, was as usual
endeavouring to propagate his hateful opinions. He had the presumption
to offer, it is said, as a proof of his assertion that 'there is no
God,' the fact that if, on taking out his watch from his pocket, he
held it in his hand for some minutes and was not struck dead, it would
be conclusive evidence of the truth of his opinions. He was not struck
dead because of God's long-suffering mercy. He reminds us of Pharaoh;
may he escape his fate!"
[Footnote 25: As late as January 1884, however, Mr Bradlaugh noted
a case reported in several newspapers of a private in the Hampshire
Regiment, who cried, "God strike me blind!" and who thereupon "felt
drowsy, and stretched himself on his bed, but when he attempted to
open his eyes, he found he could not do so, and he has since been
wholly deprived of the use of his eyes. He was conveyed to the Haslar
Military Hospital, where he remains." As this was tolerably definite,
inquiries were made at the Hospital. In answer to these, the principal
wrote: "There is no truth whatever in the statement, and the lad who is
supposed to have sworn never swore at all. He has a weak right eye; it
was slightly inflamed--the result of a cold--but he is now quite well.
He is very indignant and hurt at the statement, and, if he did swear,
he is not blind."]
[Footnote 26: Mr Bradlaugh was neither the projector nor the advocate
of the Good Friday promenade.]
Mr Bradlaugh never by any chance sought to propagate his opinions in a
railway carriage, nor was he ever guilty of "such ridiculous folly," as
he contemptuously termed it, as that attributed to him by the _British
Monarchy_. Long before this story was attached to Mr Bradlaugh name it
was told of Abner Kneeland, the Pantheist and abolitionist in America;
indeed, the defiance of Deity in this particular manner is said to have
originated in a story told by an American of Abner Kneeland.[27] It was
ascribed to Mrs Emma Martin,[28] a Freethought speaker in England, who
was eulogised by Mr G. J. Holyoake as "beautiful in expression, quick
in wit, strong in will, eloquent in speech, coherent in connection, and
of a stainless character, she was incomparable among public women." It
was related again and again of Mr G. J. Holyoake, who wrote a denial of
it as early as January 1854. Many times also was the challenge ascribed
to Mrs Harriet Law, a lecturer on the Freethought platform thirty years
ago; and later, when Mrs Besant came into the movement, she was made
to play the part of heroine in this affecting drama, although, as she
herself pointed out, "there is one very queer thing about the story;
it never appears in any report given at the time of any lecture, and
no one speaks of having heard the challenge the day, week, or month,
or year after it was done. The pious Christian always heard it about
twenty years ago, and has kept it locked in his bosom ever since."[29]
[Footnote 27: Kneeland died in 1844. The tale was repeatedly
contradicted.]
[Footnote 28: Emma Martin died in 1857. In her case also it was
contradicted.]
[Footnote 29: _National Reformer_, June 6th, 1880.]
From 1867, when the _British Monarchy_ first associated this story
with Mr Bradlaugh's name, down to 1880, when my father commenced a
prosecution against a man named Edgcumbe, not a single year passed
without some repetition of it. Since this prosecution, although it
still occasionally shows signs of life, it is not nearly so vigorous.
The story was circulated, not merely by vulgar and irresponsible
purveyors of slander, but even by persons whose position gave an air of
unimpeachable veracity to anything they might choose to say.
The first person to relate the "watch" story orally of Mr Bradlaugh was
Mr Charles Capper, M.P., who, as it may be remembered, told it with
some detail at a public meeting at Sandwich during the general election
of 1868, giving the name of Mr Charles Gilpin as his authority.[30] My
father at once wrote to Mr Capper that he had read his speech "with
indignation, but without surprise, for no inventions on the part of
my enemies would now surprise me." He had, he said, "seen Mr Charles
Gilpin, and so far as he is concerned, I have his distinct authority to
entirely deny that he ever told you anything of the kind, and I have
therefore to apply to you for an immediate retraction of and apology
for your cowardly falsehood, which has been industriously circulated in
Northampton, and which could only have been uttered with the view of
doing me injury in my candidature in that borough. Permit me to add,
that I never in my life (either in Northampton or any other place)
have uttered any phrase affording a colour of justification for the
monstrous words you put in my mouth."
[Footnote 30: _Deal and Sandwich Mercury_, Sept. 26.]
But Mr Charles Capper would not retract, and would not apologise, so Mr
Bradlaugh, who felt all the more incensed about this, because of the
dragging in of Mr Gilpin's name as authority for the slander, brought
an action against him. Before it could be brought into Court, however,
Mr Capper died.
* * * * *
In the December of the same year, during the hearing of the proceedings
in the _Razor_ libel case, the counsel for the defendant Brooks asked
Mr Bradlaugh, in cross-examination, "Did you not once at a public
lecture take out your watch and defy the Deity, if he had an existence,
to strike you dead in a certain number of minutes?" "Never. Such a
suggestion is utterly unjustifiable," was my father's indignant answer.
* * * * *
In the winter of 1869, the Rev. P. R. Jones, M.A., of Trinity Church,
Huddersfield, added the weight of his authority to the slander.
The municipal elections were about to take place, and the cry of
"infidel" had been raised against one of the candidates for the West
Ward. Hence, on the Sunday immediately before the election, Mr Jones
preached a sermon against "infidels" and "infidelity," and, as an
"apt illustration of his subject," he charged Mr Bradlaugh with the
watch episode. When this came to the ears of the Huddersfield Secular
Society, they lost no time in writing to ask Mr Jones whether he had
indeed made such a statement concerning Mr Bradlaugh. This, said the
_Huddersfield Examiner_, the reverend gentleman had not "the manliness
to admit ... nor even the courtesy to acknowledge the receipt of the
secretary's letter." The Committee of the local Secular Society waited
for seven days, and then appointed a deputation to wait upon the Rev.
Mr Jones. The editor of the _Examiner_ observed that the explanation
then given by that gentleman was "not very satisfactory, and I do
not wonder he was so tardy about making it. He had heard the absurd
story some years ago, but the person who told it to him had left
Huddersfield; and on such slender authority as this he brought a charge
of using senseless and blasphemous words against Mr Bradlaugh." The
Rev. P. R. Jones, M.A., in the course of his duties must have preached
obedience to the ninth commandment, but he evidently did not always
enforce his teachings by a personal example.
* * * * *
Just about the same time another clergyman, the Rev. Dr Harrison of St
James's Church, Latchford, in a sermon preached upon that favourite but
not very polite text, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no
God," was reported[31] to have told the story, with a slight variation,
of some unnamed person.
[Footnote 31: _Crewe Guardian._]
"What did they think of a man at Manchester," he asked, "standing up
at a public assembly and opening the Bible in the presence of the
people, and saying if the Bible was true he hoped God would strike him
dead? That was in the newspapers not long ago. A creature, a worm, a
being dependent upon the Almighty, raising his puny arm against the
Deity, asking God to strike him dead if the Bible were true. It would
not have been a wonder if God had struck him dead; the wonder was that
God should be so merciful as to let him live."
When the Rev. Dr Harrison was challenged as to the name of the man,
the time, and place of the occurrence, and the names of the newspapers
which reported it, he could of course give no satisfactory authority
for his statements.
* * * * *
In the summer of 1870 the _Christian_, in a tirade against infidelity,
stated that "the well-known Atheist Bradlaugh, at a public meeting in
London, is reported to have taken out his watch, with these words, 'If
there be a God in heaven, I give Him five minutes to strike me dead.'"
Upon this being brought under his notice, my father said that he was
"really weary with contradicting this monstrous lie."
* * * * *
The _Liverpool Porcupine_ in the same year gave a startling variation
on the ordinary version. A certain unnamed person--by implication,
Mr Bradlaugh--"called on the Almighty, if he had any existence, to
strike dead _some relative_, and thus prove his power." The _Porcupine_
forgot that it is the Christian creed which teaches the doctrine of
the scapegoat, and even the sacrifice of a relative. It forms no part
whatever of Atheistic teachings.
The Rev. R. S. Cathcart, agent to the Religious Tract Society, in
addressing a meeting in the Corn Exchange, Gloucester, in the autumn
of 1871, lamented the spread of infidelity in the north of England,
where, he said, it was encouraged by a "blatant orator, Bradlaugh,
from London." He added that there was even "one poor benighted woman"
who "had actually produced her watch and challenged God, if, she said,
there be one, to appear before them on the platform at a given time."
Mr Cathcart, on being asked as to the when, and where, and the woman,
failed to make reply.
* * * * *
The next carrier of the slander was an important one. The _Financial
Reformer_ for the December of the same year (1871) 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 minutes, if God there were." My father was becoming
somewhat accustomed to having this accusation made by persons who
wished to make out a case against the "infidel," but to find it in
the _Financial Reformer_ was an unexpected blow. He wrote a courteous
letter to the editor, but the editor made no reply; he wrote to Mr
Robertson Gladstone, the president of the council publishing the
paper, but Mr Robertson Gladstone left the letter without notice. At
length, thoroughly angry, he wrote to the printers, threatening legal
proceedings. A proof of an "apology" already in type was sent him, but
it was not such as he felt he could accept, and he wrote to the printer
to that effect. The apology was then somewhat amended, and with the
copy of the _Financial Reformer_ containing it the editor sent a letter
to Mr Bradlaugh, conveying a frank and full expression of his regret.
Upon receiving this my father forgave not only the offence, but the
tardiness of the acknowledgment, and, moreover, expressed his sense of
indebtedness to the editor for his apology.
* * * * *
The _Stourbridge Observer_ of about the same date also repeated the
watch story of "Bradlaugh," and, with incredible coarseness, added
that "he has been known on another occasion to stop a lame man in the
streets, and tell him that he would spit upon such a God as his that
would allow him to remain in that deplorable condition." Mr Bradlaugh,
at the request of his Stourbridge friends, specifically contradicted
both these stories; but, he added, it was too much to expect him to
continually contradict every scandalous calumny to which the press gave
ready circulation against him.
* * * * *
One of the next places in which the story appeared was Dudley, where,
in the winter of 1873, during my father's absence in America, it was
related by the Rev. B. M. Kitson, who apparently introduced it into
a speech for the benefit of the Additional Curates' Aid Society. He
located the episode at the Hall of Science in Old Street, City Road.
As soon as Mr Bradlaugh could obtain the reverend gentleman's address
after his return to England, he wrote requesting Mr Kitson to retract,
or to furnish him with the name of his solicitor. Mr Kitson retracted
the statement, and expressed his regret for having made it.
* * * * *
In the spring of 1874, the Rev. Mr Herring related the tale to some
school children at a school near Goswell Road, and in the following
August the Rev. Edgar N. Thwaites, of the Church Pastoral Aid Society,
carried it to Salisbury.
* * * * *
A month later, the _Weekly News_, in referring to the Northampton
election, remarked that Northampton was specially prominent, "because
Mr Bradlaugh, the Radical orator who challenged the Almighty to
strike him dead, has appeared in person." Anything is fair in war or
elections, some people seem to think.
* * * * *
In the following year the Rev. Mr Cripps, of the Primitive Methodist
Chapel, Thetford, started a new variation on the old theme. At the
end of one of Mr Bradlaugh's lectures, a smith "fresh from work,"
induced him to go down on one knee (the narrator was extremely precise
in unimportant details) and proposed that they should pray to God to
"strike him dead in five minutes." This proposal seems to have somewhat
disturbed Mr Bradlaugh, for according to Mr Cripps, he "jumped up,
picked up his hat, and rushed out of the building." The Rev. Mr Cripps,
on being challenged by Mr Bradlaugh, referred him to another minister
as his authority--the Rev. M. Normandale, of Downham Market, Norfolk;
and, moreover, refusing to accept Mr Bradlaugh's "unsupported denial,"
adhered to his statement.
The next person to repeat the watch story--but without naming the
"infidel"--was, I deeply regret to say, the Rev. Basil Wilberforce,
at Southampton. The local Freethinkers were justly indignant, and Mr
J. F. Rayner, the Secretary of the Southampton Secular Society, at
once flatly contradicted the tale. The only reparation Mr Wilberforce
thought it necessary to make was to say that he was "glad to hear
it was not true," and this offhand mode of disposing of the matter
did not do much to soothe the irritated feeling of the Southampton
Freethinkers. The liberality and kindly-heartedness of the late Rev.
C. E. Steward, Vicar of St Peter's, in great measure disarmed their
anger; and later on Canon Wilberforce himself learned to hold the
Freethinkers of the district, as well as Mr Bradlaugh, in respect, and
in consequence taught them in turn to respect him.
* * * * *
A man at Longton in 1876, whose name I do not know, brought the story
to a finer point. Hitherto it had always been told on the authority of
some second person, but this man appears to have deliberately stated
that he _saw_ Mr Bradlaugh pull out his watch, and _heard_ him defy God
to strike him dead. This manner of telling the tale in the first person
soon found favour, for only a few months later a phrenologist, calling
himself Professor Pasquil, was reported to have said that he was
present at Huddersfield when Mr Bradlaugh went through the performance
before several hundred persons. He must have "the bump of falsehood
splendidly developed," commented Mr Bradlaugh. "No such event, or
anything to justify it, ever took place anywhere; it is a deliberate
untruth." The myth was repeated in the same year at Haughley by a Mr
Scarff, and in the following year at Bristol, where there seemed to be
some confusion as to whether it was Mr Bradlaugh or Mrs Besant who was
the chief actor; Mrs Besant's name being now introduced for the first
time. "This story is a deliberate lie," wrote my father in a state of
exasperation, "and has been formally contradicted at least one hundred
times."
* * * * *
At length, in the spring of 1877, the Rev. Dr Parker, of the City
Temple, took the matter into his fostering charge. It left his lips,
if the report[32] of his sermon is to be believed, in a form the
coarseness of which quite equalled, if it did not transcend, all that
had gone before. Said he--
"There is a woman going up and down the country lecturing, and may be
in London city at this moment, and she proudly cries out that there
is no God, and she takes out her watch and says, 'Now, if there be a
God, I give him five minutes to strike me dead,' and she coolly stands
watching the hand of her watch dial, and because she is not struck
dead by the time she stipulates, she cries out that there is no God;
and working men run after this woman, and pay for listening to this
ginger-beer blasphemy, and the ravings of a half-drunken woman."
[Footnote 32: _Northern Ensign_, May 17.]
Mr Bradlaugh offered Dr Parker the use of the columns of the _National
Reformer_ in which to verify his statement, but, needless to say, Dr
Parker did not avail himself of this offer.
* * * * *
In 1878 the fable was told by "H. Clewarth, Esq.," at the Mile End
Assembly Hall, of Mrs Besant, and by a revivalist preacher named E. B.
Telford of Mrs Harriet Law. Mr Telford also indulged in the effective
first person, even mentioning the detail that the watch was a gold
one.[33]
[Footnote 33: This person was still telling this story in December
1883.]
* * * * *
Now we come to a still further development. In June 1879, Mr Bradlaugh
was lecturing in Huddersfield. He spoke three times on the Sunday, and
at the conclusion of his afternoon discourse a man got up, 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
itself. A Christian gentleman, understood to be the editor of the local
_Examiner_, rose and warmly repudiated any complicity in this audacious
falsehood. Almost at the same time the story, with variations, was
repeated by a preacher of Aberdeen named Marr. He gave as his authority
a certain unknown person, John Kinch, who, it was asserted, had been
actually present when Mr Bradlaugh thus defied God.
I have been able to note here only recorded instances of the telling
of this story, but they will serve to show the astounding vitality of
a slander, even when it is one so monstrously absurd as this. It will
be seen how people of all kinds lent themselves to its circulation, and
how reluctant they were to apologise when convicted of error. I am far
from asserting that they all uttered the calumny knowing it to be a
calumny; that, in the case of such a man as the Rev. Basil Wilberforce,
would be unthinkable; but I do say that they did not take reasonable
pains to satisfy themselves of the truth of a story which, on the face
of it, was in the highest degree improbable and absurd.
* * * * *
When Mr Bradlaugh was elected to Parliament in 1880 the wildest tales
were told about him, and, of course, amongst others the old "watch"
story came up. A Leicester paper which published it retracted and
apologised; but another, the _British Empire_, was less ready; my
father, provoked beyond endurance, went to Bow Street and asked for a
summons against S. C. Lister, a director, and J. Edgcumbe (or Edgcome),
secretary to the _British Empire Company_. Edgcumbe was also the writer
of the paragraph in which the episode was dramatically described.
Mr Bradlaugh would have proceeded against the author only, but the
libel was repeated in the paper on a later date, and therefore he
felt that he could not excuse the directors. The summons was granted,
and when the case came before the magistrate, after Mr Bradlaugh had
made his opening statement, he went into the witness-box to declare
there was not a word of truth in the paragraph. In the course of the
cross-examination a rather amusing theological discussion arose between
magistrate, counsel, and witness, in which the two former seemed quite
unable to follow Mr Bradlaugh's reasoning. "One existence," Mr Vaughan
thought, must mean "supreme existence;" failing that, counsel asked
was it "mere actual physical existence"? My father was examined as
to a number of places where the "watch" episode was alleged to have
occurred, and about a man, John Field, then in court, who, induced by
Mr Bradlaugh, was supposed to have prayed on his knees to God to strike
him (Mr Bradlaugh) dead, whilst my father timed him, watch in hand.
When, however, John Field, who called himself a Baptist minister, was
in the witness-box, his replies were such that the magistrate said
that he had better be withdrawn, as he could not possibly receive his
evidence. A witness (Bridge) swore to having heard my father defy
God in the manner alleged at Tavistock in 1853; but at the adjourned
hearing, when he was wanted for cross-examination, he was not to be
found. Amongst the witnesses were three from Northampton, who all
swore they had heard my father make the challenge at various times
and places in Northampton. Two had travelled to London together,
having their tickets taken for them by a local missionary; but at
first they swore they knew nothing of each other, and the facts only
came out gradually under cross-examination. At the end of the second
day's hearing the defendants were committed for trial.[34] Mr Vaughan
suggested that the charge should be withdrawn against Lister, as he
was only a director. Mr Bradlaugh said, if Mr Lister would give his
assurance that he knew nothing of the first or subsequent publications
of the libel, he would be content to drop the charge against him. Mr
Lister protested that he knew nothing of the matter, and Mr Bradlaugh
was about to withdraw the charge when the defendants' counsel coolly
asked that it should be dismissed with costs. I imagine, however,
that at a later stage my father consented to withdraw the case
against Lister, for the name of Edgcumbe only figures in the further
proceedings.
[Footnote 34: The editor of the _Huddersfield Examiner_, commenting
on the evidence, said: "We do not believe it, as we do not think Mr
Bradlaugh such a fool as to make such a silly exhibition of himself;
and because we know that similar things have been affirmed of him in
Huddersfield. For instance, a person called at our office last week,
stating that he had heard Mr Bradlaugh utter such a challenge, and saw
him pull out his watch in the manner stated in the course of the debate
with the Rev. Mr M'Cann in Huddersfield. To our certain knowledge no
such occurrence ever took place, and yet the man making the statement
appeared to be fully convinced that he had heard and seen what he
described as having taken place, and he was prepared to give evidence
on the subject if called upon to do so.... 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 Bradlaugh. Strong dislike
is felt by many against both the man and his opinions on religious
subjects, and this exposes him to misrepresentation and injustice."]
The trial, which was removed by the defendants by _certiorari_ to the
Court of Queen's Bench, was expected to take place at the end of June,
and, since prosecutors in Crown cases cannot personally address the
jury or argue points of law, my father had to employ solicitors (Messrs
Lewis) and counsel (Mr Charles Russell, Q.C., M.P., and Mr Moloney);
Sir Hardinge Giffard was briefed to appear for Edgcumbe. After some
delays, Edgcumbe was ordered to deliver his pleas within a certain
time, so that the trial might come on in November. In these pleadings
the episode was alleged to have taken place at The Philosophical Hall,
Huddersfield, about 1860 or 1861; The Theatre, Northampton, 1860, 1862,
1863, 1865, or 1866; The Woolpack Inn, Northampton, 1859; The Corn
Exchange, Northampton, 1865 or 1866; The Hall of Science, London, 1879
or 1880; The Cleveland Hall, London, 1865 or 1866; The Nelson Street
Lecture Hall, Newcastle, 1875; Tavistock, 1853, 1854, or 1860; St
George's Hall, Southwark, 1862 or 1863; St James' Hall, Plymouth, 1870;
Duke of York Public House, Cardiff, 1868.
As the vagueness of these dates made it almost impossible to get
rebutting evidence, Mr Bradlaugh demurred to the plea on this ground,
and in March 1881 his demurrer was heard by Mr Justice Grove and Mr
Justice Lindley. Mr Moloney argued for Mr Bradlaugh that the plea
was not sufficiently particular: it was only necessary to prove one
occasion to justify the libel, hence evidence had to be brought to
negative every case, and Mr Justice Grove, intervening, said, "If this
plea is good, what is to prevent a party from pleading a volume of
instances all possibly untrue, and at all events putting it upon the
prosecutor to discover the particular instance really intended to be
relied upon?" Sir H. Giffard argued that the plea was sufficient, but
the Court did not agree with him. It held that the plea was bad, and Mr
Justice Lindley further said it was embarrassing and unfair. After some
discussion the Court gave the defendant leave to amend within three
weeks on payment of costs; otherwise judgment would be given for the
Crown.
Edgcumbe now gave a series of more or less specific dates on which he
alleged that Mr Bradlaugh had defied God. He also abandoned five of his
former cases and introduced new ones at Bristol, Keighley, Leeds, and
Stourbridge. He further stated that on two occasions, at the theatre at
Northampton, Mr Bradlaugh had cast a Bible upon the ground and stamped
upon it. My father was put to tremendous trouble in procuring witnesses
from the different places, but he received help which he greatly
appreciated from unexpected quarters--from Christians who had been
present on some of the alleged occasions.
When, however, the time came, the defendant did not proceed to trial,
as he was bound to under his recognisances. My father might have taken
proceedings to estreat the recognisances; but as the _British Empire_
had ceased to exist, and the editor had already been heavily fined by
having to pay the costs of the demurrer, he was advised to let the
matter rest. This course he was perhaps the more inclined to, as he was
himself so terribly harassed by the litigation and trouble arising out
of the Parliamentary struggle.
He was rewarded for his forbearance by having the "watch" story again
repeated of him--notably by Mr Grantham, Q.C., M.P.,[35]--with the
addition that he had "not dared to go on with his action."
[Footnote 35: At Selhurst, in June 1885.]
[_Note._--Where exact references are not given in this chapter, the
_National Reformer_ is cited.]