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commenced his conduct of the paper by a statement of his policy,
and by a trenchant letter to Louis Napoleon. From the former I take
the opening and concluding words as giving his first editorial
utterance:[24]--

[Footnote 24: _Investigator_, November 1st, 1858, p. 124.]

"We are investigators, and our policy is to ascertain facts and present
them to our readers in clear and distinct language. If we find a mind
bound round with Creeds and Bibles, we will select a sharp knife to
cut the bonds; if we find men prostrating themselves, without inquiry,
before idols, our policy is iconoclastic--we will destroy those
idols. If we find a rock in our path, we will break it; but we will
not quarrel with our brother who deems his proper work to be that of
polishing the fragments. We believe all the religions of the world
are founded on error, in the ignorance of natural causes and material
conditions, and we deem it our duty to endeavour to expose their
falsity. Our policy is therefore aggressive. We are, at present, of
opinion that there is much to do in the mere clod-crushing sphere, in
uprooting upas trees, hewing down creed-erected barriers between man
and man, and generally in negating the influence of the priest. Our
policy is of a humble character; we are content to be axebearers and
pioneers, cutting down this obstacle and clearing away that. We respect
the sower who delights in the positive work of scattering seed on the
ground, but we fear that the weeds destroy much of the fruit of his
labours....

"There is no middle ground between Theism and Atheism. The genuineness
and authenticity of the Scriptures are questions relevant to
Secularism. It is as necessary for the Secularist to destroy Bible
influence as for the farmer to endeavour to eradicate the chickweed
from his clover field. We appeal to those who think our work fairly
done to aid us in our labours; to those who will not work with us we
simply say, do not hinder us.

"Our only wish and purpose is to make man happy, and this because in so
doing we increase our own happiness. The secret of true happiness and
wisdom lies in the consciousness that you are working to the fullest
of your ability to make your fellows happy and wise. Man can never be
happy until he is free; free in body and in mind; free in thought and
in utterance; free from crowns and creeds, from priest, from king; free
from the cramping customs created by the influences surrounding him,
and which have taught him to bow to a lord and frown upon a beggar.
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity! That true liberty, which infringes not
the freedom of my brother; that equality which recognises no noblemen
but the men of noble thoughts and noble deeds; that fraternity which
links the weak arm-in-arm with the strong, and, teaching humankind that
union is strength, compels them to fraternise, and links them together
in that true brotherhood for which we strive."

The second number of the _Investigator_ under his editorship is
interesting to-day, as containing his earliest printed views upon
"Oath-taking;" the third is also notable for its paper on "Emerson,"
the first article from the pen of "B. V." (James Thomson); and in the
fourth Mr W. E. Adams commenced his contributions. It is evident that
my father spared no effort to make the paper "undoubtedly useful," as
he put it; but in spite of all his energy and his able contributors
the _Investigator_ did not pay its way. In April, too, he fell ill
from a very severe attack of rheumatic fever, and was laid up for many
weeks; so that at length, "being unable to sustain any longer the
severe pecuniary burden cast upon him, and not wishing to fill his
pages with appeals for charitable assistance," the journal was, with
much regret, discontinued in August 1859. In the final number he pens
a few "last words," which are worth the reading, and in which he says
that his reason for the discontinuance is very simple--"I am poor"--and
in a rarely despondent mood he bids his readers "farewell," as he may
perchance never address them again.

 * * * * *

Delivering Freethought lectures and editing a Freethought journal
undoubtedly absorbed much of Mr Bradlaugh's time, but these occupations
engrossing as they were did not make him unmindful of his duties as
a good citizen, and he was always taking some part or other in the
political movements going on around him. At a meeting held in the
Cowper Street Schoolroom in November 1858, to advocate the principles
of the Political Reform League, at which the League was represented by
Mr Passmore Edwards and Mr Swan, and the Chartists by Ernest Jones, Mr
Bradlaugh is reported as seconding a resolution in an "earnest, lucid,
and eloquent manner," and as having "enforced the duty of every man
to preserve the public rights, by unitedly demanding and steadfastly,
peaceably, and determinedly persevering to obtain that position of
equality in the State to which they were as men entitled;" now, as
always hereafter, urging the _peaceful_ demand of constitutional
rights: a point I am anxious to lay stress upon, as this is the time
when some of my father's later critics assert that he was rude, coarse,
and, above all, violent.

The chairman of the meeting, who was also the churchwarden of
Shoreditch, and a man apparently much respected, at the close quaintly
said "he had not met that young man (Mr Bradlaugh) before that night,
but he was most highly pleased to find in him such an able advocate of
principle; he hoped he would be as good and faithful an advocate when
he became old."

On the first Sunday in March 1859, the working men of London held a
great meeting in Hyde Park to protest against the Government Reform
Bill. They were very much in earnest, and although the time for the
speaking was fixed for three o'clock in the afternoon, long before
that hour the Park was thronged with people. About half-past two a man
was hoisted on the shoulders of two others, and was greatly cheered
by the crowd, who thought this was the opening of the proceedings.
When, however, the person so elevated proclaimed to his listening
auditors that "those who dared to take part in a political meeting on
the Sabbath would be grossly offending the Almighty," the cheering was
changed to uproar and confusion, which only the advent of the real
chairman sufficed to calm. The _Times_ says that after the meeting had
been duly opened, "Mr Bradlaugh, a young man well known in democratic
circles, came forward and addressed the meeting." The report which
follows is probably the first vouchsafed to Charles Bradlaugh by the
great daily; and, judging from the number of "Cheers" and "Hear,
hears," and even "Loud cheers" that the reporter managed to include in
his score of lines of report, it was much more generous to him in '59
than at any later period. This meeting, like so many of its kind, and
like the great majority of those with which my father was concerned,
was remarkable for its orderliness; there was no police interference
at 

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