GREAT GATHERINGS.
There will probably be many who remember the agitation there was in
London when, at the end of the session of 1872, the Parks Regulation
Bill was "smuggled" through the House of Commons, an agitation which
did not subside until the Government announced that it would not seek
to enforce the regulations before they had been ratified in the coming
session by a vote of both Houses. This concession was regarded by
many as a complete surrender to the Radicals, and equivalent to the
handing over the four chief parks "to agitators, whenever they chose
to take possession of them." In any case Mr Ayrton did not appear to
regard the Government pledge as binding, for before long he posted the
regulations in Hyde Park, and in November he caused Mr Odger and some
ten or eleven others to be summoned as participators in a meeting held
there in favour of the release of the Fenian prisoners. The case first
taken was that of Mr Bailey, the chairman of the meeting, who, upon the
hearing of the summons, was fined £5. As Mr Bailey's case was to decide
the others, it was resolved that the magistrate's decision should be
appealed against.
Mr Bradlaugh maintained that the Commissioner of Works had no power to
make regulations without the sanction of Parliament, and immediately
called a meeting of protest, to be held in Hyde Park on Sunday,
December 1st. As there had been some disturbance at one of Mr Odger's
meetings, as well as some threat of force to be used at his own, in his
last notice convening the meeting my father specially asked that every
one who went to the park should aid the stewards in preserving order.
Sunday December 1st came, and with it most inclement weather; but
in spite of cold and rain and mud, thousands of men and women made
their way to the trysting-place, which came well within Mr Ayrton's
proscribed area. There were no bands or banners, and the journeying
of the people to the park was likened by Mr Austin Holyoake to "a
pilgrimage of passion, all the more intense because subdued." At
this meeting, characterised by the utmost unanimity, Mr Bradlaugh
was the only speaker, and no other inducement was offered to people
to come through all that dreary weather than that of uniting in a
solemn protest against this infringement of the right of public
meeting. "It is useless to blink facts," lamented one of Mr Ayrton's
supporters,[173] "and it may as well be confessed that the assemblage
was large, perfectly under control, and orderly, and composed of
apparently respectable persons. These may be melancholy facts, but
they are facts.... It was a dense assemblage, standing as closely as
it could be packed, and extending over an area of more than an acre."
Even the _Times_ was impressed by the size, the orderly character of
the gathering, and perhaps even more than all by the fact that those
who came "without bands and banners, and marching through the streets,"
pledged nevertheless to maintain order, "and actually succeeded in
no small degree in overawing the 'roughs' and thieves who congregate
on these occasions." In continuation, the _Times_ remarked that "Mr
Bradlaugh, whose voice could be heard at a considerable distance, was
listened to with great attention; he spoke throughout in terms of
advice to the 'people' to preserve peace, law, and order."
[Footnote 173: _Scotsman_, December 2.]
When we find such reluctant witnesses speaking in such terms, one can
form some idea of the size of the meeting and the spirit which animated
it. It is to be regarded as not the least among my father's triumphs
that he could always bring people together in vast numbers, with no
other inducement than the justice of the cause which they had at heart.
A little earlier in that very year George Odger had said in a letter
to him: "It will be a grand day indeed when the Democrats of London
are sufficiently organised as to be ready to march in their tens of
thousands from all parts of London to the park or some other large
place, inspired only by the conviction of right which the soundness
of their principles must ultimately produce." This is exactly what
happened at my father's meetings. He said: "Come, because it is right
to come; come quietly, without clamour." He trusted the men and women
with whom he was working; he knew that when they saw the right, the
cause alone would be sufficient to move them; they would want no other
inducement. His trust was justified and reciprocated; the mass meetings
which he called, and the control of which depended upon himself alone,
were always great demonstrations, were always impressive, and were
always perfectly orderly.
Notwithstanding this open defiance of his regulations, Mr Ayrton
refrained from taking proceedings against either Mr Bradlaugh or any of
those who took part in the meeting. And yet the magistrate's decision
against Mr Bailey was confirmed on appeal by the Court of Queen's
Bench, and the Treasury claimed costs against him. After some delay,
however, this claim was abandoned by the Government, which, in the
matter of these Parks Regulations, at least, does not seem to have
distinguished itself by firmness or decision.
* * * * *
Another public meeting held that December furnishes a striking example
of the way Mr Bradlaugh was looked upon as a pariah. My father, as
is well known, attached much importance to the question of Land Law
Reform, and was deeply interested in any measures that would tend to
ameliorate the hard lot of those who live by the land. Hence, when
a meeting was announced to be held in Exeter Hall, in connection
with the Agricultural Labourers' Movement, he determined to be
present. The chair was taken by S. Morley, Esq., M.P., who, himself
a generous donor to the Agricultural Labourers' Fund, laid special
stress on the necessity of giving substantial pecuniary help. The
first resolution, moved by Cardinal Manning, ran thus: "That this
meeting deeply sympathises with the Agricultural Labourers of England
in their depressed circumstances, believing their present condition
to be a disgrace to the best interests of the country, and is of
opinion that measures should be adopted without delay for their social
improvement and intellectual elevation." Mr Bradlaugh felt that this
was at once very vague and very inadequate; it left the character,
of the "measures" to be adopted far too much to the imagination. Nor
was the resolution made more clear by the speeches which followed
from others, who, like Mr Arch and Mr Ball, eloquently as they spoke,
failed to touch the vital causes of the miseries they deplored. Even
the pecuniary help they were seeking, my father considered, would in
itself but perpetuate troubles, unless the grievances themselves were
redressed. Under these circumstances, Mr Bradlaugh "felt bound to rise
to move an addendum to the resolution." His rising was the signal for
great excitement; a hawk in a dovecote could hardly have produced a
greater flutter. "Some," said my father, "yelled lustily; Joseph Arch
begged me as a favour 'not to irritate the kindly gentlemen disposed
to aid the poor labourer,' and Mr Ball ... said they did 'not want any
political opinions which might prevent subscriptions to the movement.'"
Archbishop Manning withdrew from the meeting as soon as the wicked
Atheist came forward. I am in no position to say whether in this case
_post hoc_ meant _propter hoc_, though certainly in some quarters,[174]
at least, the Archbishop's sudden disappearance was attributed to Mr
Bradlaugh's appearance. Mr Samuel Morley asked Mr Bradlaugh not to
move the addendum; my father, however, persisted. Mr Morley then asked
him, "as a favour to himself, as it was then 10.32, not to speak in
support." To this Mr Bradlaugh consented, while maintaining his right
to speak, and merely moved that the following words be added to the
resolution: "And there can be no permanent improvement in the condition
of the agricultural labourer until such vital change shall be effected
in the land laws now in force in this country as shall break down the
land monopolies at present existing, and restore to the people their
rightful part in the land." Had he been allowed to speak, he would
have instanced as necessary "measures" abolition of primogeniture;
easy land transfer; a graduated land tax, and compulsory cultivation
of uncultivated lands capable of cultivation. This last reform he
put elsewhere in the following words:--"Power to deprive holders of
cultivable lands of their property, on proof of non-cultivation, at a
compensation not exceeding seven years' purchase, calculated on the
average nett rental of the preceding seven years. Such lands to be
taken by the State, and let in small holdings to actual cultivators,
on terms of tenancy, proportioned to the improvement made in value;
that is, the greater the improvement, the longer the tenancy. Lands
appropriated to deer forests and game preserves to be treated as
non-cultivated."
[Footnote 174: See _Weekly Register_ (Catholic) for Dec. 14, and
_Liverpool Daily Post_ for Dec. 13.]
Although Mr Bradlaugh's addendum was moved and seconded amidst the
greatest confusion, and little as his intervention was approved of by
the promoters of the meeting, four-fifths at least of those assembled
voted in its favour.[175]
[Footnote 175: Commenting on this emendation, one provincial
journal--the _Liverpool Daily Post_--remarked with more than usual
outspokenness: "Thanks to Mr Carlyle, it has long been acknowledged
that revolutions cannot be made with rose water; and Archbishop
Manning and other amiable ecclesiastical philanthropists will have
to learn that revolutions cannot be made with holy water either. In
this world it is necessary to do good, even if the devil bids you;
and if Mr Bradlaugh can get the ear and the vote of a vast meeting by
turning half-measures into whole ones, his alliance will have to be
accepted, and perhaps his advice may have to be followed." But the day
for that was not yet come, and few saw the inevitable so clearly as
Mr Bradlaugh. The _Times_ very fairly admitted that on a division his
supporters formed the majority of the gathering, but a very garbled
account of the proceedings appeared in many journals, one paper even
going to the length of saying that Mr Bradlaugh was "ejected" from the
meeting, and another seriously admonishing him that his reception at
Exeter Hall ought to show him that the bulk of the working classes had
no confidence in him.]
* * * * *
But if my father felt wounded by the way in which he was regarded, and
his help was rejected by the conveners and speakers of this Exeter
Hall meeting, he had his compensation in the following July, when he
was invited, for the first time, to attend the Annual Demonstration of
the Northumberland miners. He had always felt especial sympathy for
the workers in the northern coal mines, and never forgot that one of
the earliest and one of the kindest greetings he ever received in the
provinces was from a coal-hewer at Bebside. At this demonstration he
met Alexander Macdonald, whom he then regarded as one of the strongest
men he had yet come in contact with, connected with any working men's
organization in Great Britain. "To give," he said, "a faint notion of
Mr Macdonald's power, it is enough to point out that he speaks with
the authority of Miners' Organizations representing more than 200,000
men, and has brain enough and will enough to use this vast power
unflinchingly." Mr Thomas Burt, then Secretary to the Northumberland
Miners' Association, and "proposed" miners' candidate for Morpeth, Mr
Wm. Crawford from Durham, and Mr Joseph Cowen, as well as my father's
old antagonist in debate, Dr J. H. Rutherford, all attended to address
the great gathering, which assembled on the moor; and although this was
the tenth of these annual gatherings, it was the first at which any
political resolutions had been proposed.
In the following year, when the Northumberland Collieries balloted for
the speakers for their picnic, my father and Mr Burt came out side by
side at the head of the poll. The date fixed was the fifteenth of June,
and on that afternoon at least 20,000 miners assembled on Blyth Links.
In the evening, in the Central Hall, an address was presented to Mr
Bradlaugh on behalf of the Northumberland miners. In it was told their
appreciation of the services he had rendered "the poor, the neglected,
and the oppressed." It spoke of the prejudice against him on account
of his opinions, but they were happy to affirm that "no such paltry
feeling as this blinds the mining population of Northumberland to your
deserts as a politician and a reformer. It may please you to hear, as
it delights us to testify, that persons of all shades of opinion have
combined in the present manifestation of approval and esteem." And
indeed it appeared that Catholics, Wesleyans, Independents, Baptists,
and Presbyterians had all joined in presenting this address. As my
father stood there that night, listening to the eulogistic speeches
made about himself, and remembered how, but a few short years before,
he was unable to obtain a lodging in that very town of Blyth, he fairly
broke down. This address remained to the last one of his most treasured
possessions, and always occupied the place of honour on his study wall.
And the Northumberland miners were not less faithful than he. Year
after year he was invited to their annual gathering,[176] and when he
died, these poor men--who earn their wage under conditions often of the
most frightful hardship--not only sent individual subscriptions towards
the payment of the liabilities he had left behind him, but even voted
£50 from their funds to the same object. And not only did they do that,
but when his library was sold there were many who contrived to send the
money to buy one or two books, so that they might possess some memento
of the man whose eloquent tongue would speak to them no more.
[Footnote 176: In 1875 Mr Bradlaugh cancelled his acceptance of their
invitation, because Dr Kenealy was also invited. During my father's
absence in America Dr Kenealy had gone out of his way to make a most
unprovoked attack upon himself, and to offer wanton insult to the
Freethought party. Hence Mr Bradlaugh refused to be present on any
platform with him, "except hostilely."]
* * * * *
In 1874 Mr Bradlaugh had his first invitation to the Durham miners'
(fourth) annual gala. Here, notwithstanding inclement weather and the
difficulties put in the way of the meeting by the North-Eastern Railway
Company, the gathering on the race-course was enormous; and although
this was the first time he had come to their picnic, my father saw his
own full-length likeness on the two banners belonging to the South
Tanfield and West Auckland Collieries.[177] The evening, too, was made
pleasant by the courageous avowal, in the presence of at least a dozen
people, made by a gentleman of position and influence in Durham--a
former mayor. He told my father that he was delighted to have the
opportunity of seeing him, but he thought it only honest to add that
before his (Mr Bradlaugh's) arrival he had refused to go upon the same
platform with him. He had learned a lesson, he said, since he had been
in my father's company.
[Footnote 177: The miners cannot be accused of concealing their
opinions; in 1875 my father saw not only banners bearing likenesses
of well-known miners' friends and himself, but also one which proudly
displayed portraits of Ernest Jones, Feargus O'Connor, Henry Hunt, and
Thomas Paine.]
As with the Northumberland men, so with the Durham: having once been
invited to their picnic, Mr Bradlaugh was asked again and again, and in
1891 Durham miners also sent of their hard earnings towards the payment
of a dead man's debts or to buy a book from his library.
* * * * *
At a monthly delegate meeting of the Yorkshire miners in 1874 Mr
Bradlaugh's name was proposed as a referee in wages questions, but a
delegate objected on the ground that he was an Atheist, and so the
proposition was lost. Prejudice, however, did not carry all before it,
for in the next year we find Mr Bradlaugh addressing the Yorkshire
miners at Wakefield, and the Cleveland miners at Saltburn in 1876. Some
years later I was with him when he addressed the Lancashire miners at a
place near Wigan.
* * * * *
When the Somerset and Dorset agricultural labourers held their fourth
annual gathering at Ham Hill, near Yeovil, in 1875, Mr Bradlaugh
was invited to be present. The other speakers included Mr George
Mitchell--"One from the Plough"--who was indeed the chief organiser of
these meetings, Mr George Potter, Mr Ball, and Sir John Bennett, who
evoked considerable indignation by his allusion to a suggestion said to
have been made by Dr Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, that
if Mr Arch visited the labourers in his diocese he should be ducked in
the horse-pond. But, above all, it was said, "the great incident of
the meeting, creating the utmost excitement, was the appearance of Mr
Charles Bradlaugh."[178] My father found the gathering very different
from those to which he had been accustomed--gatherings of Londoners
in Hyde Park, of miners in Northumberland, of Yorkshiremen, or of
Lancashire factory hands; there were ten or twelve thousand persons
present at Ham Hill, but until Mr George Mitchell began to speak he
doubted whether many of them cared much for the serious objects of the
meeting. The attention paid to Mr Mitchell's speech, however, and the
applause with which it was greeted, gave a clearer indication of the
real feeling which animated the labourers.
[Footnote 178: _Weekly Dispatch._ 23rd May 1875.]