Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History BookOpen Original Text a mischievous and unfounded libel upon Mr Charles Bradlaugh.
"That Mr Bradlaugh holds, and fearlessly expounds, theological
opinions entirely opposed to those of the editor and the majority of
our readers, is undoubtedly true, and Mr Bradlaugh cannot and does
not complain that his name is associated with Colenso, Holyoake, or
Paine; but that he has offensively intruded those opinions in our
lecture hall is NOT TRUE. That his ordinary language on the platform
is 'balderdash and blasphemy' is NOT TRUE. That he makes a practice
of openly desecrating the Sunday is NOT TRUE. That he is known by the
names of 'Moses Scoffer,' or 'Swear 'em Charley,' is NOT TRUE. Nor is
there any foundation for the sneer as to his 'City practice,' or for
the insinuations made against his conduct or character as a scholar
and a gentleman.
"While making this atonement to Mr Bradlaugh, the Editor must express
his unfeigned sorrow that the name of Mrs Bradlaugh should have been
introduced into the article in question, accompanied by a suggestion
calculated to wound her in the most vital part, conveying as it does
a reflection upon her honour and fair fame as a lady and a wife. Mrs
Bradlaugh is too well known and too much respected to suffer by such
a calumny; but for the pain so heedlessly given to a sensitive and
delicate nature the Editor offers this expression of his profound and
sincere regret.
"No. 2.
"The author of the 'Appendix' complained of, who is NOT the Editor
or Proprietor, or in any way connected with the _Tottenham Herald_,
unreservedly adopts the foregoing apology, and desires to incorporate
it with his own.
"It is for him bitterly to lament that, stung by allusions in the
article from _All the Year Round_, which he erroneously attributed
to the pen of Mr Bradlaugh, he allowed his better judgment to give
way, and wrote of that gentleman in language which he cannot at all
justify, and which he now entirely retracts.
"To Mrs Bradlaugh he respectfully tenders such an apology as becomes a
gentleman to offer to a lady he has so greatly wronged. He trusts that
the exquisite pain she must have suffered from a harsh allusion will
be somewhat mitigated by the public avowal of its absolute injustice.
As a wife united to her husband in holy wedlock by the solemn forms
of the Church, as a mother of a young family, to whom she sets the
proper example of an English lady, she is entitled to reparation from
one whose only excuse is that he wrote of her in ignorance and haste,
while writing of her husband under irritation and excitement.
"The writer of the libel has only to add that he has addressed to Mr
Bradlaugh a private letter bearing his proper signature, and avowing,
while he laments, the authorship of the offending article; and he
begs to offer his thanks to Mr Bradlaugh for the generous forbearance
which declines to exact the publication of the writer's name, from
considerations which will be patent to most of the readers of this
journal."
These apologies were accepted in a few generous words by Mr Bradlaugh:--
"On my own behalf, and that of my wife, I am content with these
apologies. To have accepted less would have shown my disregard of her
honour and my own. To have required more would have been to punish
with too great severity those whose own frank avowals show that they
acted rather with precipitancy than with 'malice prepense.'
"(Signed) CHARLES BRADLAUGH."
If I could believe that Mr M'Sorley _had_ frankly--to repeat Mr
Bradlaugh's word--repented in fact, as well as in appearance, I should
pass this libel now with but slight allusion, and have considered
myself bound by my father's promise not to make the writer's name
public.[30] In the immediate locality it was impossible that the
authorship of such an astounding concoction should long remain secret,
and for long afterwards Mr M'Sorley's name was bandied about with
small jests amongst the irreverent youngsters of the neighbourhood.
The apology was made under considerable pressure: members of the
congregation threatened to leave the Church, a lawsuit loomed in
the distance, and a horsewhipping in the near future.[31] "This
fellow," said Mr Bradlaugh,[32] speaking thirteen years later, and
still withholding the name, "I compelled to retract every word he had
uttered, and to pay £100, which, after deducting costs, was divided
amongst various charitable institutions. The reverend libeller wrote me
an abject letter begging me not to ruin his prospects in the Church by
publishing his name. I consented, and he has since repaid my mercy by
losing no opportunity of being offensive. He is a prominent contributor
to the _Rock_, and a fierce ultra-Protestant."
[Footnote 30: In 1872 Mr Bradlaugh had occasion to address a letter in
the _National Reformer_ to the Rev. Mr M'Sorley, dealing with a sermon
of his published in the _Tottenham and Edmonton Advertiser_, but he did
not make the slightest allusion to the clergyman's former conduct. Mr
M'Sorley died in 1892.]
[Footnote 31: I remember that some one, I know not whom, put the
horsewhip in the hall in readiness, and this impressed upon the minds
of us children the dreadful depths of Mr M'Sorley's depravity! Our
father never said a harsh word or raised his hand in anger to one
of us, and we knew that the person must be very bad indeed if the
possibility of a whipping could be even contemplated!]
[Footnote 32: _The Weekly Dispatch_, November 16, 1879.]
So much for the bitter lament and frank avowal of an ordained minister
of the Church of England!
It is an open question which was the worse of the two--the Rev. John
Graham Packer or the Rev. Hugh M'Sorley. I am inclined to think that
the latter carried off the palm, although his malignancy recoiled upon
himself, whilst Mr Packer's took such terrible effect. In any case a
perusal of Mr M'Sorley's "Appendix" will convince the reader, if indeed
any need convincing, that Mr Packer was not--as has lately been the
fashion to assume--the only clergyman who has striven to injure my
father's character.
CHAPTER XII.
TOTTENHAM.
Our house at Sunderland Villa was what I suppose would be called an
eight-roomed house. It comprised four bedrooms, two sitting-rooms, and
a little room built out over the kitchen, which was Mr Bradlaugh's
"den" or study. There was a garden in the rear communicating by a
private way with "The Grove," a road running at right angles to
Northumberland Park, in which our house was situated; and at the bottom
of this garden, when things looked very prosperous indeed, some stables
were built. There was to be stalled the longed-for horse which was to
take my father to the City every day; but before the stables were quite
completed Black Friday came, and with it vanished all these entrancing
dreams. The building indeed remained, but merely as a playhouse for
us children, or to afford an occasional lodging for a friend (the
coachman's quarters being well and snugly bui Previous Next |