Charles Bradlaugh: a Record of His Life and Work, Volume 1 (of 2) With an Account of his Parliamentary Struggle, Politics and Teachings. Seventh Edition

I do not know at what date or at what place my father delivered his first provincial lectures, but the earliest of which I can find any record occurred in January 1858, when on...

Those who have travelled with me thus far will have noticed that the story of Mr Bradlaugh's public work is carried down to 1860, just prior to the inauguration of the _National...

In 1866 the National Reform League was proving itself an extremely active organisation. Mr Edmund Beales was its honoured President, and Mr George Howell the Secretary. Mr Bradl...

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...

On the third Monday in May 1860 Mr Bradlaugh commenced his second debate with the Rev. Brewin Grant, which was to be continued over four successive Mondays. The St George's Hall...

Mr Bradlaugh took part in so many law-suits during his life that people have hurriedly jumped at conclusions, and condemned him as a "litigious" man. They have not troubled to c...

On the third of May 1868 the _National Reformer_ appeared in a new character. A startling announcement at the head of the Editorial Notices sets forth that "the Commissioners of...

In the early sixties the Freethinkers of Plymouth were a fairly active body; their hall, the "Free Institute," in Buckland Street, they owed to the liberality of one of their me...

I will take up once more the story of my father's lecturing experiences in the provinces by telling of the Mayor's attempt to prevent the delivery of some lectures he had agreed...

In 1870 Mr Bradlaugh held five oral debates: one with Mr G. J. Holyoake, in London, in the month of March; the next with Alexander Robertson of Dundonnochie, at Edinburgh, in Ju...

In the spring of 1873 there was much talk of a dissolution of Parliament, and everywhere the constituencies were making ready for the general election--the first under the Ballo...

Our house at Sunderland Villa was what I suppose would be called an eight-roomed house. It comprised four bedrooms, two sitting-rooms, and a little room built out over the kitch...

My father had many times been asked to go to America on a lecturing tour, but it was not until 1873 that he finally consented to do so. Then indeed he went, as he frankly said,...

As I have said elsewhere, during the early seventies the Republican movement in England was full of life and activity. There was quite a ferment of political energy tending towa...

Barely three short years away, yet how many changes in that short time. My father found, father, aunt, and grandmother dead; his little sister and brother--of five and eight yea...

Now came the time when the little Charles Bradlaugh should put aside his childhood and make a beginning in the struggle for existence. His earnings were required to help in supp...

I am now come to a point in my father's history at which I must confess my utter inability to give anything like a just account of his work. All I can do--in spite of great time...

During the Commune my father found himself in a position of extreme difficulty. His heart was with the men who had been driven by most frightful suffering to wild words and stil...

In the summer of 1855, Mr Bradlaugh for the first time took part in a great Hyde Park meeting. He went, like so many others, merely as a spectator, having no idea that the part...

But all his debating and writing, all his studying, did not fill my father's pockets; they, like their owner, grew leaner every day. With his increasing poverty he fell into deb...

When hostilities were declared between France and Germany in 1870, Mr Bradlaugh did not take sides with either nation; he entirely and unreservedly condemned the war. He and his...

The first allusion which I can find to any lecture delivered by my father after his return from Ireland appears in the _Reasoner_, and is the briefest possible notice, in which...

The question will probably have presented itself to many minds, If Mr Bradlaugh was giving up so much time to public work, to lecturing, reform meetings, debating, etc., how was...

Some lawsuits in which Mr Bradlaugh was interested brought him into contact with a solicitor named Montague R. Leverson, who had indeed been engaged in the defence of Dr Bernard...

In addition to the more serious opposition which Mr Bradlaugh encountered at such places as Wigan, Devonport, and Guernsey, there were countless smaller "incidents" constantly o...

Driven from home because he refused to be a hypocrite, Charles Bradlaugh stood alone in the world at sixteen; cut off from kindred and former friends, with little or nothing in...

On arriving at Madrid, Mr Bradlaugh waited upon Senor Castelar at the Government Palace, Plaza de Oriente, where he was officially received, and whence a few days later came a f...

The early part of the seventies was a period of much Freethought and Republican activity in England; everywhere in the Freethought ranks there was movement and life. In spite of...

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...

In September 1862 Mr Bradlaugh held a six nights' discussion with the Rev. W. Barker, a gentleman who had been lecturing against Atheism to a Christian Society in Clerkenwell. T...

Hyde Park Meetings:-- Sunday Trading Bill, i. 52; Government Reform Bill, i. 81; Garibaldi, i. 214; Reform League, i. 224, 234; Parks Regulation Bill, i. 372; Peace Demonstratio...

When our home was broken up in May 1870, and my father went to live by himself in those two little rooms in Turner Street, he was very downcast and lonely. Apart from the many w...

A demonstration was held in Hyde Park on Sunday afternoon, September 28th, 1862, for the purpose of expressing sympathy with Garibaldi, and protesting against the occupation of...

When his father died in 1852 Private Charles Bradlaugh came home on furlough to attend the funeral. He was by this time heartily sick of soldiering, and under the circumstances...

Full of sympathy for Italy, my father spoke much on behalf of Garibaldi and Italian emancipation. When Garibaldi made his "famous Marsala effort," money was collected from all p...

Although there has often been desultory talk among us concerning the origin of the Bradlaugh family, there has never been any effort made to trace it out. The name is an uncommo...

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...

In our house the year 1870, which was to bring death and sorrow to so many homes, and rage and despair to so many hearts, opened cheerlessly indeed. The outlook for my father wa...

As Mr Bradlaugh was very much tied to London after 1862 on account of his business first in a solicitor's office, and then in the city, he was unable for a few years to lecture...

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 ask...

"I wish you would tell me things, and let me write the story of your life," I said in chatting to my father one evening about six weeks before his death. "Perhaps I will, some d...

Mr Bradlaugh's determination to seek a seat in Parliament--The choice of Northampton--First election address--Scorn of the Whigs--Enthusiasm of the people--The election colours-...

English Joint Stock Bank (Limited) and Charles Bradlaugh--Bradlaugh _v._ De Rin--The Oath question in different Courts-Confusion of the law of evidence--A costly victory--The Ev...

Prosecution of _National Reformer_ by Mr Disraeli's Government--"Published in defiance of Her Majesty's Government"--The Act of James I.--Collapse of the prosecution--The Press-...

The "London Correspondents'" puff extraordinary--Welcomed on arrival in New York--The Lotos Club--O'Donovan Rossa--Financial panic--At Steinway Hall--Stephen Pearl Andrews and M...

The National Reform League--Primrose Hill--Trafalgar Square--Sir Richard Mayne's prohibition--The Derby Cabinet--Hyde Park--Another prohibition--Fall of the Hyde Park railings--...

The first General Election under the Ballot Act--Northampton and its absent candidate--Reception on his return--Charles Gilpin's recommendation: his death--The bye-election--Mr...

The speech in Devonport Park--Opening a fortnight's campaign--Arrest-- Imprisonment--The Guildhall--A marine adventure--The case against Superintendent Edwards--Mr Robert Collie...

The _National Reformer_ Company--The coming of Joseph Barker--Turkish baths and Secularism--The difficulties of a dual editorship--A house divided--Sole editor--G. J. Holyoake a...

Alone in the world--B. B. Jones--A youthful "coal merchant"--The baker's wife--Selling braces--Mrs Carlile offers a home--"A little Hebrew and an imperfect smattering of other t...

Freethought and Republican activity--A full lecture list--The "Impeachment of the House of Brunswick"--A misleading announcement--Stourbridge and Lord Lyttleton--The High Bailif...

Charles Bradlaugh as office-boy--Wharf clerk and cashier--Politics at Bonner's Fields--Sunday School--The Rev. J. G. Packer--Suspended from duties as Sunday School teacher--Bonn...

The Mayor of Liverpool--David King--Huddersfield: Arrest; Release; Before the Magistrates--The Rev. J. M'Cann--Huddersfield again--The Murphy riots at Manchester--The New Hall o...

Poverty, hunger, and debt--Enlisting for the East India service--Enrolled in the 50th Foot--Transferred to the 7th Dragoon Guards--Family reconciliation--The father's changed ch...

The Philadelphs--The Grand Lodge of England--The Prince of Wales as Grand Master--"To the oppressed of all Nations"--Joshua B. Smith as Junior Warden to the Adelphi Lodge--"Ill...

Debate with the Rev. B. Grant at Bradford--Dr Brindley--Pursuing Mr Bradlaugh to New York--Debates with Dr Baylee and others--"Extended propaganda"--The _Wigan Examiner_--Mr Hut...

English Misgovernment--The Fenian Brotherhood--Colonel Kelly and General Cluseret--The Irish proclamation of 1867--The Manchester rescue--The death sentence--The Clerkenwell exp...

Financial difficulties--Mr Bradlaugh gives up business in the City and devotes himself to public work--Our home sold up--A scattered family--My brother's illness and death--His...

Mr Bradlaugh's position--Republican France--Madame de Brimont--"France and Peace"--St James's Hall--Thanks of the Republican Government--Pleading for the recognition of the Repu...