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aper,
"Iconoclast" in the four pages under his charge devotes two-thirds of
a column to an article on "Cleanliness," in which he also extols the
Turkish Bath, but with the calmness and matter-of-fact manner of an old
frequenter. Mr Jagger of Rochdale and Mr Maxfield of Huddersfield are
especially and discriminatingly praised for the comfort and cleanliness
of their arrangements. We are all tolerably familiar with the proverb
"Cleanliness comes next to Godliness," but any one reading the
Freethought papers of thirty odd years ago would be compelled to admit
that it took a very front place in the principles of Secularism then.

[Footnote 35: The paper was at first dated on the Saturday.]

As a matter of course, Mr Bradlaugh addressed some "First words" to
his readers; from this I will detach two sentences, and two only;
and these because they embody, in forcible language, truths as sound
to-day as at the moment when they were written. Let us unite against
the clergy, he urges upon his Freethinking readers, for "the Bible
is the great cord with which the people are bound; cut this, and the
mass will be more free to appreciate facts instead of faiths." Then in
praising the efforts at Co-operation at Rochdale, he adds: "I would
say to the men of other towns, do not strike against your masters, ye
who are servants, but combine to serve one another in co-operative
associations, which will enable you to employ and elevate yourselves,
and in time will strike the, words 'master and servant' out of our
vocabulary."

The second number of the _National Reformer_ did not appear until a
month later, the third came out on June 2nd, and with that commenced
the weekly issue. With the exception of a few letters and occasional
extracts, the whole of which rarely filled more than two or three
columns, Mr Joseph Barker's half was entirely written by himself,
and the initials "J. B." dotted all over the four pages become so
monotonous that the sight of another signature gives quite a relief to
the eye. The most prominent contributors to Iconoclast's section were
"Caractacus," "G. R.," and Mr John Watts. When the paper was nothing
more than a project, Mr Bradlaugh spoke of it to his friend Mr W. E.
Adams, who was then living at Manchester. He asked the author of the
"Tyrannicide" pamphlet to write articles for the new paper, but Mr
Adams had so modest an opinion of his own abilities that he hesitated
to consent. But consent he at length did; an article from his pen upon
"Reform" appeared in the first number, and once having made the plunge,
he became a regular weekly contributor. The first contribution was
signed "W. E. A.," but after that Mr Adams wrote under the signature
of "Caractacus," and the eloquence of his articles impeaching the
oppressor, or pleading the cause of the oppressed, quicken the blood
in one's veins to-day, although the men and causes which inspired his
pen are now more than half forgotten. G. R.'s first article on the
population doctrines appeared in the fourth number, and after that he
wrote fairly frequently for the _National Reformer_. In number sixteen,
the printer transferred nine "make-up" paragraphs--sent by Mr Bradlaugh
to fill up any vacant corners in his section--to Mr Barker's half. The
paragraphs were sufficiently interesting in their way, but, after the
manner of such paragraphs, contained no very startling doctrines, nor
expressed any very extraordinary sentiment. The first read "Kindness to
animals promotes humanity;" the second gave some tonnage statistics;
the third was upon persecutions, urging "that he who kills for a faith
must be weak, that he who dies for a faith must be strong;" the other
paragraphs were quotations from Thackeray, Wendell Phillips, Senior,
Mansell's Bampton Lectures, Theodore Parker and Ruskin. Such was the
effect of these harmless looking extracts upon Mr Barker, however, that
he thought it necessary to specially address his readers on September
8th (in No. 17), publicly repudiating the sentiments as "foolish or
false," and specially selecting for condemnation the maxim on kindness
to animals! This is the first intimation the public have of the "rift
within the lute," and one is immediately driven to the conclusion that
a man who could publicly repudiate, in the brusque language used by Mr
Barker, such a trifling matter as this, must have been very anxious to
pick a quarrel with his colleague, no matter how slight the grounds.
As a matter of course, Mr Bradlaugh was obliged in the next number
to explain that the paragraphs had been used by the printer to fill
up what would otherwise have been a blank space in Mr Barker's half.
"It was done," he said, "without my knowledge, but I can hardly say
against my wish," and then, naturally enough, he proceeded to defend or
explain the sentiments expressed in them. This matter, small in itself,
makes it fairly evident that Mr Barker was a man exceedingly difficult
to deal with; and his entire lack of self-restraint is shown in his
eagerness to display to the public the smallest of his grievances, even
as against his co-editor, with whom one would have imagined it would
have been to his interest to at least appear on friendly terms, since
it directly involved the welfare of the paper.

For some time after this, things went on quietly between the two
editors, each pursuing the even tenor of his way. But this seeming
tranquillity did not extend far below the surface. Mr Barker expressed
to certain persons his regret at having associated himself with Mr
Bradlaugh, and his determination not to continue long as co-editor. Of
course, all this was reported to Mr Bradlaugh, although he allowed it
to pass quite unnoticed.

There were for the moment no more outbursts of repudiation in the
_National Reformer_, still the paper was very curious reading, and it
grew more and more curious each week. As Mr Bradlaugh himself wrote
at a later stage: "The points of difference between myself and Mr
Barker are many. He professes now to be a Theist. For eight years,
at least, I have been an Atheist. I am for the Manhood Suffrage. Mr
Barker is against it. I hold the doctrines of John Stuart Mill on
Political Economy. Mr Barker thinks the advocacy of such opinions
vile and immoral. Mr Barker thinks Louis Napoleon a good and useful
man. I believe the Emperor of the French to be the most clever and
unscrupulous rascal in the world." These were a few of the more
prominent points of difference, and they seemed to increase and magnify
week by week, although my father's Malthusian advocacy and his hatred
of Louis Napoleon were made the principal grounds of friction. All
Mr Bradlaugh's contributors were apparently obnoxious to Mr Barker.
He fell foul of "Caractacus" on the subjects of the American War,
Garibaldi, and the Emperor of the French; "G. R." was attacked for
his economical doctrines in the most unreserved language; and Mr John
Watts he opposed on private grounds. These differences of opinion
broke out once mor

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