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 suppress the _National
Reformer_, a special fund is opened, to be entitled 'The _National
Reformer_ Defence Fund,' to which subscriptions are invited." Above
the editorial leaders was the legend, "Published in Defiance of Her
Majesty's Government, and of the 60 Geo. III. cap. 9."

Beyond these two statements no further information was given until
the following week, when Mr Bradlaugh explained in answer to numerous
inquirers that the Commissioners of the Inland Revenue had, under 60
Geo. III., cap. 69, required him to give sureties in the sum of £400
against the appearance of blasphemy or sedition in his columns; that
they had sent officially to purchase a copy; and that they claimed £20
for each separate copy of the _National Reformer_ published. Another
communication came from W. H. Melvill, Esq., Solicitor to the Inland
Revenue Office, insisting upon his compliance with the requirements of
the statute. Mr Bradlaugh replied intimating his refusal, and stating
that he was prepared to contest the matter. He also addressed a short
public letter to the Commissioners:--

 "You have," he writes, "taken the pains to officially remind me of
 an Act of Parliament, passed in 1819, avowedly for the suppression
 of cheap Democratic and Freethought literature, and you require me
 to comply with its provisions, such provisions being absolutely
 prohibitory to the further appearance of this journal. With all
 humility, I am obliged to bid you defiance; you may kill the _National
 Reformer_, but it will not commit suicide. Before you destroy the
 paper we shall have to fight the question as far as my means will
 permit me."

The Government showed itself in so little hurry to notice Mr
Bradlaugh's defiance that he announced the suspension of the "defence
fund" in the hope that the Government had "reconsidered its hasty
intimations." My father's warlike spirit appears to have made him half
regretful that all these preliminary threatenings seemed about to
result in nothing more serious, for he believed he "should have made a
good fight for the liberty of the press;" although, on the other hand,
he was, of course, "delighted to be let alone," as he could not afford
"to go to jail," and "jail" would have been the natural termination
to his defeat and the Government triumph. The hopes and fears, of his
suspense were, however, at length brought to an end, and the next
issue of the _National Reformer_ (May 24) appeared with the words
"Prosecuted by Her Majesty's Government" printed in large black type on
the front page; and this announcement was so continued until the end of
the proceedings, giving to the journal--despised and rejected by its
contemporaries as it was--quite a distinguished appearance.

In fact, the public could hardly have read his words as to the
possibility of a reconsideration by the Government, when he received
an ominously worded writ[40] from the Solicitor's Department, Somerset
House, for the recovery of two penalties of £50 and £20 attaching to
the publication and sale of the paper; and it may be remarked that
the claim of these sums of £50 and £20 meant considerably more than
would appear to the eye of the uninitiated, for it meant £50 "for each
and every day" since publication, and £20 "for each and every copy"
published, so that the amount of the penalties really claimed was
something tremendous. On these two numbers alone, at the very lowest
estimate, it must have reached somewhere about a quarter of a million
of money, "The Defence Fund" was of course re-opened; for, as we shall
see later on, Mr Bradlaugh had by this time gained plenty of personal
experience as to the cost of litigation, and opposing the Government
law officers promised largely in the way of expense. Hosts of small
subscribers sent their small sums to swell the funds for the defence
of the persecuted and prosecuted paper. Meetings were held, and a
petition for the repeal of the Statutes of William and George was
immediately got up. One of the first to be presented was one from Mr
Bradlaugh himself, which was laid before the House on May 25th by Mr
John Stuart Mill; on the same day Mr Crawford presented one from Mr
Austin Holyoake; and later on people in various parts of the country,
sent in petitions through their respective members. These petitions and
the general agitation soon began to have their effect, and resulted in
a meeting of members being convened to be held in one of the Committee
Rooms of the House, to consider the proper action to be taken. Men
like James Watson, who had suffered imprisonment for his defence of
the liberty of the press; Richard Moore, whose name was well known in
those days for his efforts to promote political freedom; and Mr C. D.
Collet, who had worked untiringly for political reforms: such men as
these came forward with help and advice, as well as many others who,
like Edward Truelove and Austin Holyoake, were intimately associated
with my father. On the 28th May he received an "information" from the
law officers of the Crown, but, curiously enough, it was undated. No
one who knows anything of Mr Bradlaugh will need to be told that this
slip did not pass unnoticed, and on the following day, with the view of
gaining a slight extension of the time to plead, he applied to Mr Baron
Bramwell to order the withdrawal of the information. Baron Bramwell
made the order applied for, and the solicitor to the Inland Revenue
amended his document the same day.

[Footnote 40: "This writ is issued against you for the recovery of two
penalties of £50 and £20 incurred by you in respect of the publication
and sale of '_The National Reformer_, Secular Advocate and Freethought
Journal' newspaper of 3rd May 1868, without making the Declaration and
Recognisances, required respectively by the Statutes 6 and 7 Wm. iv.
cap. 76, and 1st Wm. iv. cap. 73; and also for two other like penalties
in respect of the publication and sale of the newspaper of 18th May
1868."]

From this "information," with its customary confusion of legal jargon
retailed to clients at so much per folio, we may extricate three
essential points, which I will put plainly in as many lines, viz.,
that Mr Bradlaugh was being proceeded against for (1) publishing the
_National Reformer_; for (2) being the proprietor of it; and for
(3) selling the paper so published and owned "at a less price than
sixpence, to wit, at the price of twopence."

These last words were pregnant with meaning, for, as my father wrote at
the time, "If the price was sixpence I should not be prosecutable; it
is only cheap blasphemy and sedition which is liable to be suppressed."
The rich might read the covert blasphemies of an affectedly pious
and unaffectedly sixpenny weekly journal, or dally over expensive
and erudite treatises which were openly heretical; but ignorance
and religion were necessary to the masses to keep them in proper
subjection, and woe betide those rash men who ventured to throw open to
these the door of the Chamber of 

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