* January, 1894.
An Open Letter to the Bishop of Winchester.
Bishop,--You are a high and well-paid dignitary of the Church of
England. You are therefore a State official, as much as a soldier or
a policeman; and, as such, you are amenable to public criticism. It is
possible that you never heard of me before, but I am a member of the
English public, and as a citizen I help (very unwillingly) to support
the Church, and therefore to support _you_. My right to address you is
thus indisputable. I make no apology or excuse for doing so; and, as for
my reason, it will appear in the course of this letter.
I notice in the daily and weekly newspapers a paragraph which concerns
you--_and me_. The paragraph is exactly the same in all the papers I
have seen; it must therefore have emanated from, and been circulated
by, one hand; and that hand I suspect is yours, particularly as
it insinuates the necessity of supporting Christian Missions in
England--that is, of subscribing to Church agencies over and above the
nine or ten millions a year which your Establishment spends (or devours)
in ministering to what you call "the spiritual needs" of the English
people.
The paragraph I refer to states that you have converted and confirmed
an Atheist, and that this Atheist has been hung for the crime of murder;
and it plainly hints that his crime was the natural result of his
irreligious opinions.
As you make so much of this case, I presume that this murderer--who was
not good enough to live on earth, and whom you have sent to live for
ever in heaven--is the only Atheist you have ever converted; so that in
every way the case is one of exceptional interest.
And now, before I go any farther, let me tell you why the case concerns
me as well as you. I am an Atheist, and a teacher of Atheism. I am
the President of the National Secular Society, which is the only open
organisation of Freethinkers in England. My immediate predecessor in
this office was Charles Bradlaugh, of whom you _must_ have heard. Not to
know him would argue yourself unknown. My personality is not so famous
as his, but my office is the same, and you will now understand why I
address you on the subject of your converted murderer.
The newspaper paragraph to which I have referred is brief and
inadequate, but fuller particulars are given in your _Diocesan
Chronicle_, for a copy of which I am indebted to the kindness of
a gentleman who is technically a member of your flock. He is a
Freethinker, but I do not believe you will convert him, and still less
that you will ever "assist" at his execution.
The murderer for whom you made the gallows the gateway to heaven was
called George Mason. He was nineteen years of age. Serving in the
militia, he was liable to severe discipline. His sergeant had him
imprisoned for three days, and in revenge he shot the officer dead while
at rifle practice. It is an obvious moral, which I wonder your lordship
does not perceive, that it is dangerous to put deadly weapons in the
hands of passionate boys. Your lordship's interest in the case seems to
be entirely _professional_.
While this lad was simply a militiaman your lordship would not have
regarded him as an object of solicitude. As a convicted murderer, he
became profoundly interesting. No less than three clergymen took him
in hand: the Rev. J. L. Ladbrooke, the Rev. James Baker, and yourself.
Three to one are long odds, and it is no marvel that you conquered the
boy. Still, it is unfortunate that we have only _your_ account of the
conflict, for your profession is not famous for what I will politely
call _accuracy_. Herder remarked that "Christian veracity" deserved to
rank with "Punic faith." How many falsehoods has your Church circulated
about _great_ Freethinkers! Why should it hesitate, then, to tell
untruths about _little_ ones? A Wesleyan minister, the Rev. Hugh Price
Hughes, has published a long circumstantial story of a converted Atheist
shoemaker, which is proved to be false in all its main features. It
is far from certain, therefore, that your lordship's account of the
conversion of George Mason is true. You and your two clerical colleagues
can say what you please; your evidence cannot be tested; and _such_
evidence, especially when given by persons who are confederates in a
common cause, is always open to suspicion.
Nevertheless I need not doubt that George Mason made an edifying end. It
is the way of murderers. What I venture to doubt is your statement as to
his life. You write as follows:--
"His early life was lived in the east of London, his trade being that
of a costermonger, and he was brought up by his father, a professed
atheist, who was in the habit of reading the Bible with this boy and a
company of other freethinkers, verse by verse, and deliberately turning
it into ridicule, by way of commentary. It is hard to imagine a more
deliberate training for the gallows than what his father gave him."
Later on, you say the boy was "insignificant, almost stunted to look
at," and you add that "his only opportunity was to learn how to be a
child of the Devil."
Now I wish to observe, in the first place, that you have not said
_enough_. You do not say whether George Mason's father is still living.
I have not been able to hear of him myself. If he be still living, have
you taken the trouble to obtain _his_ version of the matter? And if not,
do you think it kind or just to speak of him in this manner? Nor do
you say what religion George Mason professed in the Militia, whether he
attended "divine service," and what was its influence upon him. You were
in too great a hurry to capture your Atheist, and insult all who do not
believe the dogmas of your Church.
You regard it as "deliberate training for the gallows" to let a boy
laugh at the Bible. Has it ever occurred to you to inquire how it is
that the Bible is so easy to ridicule? Have you ever reflected that what
is laughed at is generally ridiculous? Are you not aware that the most
risible imp could hardly laugh at _all_ the contents of the Bible? Who
laughs at the saying, "Blessed are the peacemakers"? Who laughs at
the horrid massacres of the Old Testament? But who does _not_ laugh at
cock-and-bull stories like that of Jonah and the whale? Your lordship
does not discriminate. Very little thought would show you that some
parts of the Bible _cannot_ be laughed at, that where it _can_ be
laughed at it is probably absurd, and that to laugh at an absurdity is
certainly no "training for the gallows."
Your lordship evidently wishes to convey the idea that Atheists are very
likely to become murderers, or _more_ likely than their Christian fellow
citizens. This I deny, and I ask for your evidence. All you adduce is
the case of this "insignificant" and "stunted" boy. Let us suppose for a
moment that your statement about him is entirely accurate. What does it
prove? Simply this, that it is not impossible for an Atheist to commit
a murder. But who ever said it was? Who asserts that Atheists are
absolutely free from the passions and frailties of human nature? Has
your lordship never heard of a Christian murderer? Is it not a fact that
Jesus Christ himself could not select his apostles without including a
villain? "Twelve of you have I chosen," he said, "and one of you is a
murderer." Is not one in twelve a large percentage? Why, then, is the
world to be alarmed, and invited to subscribe to Christian Missions,
because one Atheist out of all the thousands in England commits a murder
--and that one an "insignificant" and "stunted" boy, apparently bred in
poverty and hardship?
Mind you, I am not admitting that George Mason _was_ an Atheist, or
the _son_ of an Atheist. I say that has to be proved. I am taking
your lordship's account of the matter as true merely for the sake of
argument.
Let me draw your attention to some _facts_. So many of the clergy in
your own Church "went wrong" that you were compelled to obtain a special
Act of Parliament to enable you to get rid of them. Is it not true,
also, that the greatest swindlers of this age have been extremely pious?
What do you make of Messrs Hobbs and Wright? What do you think of
Jabez Balfour? Are not such scoundrels a thousand times worse than
a passionate boy like George Mason? Were not the "Liberator" victims
fleeced and ruined by professed Christians? What have you to say about
Mr. Hastings, Captain Verney, and Mr. De Cobain, who were all convicted
of bad crimes and expelled from Parliament? Have you ever heard of the
text, "Physician heal thyself"?
Here is another fact. A few months ago an Irish clergyman, the Rev.
George Griffiths, deliberately shot his own mother for the sake of
what cash he could find in her desk. He was tried, found guilty, and
sentenced to be hung. Would you think me justified in saying that the
Rev. George Griffiths committed a murder because he was a Christian?
Why, then, do you pretend that George Mason committed a murder because
he or his father was an Atheist?
Lay your hand upon your heart, and answer this question honestly. Do you
really believe that an Atheist has a special proclivity to murder? What
is there in Atheism to make men hate each other? When a man holds the
hand of the woman he loves, or feels about his neck the little arms of
his child, do you suppose he is likely to injure either of them because
he is unable to accept your dogma about the mystery of this illimitable
universe? Shall I hate my own boy because I disbelieve that Jesus Christ
was born without a father? Shall I keep him without food and clothes
because I see no proof of a special providence? Will Shakespeare's
_Hamlet_ poison my mind because I think it finer than the gospels? If
I treat the Creation Story and the Deluge as legend and mythology, and
smile at the feats of Samson, shall I therefore commit a burglary? If
I think that my neighbor's life in this world is _his all_, that death
ends his possibilities, do you really think I shall be the more likely
to rob him of what I can never restore?
I am at a loss to understand your lordship, and I invite you to explain
yourself. At present I can only see in your account of George Mason, a
very common exhibition of Christian logic, and Christian temper. Your
lordship's is not the charity that "thinketh no evil." You ascribe
wickedness to those who differ from you in opinion. I conceive it
possible for men to differ from you in religion, and yet to equal you
in morality. I conceive it even possible that some of them might surpass
you without a miracle.