SOUTHWARK ELECTION, 1869.
About a year after the General Election the appointment of Mr Layard
as ambassador at Madrid created a vacancy at Southwark, and a number
of working men electors immediately asked Mr Bradlaugh to become a
candidate for that borough. Meetings were summoned for the purpose of
proposing his name, and a committee was formed with a view of promoting
his election, and a very active committee it proved to be. At a crowded
meeting, convened by forty of the "chiefs of the Liberal Party," held
in the middle of November, six names of possible representatives were
brought forward--Mr Milner Gibson, Sir Francis Lycett, Sir Sydney
Waterlow, Sir John Thwaites, and Mr Odger. The "forty chiefs" did
not propose Mr Bradlaugh, whose name was however received with great
cheering, when it was proposed by way of amendment by Mr Hearn, a
Southwark Radical. A week later a meeting was held to decide upon a
candidate to be supported by the working-class electors of the borough,
and this meeting both Mr Odger and Mr Bradlaugh were invited to attend.
The room engaged for the purpose was soon full to overflowing, and at
length the speakers adjourned to the balcony in front of the house
and addressed the crowd of three thousand people congregated in the
road below. Mr Odger was unable to come, and after Mr Bradlaugh had
addressed the meeting a resolution in his favour was passed by "an
overwhelming majority."[125] He said that although he was there at the
earnest invitation of several working men, he was not to be regarded
as a candidate until he had issued his address. If Mr Odger came
definitely before the constituency and was pledged to go to the poll,
he should not contest the borough himself. He wished to see Mr George
Odger in Parliament, and he believed that he would be an admirable
representative.
[Footnote 125: _Daily News._]
Apart from any question of Mr Odger's possible candidature, my father
had another reason for hesitating before incurring such heavy expenses
as the contest of Southwark would entail: the Northampton election,
in spite of the long subscription lists made up from slender purses,
had left him heavily burdened with debt. In August (1869) he wrote
that he had still £250 of borrowed money to repay; by November this
had become reduced, though even then there was still £100 "due to a
friend at Norwich, and £20 to another friend in Huddersfield." A debt
of £120 will seem a mere bagatelle to a rich man, who will pay more
for a handsome dog that takes his fancy, and ten times as much for
a thoroughbred horse; to a poor man, however, a debt of £120 is a
millstone. And for that matter, if this debt had been the only one, my
father would soon have repaid it, but he was hampered on all sides.
Being so encumbered, he naturally felt bound "to exercise extra caution
in contracting further liabilities for election purposes, especially
as the large portion of the funds for such a struggle would probably
be provided by my working friends throughout the United Kingdom, whose
subscriptions I have no right to take except with the certainty of
fighting a creditable if not a successful fight."
However, at the end of November all hesitation on my father's part
was brought to an end by the receipt of the following letter from Mr
Odger:--
"DEAR MR BRADLAUGH,--I have decided on going to the poll. I
shall see the Southwark Committee this evening (November 29th), and
make the declaration to-morrow.
"Thanking you for your manly and straightforward conduct,--I remain,
yours truly,
GEO. ODGER.
"18 High Street, Bloomsbury."
Under these circumstances my father at once announced that he should
not seek the suffrages of the Southwark electors. He believed Mr Odger
had a better chance of being supported by voters "who would be afraid
of returning one whom the _Daily Telegraph_ had described as an English
'irreconcilable,'" although, as he frankly said, he made no disguise
of his wish to be in Parliament, and of his intention to be there as
soon as possible. He earnestly entreated all his friends in the borough
to give their unreserved support to George Odger, who was a real
representative man.