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 Aldershot,
 "29th January 1856.

 "Madam,--Mr Bradlaugh has been kind enough to send me, during the
 last few days, some Manchester newspapers containing reports relative
 to the case of suspected poisoning. Not knowing where to address him
 now, I take the liberty of writing to you. Will you be so kind as to
 convey to him my thanks for the papers, and my hearty congratulations
 on his having obtained the management of the prosecution; it is an
 opportunity of distinguished service. With his wonderful acuteness and
 energy (Mr Bradlaugh and myself are such old and close friends that
 we do not mince words in speaking of or to each other) he will surely
 distinguish himself, and thus, as I suppose and hope, begin a fair way
 for promotion, as we phrase it. Watching the case with great interest,
 I thought his cross-examination of Mr Holland, the surgeon, extremely
 good and well conducted; but as this is merely an unprofessional
 opinion, he will not care much for it, although so favourable.

 "Trusting that yourself and the other members of the family are
 enjoying good health, I have the honour to be, Madam, yours most
 respectfully,

 JAS. THOMSON, Schoolmaster.
 "Depôt. 1st Rifles.

 "Mrs C. Bradlaugh."

Apart from the subject, this letter has in itself a special interest to
personal admirers of "B. V.": the handwriting--the earliest specimen
in my possession--is singularly unlike Mr Thomson's writing of later
years, so unlike that it was not until I had looked at the signature
that I realised who was the writer, although I am so familiar with
his writing that I should not have thought it possible that I could
hesitate in recognising it.

The poisoning case must have aroused considerable attention in
Manchester at the time. It arose in this way:--An insurance company
called The Diadem Life Insurance Company had reason to believe that
frauds were being practised upon them in Manchester through their
agent, and consequently instructed their solicitor to investigate one
case which they deemed unusually suspicious. The solicitor happened to
be Mr Rogers, and he sent his clerk, Mr Bradlaugh, to Manchester to
conduct the proceedings there. A man named John Monahan, a waterproof
worker, had become insured in the Diadem Office for £300; and after
paying the premiums he died, leaving a will securing the £300 to his
son James Monahan. Certain facts had been kept back from the Insurance
Company at the time of taking out the policy, and the man's age had
also been wrongly given. Investigations led, first, to the belief that
the will had not been written until three weeks after the testator's
death--and this was subsequently sworn to by witnesses, one of whom
wrote out the will--and finally, to the possibility that the old man,
John Monahan, had been poisoned. Two men implicated in the matter Mr
Bradlaugh himself captured and handed over to the police in the middle
of the night, and, in consequence of the evidence sworn to, an order
was made for the exhumation of the body of Monahan. As there was no
record of the place of burial, the details of the exhumation were
revolting in the extreme. For four days a gang of men were employed
in digging up bodies in an almost haphazard manner under the vague
directions, first, of the sexton and next of a niece of the deceased.
Mr Bradlaugh, after consulting with the coroner, contracted with a
Mr Sturges to undertake the work with more system. Sixty or more
bodies were dug up, and at length one of these was identified as
that of Monahan. Under the circumstances one cannot believe that the
identification was very precise; the body had been lying in a common
grave for between five and six months, and no one's memory seems to
have been clear enough even to point out the spot where the old man
was buried. Mr Bradlaugh was always of opinion that they did not get
the right body after all, although in the body found there were traces
of poison. These traces the medical evidence did not judge sufficient
to justify a charge of poisoning, and this count therefore fell to
the ground. The counsel engaged on behalf of the accused son, James
Monahan, was very indignant that my father should be allowed to conduct
the prosecution; he protested that heretofore the rule in that court
was that no one should be allowed to practise in that court unless
an attorney, or solicitor, or barrister. On the last occasion, the
counsel went on, as the prisoners had been apprehended only the night
before, and therefore, as there was not perhaps time to instruct a
professional man, Mr Bradlaugh had been allowed to appear. Other clerks
had been refused to appear, and he could not see why a different rule
should be adopted in this case. To expedite the business, he suggested
that the case should, according to ordinary practice, be conducted
by a solicitor or barrister. Mr Bradlaugh said he had appeared to
conduct cases for his employer in London police courts, and this was
a matter entirely within the discretion of the Court. He urged that
he alone was in possession of all the facts of the case, and that he
could not communicate his knowledge to any other person. Mr Maude (the
magistrate) remarked that it had been the general rule in that court
that parties should be represented either by counsel or solicitor, but
there was no rule without an exception, and looking at the peculiarity
of this case, he thought it would be very inconvenient now not to allow
Mr Bradlaugh to elicit the facts.

At a later stage of the proceedings a Mr Bent, who was watching the
case on behalf of another of the prisoners, objected, on the part of
the solicitors practising in the court, to Mr Bradlaugh, an attorney's
clerk, being allowed to appear, but the Bench overruled his objection.
In consequence of the medical evidence as to the condition of the
exhumed body, the charge of poisoning had, of course, to be entirely
abandoned, but in the March following James Monahan and two others were
charged with having, on 3rd August 1855, "feloniously forged a will
purporting to be the last will and testament of John Monahan, and with
having uttered the same, knowing it to be forged," and another was
charged with having feloniously been an accessory after the fact. The
jury found Monahan guilty, but acquitted the others. Keefe, the fourth
man, was then charged with having taken a false oath, and to this he
pleaded guilty.

In September 1857 my father moved from West Street to 3 Hedgers
Terrace, Cassland Road, Hackney, where I was born in the March of the
following year. He now began to think it was quite time to take some
definite steps towards the advancement of his position in life, and
with that object in view he wrote the following letter to Mr Rogers:--

 "DEAR SIR,--I have been in your employ above four years,
 and am now twenty-five years of age. I have a wife and child,
 beside mother and sisters, looking to me for support; under these
 circumstances it is absolutely necessary that I should make

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