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t in a position of healthy pockets, purse
 plethora, plenum in the money-box, so necessary to one who wishes
 to entangle himself in the almost impenetrable mysteries of
 'house-keeping.'

 "I don't know whether you were ever sufficiently charmed with
 the subject to make any calculations on the £ s. d. questions of
 upholstery, etc. I have, and after knocking my head violently
 against gigantic 'four posters,' and tumbling over 'neat fender and
 fire-irons,' I have been most profoundly impressed with respect
 and admiration for every one who could coolly talk upon so awful a
 subject."

From the foregoing letter it would appear that Mr. Hooper would not
give a definite consent to the marriage; and a little later my father
writes that he had again asked for the paternal approval, and draws a
picture of "C. B." kneeling to the "krewel father." The consent asked
for was apparently given this time, and plans and preparations for the
marriage were made. On 20th March 1855 my father writes:--

 "I also thought that it seemed a rather roundabout way of arriving
 at a good end, that I should take upon myself the bother of lodgers
 in one house, while mother at home intended to let the two upstairs
 rooms to some one else. I also thought that supposing anything were
 to happen either to separate me from the Building Society or to
 stop its progress, I might be much embarrassed in a pecuniary point
 of view with the burden of two rents attached to me. It therefore
 struck me, and I suggested to mother and Lizzie, whether it would not
 be possible, and not only possible but preferable, that we should
 all live in the same house as separate and distinct as though we
 were strangers in one sense, and yet not so in another. Mother and
 Lizzie both fully agreed with me, but it is a question, my dearest
 Susan, which entirely rests with you, and you alone must decide the
 question. I have agreed to allow mother 10s. per week, and if we lived
 elsewhere, mother out of it would have to pay rent, whilst ours would
 be in no way reduced. Again, if you felt dull there would be company
 for you, and I might feel some degree of hesitation in leaving you
 to find companionship in persons utterly strangers to both of us.
 There are doubtless evils connected with my proposal, but I think
 they are preventible ones. Mother might wish to interfere with your
 mode of arrangements. This she has promised in no way whatever to do.
 I leave the matter to yourself--on the ground of economy much might
 be said--at any rate my own idea is that we could not hurt by trying
 the experiment for a time; but do not let my ideas influence you in
 your decision: I will be governed by you: believe me, I only wish and
 endeavour to form a plan by which we may live happy and comfortably."

In April we have the first recorded lawsuit in which Mr. Bradlaugh took
part as one of the principals, though earlier than this, soon after
quitting the army, he had shown much legal acumen and practical wisdom
in a case that I cannot do better than quote here in his own words:--

"While I was away," he says, "a number of poor men had subscribed their
funds together, and had erected a Working Man's Hall, in Goldsmith's
Row, Hackney Road. Not having any legal advice, it turned out that they
had been entrapped into erecting their building on freehold ground
without any lease or conveyance from the freeholder, who asserted
his legal right to the building. The men consulted me, and finding
that under the Statute of Frauds they had no remedy, I recommended
them to offer a penalty rent of £20 a year. This being refused, I
constituted myself into a law court; and without any riot or breach
of the peace, I with the assistance of a hundred stout men took every
brick of the building bodily away, and divided the materials, so far
as was possible, amongst the proper owners. I think I can see now the
disappointed rascal of a freeholder when he only had his bare soil left
once more. He did not escape unpunished; for, to encourage the others
to contribute, he had invested some few pounds in the building. He had
been too clever: he had relied on the letter of the law, and I beat him
with a version of common-sense justice."

To return to my father's first suit in law. He brought an action for
false imprisonment against a solicitor named Wyatt. It appeared that
a person named Clements had assigned a wharf and certain book debts
and books to Messrs. Carr, Lamb & Co., and Mr Rogers, their solicitor,
sent Mr Bradlaugh, then his clerk, to Mr Wyatt's office, Gray's Inn, to
fetch away the books. Mr Wyatt refused to give them up: Mr Bradlaugh
seized them and carried them (an immense pile) to a cab he had waiting.
Mr Wyatt appeared on the scene with a clerk, and endeavoured to regain
possession of the books. After much resistance, in which my father's
coat was torn and hands cut, Mr Wyatt, unable to get the books,
called a policeman, and gave his adversary into custody on a charge
of "stealing the books;" this he withdrew for another--"creating a
disturbance and carrying off books." My father was locked up (whether
for minutes or hours I know not) with a boy who had been apprehended
whilst picking pockets. When he was brought before the magistrate he
was discharged, because no one appeared to prosecute. He wrote a number
of letters to Mr Wyatt demanding an apology, but received no answer,
and at length brought an action against him for false imprisonment. The
case came on before Mr Justice Crompton, and much to his delight, he
won a verdict, with £30 damages.

The foregoing is, I think, the only case in Mr Bradlaugh's career in
which he kept damages awarded him for his own personal use. In every
other case the damages were given to some charity--in later years,
always to the Masonic Boys' School. This time however the damages
awarded him by the jury were used in a purely personal manner, for the
money enabled him to hasten his marriage, and on June 5th, 1855, he
and my mother were married at St. Philip's Church, in the Parish of
Stepney, he barely 22 years of age, and she two years his senior.

They went to live at Warner Place, as was suggested in a letter I have
quoted; and my mother, who had been in very poor health for some time
previous to her marriage, seems to have gone with her sister-in-law
to Reigate for a few days at the end of the following July. How very
straitened their circumstances were, the following extract from a
letter of my father's to his wife will show:--

 "Carr and Lamb have not settled with me, and I am much pinched for
 cash, in fact, so much so that, as mother seems to wish to come to
 Reigate, I have thought of letting her come on Sunday, and staying at
 home myself, as I cannot manage both. If you feel well enough, I would
 like you to come home about next Thursday or Friday, as I begin to
 feel rather topsy-turvy.... If I do not come, I will send you money
 to clear you through the week. Do not think me in the least deg

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