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., and Mr Mellor appeared for the Hall Company.
Mr Bradlaugh opened in "a very temperate speech" of "great clearness,"
and then called his witness, Mr Stead, to prove the hire of the hall.
Mr Stead had to go through a preliminary confusing examination as to
his fitness to make affirmation, although Mr Justice Mellor was as
considerate as the obnoxious wording of the Evidence Amendment Act
would allow. Objection being taken to certain questions Mr Bradlaugh
wished to put to his witness, my father was obliged to go into the
witness-box himself to prove the points. Of course Mr Digby Seymour
could not forget the lesson in tactics learned a few months before from
Mr O'Malley, and like his opponent in the _Razor_ case--though happily
with less coarseness--seized the opportunity thus offered to rouse the
religious prejudices of the jury, although the sole question in dispute
was the validity of a contract made by the servant of a Company on its
behalf.

But relevant or irrelevant, by hook or by crook, the religious
question was almost invariably dragged in against Mr Bradlaugh: and
just as invariably a bad case was bolstered up by diverting the minds
of the jury from the real merits of the case to a contemplation of
the wickedness of Atheistic opinions. Hence, according to the usual
procedure, Mr Digby Seymour began:

 "You are the proprietor of the _National Reformer_, I think?"

 Mr BRADLAUGH: I decline to answer that question on the
 ground that it might make me liable to a criminal prosecution. I am
 threatened with one at the present moment.

 Mr S.: Oh, you state that, do you?

 Mr B.: Yes, I do.

 Mr S.: I think you hold strong opinions on political subjects as well
 as on religion?

 Mr B.: Well, I hold opinions some of which are similar to those held
 by Dean Stanley, Mr J. S. Mill, and others.

 Mr. S.: Without putting it unfairly, you hold extreme opinions?

 Mr B.: I hold opinions held by a great many of the first men in Europe.

 Mr S.: And I suppose, as you have refused, I must not ask you any
 question as to the contents of this _National Reformer_ (holding one
 in his hand). May I ask if you think Christianity has a ludicrous
 aspect?

 Mr B.: You may ask, but I shall not answer the question.

 Mr S.: Do you know a work called "The Ludicrous Aspects of
 Christianity"? Is it in your library?

 Mr B.: It is not in my library.

 Mr S.: Then you think that Christianity has a ludicrous aspect?

 Mr B.: I cannot answer that.

 Mr S.: At all events, under your eloquent handling, I believe
 Christianity has been made to assume ridiculous aspects?

 Mr B.: I have never written such a pamphlet as you refer to, nor
 delivered lectures under such a title.

At this point the Judge interfered, and after pointing out that the
lectures to be delivered at Mirfield were of a political character,
warned Mr Seymour that such questions were unnecessary. "If they were
to destroy Mr Bradlaugh's credit I should not object, but there is
really no part of his evidence in dispute," he said.

As Mr Bradlaugh had not otherwise sufficient evidence of the lettings
of the hall, he was obliged to call the hall-keeper himself. This man,
Thomas Balme, was, as might be expected, a very unwilling witness, with
a peculiarly defective memory. Having heard him, Mr Justice Mellor came
to the conclusion that he really had no authority to let the hall, and
that consequently the plaintiff must be non-suited.

Mr Bradlaugh decided to try for a new trial, and applied to Mr Justice
Willes at Judges Chambers a few days later that judgment might be
stayed until the fifth day of Michaelmas Term, in order to enable him
to move the Court of Queen's Bench. Mr Thomas Chitty appeared for the
defendants.

When Mr Justice Willes read the receipt, which ran as follows:
"Mirfield Town Hall Company, Limited. Mr Charles Bradlaugh have taken
the Hall for two nights, November 18th and 19th, for the sum of four
guineas. Paid 21st of September 1870. Thomas Balme, Hall-keeper, liable
to damages,"--he said to Mr Bradlaugh, "I shall be very glad if you
can make out that the law helps you, for I think your case a very hard
one. (Turning to Mr Chitty) With such a receipt and memorandum as this,
having paid my four guineas, I should most certainly expect to lecture.
It is very hard for the plaintiff so be defeated by the mere statement
of your own servant that he had no authority."

Mr Chitty opposed the application. "There is really no good ground
shown for a new trial," he said. "Perhaps at this moment no legal
ground," replied the Judge, "but a strong suggestion which I am
inclined to listen to. This is an application by a plaintiff who will
be stopped if I do not aid him, and the circumstances, not ordinary
ones, are certainly in his favour."

In the end it was arranged that Mr Bradlaugh should have an opportunity
to move, if he could pay £60 into Court within seven days, and on his
side my father pledged himself not to trouble the Court unless he was
quite satisfied that he could prove that Balme had let the hall on
other occasions. I gather that he was unable to get sufficient evidence
on this point, for he carried the case no further. The taxed costs of
the Mirfield Town Hall Company amounted to £98 7s., and as Mr Bradlaugh
was unable to pay this at once an attempt was made to enforce immediate
judgment, but this failed, and it was ultimately arranged that Mr
Bradlaugh should pay £10 per month. So here was another addition to
debt to the load of an already over-weighted man. The debt incurred in
the Devonport trial took him three and a half years to pay. Happily,
his own expenditure in this (the Mirfield) case was covered by the
subscriptions of his poor friends, and they also ultimately contributed
£25 towards the costs of the Hall Company.

CHAPTER XXIX.

PERSONAL.

In our house the year 1870, which was to bring death and sorrow to so
many homes, and rage and despair to so many hearts, opened cheerlessly
indeed. The outlook for my father was dark and gloomy in the extreme.
Overweighted with debt, he seemed to be sinking ever deeper and
deeper in financial difficulties. The prosecution of the _National
Reformer_, the De Rin and the _Razor_ litigation, had each and all
left him more or less deeply involved. The great panic of 1866 had
dealt him a serious blow from which he vainly attempted to recover;
the identification of "C. Bradlaugh, of 23 Great St. Helen's," with
"Bradlaugh, the Atheist lecturer," was fatal to business. The spirit of
the boycott existed long before Captain Boycott lived to give it his
name. People were much too good to do business with an Atheist, and
just as the baker's wife took her custom from the boy coal merchant in
1848, so customers of a different class took their business from the
City merchant twenty years later.

My father began to despair of making his business succeed under these
conditions, and to think seriously of giving up his City life, and of
devoting himself to public work. Th

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