Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History BookOpen Original Text uainted with the facts; by others wilfully, regardless of the truth
within their knowledge.
[Footnote 34: The Prospectus of the _Reformer_, as it appeared in the
_Reasoner_, was as follows:--
"REFORMER NEWSPAPER COMPANY, Limited. Capital, £1000, in 2000
shares of 10s. each. This Company is to be formed for the purpose
of issuing a weekly newspaper, price twopence, to be entitled the
_Reformer_, of the size of the _Manchester Guardian_, folded so as
to form eight pages. It will advocate advanced Liberal opinions, on
Social, Political, Theological, and Scientific questions, and will
permit free discussion on every statement made, or opinion advanced in
its columns, or upon any question of general importance. The present
platform of political views will be mainly that advocated by the
Northern Reform Union, but every phase of the political question shall
have free and unreserved treatment, and the most partial Tory will be
allowed to answer the views of the Editor, as well as the most extreme
Republican, the promoters being of opinion that no one man holds
the whole truth, but that it permeates from one extreme to another,
and can only be found by a complete ventilation and examination of
each man's views. On social science, the promoters intend specially
to watch the conduct of the Social Science League, reviewing the
course taken by its leading men, and illustrating the general views
enunciated at its meetings. The newspaper will contain full reports of
co-operative news, meetings and proceedings of trade societies, and
co-operative progress throughout the country. It will also contain
articles illustrating the connection between physiological and
psychological phenomena, and illustrating new scientific discoveries,
examining and explaining the various theories in connection with
animal magnetism, phrenology, etc., treating fully on the important
ground recognised under the title of Political Economy. The present
platform, of theological advocacy, will be that of antagonism to
every known religious system, and especially to the various phases of
Christianity taught and preached in Britain; but every one--Churchman,
Dissenter, or anti-theologian--shall have full space to illustrate his
own views. The paper will also contain all the important news of the
week, summary of Parliamentary debates, reviews of books, etc. etc.;
special law and police intelligence; original poetry, etc. The Company
will be conducted by a committee of management, appointed annually by
the general body of shareholders. The committee will have the whole
financial control of the paper, and will have the appointment of the
Editor. The Editor for the first six months will be 'Iconoclast,'
who will be continued in that office if satisfaction be given to the
committee of management. A number of well-known writers have already
associated themselves with that gentleman in order to make the pages
of the _Reformer_ worthy of general approbation."
It will be noted that here the paper is called the _Reformer_ simply,
but in the first advertisement which appeared after the publication of
its policy, it was announced as the _National Reformer_.]
The arrangements for the paper were completed, and announcements
concerning it made, when Mr Joseph Barker returned to England from
America. His coming was heralded by a flourish of trumpets--literary
trumpets, that is--receptions were arranged to welcome him, and there
was evidently a widespread notion that Joseph Barker was a very great
man indeed. It is difficult for us to-day, having before us his whole
public career, with its kaleidoscopic changes of front, to realise the
enthusiasm which his name provoked in 1860. But be that as it may, it
is quite evident that at that time his reputation stood high amongst
English Freethinkers; and, in an evil hour, Mr Bradlaugh, thinking that
the co-operation of such a man would be of great advantage to the cause
he had at heart, suggested to the Sheffield committee that Mr Barker
should be invited to become co-editor with himself. The suggestion was
readily adopted, and all future announcements concerning the _National
Reformer_ contained the two names, Joseph Barker and "Iconoclast," as
"editors for the first six months."
The issue of the first number was promised for April 8th (1860), but
apparently there was some little difficulty in getting it under way,
and it was not until the following Saturday,[35] April 14th, that
the new venture was fairly launched. According to the arrangements
made between the committee of management and the editors, Mr Joseph
Barker edited the first half (four pages), "Iconoclast" the second;
and in this last half were put all the parliamentary, co-operative,
and society reports, announcement of lectures, and advertisements.
I conclude that after a few numbers, Mr Bradlaugh found all these
reports greatly curtailed the space available for original articles by
himself or his contributors, for very soon the Parliamentary reports
were abandoned, and criticism of measures before the Legislature,
written either by himself or by "Caractacus," were substituted. The
"original" poetry, I remark, was mainly confined to Mr Barker's side
(I use the word "original" because it appeared in the Prospectus);
and even there the poetic seed seems to have taken some time to
germinate, for until the tenth number only two or three stray shoots
appeared; with "No. 10," however, it suddenly blossomed into upwards
of a column of verses. These verses are from the pens of Charles
Mackay, John G. Saxe, Longfellow, and Richard Howitt, and it is a
heavy demand upon us to believe that they made their first appearance
under the auspices of Mr Barker in the _National Reformer_. After this
number there was seldom an issue without some verse--"original" or
otherwise. There is one small matter which has amused me immensely in
connection with the _National Reformer_ (and also with the _Reasoner_),
that is, the enthusiastic advocacy of the Turkish Bath. A casual
observer, say a Hindu or a Confucian, coming to these papers with an
entirely unbiased mind, might well imagine that the Turkish Bath was
a mainstay of Secularism, such is the ardour with which its merits
are put forward. At each town visited by the different editors,
wherever there was a Turkish Bath, the bath is also visited, reported
upon, and if possible, commended in their respective papers. Thus,
in the first number of the _National Reformer_, Mr Barker winds up
an account of "My lecturing tour" by a detailed description of the
bath at Keighley, and refers more briefly to those he revelled in at
Sheffield, Huddersfield, Rochdale, Stockport, and Bradford. He seems
to have been a new convert, and on that ground perhaps may be excused
the eagerness which carried him to such flights in his description
as to record the momentous fact that the drying sheet was "fringed
with red." While Mr Barker thus describes in his half of the p Previous Next |