NORTHAMPTON, 1868.
There is, I think, not the least doubt that very early in my father's
life he began to nurse dreams of one day playing his part in the
legislature of his country, and indeed it is currently reported in
Northampton that as early as 1859 he spoke to some friends there of
his wish to represent that borough in Parliament. As I have no exact
evidence that Mr Bradlaugh went to the town before that year, I think
the report puts the date a little too early, but in any case I do not
find that the idea took any definite shape in his mind until about the
end of 1865 or early in the following year. In 1867 it is clear that
the possibility of his candidature was realised even by those outside
the circle of his personal friends, for in the spring of that year we
find a sarcastic prognosis of the possible results of the extended
franchise in a West of England paper, in which the writer says: "Mr
Bradlaugh would perhaps take the Government of India from the hands
of Sir Stafford Northcote, his intelligence being not less, and his
catholicity in religious matters making him a more acceptable ruler to
the 'mild' but shrewd Hindoo." In place of the Government of India Mr
Bradlaugh was destined to take other things of not quite so pleasant
a nature from the hands of Sir Stafford Northcote, although it is
rather curious that the _Western Times_ should have selected in jest an
appointment which would have afforded him so much scope for good and
useful work.
Some time before anything definite had been said as to my father's
candidature at the forthcoming elections in 1868, it was regarded as
so much of a certainty that people began spontaneously to subscribe
towards his election expenses. In June he notified his friends through
the _National Reformer_ that he would shortly announce the name of the
borough to which he proposed to offer himself, and at the same time he
would issue his address. This was done within the next few days, in
the midst of the burden and anxiety of the Government prosecution of
the _Reformer_.
My father was well known in Northampton. Since he went there to lecture
on the invitation of Mr Gurney and Mr Shipman, he had, as we have seen,
many times visited the town, and his opinions on political, social, and
religious questions were thoroughly well understood. As his address
forms a sort of landmark of Mr Bradlaugh's views on many of these
important subjects, some of which are still hotly discussed, and most
of which still await a satisfactory solution, I give it exactly as he
issued it.
"_To the present and future electors of the borough of Northampton_:
"In seeking your suffrages for the new Parliament, I am encouraged
by the very warm feeling exhibited in my favour by so many of the
inhabitants of your borough, and by the consciousness that my own
efforts may have helped in some slight degree to hasten the assembly
of a Parliament elected by a more widely extended franchise than was
deemed possible two years ago.
"If you should honour me by electing me as one of your
representatives, I shall give an independent support in the new
Parliament to that party of which Mr Gladstone will probably be chosen
leader; that is to say, I shall support it as far as its policy and
action prove consistent with the endeavour to attain the following
objects, which I hold to be essential to the progress of the nation:--
"1. A system of compulsory National Education, by which the State
shall secure to each child the opportunity of acquiring at least the
rudiments of a sound English education preparatory to the commencement
of the mere struggle for bread.
"2. A change in our land laws, commencing with the abolition of the
laws of primogeniture and entail; diminishing the enormous legal
expenses attending the transfer of land, and giving greater security
to the actual cultivation of the soil for improvements made upon it.
"3. A thorough change in our extravagant system of national
expenditure, so that our public departments may cease to be refuges
for destitute members of so-called noble families.
"4. Such a change in the present system of taxation that for the
future the greater pressure of imperial taxes may bear upon those who
hold previously accumulated wealth and large tracts of devised land,
and not so much upon those who increase the wealth of the nation by
their daily labour.
"5. An improvement of the enactments relating to capital and labour,
so that employer and employed may stand equal before the law, the
establishment of conciliation courts for the settlement of trade
disputes, and the abolition of the jurisdiction in these matters of
the unpaid magistracy.
"6. A complete separation of the Church from the State, including in
this the removal of the Bishops from the position they at present
occupy as legislators in the House of Lords.
"7. A provision by which minorities may be fairly represented in the
legislative chambers.
"8. The abolition of all disabilities and disqualifications consequent
upon the holding or rejection of any particular speculative opinion.
"9. A change in the practice of creating new peerages; limiting the
new creations to life peerages, and these only to be given as rewards
for great national services; peers habitually absent from Parliament
to be deprived of all legislative privileges, and the right of voting
by proxy in any case to be abolished.
"10. The abolition as a governing class of the old Whig party, which
has long since ceased to play any useful part in our public policy.
Toryism represents obstructiveness to Radical progress, but it
represents open hostility. Whiggism is hypocritical; while professing
to be liberal, it never initiates a good measure or hinders a bad one.
I am in favour of the establishment of a National party which shall
destroy the system of government by aristocratic families, and give
the members of the community born poorest fair play in their endeavour
to become statesmen and leaders, if they have genius and honesty
enough to entitle them to a foremost place.
"In order that my competitors shall not have the right to object
that I unfairly put them to the expense of a contest, I am willing
to attend a meeting of the inhabitants of your borough, at which Mr
Gilpin and Lord Henley shall be present, and to be governed by the
decision voted at such a meeting as to whether or not I persist in my
candidature.
"In asking your support I pledge myself, in the event of a contest, to
fight through to the last moment of the Poll a fair and honest fight.
It would give me special pleasure to be returned as the colleague
of Mr Gilpin, whom I believe to be a thoroughly honest and earnest
representative; and if you elect me I shall do my best in the House of
Commons for the general enfranchisement and elevation of the people of
the United Kingdom.
CHARLES BRADLAUGH.
"Sunderland Villa, Northumberland Park, Tottenham."
In the above address as it appears in the pages of the _National
Reformer_ for July 5, paragraphs 7 and 9 are lightly struck through in
pencil by my father's hand, but whether these pencil marks have any
significance I am not prepared to say. His ideas for a reform of the
House of Lords certainly went very much farther, in later years at
least, than those indicated in the ninth paragraph. He believed in a
single Legislative Chamber and considered two unnecessary, but as a
rule he disliked any sudden abolition of old-established customs, and
therefore in advocating reforms of the House of Lords, he put forward
such as would lead gradually and naturally to its discontinuance as a
House of hereditary legislators.
This address was read in Northampton to a large audience on the last
Sunday in June. Two days later, at a public meeting of about four
thousand persons held in the Market Square, a vote was taken as to Mr
Bradlaugh's candidature, and only one hand was lifted against it.
The issue of this address and the subsequent public meeting produced
a considerable flutter in the political dovecots of Northampton. A
great outcry was raised at Mr Bradlaugh's unheard-of audacity in
putting himself forward without receiving the usual requisition, but,
as he calmly explained at a meeting in the Northampton theatre a few
weeks later, he had for two years intended to become a candidate for
Parliament, and had determined to offer himself to any body of men
wherever he thought he had a fair chance of success. He believed
Northampton was that place, and in putting himself forward without
formal invitation he did not think he had imperilled either his own
dignity or that of the electors. The _Northampton Mercury_,[114] the
local Whig paper, affected the utmost scorn for his candidature, saying
that he had "no more chance of being elected member for Northampton
than he has of being appointed Archbishop of Canterbury." "_Nous
verrons_" was Mr Bradlaugh's only comment upon this declaration, which
was afterwards taken up and repeated by different papers as a sort of
_bon mot_.
[Footnote 114: July 4th.]
But the disdain of the Northampton Whigs was well balanced by the
enthusiasm of the Northampton working-men. They threw themselves into
the work of the election contest, from the very outset, with the utmost
zeal and ardour; they delivered the address by hand at every house in
Northampton--and the work was all done gratuitously. And so with all
the elections in which my father took part: he had neither paid agents
nor paid canvassers; he had no paid speakers (beyond, in some cases,
out-of-pocket expenses) and few paid clerks; all such work was freely
and eagerly volunteered. Nor were the women less ardent than the men.
They soon decided upon his election colours, and at the conclusion
of a meeting held by him in the theatre in the middle of July, they
presented him with a rosette made of mauve, white, and green ribbons,
a combination unique amongst election colours, afterwards generally
identified with Mr Bradlaugh and loved for his sake. Some of these same
rosettes fashioned and worn at this election in 1868 were cast into
the grave at Brookwood in 1891, and some others, which their owners
had carefully treasured for six-and-twenty years, were worn for the
last time on the 25th June 1894, when the statue of Mr Bradlaugh was
unveiled in the town whose name will be for ever associated with his
own.
Amongst those who came to speak for him the first place must be given
to George Odger, who was himself trying to win a seat at Chelsea.
Besides Mr Odger there were the Rev. J. K. Applebee, Austin Holyoake,
R. A. Cooper, E. Truelove, C. Watts, and others, and everywhere the
meetings were large and enthusiastic. Poor men--freethinkers and
radicals--throughout the country vied to help in this election; but
men in Edinburgh and men in Lancashire could neither vote nor canvass,
so they resolved to give aid in money. Long and costly was the
candidature; the elections did not come off until November, and thus
the campaign continued over five months. Some of the northern towns
endeavoured to raise a regular monthly subscription, some a weekly one,
and soon long lists appeared in the columns of the _National Reformer_,
long lists made up mostly of small sums, of threepences or sixpences,
or shillings; sums of £1 and over were rare, and seldom indeed was
there such a heavy donation as £10, Mr Bradlaugh's supporters being,
with scarcely an exception, poor working men. At the end of August John
Stuart Mill drew upon himself a hailstorm of abuse by sending £10 to
Mr Austin Holyoake, secretary of the Election Fund, with the following
letter:--
"Avignon, August 28th, 1868.
"DEAR SIR,--I enclose a subscription of £10 to the fund for
defraying the expenses of Mr Bradlaugh's election to the House of
Commons. I do so in the confidence that Mr Bradlaugh would not contest
any place where by so doing he would risk the return of a Tory in the
room of a supporter of Mr Gladstone, and of the disendowment of the
Irish Church.--I am, dear Sir, yours very faithfully,
J. S. MILL.
"AUSTIN HOLYOAKE, Esq."
Much capital was made out of the assertion that Mr Bradlaugh was trying
to divide the Liberal vote at Northampton, and so let in a Tory, but it
was an assertion entirely without foundation. Over and over again he
stated that it was Lord Henley's[115] seat that he was trying to win,
and that rather than risk the losing of it to a Tory he was prepared
to submit to a decision of a test meeting of the electors. At that
time there were 5,729 electors on the register, and of these as many
as 3,400 were new voters, so extensively had the new Act affected the
voting power in the single borough of Northampton. Mr Bradlaugh's offer
to be governed by the decision of a public meeting of the electorate
was entirely ignored. "It was in vain," says the writer of the little
_Souvenir_ book issued on the occasion of the unveiling of my father's
statue at Northampton, "it was in vain that Mr Bradlaugh offered to
abide by any fair test that might be devised to settle beforehand which
of the two Liberal candidates in the field should go to the poll." A
test ballot had been taken at Manchester to decide the claims of Ernest
Jones. "If, however," continued the writer of the _Souvenir_, "the
Manchester method were unacceptable, Mr Bradlaugh was prepared to agree
to any other form of gauging the opinion of the constituency that was
equally just to him" and to Lord Henley. But the Whigs seemed afraid
to put it "to the touch," and my father's address was rapidly followed
by one signed jointly by Charles Gilpin and Lord Henley. The Tories
followed considerably later with two candidates, Messrs Merewether
and Lendrick, and later still came a sixth candidate, Dr F. R. Lees,
well known as a Temperance advocate. Why he came it is a little
difficult to say, for before coming he wrote my father that he was not
hostile to him; and he publicly declared that if he were elected in Mr
Gilpin's place, he would at once resign in that gentleman's favour. Mr
Bradlaugh therefore asked him, as it was impossible that both could
win Lord Henley's seat, "to at once consent to adopt some course which
will avoid division of the Radical strength." At his first meeting
amendments were carried in Mr Bradlaugh's favour, but Dr Lees persisted
right up to the last day, and abandoned his candidature "only on the
day of the poll, when it was too late to prevent nearly five hundred
electors recording their votes on his behalf."[116]
[Footnote 115: The sitting members were Charles Gilpin and Lord Henley.]
[Footnote 116: _Souvenir._]
During the whole time, from the end of June to mid-November, Mr
Bradlaugh was of course constantly addressing meetings from one end
to the other of the constituency, and it is rather curious to note
that in one of his earliest speeches he shadowed forth what really
happened to him twenty years later. At the conclusion of an address
delivered in the theatre on the 16th of July on the subject of "Capital
and Labour and Trades Unions," some one asked him whether if he were
delegated to the House of Commons he could "guarantee to enact laws
that should satisfy all Trades Unions and the public generally."
"Certainly not," was the reply; "I daresay I should give as much
dissatisfaction to Trades Unionists as anybody. But that would not be
my fault. I should act honestly, and if the Trades Unionists were the
bulk o£ my constituency, and they thought I acted in contravention of
my programme, I should resign my trust into their hands." And when
Mr Bradlaugh did act thus honestly in the matter of the Employers'
Liability Bill in 1889, the Trades Unions were exceedingly dissatisfied
with him, and were for the most part very bitter against him.
In a very short time the Northampton election became the subject
of discussion everywhere, and the press from one end of England to
the other had some sort of comment to make upon it--hostile to Mr
Bradlaugh, of course. The _Daily Telegraph_, then professing Liberal
views, was one of the earliest to raise the _odium theologicum_ against
him;[117] it speculated in pious dismay as to "what outrage on good
taste and on the conscientious convictions of his fellow-citizens
'Iconoclast' may not attempt in the wider circle to which he seeks
admittance," and held up its Jewish hands in holy horror in imagining
the possibilities of a time "when Englishmen will revile the sublime
moralities of the New Testament." My father challenged Mr Levy, the
editor, to give an instance of any such "outrage" committed by him,
adding, "I do more than this; the Government have, out of the public
funds, paid for shorthand notes of several of my speeches since 1865.
These notes still exist; I know in some cases the actual professional
reporters employed, and I dare the publication of these notes."
[Footnote 117: _Daily Telegraph_, August 3, 1868.]
The cowardly insinuations of the _Daily Telegraph_ were printed as a
placard and posted all over the town, where they produced the strongest
excitement and bitterness. This placard was quickly followed by another
of bright green, conveying a message from "The Irish Reform League
to the Irishmen and friends of Ireland in Northampton." Northampton
was entreated to return to Parliament "a man like Charles Bradlaugh,
who advocated the cause of Ireland with pen and tongue when such
advocacy was unpopular, if not dangerous." Irishmen in Dublin appealed
to Irishmen in Northampton not to deserve the reproach of the defeat
of such a man. "We, the Reformers of Ireland, gladly and heartily
recommend him: by his works in the cause of Reform we know him; as a
politician we endorse him; ... we believe him to be true, we have faith
in his political honesty, in his undaunted perseverance, and in his
desire to elevate the downtrodden in our land and in his own."[118]
[Footnote 118: In October Mr Keevil, chairman of the Irish Reform
League, wrote again to Northampton. "Our members," he said, "consist
of every denomination of Christians, and although we regret that
Mr Bradlaugh does not believe in matters of religion as we do, and
probably Mr Bradlaugh also regrets that we are not of the same
religious opinions as himself, yet we do not think such controversial
matters can hinder his usefulness for the people's work in the House of
Commons. We in Ireland have had special opportunities of knowing the
value of Mr Bradlaugh's works.... The field of Mr Bradlaugh's early
labours was Ireland; the Lecture Hall in French Street, Dublin, was
the arena of his triumphs, and the people soon recognised in him a
champion. Private Bradlaugh was well known in County Cork many years
ago as a man who would maintain the oppressed tenants against the
injustice of landlordism."]
In September one of the newly enfranchised electors wrote to Mr John
Bright for his advice as to the casting of his "maiden vote," and
received from Mr Bright the following letter in reply:--
"Rochdale, September 17, 1868.
"DEAR SIR,--I cannot interfere in your election matters, but
I can answer the question you put to me.
"I do not think you can improve the representation of your borough by
changing your members. I think Lord Henley and Mr Gilpin worthy of
your support.--I am, yours truly,
JOHN BRIGHT.
"Mr THOMAS JAMES, Northampton."
When Mr Bradlaugh saw this letter, which was given the fullest
publicity, he wrote Mr Bright as follows:--
"23 Great St. Helen's, London, E.C.
"September 19, 1868.
"SIR,--I feel some difficulty in intruding myself upon you;
but as you have taken a step in the Northampton election which I
regard as prejudicial to my interests, you will pardon my trying to
set the matter right. At the end of June I issued the address of which
I enclose you a copy; the only other address issued is that of the
sitting members. You will see in my address that I offered to submit
my claims to the decision of an aggregate meeting, which offer has
been entirely disregarded by Lord Henley. Whether or not Lord Henley
is worthy of the support of the electors is a query to which a large
proportion of the inhabitants of Northampton have already responded;
they declare that he is not. As to whether I shall make a better
member, I here offer no other remark than that through my life I
have actively striven to advance the cause of Reform; while Viscount
Henley has often discouraged and hindered effort, and has only voted
in obedience to the irresistible pressure of public opinion. That
you should support Mr Charles Gilpin with the weight of your great
influence is natural, but that you should bolster up tumbling Whiggism
as represented by Lord Henley I confess surprises me. Mr Gilpin's
name has been associated as a working member in many highly valuable
social and political reforms. Lord Henley's activity has been nearly
limited to the prevention of compulsory education, the advocacy of
increased expenditure for fortifications, and general care for landed
interests.--Yours most obediently,
CHARLES BRADLAUGH.
"JOHN BRIGHT, Esq., M.P.
"_P.S._--I shall take the liberty of printing this letter and any
reply you may forward me."
To my father's letter Mr Bright made answer that he had written an
honest reply to a simple question, with no suspicion that he should
be considered as taking sides with any party in the contest, adding
some remarks as to his regard for past services and a tried fidelity,
without any further definite opinion on Lord Henley's fitness. But
if Mr Bright did not suspect that he should be considered as taking
sides--and my father loyally accepted his statement--other people
took a different view of the matter, and his letter was freely used
against Mr Bradlaugh. The _Spectator_ was of opinion that Mr Bright had
succeeded "in more than neutralising the effect of Mr J. S. Mill's very
injudicious and unexpected testimonial to Mr Bradlaugh's (Iconoclast's)
claims as candidate for Northampton;" whilst the _Saturday Review_
considered that if this letter saved Northampton "from the discredit of
electing Mr Bradlaugh," Mr Bright would have done the borough "valuable
service."
Finding that this letter had been such a success, the Whigs next
addressed themselves to Mr Gladstone, asking him if he endorsed the
opinion expressed by Mr Bright. Mr Gladstone promptly replied in these
terms:--
"Hawarden, N.W., Sept. 25, 1868.
"SIR,--While I am very unwilling to do or say anything that
could be construed into interference in any election, I cannot refuse
to consider the question you have put to me. Having for many years sat
in Parliament with Lord Henley and Mr Gilpin, I have always considered
both these gentlemen entitled to respect and confidence as upright and
highly intelligent men, cordially attached to the Liberal party.--I
remain, Sir, your faithful servant,
W. E. GLADSTONE.
"I send this answer to you individually, and I should not wish it to
be published unless you find that your brother-electors wish to know
the purport of it."
I confess that I cannot understand the object of the postscript, for
it must be manifest to the meanest intelligence that immediately
it transpired that an elector had received a communication from Mr
Gladstone upon the subject of the representation of the constituency,
all the rest would be wild with curiosity "to know the purport of it."
As a matter of course, it was read at the next meeting of the Liberal
Association, and then reproduced in the public press.
In striving to win Lord Henley's seat, Mr Bradlaugh had not only Lord
Henley, and Mr Bright, and Mr Gladstone fighting against him, but also
Mr Gilpin, whose seat he was most anxious not to imperil. Mr Gilpin,
although personally very friendly to my father, felt in honour bound
to support his colleague, as he repeatedly stated at meeting after
meeting: "Infinitely would he rather go back to London the rejected
of Northampton than be the man who had deserted a friend in order to
get another in." Nor was this by any means all that he had to contend
against; he had actively against him nearly the whole of the press of
England and Scotland, and no terms seemed too vile or slander too mean
to use to injure him. Of all the newspapers circulating throughout the
United Kingdom, there were not more than three or four--of which the
_Newcastle Weekly Chronicle_ was one--who dared to say so much as a
kindly word of him or of his candidature.
In the town of Northampton itself the opposition of the Whigs and the
Tories grew so bitter and was carried to such an excess that in October
it was found necessary to form a society for the purpose of aiding
working men who lost their employment through their support of Mr
Bradlaugh.
Dr F. R. Lees started a personal house-to-house canvass; this was
followed by the joint canvass of Henley and Gilpin--undertaken at the
urgent request of Lord Henley, for Mr Gilpin publicly declared it to be
a practice which ought not to be encouraged--and then came my father's
canvass. Much as he disliked it, he felt obliged in this case to do
as the other candidates were doing; he issued an address, however, in
which he said: "I desire to put on record my formal protest against
the system of house-to-house canvassing, in which I only take part
in obedience to the wish of my General Committee, and because all my
opponents having resorted to it, some might think me slighting them if
I abstained. I hold with Mr Gilpin that the system is a bad one. In
canvassing, I do not come to beg your vote; if you need such a pitiable
personal appeal, I prefer not having your support. I come to you that,
seeing me, you may question me if you desire, and that you who cannot
be present at the meetings may have the opportunity of better knowing
my principles."
The canvassing in those days of open voting was even harder work than
it is to-day; but Mr Bradlaugh was gallantly supported by a number of
warm friends, amongst whom he was proud to have the veteran Thomas
Allsop, and there was also much that was inspiring in coming face to
face with the ardour and enthusiasm of the Northampton Radical working
men. But if there was much to inspire, there was likewise sometimes
much to sadden; in several instances a voter's wife answered that
her husband "must look to his bread," and one threw an ominous light
upon the penalty liable to be paid for a conscientious vote by saying
that her husband "had lost his situation last election, and this
time she would take care that he voted as his employer wished." My
father, in the course of his canvass also, as might be expected, met
with instances of "bitter and coarse fanaticism," which must have
been peculiarly unpleasant in the somewhat defenceless position of a
candidate making a personal canvass.
At a great town's meeting, held for the purpose of hearing an
expression of their political views and an account of their political
action from the borough members, Mr Bradlaugh's committee sent a
deputation to ask whether their candidate would be heard. They were
told that he would be refused admission; he attended, and was refused
admission, but his friends carried him in. The report before me says
that "Mr Gilpin, on appearing on the platform, shook hands with Mr
Bradlaugh and with Dr Lees; Lord Henley, supported chiefly by his legal
advisers and their friends, shook hands with nobody, but shook himself
when the groans echoed through the building." The four candidates
addressed the meeting, but the uproar during Lord Henley's speech
was so great that he could scarcely be heard, and the proceedings
terminated with "three cheers for Bradlaugh."
As the weeks flew on, fiercer and fiercer grew the fight. The Lord's
Day Rest Association came to the aid of the Northampton Whigs and
Tories, and posted the town with placards headed: "Do not vote for
Charles Bradlaugh unless you wish to lose your Sunday rest;" other
candidates for other constituencies rushed to the rescue. Mr Giffard,
Q.C.--now Lord Halsbury, then the Tory candidate for Cardiff, and the
all-time bitter enemy of Mr Bradlaugh--said, with that fine regard for
accuracy for which he has ever been distinguished: "Mr Bradlaugh was
the avowed author of a work so blasphemous that one or two boroughs
had refused to have anything to do with him."[119] Mr Charles Capper,
M.P., also betrayed a similar inclination towards fiction. At a public
meeting in Sandwich he related that he had been
"told by the hon. member for Northampton (Mr Gilpin) that the man
whose name you have heard to-night, Mr Bradlaugh, stood in the Market
Place of Northampton, and taking his watch from his pocket, said: 'It
wants so many minutes to so-and-so. I will give you five minutes,
and I call on your God, if he is your God, to strike me dead in this
Market Place.' (Loud cries of 'Shame, shame.') That was Mr Bradlaugh,
the man to whom Mr Mill sends his £10 to support his candidature. Can
you conceive anything more wretched? Do you think if a man of that
kind were to come into this town (A voice: 'Turn him out') you would
not turn him out?--you would kick him out!"
[Footnote 119: The latter part of this myth, at least, seems to
have gained credence, for in July of this year (1894) Mr Courtney
is reported to have said at Chelsea that "Mr Bradlaugh had to try
constituency after constituency because he could not get a majority in
any particular place."]
As will be seen when I come to deal fully with this subject, Mr Capper
was not absolutely the first to have the doubtful honour of reviving
this ancient "watch" story, and applying it to Mr Bradlaugh, and it is
hardly necessary to say of so honourable a man as Mr Gilpin that, when
my father saw him on the matter, he indignantly denied that he had ever
said anything of the kind.
The _Primitive Methodist_[120] jubilantly remarked that "Iconoclast
has been made to wince lately by the reproduction of his published
opinions--very inconvenient to him at this time." My father's comment
on this was that, "as a matter of fact, Mr Bradlaugh's published
opinions are about the only things which have not been reproduced. His
opponents prefer quoting the opinions of others, or else drawing on
their imaginations."
[Footnote 120: See article on "Electioneering Rowdies," October
1868, in which, with innate delicacy, it speaks of Mr Bradlaugh as
"impudent."]
The _Saturday Review_ delighted in an attack on Mr Bradlaugh not merely
for its own sake, but even more as a means of injuring Mr Mill. I have
not heard that John Stuart Mill ever expressed the least regret for
his donation, but had he done so there would have been small cause for
wonder, for he had to pay a heavy penalty for his generosity. It was
used against him everywhere, and his own defeat at Westminster was by
many persons attributed to the outcry raised about his subscription
towards my father's election expenses. Even the mighty _Times_ was not
too mighty to add its voice, saying that the countenance Mr Mill had
given "Iconoclast" had given great offence to the middle classes. The
use of the name "Iconoclast" was quite gratuitous, for Mr Mill did not
send his cheque to assist in the work of "Iconoclast," the Atheist
lecturer; he sent it for the use of Charles Bradlaugh, the Radical
politician.
It will be a matter of interest to those connected with the movement
against compulsory vaccination to know that during the course of this
election contest Mr Bradlaugh attended a meeting in the Town Hall
called by the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League, and that, while
expressing "no opinion as to the theory of vaccination," in view of the
many objections urged against the practice, he promised to support
a demand for a Royal Commission for full investigation of the facts.
The growth of opinion is so gradual that, although indeed there was a
Select Committee in 1871, it was twenty years before the Commission was
actually appointed, and then, as every one will remember, Mr Bradlaugh
was himself nominated to sit upon it.
On the tenth of November, a week before the polling day, my mother, my
grandfather (Mr A. Hooper), and we three children went to Northampton
to attend a special tea-party given in the Corn Exchange, and I have
a most vivid recollection of the enthusiasm then displayed. The time
of our expected arrival having become known, hundreds of people, with
bands and banners, came to meet us quite of their own accord, and when
we returned to take the train back to London it seemed to my childish
imagination as though the whole town must have turned out, for the
streets were thronged from end to end with men and women cheering,
singing the new song, "Bradlaugh for Northampton,"[121] laughing and
crying in a veritable intoxication of excitement, until the moisture
stood in my father's own eyes.
[Footnote 121: This song was written by a young shoemaker named James
Wilson, and was set to music by another poor but gifted man, John
Lowry. Poor Wilson died early, but his song became a sort of war-cry in
Northampton, and will live long in the hearts of his fellow-townsmen.]
On the Monday after, ten thousand people were gathered in the market
square to witness the nomination of the six candidates. The hustings,
or, as I find it was sometimes called, the "booby hutch," was unusually
large. It was built seventy feet long, in order to allow ten feet to
each candidate and his supporters, and ten feet for the Mayor and
the Corporation officials. The Mayor, Mr J. M. Vernon, opened the
proceedings with a speech, and he was followed by the proposer and
seconder of each candidate. Mr Bradlaugh was proposed by Mr Councillor
Gurney, and seconded by Mr Dunkley. When these twelve speeches had come
to an end, it fell to the candidates to address the electors. In the
course of his speech Mr Gilpin alluded to the complaints that had been
made against him for standing by Lord Henley. "Now," said he, "I want
to do justice to a gentleman who stands on this platform. Mr Bradlaugh
never made that complaint. He could honour the 'chivalry,' as he was
pleased to call it, because he knew I could not have a selfish motive
to serve in doing as I did." The Mayor, in calling upon Mr Bradlaugh
to address the eagerly waiting crowd, said: "Let me say that I have had
the opportunity of witnessing the conduct of Mr Bradlaugh in presenting
himself to this constituency. He has acted in the most gentlemanly way
towards me, and I hope he can say in return that I have acted in the
same manner towards him."
When all the speaking was over, and every one had had his "say," the
Mayor took a show of hands for the various candidates, and declared the
result to be in favour of Mr Gilpin and Mr Bradlaugh, a statement which
was received with the utmost enthusiasm.
And yet my father was beaten: crowds did not always mean voters; and
so, in spite of grand meetings, in spite of popular enthusiasm, he
was beaten. His partial canvass resulted in promises of 1600 votes,
whereas only 1086 were recorded for him, so that at the last moment
500 at least failed to give their votes as they had promised. In his
_Autobiography_[122] he himself says: "I was beaten; but this is
scarcely wonderful. I had all the journals in England except three
against me. Every idle or virulent tale which folly could distort or
calumny invent was used against me."
[Footnote 122: Page 28.]
The poll took place on Tuesday the 17th of November, and was officially
declared by the Mayor from the hustings in the market square on
Wednesday at eleven o'clock.
The figures were:--
C. Gilpin 2632
Lord Henley 2105
C. G. Merewether 1625
W. E. Lendrick 1378
C. Bradlaugh 1086
Dr F. R. Lees 485[123]
[Footnote 123: These were the figures given in _National Reformer_,
November 22, 1868. The _Northampton Mercury_ of that week gives them
rather differently, and the _Souvenir_ brought out in June 1894 again
differently. They give the poll as follows:--
_Mercury._ _Souvenir._
Gilpin 2691 2623
Henley 2154 2111
Merewether 1634 1631
Lendrick 1396 1374
Bradlaugh 1086 1069
Lees 492 492]
After the public declaration of the poll the various candidates were
supposed to "return thanks" for the support given them, but three
only--Mr Gilpin, Lord Henley, and Mr Bradlaugh--appeared on the
hustings. Mr Gilpin in a short speech said: "I turn to Mr Bradlaugh,
and I say to him that since I met him in Northampton I have had
prejudices removed in reference to himself, and I say unreservedly,
when I observed the peace of this town, after the exciting scenes that
we have had, I feel, and I should not be an honest man if I did not
acknowledge it, it is owing to Mr Bradlaugh having used his influence
to obtain it." These generous words of Mr Gilpin's were received with
much cheering, and when it came to the Mayor's turn to speak he too
said: "I feel it my duty to acknowledge my obligations to Mr Bradlaugh,
because he not merely endorsed the sentiments I uttered,[124] but
from the balcony of his hotel he backed them up by all the power of
argument he possesses in urging you to comply with my wishes. I knew
the appeal that was being made to you was made under the most exciting
circumstances, and I felt the way in which it was conducted might leave
an impression on the people of this country for a long time to come."
[Footnote 124: Praying that there should be no breach of the peace.]
Charles Gilpin did more than speak favourably of Mr Bradlaugh from
Northampton platforms. A day or two after the election he wrote to the
_Morning Star_:--
"SIR,--I observe that several papers continue to reflect in
strong terms on the candidature of Mr Bradlaugh at Northampton, and
it is not of course for me to defend him; but I think it should be
known that at the declaration of the poll, the Mayor publicly thanked
him for his successful efforts to preserve peace and good order in
the borough during an unusually exciting contest, and from my own
observation I can fully endorse the observations of the Mayor.--I am,
sir, yours truly,
CHARLES GILPIN.
November 20."
Mr Gilpin, moreover, undeterred by the furious onslaught made upon John
Stuart Mill, sent a donation of £10 towards Mr Bradlaugh's election
expenses, and in the March before he died he recommended Mr Pickering
Perry, his own agent, to vote for him.
The extracts from Mr Gilpin's and the Mayor's speeches I have taken
from the _Northampton Mercury_, a paper then thoroughly hostile to
Mr Bradlaugh, and I confess to a feeling of shame that it should be
necessary at this time of day to thus bring forward "witnesses to
character"; yet, while there are many now willing to concede that my
father was in his later years an honourable, temperate, law-abiding,
and even "distinguished" man, they add that he was not all this in his
early years: then he "was coarse, violent, and vulgar." If the word of
the Mayor of Northampton in 1868 counts for anything, and if the manly
testimony of one of Northampton's most honoured members, the Quaker
Charles Gilpin, has any weight, men will find that they must still
further revise their opinion of Charles Bradlaugh, and admit that the
change has been in themselves and not in him, that the qualities they
grant for him in 1890 were his in 1868, and from the very outset of
his career. There was no greater change in him than comes to us all
through the mellowing touch of time; in truth, he changed less than
would most men, and in spite of being a Radical and Reformer of a very
advanced type, he was in many ways extremely conservative. He clung to
old friends, to old habits, and to precedent. He formed his opinions
not hastily but yet rapidly, and after due deliberation, deliberation
which included a really marvellous power of putting both sides of the
question before himself and others. His judgment once formed, he was
extremely slow to alter it, and a course of action once entered upon,
he was rarely if ever diverted from it.
My father left Northampton, followed to the station by such an enormous
crowd of sorrowing men and women that his defeat was grander than
many a victory; he could never, he said, forget those whose hot tears
dropped on his hands on the day he left the borough, and as he wrote
those words we may be sure that his own tears dimmed his eyes and
blurred the page. Hard as iron to opposition, he was acutely sensitive
to every token of affection or kindly feeling.
But there were more to rejoice over his defeat than to sorrow for it.
The Rev. Thomas Arnold, addressing an audience of Northampton men,
said, regardless of his own blasphemy, that they had shown that "they
would not be servants of the man who trampled on their God and their
Saviour;" and the Rev. A. Mursell, who a few years later found more
kindly things to say of my father, speaking at Dundee, "thanked God
that Mr Bradlaugh had been so signally defeated."