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 funeral were to be given, or some such message.

The telegram bearing the totally unexpected summons to my father to
hasten to see his son for the last time was handed to him on the
platform at Bury just as he was about to deliver a lecture. I have
been told that when he read the words he turned deathly pale, but with
that self-control which never failed him in adversity, he rose, and
with the least perceptible hesitation, commenced and went through with
his lecture. On Tuesday night he received his summons; on Wednesday he
was with us, though only to leave again by the early train on Thursday
morning. On Friday the boy died, and on that same day and the next
my father had to be in the law-courts as witness in a case relating
to the Naples Colour Company.[130] His grief for the loss of his son
was intense, but he shut it up in his heart, and rarely afterwards
mentioned the name of his boy, of whom he had been so proud.

[Footnote 130: This was an action to try the right of the Sheriff of
Surrey to distrain upon the Colour Machinery at Hatcham. Baron dos
Santos, of the Romish Legation, had wished to trade in Naples colour
in England, under the name of the Company of which Mr Bradlaugh was
Secretary. Mr Bradlaugh had bought and paid for the machinery to grind
the colours before they could be sold, and he claimed to carry on the
business until Baron dos Santos should purchase the things off him.
Obliged to raise money in 1868, when he was contesting Northampton,
Mr Bradlaugh borrowed £600 from Mr Javal upon the machinery, and he
in turn raised some money from the Advana Company. Before this last
had been repaid the defendants seized the machinery under an execution
judgment as creditors of the Naples Colour Company. Mr Bradlaugh was
the principal witness, and the newspaper report notes that he requested
to be allowed to affirm instead of being sworn, but said that he should
take the oath, if his lordship insisted upon it. He was allowed to
affirm, and at the conclusion of the case the jury decided that the
machinery belonged to Mr Bradlaugh, and therefore gave a verdict for
the plaintiffs.]

CHAPTER XXX.

LECTURES--1870-1871.

The early part of the seventies was a period of much Freethought and
Republican activity in England; everywhere in the Freethought ranks
there was movement and life. In spite of the persistent refusal
of Messrs W. H. Smith & Son to sell the _National Reformer,_ its
circulation was largely increasing, and in 1870 it was read in the four
quarters of the globe. In England all sorts of devices were resorted to
damage the sale; country news-agents refused, like Messrs Smith & Son,
to sell it, or said they were unable to obtain it, or quietly returned
it "out of print"; contents bills were no sooner posted in some
towns than they were torn down, and on occasion the police employed
themselves, or were employed, in this work. At Scarborough[131]
evidence was obtained against Police Constable Charlton, and legal
proceedings were commenced. At the last moment, however, the sum of 2s.
was paid into Court, together with costs proportionate to the summons,
and Mr Bradlaugh, overwhelmed with other work and worries, contented
himself with this acknowledgment of the wrongdoing and did not pursue
the matter further.

[Footnote 131: May 1870.]

The high pressure at which my father had been living had so undermined
his health that for a long time he was a martyr to acute neuralgia;
still, notwithstanding this, in the early part of the year he was
lecturing once or twice a week, and as soon as he was able to extricate
himself from the City his lecture list grew tremendously. In the month
of July alone--a month which, as we have seen, brought its own peculiar
burdens--he gave as many as twenty-six lectures. I find it noted that
during this last half-year he delivered as many as one hundred and
seventy lectures, in forty-nine of which the proceeds were insufficient
to cover his railway expenses, and in the case of twenty more,
although his railway was covered, there was not enough to clear his
hotel bill.

Except in one or two very special cases[132] Mr Bradlaugh never took
a fee for his lectures. He took whatever surplus remained from the
admission money, after paying all expenses of the meeting. He made
this arrangement originally so that no town or village might be
hindered from promoting lectures on account of the expense. "Large and
small places," he said, "will be visited indifferently." A charge for
admission was always made at his lectures, usually a small one, varying
from twopence or threepence to a shilling. He objected very strongly to
"free" lectures and collections. Of course he now, as ever, very often
gave away the proceeds of his lectures. His audiences were frequently
very large, especially in places where he was known. He happened to
make a note of the numbers who came to hear him on the Sundays in
January 1871, and he records that on the Sunday evenings alone he
had audiences whose total numbers reached six thousand, and at three
morning lectures there was a total of two thousand five hundred.

[Footnote 132: These cases were so rare that the only one I can
actually recall is that of the Tyneside Sunday Lecture Society.]

Halls were often refused to him, although not quite so frequently as
in former years. In 1870 the Stratford Town Hall was refused by the
West Ham Local Board, and for many years he had great difficulty in
obtaining a hall in Stratford. The St. Mary's Hall, Coventry, was
refused to him by the Mayor of Coventry for a lecture on "The Land
and the People," and the Mirfield Town Hall after it had been duly
engaged for two political lectures was closed against him by the
proprietors.[133] An exactly similar case occurred at Glossop a year
and a half later. The Town Hall was taken for a political lecture,
and at almost the last moment, after the lapse of several weeks, the
Council instructed that the money paid for the hire should be returned.
The effect of this was to produce a much greater and more widespread
excitement and discussion than half a dozen lectures would have done.

[Footnote 133: See p. 294.]

It was in 1870 that Mr Bradlaugh began that close scrutiny of the
history of our reigning family which resulted in the publication
of his "Impeachment of the House of Brunswick," a little book which
created some considerable stir both when it was first published in
1871,[134] and when an edition partly revised by Mr Bradlaugh was
brought out after his death. The "Impeachment" has been widely read
both here and in America, where it was reprinted. Besides writing upon
the Brunswick family, Mr Bradlaugh used to take the history of one or
more of the members of it as a subject for his lecture, and taught
many a good Republican lesson whilst discoursing upon the exceptional
virtues of "George, Prince of Wales," or "the four Georges." A friend
has told me an amusing story concerning one of these lectures. My
father had promised to speak o

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