"KILL THE INFIDEL."
In the month of January, 1861, Mr Stephen Bendall was charged by Mr
Nicholas Le Mesurier, a constable of St Peter Port, Guernsey, with
having upon several occasions in the month before distributed printed
papers calculated to bring the Christian religion into contempt and
ridicule. The Court sentenced Mr Bendall to give bail in the sum of £20
not to distribute any such tracts during the space of twelve months,
or in default to be imprisoned for a fortnight. That the sentence took
so lenient a form was doubtless in some measure due to the enlightened
remarks of one of the jurats, a Mr Tupper, who warned his colleagues
that they should be "very careful not to countenance persecution on the
ground of religion, for if we entered upon that course we could not
tell where we should stop." Whether he did not feel himself altogether
strong enough to oppose the prevailing temper of the bench, or from
whatever reason, Mr Tupper did not propose an acquittal, but suggested
the above bail, which the Court after some consultation accepted, with
the alternative of a fortnight's imprisonment. The Queen's Procureur
had asked that Mr Bendall should be imprisoned for a fortnight, "three
days in each week solitary and on bread and water, and afterwards to
give security in the sum of £50 not to distribute any of the tracts
during the next twelve months, or quit the island."
This being the state of affairs in the island of Guernsey as to the
freedom of opinion, and, moreover, as some of the tracts distributed
appear to have been written by Mr Bradlaugh himself, it is not
surprising to find the following notice amongst my father's lecture
engagements in the next issue of the _National Reformer_:--
"February 26th, 27th, 28th--Guernsey. Specially to settle the
question, Will the authorities put in force the laws against
blasphemy?"
An advertisement was sent to the _Guernsey Mail_, but that paper not
only ostentatiously declined to insert it, but thought fit to make
a public declaration of its own virtue. The subject of the proposed
"Infidel lectures" was to be an endeavour to prove that the Bible is
not a revelation from an all-perfect Deity; and this the editor of the
_Guernsey Mail_ chose to construe as the admission of the existence of
a God; and upon this glaringly false premise he built quite a series
of astonishingly childish arguments in proof of the wickedness of Mr
Bradlaugh and Atheists generally. Then, apparently quite satisfied as
to the effect of what he had written, he took it "for granted that, if
the Assembly Rooms are really to be applied to Infidel purposes, no
decent person, rich or poor, old or young, will give his countenance or
notice their intention save to dissuade the unwary from lending an ear."
On the Sunday Mr Bradlaugh was lecturing in Sheffield, but he left for
London by the night train, and arrived at Guernsey on Tuesday morning
about half-past eight. On the pier Mr Bendall was awaiting him with
some anxiety.
"His anxiety," Mr Bradlaugh relates, "was partly occasioned by the
knowledge that some preparations had been made to welcome me with
a royal salute of rotten eggs. One Christian lady, I was credibly
informed, had subscribed for the purpose of providing me with this
savoury donation." In spite, however, of all rumours to the contrary,
"the landing was effected without opposition, and I walked into
Guernsey without even a word. Many eyes were directed towards me,
and greater curiosity could scarcely have been evinced had I been a
red-buttoned mandarin of a tritailed Pasha."[66]
[Footnote 66: _National Reformer_, March 9, 1861.]
My father had already thrown down the gauntlet by the circulation of
a handbill addressed to the Procureur, to the clergy (especially of
the Methodist New Connection, who had been particularly prominent in
the proceedings against Mr Bendall), and to the Guernsey public. In
this handbill he stated his intention to lecture on the Bible in the
Assembly Rooms, which had been engaged for the 27th and 28th for that
purpose, and invited free and fair discussion upon his lecture. To
this declaration of defiance he signed his name and gave his address
in full. Mr Bradlaugh's first visit was to the Assembly Rooms, for the
proprietors had yielded to the virtuous displeasure of the _Guernsey
Mail_ and the bigoted section of the community, and had withdrawn from
their contract without giving any reason. On Mr Bradlaugh's application
he was informed that the proprietors did not intend to give any reason.
No printer would print bills, and no crier would make announcement
of the tabooed lectures. These were small difficulties, however, for
which my father was not altogether unprepared, and he had therefore
with him bills already printed; he had the bills, it is true, but now
came another difficulty--no bill poster would post them! "Under these
circumstances," he tells us, "Mr Bendall and myself sallied forth,
armed with a pastepot, brush, and ladder, and by the aid of the moon
succeeded in affixing our notices to the wall in a manner which would
have done credit to a professional bill-poster." He then addressed
letters to the prosecutors in Mr Bendall's case; these included a
Methodist minister, a local preacher, a missionary, and the Harbour
Master, Captain Le Mesurier. He also sent letters to the Bailiff and
the ten jurats of the island; and to these last he further sent three
of his pamphlets.
What happened on the following days I am fortunately able to tell
in Mr Bradlaugh's own words, for he gave a vivid description of his
adventures in the _National Reformer_. He wrote: "During the Wednesday
the excitement increased. On the walls some one had chalked 'Down with
the Infidles,' 'Away with the Infidles;' perhaps the writer thought
that I was a species of musical instrument, or it may be a Guernsey
fashion to spell infidel differently from ourselves. Two immense
boards, on which we had affixed a prominent notice of the meeting, were
carried off from the doors of the Hotel de l'Europe, and recaptured
with some difficulty. Near the hour of the lecture the whole of the
street was crowded with people, but the room was only about half full,
the multitude being apparently afraid to enter.... Directly I began
to speak the room filled, and was soon crowded to excess, as were the
bottom of the stairs and the passage. Many had to retire unable to gain
admittance. At the same time that I commenced my lecture a terrific
uproar was initiated in the streets; yells, hootings, groanings were
raised which would do credit even to ignorant Wigan Orangemen, and at
last a battering was commenced against the window shutters; so terrible
was the din that, after speaking for twenty minutes, I determined to
endeavour to put an end to it, and asked the persons present to kindly
keep their places in the room while I quelled the riot outside. Many
entreated me not to go, assuring me that my personal safety would be
endangered; but I thought it best to go, and I went out alone, and
found to my disgust that a huge mob, many of whom were respectably
dressed, were encouraging some lads to break in the shutters with
stones. I walked deliberately forward, and the lads ran away from their
work. One stone was thrown which passed near my forehead, and the
whole mass of men, women, and children set up a tremendous cry, part
groan, part shriek, part yell, which must have lasted at least three
minutes without the slightest lull. Half deafened by the clamour, I
respectfully bowed, and mentally calculated the effect of sea air in
strengthening the lungs of those cowards, who actually fell back step
by step as I walked alone towards them." Desisting at length from what
seemed a futile attempt to quiet the noisy multitude, Mr Bradlaugh
returned to the lecture room and resumed his discourse. His attempt at
securing peace without was not so wasted as it had at first seemed, for
the noise grew less and less, until it ceased altogether. He lectured
for an hour and a half, and then publicly distributed a hundred of the
condemned tracts, challenging the island authorities to proceed against
him. On going out he found the mob very threatening; they "followed me
to my lodgings," he said, "hooting and yelling, and shouting 'Kill the
Infidel!' 'Murder the Infidel!'"
By the next day the excitement had greatly increased; it was said that
the quay porters had been incited to violence, and certainly several of
them were found collected outside the Hotel de l'Europe well plied with
drink. The narrow street in which the Hotel was situated was crowded by
an infuriated mass of persons, and Mr Bradlaugh had great difficulty
in making his way to the lecture room. His audience was large, and
composed of respectable persons, who listened quietly and attentively
to his discourse. They were, however, only allowed to remain in peace
for about twenty minutes, for at the end of that time the outside mob
became ungovernable, and dashing in the plate glass doors, broke into
the house, and for a few moments stopped the proceedings. "Several
of those, who had been made drunk for the occasion," continued my
father, "I had great difficulty in expelling from the room; and this
difficulty was increased by the addition of half-a-dozen soldiers who,
strange to say, had been provided with passes to enable them to take
part in the disturbance. Notwithstanding, I persevered in my lecture
for about half-an-hour longer, although the exertion required on my
part to control the riotous assemblage was of no ordinary character.
The bulk of the respectable persons seemed highly indignant at the
treatment to which I was subjected, and begged me not to risk my life
amongst the excited multitude outside. An attempt was now made to turn
out the gas, and considerable damage was done to the chairs and forms.
I determined despite all to brave the riot, although shouts of 'Kill
the Infidel,' 'Pitch the Infidel into the sea,' were heard on every
side. My size aided me; the mob were as cowardly as they were noisy;
and none liked to be the first in the projected assault. The soldiery
now seemed inclined to co-operate in the endeavour to offer violence,
and the consequence might have been serious to all concerned had it not
been for the shrewdness of Madame Laval, the proprietress of the hotel,
who, finding it useless to oppose my determination to face the mob,
coolly pretended to show me a better way out of the hotel, and ushered
me into a dark room, and locked me up for a couple of hours until the
excitement had subsided. On Friday morning I quitted the island by the
boat for Southampton; the pier was crowded, and on my appearance a few
began to hiss, but ceased the moment I walked towards them. When the
boat began to start, the cowardly fellows (knowing that I could not
then return), headed by and instigated thereto by Captain Le Mesurier,
the Harbour Master, an old gentleman whose appearance should have
bespoken better conduct, hissed and yelled with a persistence which
would have done credit to a nobler cause."
The local press endorsed the conduct of the "indignant population"
in their treatment of Mr Bradlaugh by calling it "an act of natural
justice," but the local authorities made no attempt at prosecution.
In consequence of the damage done to the hall, the expenses were
considerable, and receipts there were none; but as Mr Bradlaugh wrote
later on, this was only one of thirty-two lectures given in the first
six months of the year 1861 in which he incurred loss in "extending
Freethought propaganda into new districts."