Show Brad laughs mission and autobiography A i J y i i R ve reporter W what ilat will be your subjects mr bradlaugh Bradi bradl augh 1 I hhall shail of course speak of the tiie prospects of republicanism ailis allis m in europe ili in one or two lectures but another will be devoted to the impeachment of the bruns wick fain family fhy fly reporter you hayer barer given them some hard ard blows in your own country but wo we have scant iwans of knowing here what the elfeel effect has been hov do the tile people 10 look 0 upon your course mr Bradlau bradlaugh gli there thero is in ili great brimin bramin m a very lar largo party who vrho favor my views audit an I 1 t is daily increasing reporter in your impeachment of the reigning family what chames charges will you make nir mr bradlaugh laughing 1 they aro arc too numerous to meRti mention oti in ili addition to the charges I 1 shall swall bring j against them I 1 intend to offer ail an i opinion in ili regard to the right of the I 1 Brun to occupy the throne tin one of the view I 1 take is an odd one and when first announced in england it took everybody by surprise but I 1 am happy to say ay that those who are with mo me in my belief form a very large and influential class elass of her lier Maje majesty subjects reporter what ii beur opinion mr bradlaugh I 1 maintain that the monarchy is el elective if itis it is hereditary the Brun have hareno no right to tile tilo throne if not then tle the election of a i uler lnier should be by the two houses of parliament reporter N now ow for the tho charges mr bradlaugh Bradlau gil gli 1 I need sot bot mot ot mention mentton them categorically but suppose I 1 speak first of the burden of taxation which we WO have havo been beert forced to bear taxes have increased out of all proportion during the j eign of or tile Brun before their time lime we were paying we now groan unde under r tile the imposition of nearly then the tile manner of tho distribution of taxation is worse than ever before formerly tile tilo land of the kingdom paid two of the taxes now it pays leas than one seventy firth fifth part while landowners land owners receive enormously increased fief rents our rulers have allowed acres of common land to be taken from the poor and added to the estates of 01 tho the rich under what is known as tile tiie system of private inclosure act we vvo secured the repeal repeat of this infamous act in 1845 but the land has not been reclaimed T then I 1 cha chae chac p that the bruns wicks are not english but hut gorman german orman and german in tile the worst hense bense german without german intelligence and german courage before their time the tho pensions were paid out of the monarchs monarchy civil list today not a bain bair halfpenny penny ia is disbursed disbursed there from for that purpose se even so lato as zwi eorge borge george the ILs if s reign nil ull diplomatic expenses and the salaries ries rles ef of al ail all 1 officers of the tile state states and all state keate expenses except those of the army and navy were paid out of the civil list lisl now nov the L expense is saddled upon the treasury rv reporter you will of ci courso course refer to the cecin eccentricities trici ties of f the tile eunee of wales ivales i mr Bradlau Bradlaugh dil ili 1 oll oli oil Y ye 2 bitt but I 1 shall say nothing 14 of private conduct except where wh ere ero it afre bt public conduct the Perso personal lial ilal nicee of this family have been productive of more harm than you on this sidd side of tl the tho 0 o water would deem possible or rather I 1 should say bay you cannot appreciate P Pre preci clate clato ato ate as we can the tho mischief that has been dono through th the e immorality in licentious licentiousness nes neE recklessness jess less and and stupidity of or tho the tho bruns wicks As mon monarchs they thoy have invariably beon becil incapable whenever G thoy thuy oy ila iia haye hive ve meddled in affairs they hav bug basht bus ht us into inta trophy and subjected us to national humi huml the hanoverian policy has always been a curse to 6 us see what followed the attempt of george I 1 to make one oue of ot his stupid sous of and then what result resulted l from froin twe the tyle foolish and wicked course coune of george III ili toward the tho Amei amerlean american ein colonies until tile tilo accession of or this family to tile the throne we had only a nominal debt now it is so vast that we eail can never hope to hye porter portor you havo led a busy 1 life 1 0 o for flor one so young mr air bradlaugh 1 mr bradlaugh Bradlau gli gil kc yes i have havo been before tiie tile public sinco since I 1 was fourteen yeam old reporter how camo it that you started so early mr bradlaugh my education vas was vos finished before I 1 was w as eleven 1 ahree years later while clerk to a coal firm ili in britannia fields the excitement of the chartist movement was at its liel height glit in england meetings were held heid all day sundays and every week night in tile the oden open fields they were occupied in discussions of theological social and political subjects everybody being allowed to take part ghe the authorities alarmed at tilo the magnitude of the movement which was sweeping like a wave overe over europe drope were preparing to prosecute and punish the leaders I 1 was at this time timea a member of the church of england t and a sunday school teacher but a boys curiosity frequently took me the sunday night meetings in bonners bonnets fields one day the tho bishop dishop of london was ivas announced to hold a confirmation ili in Bet met bethnal betheal linal green and the clergyman of my district desiring to attract the notice of his irace inace urged me nio to prepare for confirm confirmation ailon atlon so as to astonish the bishop with the tiie quickness and accuracy of in my y answers 1 n while studying the thirty nine article articles sand und the four gospels I 1 was convinced thac thao there was a radical difference between them so I 1 wrote to the minister asking for aid and explanation instead of replying lio lie went to my parents an and d denounced my letter as and suspended me ine for th thieo three ree month months from iny my ollice office as teacher this freed me roe from sunday duties and I 1 became a 11 regular visitor to bonners ners fields at first only to listen but soon as a participant in tile the public discussions I 1 began by speaking on oil the orthodox christian Chi istian side but after a 1 while chiler I 1 found that my views were ere ero getting gettier much tinged with free rree thought ili in the winter of 1840 1 I became a teetotaler which winch fact the tile minister of moy roy parish looked upon as confirmation arom arow strong 0 as holy writ that I 1 was surely burely ail an infidel and anti lie ho caused rny ray discharge from the coa coal loffle office I 1 then thon lauti launched ched out as a lec leq lecturer tuter oil on temperance and on theological question and was warmly greeted by hundreds of people reporter you were not an atheist the at that early age mr bradlaugh no I 1 was a deist but my opinions were rapidly tending toward atheism in dr Jamp boil boll assailed me we h in a leading article in tile anner auner Jaw daw dam ser but i survived the attack and studied hebrew heblow and the modern languages at night while in the day time timo I 1 tried to make mak c a fortune us as a coal merchant I 1 became very poor and ai n last resort enlisted in the tile seventh dra dragoon oon Guard guards 6 in 1853 after having served with the legi ment in Ir elaud ireland making n numerous anler on s temperance speeches hes in and out of barn barr barracks acks my aunt died leaving me a little money with which I 1 pur clisset my discharge I 1 was now twenty years old and the world was wag before me on returning nill to civil life I 1 again began towlie to write and 1 nd speak and becat became ne for a youngster so famous famois as to bo Consi considered dered derea worth the trouble of crushing but sto etti ettl ill ili here I 1 am um were ere you then thon the leader of any considerable faction I 1 mr brad bradlaugh laugh not exactly a leader although I 1 was much consulted by men of my way of thinking and was sometime sometimes 1 placed in a position hilere I 1 thou thought ghr it 11 best to mova ifft soon after my iny dIsAia discharge rge from the urmy a number of poor world tig men man who had erected a building on free fret freehold hold hoid ground without ou t any igie igne or conveyance from the freeholder freeholders who asserted his hia hi legal right to the bulI bull building dingi cammer earner to 10 moe roe fur for advice F finding 1 tiding t that hat under tinder 1 the statute of frauds thes they had no redress I 1 rei rEF commended recommended that they should ofner offer a penalty rent of 42 20 this was vas by the freeholder I 1 then constituted in myself itself a I 1 I 1 law a court budwith theasa stance stanco of ono one hundred red elout men i removed every b brick dickof of the bull buli div divided aided tho the material among ibe the owners thele was no riot no dis disturbance turbit rib ric c tho the mean freeholder gazed ullon ulton the bare baro surface of his while the workmen congratulate dl themselves upon the rare safe reburn return off their lately endangered property wasted reporter what of your first conflict with the au aut th orides I 1 mr ir bra bradlaugh blaugh it was in 1855 hn illi i to the right of or the people to hold meetings ili in hyde park ii IL ft gave evidence before the royal commission ordered by the house hoube of commons and was very proud that day when at the conclusion of my testimony against the authorities the President of the right llight ho honorable stewart wort t ley publicly thanked me and tile the people who thronged thron ged the C court ourt of exchequer cheered me for the man ner nerin iii ili which I 1 denied the right of sir richard mayne then chief commissioner of or police to forbids the meetings in the park reporter were you not whiled you were lecturing frequently ili lii iiii tern terr ered with by tile the authorities mr bradlaugh sometimes generally in the proT provinces Inces seldom beldom in ili london in march sag L was to lecture on louls louis napoleon eo but the government on a hint from count interfered the hall was wat garrisoned by police and the lecture prevented reporter Be porter some tf of your lecturing experience must have been very aklu amusing 1 I 1 mr bradlaugh you are right laughter once I 1 debated with i a reverend dr mensor who called him himself seif self a rabbi he ho was about renouncing tile tilo faith of his fathers in order to gain admission to the thor church of england and had bad been put forward to show what an illiterate er a to youngster I 1 was ws wo we both scrawled we vt drew diew characters on a black board for fou fout nights lukuc in succession to the delight ana and mystification c t of the tho audience who gave me credit for great erudition be because caureE I 1 chalked nather father more rapidly and neatly than my antagonist in 1860 1 lectured under some difficulty at wigan the tile resident clergy having actually incited the populace to physical violence A part of the building in which I 1 attempt ed to lecture was destroyed by tho mob and I 1 should have had bad a reis rely serious time in lecturing or getting away with my life but for the stout aid of a brave woman and her hus band who backed me up until the tiie cilot crowd gui gul c quieted eted I 1 visited wigan many times afterward afterwards and so improved the manners of ot the tile people that I 1 am now a welcome speaker peak peah cr there I 1 could not improve the in manners of the clarg clergy y as the papers recently recent lecent ly proved but that was their misfortune not my fault eany early in the next year I 1 went to guernsey in in consequence of an all attempt t made by til the thu law courts of the island to punish for blasphemy a gentleman who had distributed some of my pamphlets and had been condemned to imprisonment in jn default of bail ball they whey T I 1 ic y d did ddn not nol 0 t dare to prosecute me although challenged in writing bu but t the authorities author ties allowed nilo allo wesl wedi drink and leave of absence to be given to soldiers ili ill the garrison on condition that the they would prevent the lecture they broke into the hall sandwith and with cries of kill the infidel sought to t silence me but I 1 queried quelled abe tbt the cowardly mob and delivered my lecture just after this theroun the Youn young k mens mena Christ christian ihn association had me arrested at plymouth when I 1 had hardly corad commenced d my lecture lec tuie having only uttered the words friends I 1 am about to speak break to you about the bible 11 they locked me apall up all ali night bail ball having heen been refused aued au dued ed buti but in r t the tho h morning their legal discovered that a blunder had been committed and a charge of exciting i 1 breach breuch of tho the peace and assaulting I 1 the constable i in n tile the discharge of his hia duty was manufactured the invented charge though well sworn to broke down after two days daye hearing under the tile severe cross crosa egami nation to which I 1 subjected the tho witnesses two lawyers appeared to prosecute me aut aul and A seven judges 1 sat oil on the tiie bench fredet predetermined erm in ed to convict me finding 0 that the tilo testimony of my witnesses W wis was 14 to be thrown out because those who did not believe in hell liell wele were then incompetent aa as witnesses under the english law sever seven several 1 nonconformists nonconformist disgusted with the bigo bigotry and aud pious peri perjury tury of my rny prosecutors cam came aind testified in my behalf the ro uit was a triumph and ano anda at ce which I 1 wrung from theu the banou after afler 1 thu tho triai trial A announced in court that I 1 should deliver the ibe lecture and ind that I 1 should also aiso sue the tho superintendent of police Who arrested me ahall could be hired in the tho towi and nearly all ail the open land being under military jurisdiction it was impossible tj to ee secure curea curen a field for an open all ail air ali meeting niec ting nevon bevon devonport port Ston eliouse and plymouth form one fortified and garrisoned town divided vide d by tho the river biver tamar I 1 procured a large boat on which a temporary oral orai platform was built and aati had it it moored in the river on the doyon Devou devonport port side about ten feet from tim shore placards were circulated announcing that I 1 would lecture near the tho devonport park gates gates A large force of police hay hav ha d been een placed in readiness for my arrest but to thein their astonish mentI monti walked past kast the ga gates gales e s and stepping into a small b boat 0 a t was rowed t to the largo glib gilb from which I 1 delivered my lecture fo to my audience who occupied an an open wharf hil hll alt all within tiiu tild jurisdiction 1 ebion of do and only ten feet outside the tho mayor and his twenty eight picked leaked policemen were wele disgusted gusteal I 1 and 1 I very much fear that tj the i members of the young nien mens mend 3 christian association did not limit themselves to prayers and blessings sinos sings orl oli on that namous famous I 1 opened suit sult 1 against 11 the superintendent in of police as 1 I 1 I had promised promis cd the tile case was made a special j ury case I 1 won it butt buh the devonshire gave me on only onis y a farthing barthin damages and mr nin baron naron channel refused to certify for costs sol 01 carried the case to tilo tile court in banco where r argued it in ift person for two days before lord loid d chief justice justlee E roie erie rie rio and anti a full bench of Judges who sustained the tile decision of 0 tle lower |