Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History

Book

Open Original Text

lar about the
"proprieties" than my father; and had he brought us home in a _very_
tumbled, muddy condition, our fishing expeditions would have been less
frequent.

As to our early education, our father did the best he could for us; but
his means were small, and the opportunities for schooling twenty-five
and thirty years ago were not such as they are to-day. My sister and
I, first alone and then with my brother, were sent to a little school
taught by two maiden ladies; the boys being taught upstairs, and the
girls in a room below. At this school, as always, although the contrary
has been stated, we were withdrawn from religious instruction, but the
Misses Burnell did not always obey this injunction: if a bogie was
wanted to frighten us with, then "God" was trotted out. I remember
on one occasion, when I suppose I had been naughty, Miss Burnell,
pointing to the sky, told me that God was watching me from above and
could see all I did. Childlike, I took this literally, though I suppose
with the proverbial "grain of salt," for I leaned out of the window
and gazed up into the sky to see for myself this "God" who was always
watching my actions. It was just dusk, and it happened to be a time
when some comet was visible. When I looked out and saw this brilliant
body lighting up the darkness all about it, I was convinced that
_this_ was the "eye of God" of which Miss Burnell had been talking,
and hastily drew in my head again to get out of his sight! But as at
home we had no mysterious Being either to fear (because that seems the
first impression generally made upon sensitive children) or to love,
this awful Eye blazing away overhead merely left a vague feeling of
uneasiness behind, which time and healthier thought effaced. My little
brother was soon taken from this school and sent to a boarding-school,
where he remained only a few months, as it was unsatisfactory; he was
also over-walked, which resulted in laming him for a time. The master
who took the boys out for walking exercise could not have been of an
exactly cheerful disposition, for at the time of the dreadful ice
accident in 1867, when forty persons were drowned, he marched the boys
to Regent's Park to see the dead bodies taken out of the water. It was
a terrible sight for little boys to see; and as my little brother was
only just over seven years old, the remembrance of these rows of dead
bodies made an indelible impression upon his mind. He was then sent to
some good friends at Plymouth, Mr and Mrs John Williamson, and while he
grew well and strong in the sea breezes, he went to school with their
son. On coming home again, he was sent to Mr John Grant, schoolmaster
in the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards--then a friend of Mr Thomson's,
and so of my father's--who took him as a private pupil. My sister and I
learned French of different French refugees who frequented our house,
and I must do them the justice to say that our French was both a great
deal better taught and learned than our English. My father used to hold
sudden examinations at unstated times of our progress in the French
language, especially if he happened to come across a _franc_ piece,
reminiscent of his journeys to the Continent. This _franc_ was to be
the reward of the one who answered best; but somehow I was so stupid
and desperately nervous that I never once won the prize: my sister
always carried it off in triumph.

Never during the whole of our childhood did my father once raise his
hand against us, never once did he speak a harsh word. We _were_
whipped, for my mother held the old-fashioned, mistaken notion that to
"spare the rod" was to "spoil the child;" but when scolding or whipping
failed to bring obedience, the culprit was taken to that little study;
there a grave look and a grave word brought instant submission. But it
seldom went beyond the threat of being taken there, for we loved him so
that we could not bear him even to know when we were naughty.

I feel that much of this may well seem very trivial to those who read
my book, but my excuse for dwelling so long on such details is that
even the most ordinary incidents in my father's history have been
misstated and distorted. I take my opportunity whilst I may, for many
lie cold in the grave, and mine is now almost the only hand which can
nail down the wretched calumnies which strike at such small personal
matters as these.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE "NATIONAL REFORMER."

Those who have travelled with me thus far will have noticed that the
story of Mr Bradlaugh's public work is carried down to 1860, just prior
to the inauguration of the _National Reformer_. This I thought would be
a good point at which to break off and look at what his private life
and home surroundings had been during that time; and the account of
this I have brought down to about the year 1870. I will now retrace my
steps a little and go back to 1860 to take up again the narrative of
my father's public work, and to tell of the starting, carrying on, and
vicissitudes of the _National Reformer_, of the stormy lecturing times
when Mr Bradlaugh delivered twenty-three or more lectures in one month,
travelling between Yarmouth and Dumfries to do it and home again with
perhaps less money in his pocket than when he started. Italy, Ireland,
the Lancashire Cotton Famine, the Reform League, the General Election
of 1868, these and other matters of more or less importance will bring
us again to the year 1870. That year brought with it such important
events touching both the private and public life of Mr Bradlaugh that
it made, as it were, a break in his life, and marked a new era in his
career.

The Sheffield Freethinkers, as I said a few pages back, almost adopted
the young "Iconoclast" as their own. In him they found a bold, able,
and untiring advocate of the opinions they cherished; in them he,
in return, found full appreciation of his efforts, kind friends and
enthusiastic co-workers. This union had not existed long before
it resolved itself into a practical form--the promulgation of the
_National Reformer_. The initiation of the idea came from Mr Bradlaugh,
who naturally sighed after his lost _Investigator_; but as neither he
nor any one of these Yorkshire friends was sufficiently wealthy to
take the sole risk of starting and running a newspaper, a committee
of Sheffield, Bradford, and Halifax men formed a Company and issued
a prospectus, which was inserted in the _Reasoner_ of February 12,
1860.[34] This original Prospectus is very interesting, and a perusal
of it will show how closely, except on one or two matters of detail
which have necessarily altered with the times, the programme of the
latter day _National Reformer_ adhered to that issued thirty-four years
ago. A careful comparison of the policy embodied in this Prospectus
with the policy of the paper up to January 1891 will entirely disprove
the various assertions of modifications airily made by many persons;
by some carelessly, these never having troubled to make themselves
acq

Previous Next