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Text
BY GEO. STAND RING,
Editor of 11 The Republican.”
SECOND EDITION.—RE-WRITTEN AND ENLARGED.
LONDON:
Printed and Published at “ The'PaI^ Pr!ess,” 8, Finsbury St., E.O.
K*--'.giffi.<g~J n-!
CJDIWZEJ
E“BE2I^TIW3r,
�GUMMED READY FOR USE,
POST FREE—NO MORE LOST BOOKS !
Address: 8, Finsbury Street London, E,C,
In neat Wrapper, post free 3|d.
EARLY MARRIAGE and LATE PARENTAGE:
The Only Solution of the Social Problem.
By OXONIENSIS.
A most useful resume of the Population Question.
London: Geo. Standring, 8
a
9, Finsbury-st., E.C.
�BIOGRAPHY OF COL INGERSOLL
HE extraordinary and sustained popularity in this
country of Colonel Ingersoll’s lectures and
writings affords ample justification for the publi
cation of a biographical sketch of the distinguished orator.
His works have been issued from various publishing
houses in England, and have circulated by hundreds of
thousands amongst the most thoughtful sections of the
community. Every new effort is enthusiastically received
by his innumerable admirers in this land; and, so far
from his hold upon the public being relaxed, he gains
every year a wider circle of appreciative readers.
Ingersoll has for many years been a well-known figure
in America, and there have been frequent references to
him and to his lectures in the press of that country. > He
is recognised there as the embodiment of aggressive
Freethought; and the “righteous” of America look upon
“ Bob ” in much the same way as the people in this
country regard “ Bradlaugh.” The smart writers on the
press quote his witty sayings with simulated censure, and
they really, no doubt, admire the humorous lecturer even
while they pretend to condemn him. Paragraphers take
advantage of his popularity to work his sayings into their
fugitive witticisms; for example, we have seen in one
paper “ hell ” obliquely referred to as “Bob Ingersoll’s
no such place.” This tends to show that R. G. Ingersoll
has gained a wide-spread renown in his native land, j
To the biographer, a very difficult task is presented
when he undertakes a record of Colonel Ingersoll’s career.
The materials are fragmentary and scattered, and it is
practically impossible to verify and correct such details
as are available. We shall endeavour to make i this
sketch as complete and accurate as the circumstances of
the case will permit.
�( 4 )
^Robert G. Ingersoll is the son of a New School Presby
terian minister, and was born in Western New York,
about the year 1830. While Robert was very young, his
father moved into Ohio, and thence into Illinois, at that
time regions almost wholly uninhabited, and thus his
early years were passed amidst the forests and prairies of
the Western States. Ingersoll left home when very young,
and sought his fortune in the Far West. The cause of
this separation does not appear to be known, but it is not
at all improbable that it was due to the lad’s free-thinking
tendency, which was evinced at an early age. The father,
as stated above, was a minister belonging to a sect that
has never been distinguished by tolerant feeling; and
young Ingersoll found himself when quite a lad in active
hostility to the dogmas taught by his parent. “ I can’t
remember,” he says, “ when I believed the Bible doctrine
of eternal punishment. I have a dim recollection of
hating Jehovah when I was exceedingly small.” In one
of his discourses, he told his hearers this striking anecdote
of his boyhood’s days :—u When I was a lad I sometimes
used to wonder how the mercy of God lasted as long as
it did—because I remember that on several occasions I
had not been at school when I was supposed to be there.
Why I was not burned to a crisp was a mystery to me.
There was one day in each week too good for a child to
be happy in. On that day we were all taken to church,
and the dear old minister used to ask us, ‘ Boys, do you
know that you all ought to be in hell ? ” and we answered
up as cheerfully as we could under such circumstances,
‘Yes, sir.’ ‘ Well, boys, do you know that you would go
to hell if you died in your sins ?’ and we said, ‘ Yes, sir.’
And then came the great test: ‘ Boys, if it was God’s
will that you should go to hell, would you be willing to
go ?” and every little liar said ‘ Yes, sir.’ Then, in order
to tell how long we should stay there, he used to say,
* Suppose once in a million ages a bird should come from
a far distant .clime, and carry off in its bill one little grain
of sand, the time would finally come when the last grain
of sand would be carried away—do you understand ?’
�( 5 )
1 Yes, sir? * Boys, by that time it would not be sun-up
in hell.’ ”♦
It is not difficult to see that the relations between a
clerical parent and a heterodox son of Ingersoll’s bold
and independent nature would soon become intolerably
strained. There is, however, reason to believe that his
father was by no means a bigoted man. The old gentle
man on one occasion became somewhat angry at young
Robert’s outspoken heretical views, and endeavoured to
dissuade him from uttering them. But the lad boldly
said, “ Well, father, if you want me to lie, you may make
me pretend to believe like you, but if you want me to be
honest, I must talk as I do,” and the parent wisely chose
the better part, the heretic rather than the hypocrite.
Before his death the father modified his own views, and
ceased to preach the abominable doctrine of eternal
punishment.
The reason that prompted Ingersoll to leave his home
is unknown, and is not a fitting subject for conjecture;
certain jt is that he entered on the battle of life at an
age when most lads are still under domestic tutelage.
In the Western States he worked in various places,
educating himself meanwhile for the legal profession.
His acute, penetrating mind, combined with a power of
eloquence that has placed him in the foremost rank of
modern orators, soon brought him to the front, and in a
few years from the time when he commenced practising
he became known as a lawyer of unmatched eloquence
and influence with juries. It is many years since Ingersoll
relinquished criminal business. The reason he gave for
this step was that it was too great a tax upon his mind.
His entire energy was devoted to the interests of his
client, and he observes that when defending a prisoner in
a doubtful murder case, his whole mental and physical
force was absorbed in his task. He could think, act, and
speak of nothing else. To a man of wide sympathy and
* Tliis ridiculous metaphor appears in one of Father Furniss’s hellish works
for children. Ingersoll, in narrating it, has introduced an American phrase,
44sun-up” for sun-rise.
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varied activity, this overpowering strain must have been »
aA dangerous as it was inconvenient. A mind employed,
in different directions could not long resist the destructiye influence of such toil..
On the outbreak of the American Civil War, Ingersoll
naturally threw himself with enthusiasm into the cause
of the North. His deep detestation of slavery in every
form—mental as well as physical—impelled him to labor
actively for the side that had undertaken the extinction
of forced servitude in the States. It was not, however,
for the purpose of gratifying his ambition or of indulging
a taste for bloodshed that Ingersoll participated in the
war. Perhaps ho man was less fitted to engage in
sudh unholy work. He says:—“I was not fit to be a
sdldieE I never saw our men fire but I thought of the
widow's and orphans they would make, and wished that
they would miss.” Despite his high-minded abhorrence
of violence and bloodshed, he felt that the abolition of
slavery was an end that justified the means, and he raised
a regiment of cavalry, of which he was placed in command,
arid &8sighed to the Western Department. He was in
the battle of Shiloh and other engagements, and subseqilently fell a prisoner to the Confederates. As he is one
of the wittiest and best talkers in America, in private, as
well as on the platform, he was soon a great favorite,
and Forrest, whose command captured him, treated him
with, the greatest consideration, once telling him that he
would get him exchanged the first chance that offered,
because the prisoner was getting so popular with the
rebels that he began to doubt the fidelity of his own men.
His deep horror of warfare is a feeling to which
Ingersoll frequently gives most eloquent expression in his
works, but it does not proceed from physical or mental
coWardice. True bravery does not exist alone on the
battle-field, where so many adventitious circumstances
combine to inflame the heart' and steel the nerves. The
brtital instinct in mankind is aroused by the blare of
trumpets, the clash of arms, the fierce delight of confliegb, the hope of glory, and the dread of shame. Many
�(< 7 )
men who would shrink in terror from contact with a fever
patient would march without a tremor to certain death
on the e< field of glory.” But the truest, noblest bravery
is often exhibited under conditions which do not include
the stimulating effect of public achievement.
That Ingersoll is a man of courage and self-devotion is
plainly shown by an incident of this character. On the
fatal day when the fanatic Guiteau shot Garfield, the
Colonel was amongst the gentlemen in the President’s
company. The first shots did their fell work before any
attempt could be made to protect the President; but,
when Ingersoll saw Guiteau preparing to fire yet again
at his innocent victim, he threw his body before him, and
would undoubtedly have received the bullet had not the
assassin been seized and disarmed. “ Greater love hath ;
no man than this, to lay down his life for his friend:”
and that Ingersoll endeavored to shield Garfield from >
danger, at the risk of his own life, is an historical incident |
that will for ever redound to his glory.
In America, as in every other country, the avowal of f
heresy subjects the individual to certain pains and .
penalties at the hands of the bigoted. Although our
Transatlantic brethren have cast off the yoke of
monarchy, and for over a century have lived under the £
*
flag of the Republic, they have not yet emancipated <
themselves from the thraldom of superstition. It would
be impossible to over-estimate the work which Ingersoll,
by his wit and eloquence, has done in “ breaking the
fetters” imposed by the adherents of superstition upon
the thought and speech of man. But in this noble
iconoclastic mission the Colonel has drawn upon himself'
the fierce wrath of the bigots. As a politician, Ingersoll j
would by right of ability have taken a commanding
position. But his freely-spoken heterodox views have
operated against him, as may be seen from a character
istic anecdote. A gentleman went to see Colonel
Ingersoll when he lived in Peoria, and, finding a fine
copy of Voltaire in his library, said, “ Pray, sir, what did
this cost you ?” “ I believe it cost me the governorship
�( 8 )
of the State of Illinois,” was the swift and pregnant
answer. Doubtless, however, the Colonel does not regret
his exclusion from political honors. His heart is in the
Freethought work of which he is the acknowledged
leader in America, and his practice at the bar must
absorb a great deal of his time and energy. Political
life in the States is not of a nature to invite high-minded
and pure-hearted men to engage in it. From various
causes that are totally independent of the form of govern
ment, politics in that great country is too often a game
in which dishonesty and chicanery are the leading
features. Let us hope that in years to come the
machinery of State will be re-organised in such a manner
as to make it a credit to the glorious principles of
Republicanism!
Although Ingersoll occupies no official position in the
State, his ability, energy, and unsullied integrity make
him a great force in politics. He is a Republican, and is
a thorough “ party man ” in its widest, noblest sense.
He described his position in a trenchant manner in sup
porting the candidature of Garfield a few years ago:—“ I
belong to a party that is prosperous. I belong to the
party that believes in good crops; that is glad when a
fellow finds a gold mine; that rejoices when there are
forty bushels of wheat to an acre; that laughs when
every railroad declares its dividend; that claps both its
hands when every investment pays; when the rain falls
for the farmer; when the dew lies lovingly upon the
grass. I belong to the party that is happy when the
people are happy; when the labouring man gets three
dollars a day; when he has roast beef on his table ; when
he has a carpet on the floor; when he has a picture of
Garfield on the wall.”
Drawing the lines of distinction between the two great
parties in American politics, Ingersoll remarked :—“ A
man is a Republican because he loves something. A man
is a Democrat mostly because he hates something. A
Republican takes a man, as it were, by the collar, and
says, f You must do your best, you must climb the
�( 9 )
infinite hill of human progress as long as you live? Now
and then one gets tired, lets go all hold, and rolls down
to the very bottom of the hill, and as he strikes the mud,
he springs upon his feet transfigured, and says, ‘ Hurrah
for Hancock? ”
It will be seen from these excerpts that Ingersoll’s
adhesion to a party is conceived in no narrow spirit of
selfish supremacy or personal gain. One side represents
the forward, the other the backward, movement, and to
the former he unhesitatingly gives his allegiance because
the progress of the people is bound up with it.
Colonel Ingersoll is admittedly the leading jury-lawyer
at the American bar. His eloquence is irresistible when
brought to bear upon the twelve “ good men and true ”
who are supposed to form the palladium of the constitu
tion. In the great Star Route case, which has recently
been concluded after years of litigation and an expenditure
of over two millions of dollars, the Colonel was leading
counsel for the defence; and, apart from the merits of
the case, it may be a source of satisfaction to know that
Ingersoll’s side won the day. This circumstance would
seem to show that he is not only an adept at persuading
a jury, but that he is also an able and profound lawyer,
for the nature of the issues in this case needed all the
resources that a legal mind could bring to bear upon
them.
In personal appearance Colonel Ingersoll is as distin
guished as his intellect and powers of expression are
above the average of humanity. He stands fully six feet
in height, and weighs over two hundred pounds. His head
is remarkable for mental capacity, and his face habitually
wears a pleasant and genial expression The portrait
which appears on the front of this pamphlet is beyond
doubt the best wood-cut representation of his features;
but even that does not convey the sunny serenity por
trayed in the best photographs of him. The soft
shadows and subtle tints of photography can be rarely
translated with proper effect in a wood engraving, which
at the best can be nothing more than an approximate
�( 10 )
representation. In a splendid lithographic drawing that
has been sold in this country, the Colonel is represented
standing at full length, in a graceful negligent attitude,
with one hand in pocket; and the expression of his face
is extremely benevolent and good-natured.
In his domestic relations, Ingersoll is almost romanti
cally happy. His wife and children are not regarded by
him as inferior creatures, whose destiny is simply to
minister to the pleasure of the “ master,” and to obey
his behests. He is demonstrative, loving, and generous.
His fire-side is his heaven, his wife and daughters the
angels therein. His views with regard to domestic
finance have been thus expressed upon the platform :—“ I
despise a stingy man. I have known men who would
trust their wives with their hearts and honor, but not
with their pocket-book ; not with a dollar. When I see
a man of that kind, I always think he knows which of
these articles is the most valuable. Think of making
your wife a beggar! Think of her having to ask you
every day for a dollar, or for two dollars, or fifty cents !
‘ What did you do with that dollar I gave you last week ?’
Think of having a wife that is afraid of you ! Oh, I tell
you, if you have but a dollar in the world, and you have
got to spend it, spend it like a king, spend it as though
it were a dry leaf, and you the owner of unbounded
forests !” A story is current that he keeps in his house
a drawer filled with money, to which his family have free
access, and no account is ever required of the sums taken
or how they are expended. This may appear to some
to be munificence run mad; but Ingersoll is not the man
to act like an idiot, and doubtless he has found that, in
his case at least, the plan works well. At his residence
in Washington he dispenses a profuse hospitality, enter
taining friends and even wayfarers with a hearty cordiality
that makes every guest feel “ at home ” in that gracious
circle.
Ingersoll is essentially a popular orator. There is in
his speeches no shadow of obscurity, no perplexity of
meaning. He speaks in short crisp sentences; and he
�never involves one idea by running another into it. At
the same time his simplicity never becomes jejune : one
can always feel the mighty force of the orator, though
his language is so vivid and clear that a child cannot
mistake his meaning. Often and often he compresses
into a few brilliant words an idea that other men would
require as many sentences to express. This is really the
secret of his success as an orator. In the crucible of his
mind the metal is separated from the dross : and, just as
a small nugget of fine gold may represent all that is of
value in a huge lump of ore, so. a single sentence of
Ingersoll’s may contain the whole pith and substance of
a common-place discourse.
The greater part of Ingersoll’s orations have been
issued in this country. We believe that the Freethought
Publishing Company first introduced them to English
readers, in a neat volume containing many of his best
works, and printed in uniform style. The collection
comprises the lecture on “ Humboldt,” the “ Arraign
ment of the Churches,” the “ Oration on the Gods,” the
“ Oration on Thomas Paine,” and others. An aesthetic
edition of small size and somewhat eccentric typography,
has been issued under the title of “ The Leek Bijou,”
comprising “ What must I do to be saved ?” “ The
Christian Religion,” and one or two others. Mr. Morrish,
of Bristol, has also published several, including “ Farm
Life in America,” “ Breaking the Fetters,” “ Difficulties
of Belief,” &c. These lectures, though rather imperfectly
edited, have had a very large circulation, and their popu
larity is by no means yet exhausted. Messrs. Heywood,
of Manchester, have brought out several of the lectures in
a neat and handy edition. More recently the “ Decora
tion Day Oration ” has been issued from the Paine Press,
and a cheap edition, from the original stereotype plates,
of “ Thomas Paine Glorified.” The latter has been very
favorably received. The Progressive Publishing Com
pany has introduced the latest of Ingersoll’s orations
under the title, “Doi Blaspheme?” One unfortunate
result of the various publications is that the editions are
�( 12 )
, not of uniform size, and it is consequently impossible to
make a single bound collection of the orations. Perhaps
in the future some enterprising firm may find it possible
to‘issue such a series.
*
J- It will thus be seen that Ingersoll is a “household
'Word ” amongst English Freethinkers. Although he has
never appeared amongst them, his individuality is as
'familiar to them as that of an old friend. If he could be
. induced to visit this country his welcome would be most
enthusiastic. Every admirer of his wit and eloquence—
and their name is legion—’-would flock to hear his voice
and participate in the charm of his presence. There is,
we fear, small chance of this ardent hope being realised.
Ingersoll’s work in America is of a nature that prevents
him from leaving his native shores. -Nevertheless,
although the Secularists of England cannot reasonally
anticipate the delight of personal communication with
him, they send across the Atlantic their heartiest goo4
wishes, and trust he may/lqng continue his noble work
of emancipating the minds of the human- race from the
detestable yoke of superstition.
ru
. * Since this was written, the': Freethought Publishing Company has
issued, n c^0aP uniform edition (df; the lectures,- paged ’ continuously for
^■•‘ RADICAL READING;
♦
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;;. Life of C. Bradlaugh,. M. Pt; o' - idJ
' Court Flunkeys (20th thousand) id.
- Does Royalty Pay?' - id.,
Ingersoll Answers Questions; h £d. >
; Interview with Ingersoll -id. ■
MaccallNewest Materialisrrir\ is. 1.
The Republican (monthly) .
id.
�
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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Life of Col. R.G. Ingersoll
Description
An account of the resource
Edition: 2nd ed.
Place of publication: London
Collation: 12 p. ; 20 cm.
Notes: Date of publication from Stein checklist. No. 368 in Stein checklist, but with variant title. Engraving of Ingersoll on front cover. 'Radical Reading', titles listed on back cover. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
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Standring, George
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The Paine Press
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[1881]
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N622
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Robert Green Ingersoll
Free thought
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Robert Green Ingersoll
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NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
grfte Atheistic platform.
X.
DOES
ROYALTY
PAY?
GEORGE STANDRING,
Editor
of
“The Republican.”
LONDON:
FREETHOUGHT
PUBLISHING
63, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1 884.
PRICE
ONE PENNY.
COMPANY,
�THE ATHEISTIC PLATFORM.
Under this title is being issued a fortnightly publi
cation, each number of which consists of a lecture
delivered by a well-known Freethought advocate. Any
question may be selected, provided that it has formed the
subject of a lecture delivered from the platform by an
Atheist. It is desired to show that the Atheistic platform
is used for the service of humanity, and that Atheists war
against tyranny of every kind, tyranny of king and god,
political, social, and theological.
Each issue consists of sixteen pages, and is published at
one penny. Each writer is responsible only for his or her
own views.
1. —“ What is the use of Prayer ? ” By Annie Besant.
2. —“ Mind considered as a Bodily Function. By Alice
Bradlaugh.
3. —“ The Gospel of Evolution.” By Edward Aveljng,
D.Sc.
4. —“ England’s Balance-Sheet.” By Charles Bradlaugh.
5. —“ The Story of the Soudan.” By Annie Besant.
G.—“ Nature and the Gods.” By Arthur B. Moss.
These Six, in Wrapper, Sixpence.
7. —“ Some Objections to Socialism.” By Charles Brad
laugh.
8. —“Is Darwinism Atheistic?” By Charles Cockbill
Cattell.
9. —“ The Myth of the Resurrection.” By Annie Besant.
�DOES ROYALTY PAY?
TFriends,—Napoleon I. is said to have described the
English as a “nation of shopkeepers,” that is, a people
whose minds were “cribb’d, cabin’d, and confin’d” by the
sordid considerations of commerce, and were unable to
rise to the grandeur of the occasion when wars of conquest
and schemes of European domination were in question.
It is to you as shopkeepers or as commercial men that I
now wish to propound this question: 11 Does Royalty
Pay<n Is it a profitable investment to the nation? Is
?'
our servant paid too high a wage? Is it necessary, or
even prudent, to retain his “ services ” any longer ?
No employer of labor would fail to ask himself such a
question as regards the men in his employ. A large mill
owner, paying an overseer £1000 per annum to superin
tend his business, would find it necessary to make some
alteration in his arrangements if he were to find that, for
several months during the year his servant’s coat, thrown
over an empty chair, alone represented the individual
whom he employed! Such a system of business surely
would not “ pay.”
The national balance-sheet in regard to royalty would
stand thus :
Expenditure.
Receipts.
£
s. d.
£ s. fd.
To Guelph & Co., one
year’s salaries and
expenses .. .. 1,000,000 0 0
By services ren
dered per con
tra ................... 0 0 0
Surely this is a most unsatisfactory item in the accounts
of the nation! Let us see in what fashion this expensive
encumbrance of a useless monarchy has come down to us.
�148
THE ATHEISTIC PLATFORM.
By tracing the history of royalty in England through a
few of its most important phases, we shall be able to arrive
at a true estimate of its position and character in these latter
days. We shall see monarchy gradually dwindling from
a position of absolute dominance to its present degraded
and anomalous condition. Together with an oppressed
and uncivilised people we find a powerful sovereign; with
a free and enlightened nation monarchy exists but as a
mere costly sham. From this I think we may fairly infer
that the system we are discussing is fit only for a crude
and barbarous stage of society; and that with the growth
of popular intelligence and patriotism the old dominance
becomes less and less possible.
When William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy, assisted
by a select band of continental cut-throats, invaded Eng
land and vanquished the Saxons, he established the feudal
system in its most rigorous form. The barons to whom he
allotted the land were responsible to him, and to him alone,
for their actions. The people were simply serfs or villeins,
without rights or duties as citizens. They were mere
chattels appertaining to the estates of their lords and
owners, and politically were of no account whatever. Thus
the centralised power of the Crown was originally domi
nant ; the nobles existed as dependents of the Crown, and
the people, as a political power, were practically non
existent. Thus was the “ State ” constituted towards the
end of the eleventh century.
It would be a most interesting study,'but it is absolutely
impossible to pursue it within the limits of a lecture, to
trace the gradual development of popular liberty; to see
the quarrels between the Crown and the nobles ; to observe
the first struggles of the populace in the direction of
freedom and independence. It will, however, be possible
to glance at certain epochs of our history in which the
gradual decay of the monarchical institution may be
traced.
First, then, let us turn to the period when the principle
of “Divine Bight ” was eliminated from English royalty.
Charles I. appears to have conscientiously held the view
that the Almighty had selected the Stuart family as “fit
and proper persons” to hold absolute and irresponsible
sway over the British people. With the courage of his
convictions, he sought to enforce his views, even to the
�DOES ROYALTY PAY ?
149
-desperate length of a resort to arms. God upon that occa
sion did not support his chosen one; and when the head of
Charles fell upon the scaffold at Whitehall it may be said
the doctrine of divine right fell with it, for it has never
been seriously maintained, as a political principle, in Eng
land since that time.
If we turn now to the end of the seventeenth century,
we shall note a further advance in the direction of popular
freedom. James II. had become so obnoxious to the
■country that he wisely fled and abandoned the throne.
William, Prince of Orange, was therefore invited by the
Lords and Commons to assume the Crown. An attempt
was made, however, to limit William’s authority, and to
this the Dutch prince would not agree. He told the English representatives that he was perfectly contented with
his position in Holland; a crown was no great thing, and
he had no wish for it; the English had sought him and
not he the English; and if they wished for his services
“they must agree to his terms. Ultimately the Dutchman
ascended the throne of Great Britain as William TTT.
upon a distinct contract with the [nominal] representatives
•of the people. “The Constitution,” says Hume, in his
History of England, “had now assumed a new aspect.
The maxim of hereditary indefeasible right was at length
venounced by a free Parhament. The power of the Crown
was acknowledged to flow from no other fountain than
that of a contract with the people. Allegiance and pro
tection were declared reciprocal ties depending upon each
other. The representatives of the nation made a regular
claim of rights on behalf of their constituents ; and Wil
liam III. ascended the throne in consequence of an express
capitulation with the people.”
Here, then, is a great advance. The people and the
'Crown are the two parties to a contract. Such a contract
may be determined by either of the parties ; and the con
stitutional Republican agitation of to-day is a movement
directed towards the lawful, peaceful termination of such
contract, as being no longer useful or necessary. The
object is a purely legal and justifiable object; and when
our opponents describe the Republican agitation as “sedi
tious” they merely expose their malice and ignorance.
It would be at once interesting and instructive to trace
-the history of English monarchy from the commencement
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THE ATHEISTIC PLATFORM.
of the eighteenth century down to the present time. We
should see how the importation of a disreputable German
family brought the Crown into contempt—how the German
mistresses of George I. and his successor had “ exploited”
the British—and how the people had been estranged from
their rulers. We should see the pious but stupid and pre
judiced George III. exercising his authority upon the side
of privilege and oppression, and retarding, to the full ex
tent of his power, every movement in the direction of
popular progress and freedom. The foes of liberty were
the “King’s friends,” and, necessarily, the friends of the
people were the “King’s enemies.” The student of his
tory will be aware that the influence thus exercised by
George III. was a very real and weighty factor in political
affairs. That estimable monarch died sixty-four years ago;
and it will be instructive to note the vast change in the
power and status of the Crown that this comparatively
brief period has brought about.
Queen Victoria ascended the throne of England seyenteen years after the death of George III. • and in the year
1840 was married to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. This
gentleman came from a small German court, and the pro
spect of wielding a certain degree of influence over the
affairs of a mighty nation was very attractive to his mind.
His position in this country was somewhat anomalous ; the
Queen took precedence of her Consort, and politically
Albert was a fifth wheel in the coach. w It was taken for
granted by the people that the Prince would not meddle in
political business, and time after time he was publicly com
plimented on the supposed fact that, recognising his posi
tion in this country, he had abstained from interference in
the national affairs. Albert, however, had been so inter
fering in a secret and underhand fashion; and when the
fact became known, public indignation was aroused. The
Queen and her Consort thereupon wrote to Baron Stockmar, asking for his advice and assistance. Stockmar, it may
be explained, had been a long-life friend and counsellor
of the Queen, and his direction would naturally have much
weight with her. In reply to the Queen’s appeal, Stockmar wrote a long and tedious letter (given at length in Sir
Theodore Martin’s “Life of the Prince Consort”) from
which one or two passages may be given. He pointed out
that, “in our time, since Reform .... and the growth
�DOES ROYALTY DAY?
151
of those politicians .... who treat the existing Consti
tution merely as a bridge to a Republic, it is of extreme
importance that this fiction should be countenanced only pro
visionally, and that no opportunity should be let slip of vindicat
ing the. legitimate position of the Crown.11 Stockmar then
discusses the imaginary situation of a stupid or unscrupu
lous Minister pursuing a foolish or mischievous policy, to
the detriment of the public welfare. The only punishment
that could be inflicted in such a case is “the removal or
resignation ” of the offender. But the divine system of a
properly-constituted monarchy would, Baron Stockmar
alleged, provide an efficient safeguard against such dis
astrous mismanagement. Who, he asks, “could have
averted the danger, either wholly or in part ? Assuredly
he [the Sovereign], and he alone, who, being free from
party passion, has listened to the voice of an independent
judgment [i.e., his own]. To exercise this judgment is,
both in a moral and constitutional point of view, a matter
of right, nay, a positive duty. The Sovereign may even
take a part in the initiation and the maturing of the Gov
ernment measures ; for it would be unreasonable to expect
that a King, himself as able, as accomplished, as patriotic (
as the best of his Ministers, should be prevented from
making use of these qualities at the deliberations of his
Council.”
Writing thus to a member of the House of Hanover,
Stockmar must have been singularly ignorant or strangely
oblivious of the history of that family. Where, since the
Guelphs first landed upon our shores, shall we find the
sovereign “as able, as accomplished, as patriotic as the
best of his ministers ” ? Can we so describe George I.,
ignorant of the English tongue, absolutely indifferent to
the national welfare, contented to pass his time carousing
with his fat German mistresses ? Is it possible thus to re
gard his scarcely more estimable successor, George II.;
the ignorant, bigoted, obstinate madman, George III.; the
profligate and unprincipled George IV. ; or his successor,
William IV., who, as Greville declared, would make a
good king if he did not go mad? And, looking to the
future, can we dare to anticipate that the Prince of Wales,
if he ever ascend the throne, will display either ability o
patriotism in a very eminent degree ? Baron Stockmar
urged the Queen to avail herself of every opportunity to
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THE ATHEISTIC PLATFORM.
vindicate the “legitimate position of the Crown.” This clear
and decided advice, it must be remembered, was given by
the Queen’s most trusted counsellor in response to a direct
appeal for such aid; but can it be pretended that Her
Majesty has ever followed it? Is it under the reign of
Victoria that the dwindling prerogatives of the monarch
have been strengthened and extended ? On the contrary,
the forty-seven years of the present reign have seen the
almost absolute self-effacement of the sovereign as a politi
cal and social factor. Parliament is opened by “commis
sion ” in the absence of the Queen; drawing-rooms are
held by the Princess of Wales, in the absence of the Queen.
Whilst the political machine is running, and the wheels of
society are swiftly revolving in their appointed fashion, the
nominal head alike of the State and of Society is buried in
the remote fastnesses of Balmoral, the solemn glories of
Windsor, or the sylvan glades of Osborne. Privacy of the
most complete nature is all that is apparently sought. In
short, Her Majesty is teaching the English how easily and
comfortably they may exist without a Queen!
Politically, the Sovereign now only operates as a machine
for affixing the sign-manual. The responsibility for every
measure, for every action, rests upon the official advisers
of the Crown. Without their aid there could be nothing
to sign; but—according to the glorious principles of our
constitution—the result of their labor and genius would be
null and void, minus the signature of the Sovereign. The
sole object, then, for which monarchy now exists, politi
cally, would be equally well served by an india-rubber
stamp, an impression of which could be affixed to any
document or measure that had received the sanction of
both Houses of Parliament. And the cost of this need not
exceed the moderate sum of one shilling.
With reference to the functions of the Sovereign, I am,
however, bound to admit that the view I have just endea
vored to state is not universally accepted as correct. There
can be no possible doubt that the principle that “ the Sove
reign reigns but does not govern ” is the only one upon which
the majority of Englishmen would tolerate the existence of
royalty. The spirit of democracy has so deeply permeated
English political life that the exercise of an irresponsible
unrepresentative power in public affairs would not long be
permitted to exist. Supposing, for instance, that a Fran-
�DOES ROYALTY I’AY ?
153
•chise Bill, after being passed by the Commons and Lords,
should be vetoed by the Crown, such use of the royal pre
rogative—although legally perfectly justifiable—would be
the death-warrant of the monarchy. But, judging from
■certain statements that have been made public, and which
have emanated from responsible sources, it seems probable
that, in truth, the Queen does exercise a very real influence
over public affairs, but it is an influence of which the
public officially knows nothing. Several years ago Mr. Dis
raeli stated in a public speech, at Hughenden, that the duties
performed by the Queen were “weighty,” “unceasing,”
and “laborious.” “There is not,” he said, “ a dispatch re
ceived from abroad, nor one sent from this country, which
is not submitted to the Queen. ... Of our present SoveTeign it may be said that her signature has never been
placed to any public document of which she did not know
the purport, and of which she did not approve.” Now Mr.
Disraeli was on many occasions extremely parsimonious of
the truth; and it is quite possible that the startling statement
there made was merely a vivid flash of the imagination.
Dor what does it amount to ? If the Queen signs no
document of which “she does not approve,” then her
influence in the State is paramount, and if any difference
of opinion arise between the Sovereign and the Ministry
it is the latter that must accommodate itself to the former
before anything can be done. If all that Mr. Disraeli
said at Hughenden on thjs subject be true, it is difficult
to detect the essential difference between the “ constitu
tional rule” of Victoria and the “autocratic sway” of
Alexander III. of Russia! I for one cannot believe it.
If the judgment of the Prime Minister and the Govern
ment is to be on occasion subjugated to the conflicting
judgment of a doubtless honest and well-meaning, but
very commonplace old lady, the sooner the people under
stand this the better for us all. But, I repeat, I cannot
believe it. Shrewdness is a prominent trait in the Queen’s
character; and I cannot conceive it possible that she
should dare to follow the course of action indicated by the
words of Mr. Disraeli. Certain it is that the people
officially know nothing of it; and, judging from the facts
as they are displayed before us, we are justified in re
garding the monarchy as simply useless—not worse than
useless.
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THE ATHEISTIC PLATFORM.
At present our india-rubber stamp costs us at least a
million sterling per annum. The Civil List of £385,000'
represents but a portion of the outlay which the mainten
ance of royalty involves. The pensions and allowances to
members of the Queen’s family; the cost of maintaining
and repairing the numerous palaces required for their
accommodation ; and innumerable indirect expenses which
are carefully dispersed amongst various branches of the
public accounts, fully make up the enormous total given.
Sir Charles Dilke, for instance, whilst investigating this
matter some years ago, found that a certain number of
men were continually employed in painting the ornamental
fire-buckets on board one of the royal yachts. Year in
and year out their sole duty was to paint these buckets.
As soon as they were finished the work was begun over
again.
What advantage does the nation derive from the exer
tions of its most expensive “servant”? The Daily Tele
graph and other pious and loyal journals sometimes urge
that the Queen furnishes us with a noble example of a
sovereign and mother. But how ? Officially she has for
over twenty years almost entirely neglected the public duties
of her high position. And where is the nobility of her ex
ample as a mother ? Many a poor widow toils incessantly
in order to maintain her young family, denying herself
proper rest and food, so that her children may be decently
clothed, fed, and educated, and obtain a fair start in life.
Such cases of devotion and self-denial are frequent amongst
the poorest classes of society. Is not this a nobler example
than that of a lady in possession of immense wealth, who
is perfectly well able to support the whole of her numerous
family, but who yet permits the burden of their mainten
ance to be thrown upon the nation ? The private wealth
of the royal family must be enormous, and abundantly
adequate for their needs; and yet how many appeals for
charitable grants have been made upon their behalf I
Prince after prince, and princess after princess, have thusbeen quartered upon the nation as out-door paupers, re
cipients of a charity that is disgraceful, and would be de
grading to any family save the Guelphs.
Let us glance at the long roll of pauper princes, and
see what advantage the nation derives in return for their
generous allowances. The Prince of Wales receives an
�DOES ROYALTY PAY ?
155-
income of more than £150,000 a year, including his wife’s
allowance, but not including the accumulations of the
Duchy of Cornwall, or various sums that have been voted
for exceptional purposes. His Royal Highness is a Field
marshal of the British army, and honorary colonel of
several regiments. Now, what is the work that H.R.H.
performs in return for his ample wage of £3,000 per week?
Upon this point I will cite the evidence of the Daily News,
a Liberal, pious, and respectable authority: “The Prince
of Wales had a hard day’s work on Saturday. In tho
afternoon, besides holding a levee, he unveiled a statue of
Sir Rowland Hill at Cornhill, and in the evening he dined
with the Lord Mayor and the provincial mayors at the
Mansion House, afterwards witnessing part of the per
formance of ‘ The Marriage of Figaro ’ at the Covent
Garden Theatre.” And this, O ye Gods ! was a hard day’a
work! Not one of the simple rounds of daily toil, but
over-time - into the bargain ! Cannot such labor be per
formed at a cheaper rate ? Cannot some patriotic indi
vidual be induced to expend his energies in the service of
the State at a more reasonable rate of remuneration than
£3,000 per week? Surely if the contract were submitted
to public competition the Prince’s post could be filled, his
arduous labors performed, more economically than is now
the case.
Take, again, the Prince’s oratory. He opens bazaars,
lays foundation stones, and performs similar ornamental
if not useful functions. At Norwich, opening the Agri
cultural Hall in that city, Albert Edward eloquently re
marked: “Mr. Birkbeck and Gentlemen,—I have the
greatest pleasure iu declaring this hall to be now open.
It is worthy of the County of Norfolk and the City of
Norwich. (Loud cheers.)” Is this the oratory of our
£3,000 per week Demosthenes? Without any desire to
over-estimate my own ability, I could venture to under
take to make a much better speech than that at a mere
fraction of the cost.
As to the Prince’s military worth I am not in a position
to offer any facts or opinion. His uniforms are covered
with medals, and it therefore follows that the Prince must,
during some portions of his career, have earned those
decorations by many acts of bravery and devotion. I have
searched the pages of contemporary history for the records
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THE ATHEISTIC PLATFORM.
of these deeds of heroism, but, alas! I have found them
not. It is difficult to account for the remissness of histori
ans in this matter. * In none of their works do we find a
line or a sentence referring to the Prince’s exploits on the
battle-field, to the deeds of valor which bear their outward
and visible signs in the Prince’s medals. I do not, how
ever, despair of obtaining the information some day.
Take another Guelphic hero and warrior, the Duke of
■Connaught. This young man is a major-general in the
British army, and in due course—if the monarchy survive
long enough—will doubtless be appointed commander-inchief when the Duke of Cambridge shall have passed
away, and his umbrella alone shall remain as a memento
of his glorious career. The Duke of Connaught has taken
a more or less active part in the military service, and it is
clearly to his ability alone that his rapid promotion is to
be traced. Unlike the heir-apparent, our major-general
can point to the records of history in proof of his achieve
ments. When the English troops were sent to Egypt to
crush the national movement organised and directed in
that country by Arabi, it was deemed advisable that a
prince of the blood should accompany the expedition. The
flagging popularity of the Crown needed a stimulant, and
it was hoped that the participation of a member of the
royal family in the noble work of suppressing Egyptian
freedom would bring about this result. Statements were
circulated to the effect that the Prince of Wales, inflamed
with military ardor, desired to take part in the war, but
that, “in deference to the highest authority,” he had
decided to remain at home. His younger brother, how
ever, was nominated to an important command, and his
departure from our shores was the signal for the most
fulsome and ridiculous panegyrics from “loyal” journa
lists. The Daily Telegraph in bombastic and inflated
language described the satisfaction that every Englishmen
must feel at the sight of one of the princes placing himself
at the head of British troops and leading them to glory on
the battlefield. A special general was sent out to see that
the duke got into no danger; a special doctor accompanied
him, and every precaution was taken for his comfort and
safety. Soon after his arrival the battle of Kassassin was
fought, and telegrams reached this country extolling the
bravery of the duke during the combat. It subsequently
�DOES ROYALTY PAY ?
157
became known that while the battle of Kassassin was
taking place the Duke of Connaught was ten miles in the
rear! It is not a difficult matter to display the most reck
less heroism when one is ten miles from any danger.
Artemus Ward escaped a fatal wound at Sebasto
pol by not being there, and our major-general owes
his preservation to a similar piece of good fortune.
I believe the only privation to which the Duke was sub
jected during the campaign was a temporary scarcity of
soda and brandy. At the conclusion of the war many of
the troops returned to England, and were enthusiasti
cally received by their countrymen. A certain number of
picked men were summoned to Windsor, when the Queen
affixed a medal to the breast of every soldier who had
distinguished himself. And, as a grand climax, the Duke
of Connaught came forward, his royal mother fastened
a decoration upon his already overloaded uniform, and affec
tionately imprinted a kiss upon his martial brow I Could
any more ridiculous farce be imagined ? The carpet
warrior who had merely accompanied the expedition as an
ornamental appendage, who was never in real danger—to
him was vouchsafed the same reward as to the men who
had risked their lives in the discharge of their duty.
However little we may admire the trade of the soldier, it
is matter of credit to him when he bravely performs the duty
imposed upon him, and the decoration earned by devotion
and heroism is an honor to him. But as for the rows of
medals and ribands that are so thickly strewn upon the
uniforms of princely toy«soldiers, they might just as well
be fixed upon a German sausage for any relevance that
they bear to the object upon which they appear.
The sham heroes of English royalty are in perfect keep
ing with the system to which they belong. They form
part of an institution that was once terrible and powerful,
but which is now as weak as it is contemptible and ridicu
lous. The political aspect of monarchy has entirely dis
appeared ; it is not merely useless, but an actual clog and
nuisance in the work of the State. Its social duties are
frivolous and unimportant, and its “services” could be
dispensed with, not only without detriment, but with
actual advantage to the nation. We are sometimes told
that England is a wealthy country and can afford to
bear the expense entailed by royalty. I deny the state
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THE ATHEISTIC PLATFORM.
ment absolutely and in all earnestness. Whilst we find
large numbers of people dying from starvation in our
midst; whilst we see so many thousands of our country
men barely able, by the most arduous exertions, to keep
the wolf at bay; whilst we find that misery and want are
rife among the laboring classes of the community, I say
that it is criminal extravagance to maintain in idleness
and luxury a family that perform no service to the country,
and whose position is based upon a barbarous and obso
lete form of government.
I should be performing but a portion of the task which
I have undertaken, if I failed to point out one considera
tion that is too often overlooked. The huge sum of money
appropriated to the maintenance of royalty does not go
into the pockets of the royal family, and by far the greater
portion of it is absolutely outside of their control. The
institution of monarchy is in this country the means of
supporting that huge crowd of lazy aristocrats who have
been irreverently but not inaptly termed “Court Flun
keys.” If the British tax-payer were to take the trouble
to enquire what is done with the money which he grum
bles so loudly at paying, he would find that it filters in
many ways into the pockets of the Crown’s most devoted
adherents. The royal family are bound by the iron fetters
of custom and precedent, and many huge establishments
have to be supported, at enormous expense to the country,
for their accommodation. A glance at the composition of
the royal household would show “about one thousand
unselected, vested-interest, hungry, hereditary bondsmen
dancing round the Crown like Red Indians round a stake,
and scrambling for £325,000 of the £385,000 that is
thrown to them every year by a liberal and unenquiring
country.” Royalty requires a whole army of attendants,
and all of them have to be highly paid. Many of the
superior officials do absolutely nothing. Their offices are
sinecures; and, in many cases, even when certain duties
have to be performed, the country, while paying A. a
handsome salary for occupying the office, obligingly pays
B. to do the work. It would be instructive to repro
duce the mere list of officials and servants employed in the
service of royalty. It comprises offices that are obsolete,
offices that are ridiculous, and offices that are unnecessary.
We have an aristocratic Master of the Tennis Court, with
�DOES ROYALTY PAY ?
159
a large salary but no Tennis Court; a barge-master with
two men to help him, but no barge—only the salary;
there are chamberlains of various kinds, chief clerks, ordi
nary clerks and assistant-clerks; lords in waiting, grooms
in waiting; gentlemen ushers and ushers who presumably
are not gentlemen ; masters of the ceremonies, assistants,
and people to assist the assistants; state pages, pages of
the back-stairs, a page of the chambers, pages of the
presence, and pages’ men to wait upon the pages, of whom
—reckoning all varieties—there are sufficient to make a
large volume ; several kinds of serj eants-at-arms, kings-ofarms, heralds, chaplains, dentists, painters, librarians;
gold sticks, silver sticks, copper sticks and sugar sticks;
secretaries to everybody and under-secretaries to the secre
taries; inspectors, equerries, footmen, “three necessary
women,” priests, painters, organists, composers, etc., ad
infinitum.
These officials pass their lives comfortably and luxu
riously, subsisting upon the public money. If any one of
them has any work to do it will be found that three or
four others are provided and paid to help him; and their
assistance is sometimes afforded when there is actually
nothing to be done. To these men and to their relations
royalty is the best possible form of government, and
they will defend to the last gasp the institution which
enables them to live in idleness upon the fruits of honest
industry.
I should like to suggest a possible way in which many
of these tax-eaters could be got rid of. A short Act might
be passed ordaining that the salaries of “Court Flunkeys”
should in future be collected direct from the people by the
holders of the offices in person. The “bargemaster” and
his two “watermen,” who so efficiently help him to do
nothing, might possibly be able to gather in the £400 per
annum that they receive for their valuable services; but I
am rather doubtful whether, after deducting wear and
tear of clothing (damaged in frequent kickings-out),
doctors’ bills, time, trouble, etc., they would find the
pecuniary results to be worth consideration. There would
be fair ground for hoping that in a very few years the
greater part of these useless offices would fall into
desuetude.
We may venture to trust that, in time, the English
x
�160
THE ATHEISTIC PLATFORM.
people will open their eyes to the anomaly of their position.
With a political system in which the Republican spirit is
the very breath of life, we foolishly continue the ex
pensive luxury of a useless monarchy. The only terma
upon which we consent to retain and maintain the mon
archical element is, that it shall do nothing to logically
justify its existence. The misfortune is that the nation
has not the courage of its convictions. The facts of our
political existence are democratic; the fictions—and most
expensive fictions—are monarchical. But the day is not
far distant when the scales of prejudice and ignorance will
fall from the eyes of our people; when they will be
aroused to the dignity and independence of their man
hood ; when, being no longer children, they will put’ aside
childish things, dismiss the useless representatives of a
bygone system, and transfer their allegiance from the
Crown to the Commcnwealth.
London: Printed by Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugii,
63, Fleet Street, E.C.
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Does royalty pay?
Creator
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Standring, George
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: [147]-160 p. ; 18 cm.
Series title: Atheistic Platform
Series number: 10
Notes: Printed by Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh. Publisher's series list on p. [146]. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
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Freethought Publishing Company
Date
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1884
Identifier
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N621
Subject
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Republicanism
Monarchy
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Does royalty pay?), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Monarchy-Great Britain
NSS
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/b51ed27a556e8f51386ba731f205773c.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=cpeY3jBJknYAK7MCzO5rjQkkrJoUnsWphAeu1a5SSRbFfPxZS2tTGvyr4At%7E8Om2eHT7zQfgeevfVZ5B7N%7Eat2knGnm7d8mxqUxaAJ7cv21vfq9EEoFzDG5E-HGfuRHGIsXC4l0DjQE2QlunM6Sw-X34nCbsCvdc-eeCm56Zoytva%7E7hVLBRWC3vdmie3Kf9%7EuYfKjTrPe%7EEmIhx0FHT03D4UPpeeY4gGnU7DMhtxg2kUbbdOjyOpgAubY6wLtJ1syYAjDQwQgT0kI2SqutfDdZp8tK%7E7AsxkIfqJWmHDVaaUGU4ZyrAdfGeO9%7EQOIxO2S6FI85vJcMMEEbwteqFcg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
775f2da9c4f004455b0d8930567c8cc3
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Text
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
“ TRUTH SEEKER ” PAMPHLETS, No. 2.]
2nd EDITION.
CHRIST AND ALLY SLOPER
BY THE LATE SAM STANDRING.
WITH PREFATORYj NOTE BY GEORGE STANDRING.
IPRICE ONE PENNY.
�PREFATORY NOTE.
The publishers have asked me to contribute a note to this,
the second, edition of my late brother’s little pamphlet.
In “ Christ and Ally Sloper,” Sam added a very suggestive and
interesting “line” to Freethought propaganda. The pamphlet—
obviously summarized from the materials of a lecture—was in its
first edition hastily put together, and I have in this reprint
corrected some blemishes in style that he had allowed to pass.
But I have not in any way interfered with his treatment of the
subject; the alterations made are simply verbal.
In dealing with Ally Sloper in this way, Sam paid a probable
unconscious tribute to the profound influence of early mental im
pressions. When the first volume of Sloper sketches appeared—
about thirty years ago—Sam, my sister Kate, and I were about the
age when the consumption of sweet-stuff and the daily routine of
home-life become merged in the wider interests of the outside world.
The Sloper “literature”—his “Book of Beauty,”-“Sloper at the
Paris Exhibition,” etc.—were marked, learned, and inwardly digested
by us with that absorbing delight which we lose in riper years. I
have now upon my shelf Sloper’s “ Book of Beauty,”—a relic of
that far-off time; well-thumbed, toffee-marked, loose and partly in
tatters; but it is to me full of tenderest memories of bygone
days. Why did Sam, for so many years, bear in mind with an
affectionate interest the old rascal Sloper and his associates 1 Why
do I now on occasion turn over the tattered pages of the book, and
find each well-remembered stupid picture encircled in a positive
halo of sweet memories 1 To us both, Sloper recalled the days of
our childhood, the love and presence of our long-lost mother, the
simple joys of our early home-life, gone beyond recall. In this
respect, Jesus Christ and Ally Sloper stand to me in much the
same relation. I can well remember as a child reading the story
of Christ in the gospels ; and well also can I remember the feeling
of utter desolation that came over me as I read of his death upon
the cross. The resurrection I never believed in; Jesus, alive, I
loved with a childish love; but when he was crucified I felt that
he was dead once and for all, and the story of his resurrection
failed to comfort or convince me.
While priests are permitted to imbue the minds of children with
superstition the work of emancipation must ever continue to be
necessary. Let us strive to stop the evil at its source by protecting
the young from its contaminating influence !
George Standring.
�3^14-4*J6^3
CHRIST AND ALLY SLOPER.
By SAM
STANDRING.
Every Freethought lecturer finds it necessary now and again to
answer the crucial question, Did Jesus Christ ever live 1 Of course
his Christian hearers will invariably object that the question is the
merest twaddle; that there is no more doubt about Christ having
lived than there is about the lecturer’s existence; that all history
proves that Jesus of Nazareth was a very real person indeed.
What I want to do in this pamphlet is to show that a purely
fictitious character may easily become one in whom the many
believe. I have no wish whatever to draw any analogy between
Jesus and Ally Sloper beyond that of the origin and development
of the respective myths. Granted that the characters are fictitious,
their characteristics are mere details of no present concern ; but in
this case the parallel is so clear that one is tempted to run the risk
of being called “ blasphemous ” in order to prove so desirable a
point.
.
Ally Sloper has originated within the memory of all middle-aged
readers. It is but some thirty years since he first saw the light of
day. Judy was his literary mother. One fine morning a page of
that comic journal was devoted to some of the eccentric doings of
the tall thin man whose crumpled white hat with its conspicuous
broad black band, swallow-tailed coat, and the protruding gin
bottle were to mark him as a pet of Society. No one called round
�4
on the editor with a pickaxe or pistol, and so it was deemed
possible to publish another sketch in safety. This proved no more
dangerous than the other. Frequent insertions of the quaint old
man’s preposterous doings caused him to become familiar to the
readers. They not only liked him, they began to look with
eagerness for the story of his adventures. Ally was ever welcome,
and he grew in favour week by week. As time wore on, it became
desirable to add to the original stock. Sloper had a companion,
by name Iky Mo, who mainly instigated the major part of our
hero’s peccadilloes, and reaped the lion’s share of the harvest.
Ally did the wickedness and got the kicks; when ha’pence came
in, Iky Mo held the bag for them. By this means Ally Sloper
soon found himself honoured as the best-kicked man in Europe.
After some seventeen years of prosperity in Judy, Ally Sloper
began to launch out on his own account. Marie Duval’s excellent
sketches settled his physiognomy; and he who once had been but
the actor of cruel jokes had now become the centre, the hero of
of every adventure. His Summer Number detached him from his
mother; and a Calendar, if I remember rightly, still further
weaned him from the Old Lady of Fleet Street. More than aught
else, the collections of his sayings and doings in the wonderfully
racy “Book of Beauty” gave Sloper an independence he had long
deserved.
Now commences the second portion of “The Eminent’s” work
and fame. Hitherto there had been no material change in him.
As Ross and Marie Duval had initiated him so he remained.
A
few apocryphal data of his boyhood’s days had been made mani
fest to the public; but we knew little of him as a family man.
Beyond a glimpse or two in his “ Guide to the Paris Exhibition,”
the public scarcely knew, even, that he had a better half. With
the advent of “ Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday ” all this was changed.
Sloper assumed a variety of different characters. At the Derby
Day or University Boat Race he was indispensable. At dinner
with the Queen, or inspecting a review of troops, or playing tricks
upon the crowds who sought refreshment at the sea-side, Ally
Sloper was equally at home. His gin-blossom nose was there,
though the hat, coat, and boots gave way to clothing in keeping
with the scene. His wife now became more and more apparent.
The sons of his bosom, and Tootsie, the sweet daughter of his
heart, grew up round him like the olive branches of Holy Scripture.
�Besides these, the Hon. Billy, the Dook Snook, Tottie Goodenough,
and the other ladies of the “Friv.,” Bill Higgins, and some others,
about twenty in all, formed the group of which Ally was necessarily
the centre. Week by week their doings are all faithfully recorded.
To thousands of persons they are undoubtedly real characters,
whose images are to be seen in toy-shop windows; who appear
from time to time on the public stage, and ride about at country
fairs. What fancy dress ball or ventriloquial exhibition would
be complete without the presence of “ The Friend of Man ” ? Nay,
the thing has gone even farther than that. In Shoe Lane, London,
one sees the large front window of the “Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday”
offices filled as a museum with old hats, combs, brushes, shoes, and
hundreds of other relics alleged to have belonged to Sloper and his
family and friends ; whilst in certain shops you see framed and
glazed diplomas granted by “ The Eminent ” to particular trades
men, and in the stage papers a portion of the actors and actresses
rejoice in the use of certain initials, F.O.S. to wit, which signify
that they are friends of Sloper’s.
Now when we remember that a period of less than thirty years
has sufficed to bring this character into notoriety such as we have
witnessed, and to give it a popularity which does not appear to be
decaying, it is not difficult to conceive how many of the myths of
history have thus arisen and developed. The only thing is that in
this case we are all able to pull the curtain aside and see the origin
for ourselves; whereas in others, their origin is lost in the mists
of antiquity, and we are compelled to accept, with or without a
grain of salt, what ancient men have said about them.
As I have selected Christ for my parallel case, let us now
examine the points of likeness in the two histories. The earliest
records of Jesus are no wilder in their improbability than the
story of Ally Sloper. Run through the apocryphal gospels, those
earliest narratives of Christ’s boyhood days, and you find him
turning children into kids because they hide themselves and refuse
to play with him; or, being run against by another lad and
knocked over, exclaiming, “As thou hast made me to fall, so shalt
thou fall and not rise,” immediately causing him to fall down and
die. Or, again, when he would show himself superior to the other
children, he would make sparrows of the mud in which they were
all playing and then cause his own to fly away, leaving theirs in
their primitive condition. Innumerable stories of this sort cluster
J
�6
around the early days of Jesus. We don’t believe them now, but
they were piously believed in by the Christians of the earliest
centuries of our era. Some day, when Ally Sloper shall be
numbered amongst the gods of the heathen, a pious writer may
select from his various records the less self-evident untruths, get
them canonized by the Church of his day, and set down the other
absurdities as “apocryphal.”
Men ask, “How is it Christ is accepted if he never lived ? Have
we not the gospels which proclaim his works ? Have not contemp
oraries added their words to those of the sacred writers 1 ” All
this may be admitted, if we are to accept as true all that has ever
been written; but in the case of Christ we must remember that
there is no more contemporary evidence of the reality of Christ's
person than there is of the reality of Ally Sloper’s. The one is
certainly fictitious, and there is every reason for believing that the
other is fictitious also. When men like Archdeacon Farrar give
away the only possible confirmation, that of Josephus, as an
interpolation and forgery, smaller Church-folk need not be over
nice in rejecting it as well.
The Ally Sloper myth has lived and grown because the humor
of his imaginary doings tickled the people of his day. The ignorant,
who are always amongst the religious enthusiasts, seem already to
accept him as a human being. Some will gravely tell you that at
Fair time they have seen him drive through the town with his lass
Tootsie. His character is so little overdrawn that those who
delight in tales of booze and feats of drunkenness regard him as a
“jolly good fellow.”
Christ came into popularity in another
fashion, but on similar lines. He was made the vehicle for
preaching submission to an overweighted and oppressed people.
All that was feminine and passive in human nature he was made
to glorify, and the sentimental followed his doctrines, whilst their
rulers saw how great a help such a religion would be to them in
diverting the minds of their conquered people from their sufferings,
—so great, indeed, that they eventually professed to embrace
the new religion, changing the direction of the worship to suit the
ends they had in view.
The sword and stake assisted to remove
any opposition to the new “faith.” To make Jesus the more
acceptable he was given a title which men could make into a pun,
for “ Christus,” anointed, was often written by the ancients as
“ Chrestos,” the Greek for a good fellow. To some, then, he
�7
became the Messiah of the Scriptures, whilst to others he was the
embodiment of a good sort of man; and all were equally well
pleased.
The more men examine into the early history of Christ, the less
they seem willing to believe it. It is the unenquiring who adhere
to it so tenaciously. Even many who now believe, laugh at the
“ true relics ” of the cross, the crown of thorns, the Virgin Mary’s
dress, and so on, of which the Christian Cathedrals have so many.
Protestants, like Sloperians, have wearied of the original Christ.
Sloper left his tricks and entered the arena of modern life; Christ
is no longer the Saviour of the World, the hero of the Atonement,
or an emptied God; he is now the King of Labor, the Socialist, the
Anarchist, the Leader of Armies, or anything else that suits the
palate of the hour. The Christ of our boyhood’s theology can be
but ill-recognised in the Jesus of the modern up-to-date preacher.
It only remains for the Editor of Ally Sloper to found a school,
public hall, or other useful institution, and to start a counterpart
movement to that set on foot by the earlier Christians to popularise
their new deity. Those who appeal so much and so often to the
name of Christ in connection with benevolent institutions may
yet live to see the name of Sloper over the portals of their like.
Be that as it may, it is difficult to see much essential difference
between the origin and development of the so-called “ histories ” of
those celebrated figure-heads, Christ and Sloper.
The Truth Seeker Pamphlets may be
had from
R. Forder, 28, Stonecutter Street, London, E.C.
A. & H. Bbadlaugh Bonner, 1 & 2, Tooks Court, Cursitor Street,
London, E.C.
“ Truth Seeker ” Company, 36, Villiers Street, Bradford.
Or all Newsagents to
order.
Printed and published by the “ Truth Seeker” Company, Bradford.
�THE
Truth Seeker.
Edited by JOHN GRANGE.
A Monthly Journal devoted to-Mental Freedom and Progress
SHOULD BE READ BY ALL FREETHINKERS.
PUBLISHED ON THE FIRST OF EACH MONTH.
LONDON:—R. FORDER, 28, Stonecutter Street, E.C.
BRADFORD:—J. W. GOTT, 36, Villiers Street.
“TRUTH SEEKER” PAMPHLETS.
Be
de
No. 1—Genesis and Science, by Stanley Jones
..
..
..
..01
No. 2—Christ and Ally Sloper, by Sam Standring
..
..
..
..01
No. 3—Secularism, by John Grange.......................................................... 0 1
No. i—The Decay of Belief, by C. Cohen
..
..
..
..01
No. 5—His Satanic Majesty, by S. H. Alison ..
..
..
..01
No. 6—Biography of A. B. Moss, by Wm. Heaford................................... 0 1
�
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The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Christ and Ally Sloper
Description
An account of the resource
Edition: 2nd ed.
Place of publication: [Bradford]
Collation: 7 p. : ill. (front. port.) ; 21 cm.
Series title: Truth Seeker Pamphlets
Series number: No. 2
Notes: Full-length portrait [of the author?] on front cover. Date of publication from KVK (OCLC WorldCat). Alexander "Ally" Sloper is the eponymous fictional character of the comic strip Ally Sloper. He is one of the earliest comic strip characters and he is regarded as the first recurring character in comics. List of Truth Seeker pamphlets on back page. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Standring, Sam
Standring, George
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[The "Truth Seeker" Company]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1895]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
N623
Subject
The topic of the resource
Jesus Christ
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Christ and Ally Sloper), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Ally Sloper (Fictional Character)
Freethought
Jesus Christ
NSS
-
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6863c04845c97c692c13f22565bdd346
PDF Text
Text
NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
CHARLES
BRADLAUGH
AN APPRECIATION
Notes of an Address given to the
Bradlaugh Fellowship by the
REV. STEWART D. HEADLAM
Warden of the Guild of St. Matthew
With an Introduction
George
[price
London
Standring, Finsbury Street, e.c.
one penny]
1907
�BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS BY THE
REV. STEWART D. HEADLAM, B.A.
‘The Meaning of the Mass’...
...
...
...
...
‘ The Socialist’s Church ’ ...
...
...
...
...
1 Priestcraft and Progress ’ ...
...
...
...
...
‘The Place of the Bible’ ...
...
...
...
...
‘ The Laws of Eternal Life ’...............................................
‘Christian Socialism’...
...
...
...
...
...
‘ Secular Work of Jesus Christ ’ ...
...
...
...
‘Municipal Puritanism’
...
...
...
...
...
‘ Secular Schools ’
...
...
...
...
...
...
London : Office of the Guild of St. Matthew,
376 Strand, W.C.
BiSHOPSGATE INSTITUTE
REFERENCE LIBRARY
oaife'.
-SEP.JflM—
Classification: ......N.5^—.—
i
2s.
is.
6d.
6d.
3d.
id.
id.
id.
id.
�INTRODUCTION.
HE pages that follow this prefatory note contain
some of the most interesting and valuable parts of
a lecture delivered to the Bradlaugh Fellowship by the
Rev. Stewart D. Headlam on 24th May, 1905. The
meeting took place in the hall of the Boro’ of Shore
ditch Liberal and Radical Club, New North Road—
within a stone’s throw of the ‘mean street’ in which
Charles Bradlaugh was born, and of the Shoreditch
Public Library, where a large marble bust of our lost
leader occupies a prominent place. Mrs. Hypatia Brad
laugh Bonner presided at the lecture ; and her son
Charles listened with eager attention to Mr. Headlam's
appreciation of his grandfather’s life and work.
What is the Bradlaugh Fellowship? And how came
it that a clergyman of the Church of England went as
a friend and brother to address such a gathering?
Charles Bradlaugh died on 30th January, 1891; and
already there are men, belonging to the class for which
he Jived and strove, who have never heard his name.
This, perhaps, is not matter for wonder : it was said of
old time, ‘ Quit the world and the world forgets you.’
But there are some amongst us, men and women who
worked with Charles Bradlaugh and knew the inestim
able value of his life-service to humanity, who deter
mined that so far as in us lay the memory of our great
leader should not be suffered to pass away. The
Bradlaugh Fellowship is but a small group of obscure
people, whose object is to unite those who served under
him, and to keep in public remembrance the work
that he did.
T
3
�This is the more necessary because, as Mr. Headlam
truly says, his energy was mainly ‘ terrible, destructive,
iconoclastic.’ The man who, with toil and pain, clears
the path and constructs the road, leaves no monument
to call the easy-stepping wayfarer’s attention to his
work: the level safe road is there, but the very name
of the maker is forgotten. The broken idol is thrown
into the lumber-room; the children play with the frag
ments, heedless of the fact that their forefathers were
persecuted even unto death if they refused to bow
before the trumpery thing.
If Charles Bradlaugh had chosen the primrose path
in life, if he had placed his eloquence, ability and over
whelming force of character at the service of smug con
formity, then his reward would certainly have been rich
and his place of the highest. But he was ever a man of
the people, the champion of the lowly and oppressed ;
he lived and died poor, worn out in a ceaseless struggle
for the advancement of the class to which he belonged.
Mr. Headlam’s connection with the Secularist move
ment is a story that dates back to the early seventies.
The letter to his intimate friend Sarson (page 8 it seq.}
bears witness by its earnestness and occasional inco
herence to the profound and abiding impression made
by Bradlaugh’s personality upon a young clergyman of
open mind and catholic sympathies. Those who read
that letter today may well find it impossible to realize
the moral atmosphere of the time when it was written.
It was the day of mean, pitiful persecution and narrow
ness, when no weapon of petty spite was too contemp
tible to be used against the atheist; when (to the pre*
sent writer’s knowledge) young men were turned from
their homes by pious parents on account of their freethinking views. ‘ Hatred, malice and all uncharitable
ness’ wrought its ignoble work for the greater glory of
God. Then and thenceforward ‘Stewart Headlam’ (as
we were wont affectionately to style him) became our
open and constant friend; while abating no jot of his
Christian creed, he was always our helpful comrade.
4
�The incident at which he hints on page 14 is a case
in point. In 1879 two science classes (under the con
trol of the Science and Art Department, South Ken
sington) were organized in connection with the Hall of
Science« The director was the late Dr. E. B. Aveling;
the National Secular Society (of which Mr. Bradlaugh
was president) provided prizes for students who passed
the class examinations; and the proportion of‘passes’
was far above the average. At the outset a difficulty
was experienced in complying with the Department’s
regulations. To obtain the Government grants it was
essential that a Justice of the Peace or a clergyman
should be on the committee. Now at that time no
J. P. would look at us, even through a telescope ; and
it was not our way to seek favours from the clergy.
In this perplexity the Rev. Stewart Headlam was our
deus ex machina: he became chairman of the com
mittee, and devoted much time and energy to the
work. In 1883 there were eleven classes, 239 students
receiving instruction, and 82 per cent, of these passed
their examinations at South Kensington. In that year
the Bishop of London, at the instigation of Lord Geo.
Hamilton, put personal pressure upon Mr. Headlam to
induce him to sever his connection with the classes.
Mr. Headlam, however, was not amenable to episcopal
coaxing or threats, and retained his position as chair
man to the end.
This business of the science classes was but one of
numberless instances of Mr. Headlam’s kindliness and
helpfulness in days when odium and persecution were
the Secularist’s daily lot. Throughout the long and
bitter struggle on the ‘Oath Question’ he stood up
manfully for recognition of Charles Bradlaugh’s rights
as the elected of Northampton. Mr. Headlam was one
of the vice-presidents of the League for the Defence of
Constitutional Rights, and on many occasions publicly
protested by voice and pen against the injustice with
which Mr. Bradlaugh and his constituents were treated,
in the name of religion, by a bigoted and reactionary
majority in the House of Commons. Mr. Headlam was
5
�also, a member of the committee of the National Asso
ciation for the Repeal of the Blasphemy Laws, a body
formed to combat the persecuting spirit which revived
certain evil old laws in the vain hope of suppressing a
vivacious criticism of Christian doctrine. It was a note
worthy example of moral courage, twenty-five years
ago, for a clergyman of the Church of England to
identify himself with a public protest against the laws
under which three men—Messrs. Foote, Ramsey and
Kemp—were convicted and cruelly punished.
Little wonder, then, that we honoured and loved
Stewart Headlam ; and that when in 1905 he came to
speak to us of Charles Bradlaugh, and later to preside
at the annual dinner of our Fellowship, he was greeted
by us all as a dear friend and comrade.
George Standring.
6
�CHARLES BRADLAUGH.
T AM honoured by the request to say a few
-*■ words in appreciation of Charles Brad
laugh ; and I am glad to know that I speak in
the presence of his daughter and grandson.
The impression which he has left upon me
is of a man of tremendous strength—mainly
destructive, terrible, iconoclastic. He is one
of those men who
‘ have towered in the van
Of all the congregated world to fan
And winnow from the coming step of time
All chaff of custom, wipe away all slime
Left by men slugs and human serpentry.’
Or, if you want words from the sacred He
brew scriptures to describe him, we will say
of him: ‘The idols shall he utterly abolish.’
He was one of those men who help us to
understand a little the meaning of those
words which were spoken of the typical
representative man: ‘Whose fan is in his
hand, and he shall throughly purge his floor,
and gather his wheat into the garner, and
burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’
And I make bold to say, without any fear
of it now being considered a paradox, that
7
�the Church, looking back, must acknow
ledge that it owes a deep debt of gratitude
to Charles Bradlaugh for this destructive
work of his.
My knowledge of him takes me back to
the Christmas of 1873, when I went to Beth
nal Green and so got into touch with many
of Mr. Bradlaugh’s followers, and looked
forward each Thursday to the National Re
former as the expression of the most ad
vanced Radicalism of the time.
It so happens that letters of mine which
I used to write to my friend George Sarson
have come back into my hands. I will read
you one which I wrote on the Sunday night
after hearing Mr. Bradlaugh at the Hall of
Science in the evening. It was not my first
visit to Old Street. I had been a few weeks
before, and heard Mrs. Law denounce the
smooth-faced priests who would put out the
lamp of Reason. Here is the letter, given
just as I dashed it off to an intimate friend:
Sunday night,
April 4, 1875.
My dear Sarson,
I have had another evening at the Hall
of Science. Bradlaugh lectured on Slavery
in America: which, with the exception of
one bitter sentence against Christians, must
have done all his hearers real good. How
ever, all the great abolitionists whom he
8
�spoke of were Christians: though undoubt
edly they were opposed by the Christian
Societies in America. After the lecture a
member of the ‘ Bible Institute’—an old
hand here—tried to prove that the law of
Moses did not encourage slavery, and of
course failed. Bradlaugh called him a liar,
and I was rather in a funk when I called
out ‘ Mr. Chairman ’ and went up to speak:
there were calls of ‘Name!’, and though
Bradlaugh said, quite courteously, ‘ Never
mind the name,’ I gave them my name and
office, and fired away for my ten minutes:
thanked him cordially for his grand speech:
told them that the Bible religion which
Bradlaugh had said favoured slavery might
be made to favour anything: which brought
much applause, which increased when I said
that I did not believe in any infallible Book,
but in Christ; then said the applause en
couraged me to believe that true religion
would live again, and that it encouraged me
as much as the shout of ‘Bogey!’ at the
Shoreditch Town Hall when a man spoke
of a girl going to Hell for ever for going to
a museum on Sunday. I ended by saying
that in the National Reformer, which I often
read (terrific excitement!), a Mr. Maccall
had said that religion was a necessity for
man, and that it was an awfully important
thing that they all should support the best
religion they could find, support the true
9
�Christians against the false. Bradlaugh re
plied: thinking I was Hansard, and thanking
me for all I had done for East London, won
dered what the Bishop would say to me, and
how he was to treat me while I belonged
to a Church which published thousands of
tracts teaching the infallibility of the Bible,
and how he could find out what my Christ
ianity was; if I did not believe in the Old
Testament, which part of the New did I
believe in; did I believe in faith or works
(Paul, I suppose, or James). I replied that
I was not Hansard, but was glad they re
cognised his work, and that now they knew
there were at least two good Christians;
that they might send what 1 said to the
Bishop, and that I challenged them to do
so, and was certain that, though he might
not like it personally, he would not turn
me out of my curacy, which, I said, he
could do any day if he thought fit; I said
that if I am left safe it will be a proof that
my teaching, which you approve, is good
Church teaching. I then said that as a
Christian I did not believe in either Old
Testament or New, but in Christ, of whom
there was sufficient ordinary evidence that
he lived and died a self-sacrificing deliverer;
that I was a Christian because I obeyed
Christ’s spirit speaking into my heart, and
that Mr. Bradlaugh was a Christian too. I
then gave them very briefly the doctrine of
io
�the Logos; and, seeing Colenso’s book ad
vertised in their hall, spoke of his real work
as a Christian Bishop, and compared his
work for Langalibale with the anti-slavery
work; that they should judge of Christianity
by its best men, not by frothy dissenting
ministers, or Moody and Sankey (great ap
plause), and that I could not be responsible
for tracts put under people’s doors.
Bradlaugh said that he did not know what
to say; was very courteous; said I was very
liberal, but if he were a barrister and the
Bishop would give him a brief, he would
convict me of heresy; hoped I would not
spoil my splendid humanitarianism by join
ing it to a dead and rotting creed; knew
that I was a good ’un by the ring of my
voice (as far as I could make out); hoped I
would get married (he may have meant the
spiritual children); and asked me, if I liked,
he would think none the worse if I didn’t, as
he didn’t want to challenge me (as was his
wont with others):—but if I liked to prove
in the National Reformer that Christ was a
deliverer and a self-sacrificing one—he be
lieved there were no documents within 150
years of his reported death:—more praise—
we shake hands and part.
Altogether a most exciting evening: at
any rate the hall was full of people who
now know that a parson does not worship
the Bible, or believe that men will be kept
ii
�¿n punishment for ever, or objects to Mu
seums being open on Sunday: this of itself
must help to break down barriers or con
struct bridges ‘pontifically.’ (I also said
that the Bible was probably the best book,
but must be treated just like any other book.
And he spoke strongly and feelingly of the
treatment he had received from the parson
here at St. Peter’s (of the way he and others
had been libelled, which is too true)—Packer
by name—when he was a ‘doubter.’
I want you to tell me what you think about
my writing to the Reformer’ and whether it
,
would be well to write to the Bishop and say
that a lot of men in his diocese accused him
of believing in the infallibility of the Bible,
and therefore supporting slavery, and ask
ing leave to publish his answer in the Re
former.
. Next Sunday Bradlaugh lectures on Chris
tian Culture and is sure to say some nasty
things about Christians, and we deserve it;
how much nearer to the Kingdom of Heaven
are these men in the Hall of Science than
the followers of Moody and Sankey !
Ever yours,
Stewart D. Headlam.
This letter may perhaps serve as an in
teresting note of the kind of work done at
the Hall of Science. ‘Is the Bible True?’
12
�‘The New Life of Abraham,’ and all the rest
of that part of Mr. Bradlaugh’s work was
necessary in view of the crude Bible-wor
ship which was prevalent. Now of course
we recognise that to ask ‘ Is the Bible true?
would be as absurd as to ask ‘Is English
Literature true?’
But though mainly a destroyer, Mr. Brad
laugh was not only destructive. The form
ula of the National Secular Society, that this
world demands, and will repay, our utmost
care and attention, suggested construction
on what always seemed to me to be the dis
tinctly Christian lines of the Secular work
of Christ, involving a salutary attack upon
the otherworldliness of pietism. It was this
which inspired all the political work—the
unbending Radicalism—of Mr. Bradlaugh;
and which led, at a time when many of the
best men were hemmed in by the Malthusian
dilemma, to the Malthusian League, to the
Knowlton pamphlet, and to prosecutions for
teaching which was the natural outcome of
the current philosophy of the time. We
have now learned differently; but we must
remember that it was Bradlaugh’s zealous
fight against poverty which led him into
those regions: he, too, burned with indign
ation when he saw that the people were not
properly fed, clothed and housed; and set
about, to the best of his power, regardless
of hatred and insult, to find a remedy.
13
�But so bitter was the feeling against him
that the simple fact of my consenting to be
president of the science classes held at the
Hall of Science was made a matter of a
question in Parliament, and was one of the
many causes of the Bishop of London’s at
tacks upon me; but I was glad to find out,
only the other day, that it led to the young
men who attended those classes nicknaming
the Guild of St. Matthew as the 1 Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Atheists.’
On July 24th, 1880, I sent the following
telegram to Mr. Bradlaugh, addressed to
The Prison: The House of Commons’:—
‘Accept my warmest sympathy. I wish you
good luck in the name of Jesus Christ the
Emancipator, whom so many of your oppon
ents blaspheme.’ This sums up a lecture on
A Christian’s View of the Bradlaugh Case,’
which I gave throughout the country, and
which ended with the words that, accord
ing to Christ’s teaching, however much Mr.
Bradlaugh might say that he did not know
God, as he had taken infinite pains to bring
about the time when the people of England
should be properly clothed, fed and housed,
God knew him and claimed him as His.
Those of us who are Socialists, especially
those of us who have learnt from Henry
George, believe that there are other means
rather than those advocated by Mr. Brad
laugh, which will bring about the results he
14
�desired; but none of us, especially those of
us who are Socialists, can afford to ignore,
still less to detract from, his overmastering
personality. To listen to him, to be in his pre
sence, was a moral tonic. William Rogers
('hang theology, damn science, let’s begin!’
Rogers) said to me once, after some recep
tion : ‘1 found your friend Bradlaugh deadly
dull!’ Doubtless he was self-centred, and
doubtless he was a 'terrible man’; but what
a fight he fought, and what an example he
has left us!
If, as most of us believe, we know better
now how to tackle the evils against which
he fought; if, as some of us believe, there is
a divine inspiration urging us to the battle,
let us at any rate see that we are as strenu
ous and as devoted as an ‘individualistic
atheist.’
We have much to be grateful to Charles
Bradlaugh for on account of his destructive
work; but it is his towering personality that
we chiefly honour.
Stewart D. Headlam.
15
�»
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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Charles Bradlaugh : an appreciation
Creator
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Headlam, Stewart D. (Stewart Duckworth)
Standring, George
Bradlaugh Fellowship
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 15 p. ; 19 cm.
Notes: Notes of an address given to the Bradlaugh Fellowship on 24 May 1905. Stamp on title page and elsewhere: Bishopsgate Institute Reference Library. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Publisher
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George Standring
Date
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1907
Identifier
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N304
Subject
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Secularism
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Charles Bradlaugh : an appreciation), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Charles Bradlaugh
NSS