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 is ill calculated to check a tendency
to personalities on the part of opponents, or to lead to the impartial
investigation of the truth."

The _Bradford Review_ had a short article on the four nights'
discussion, and, speaking of the use of personalities, said: "Here we
must say, justice obliges us to say that Mr Grant was the first and
by far the greater offender in this direction. The language would not
have been tolerated in any society. It was an outrage upon the ordinary
proprieties and decencies of life."

The _Bradford Advertiser_ was expressly hostile to Mr Bradlaugh, but
in reviewing the four nights' debate also remarked: "We feel bound to
concede that 'Iconoclast' acted with a dignity which contrasted very
favourably as compared with Mr Grant.... We are glad the course is at
an end: we never attended a discussion where so little gentlemanly
conduct was exhibited, or so much said that was vile and unworthy,
especially from one professing to be a preacher and a practiser of
Christ's teachings."

A letter in my possession, written to a friend by one of the audience
immediately after the second night, gives a private view of the debate.
He writes: "The debate was very hot last night; the excitement was
great. Mr Grant's friends were disgusted with his conduct. At one
time, when Mr Bradlaugh was speaking, Mr Grant put out his tongue
at Mr Bradlaugh, and the audience cried 'Shame' to Mr Grant for his
conduct."]

In the fourth night of the debate, Mr Grant, harping on the alleged
immoralities of Paine and Carlile, twitted his antagonist with calling
him "my friend." When the time came for my father to reply, he rose,
evidently in a white heat of anger, to defend these two great dead men
from their living calumniator. His speech produced such an effect, not
only upon the audience, but upon Mr Grant, that the latter grew quite
uneasy under his words and under his gaze; he asked "Iconoclast" to
look at the audience and not at him. Mr Bradlaugh replied: "I will
take it that you are, as indeed you ought to be, ashamed to look an
earnest man in the face, and I will look at you no more. Mr Grant
complains that I have called him 'my friend.' It is true, in debate I
have accustomed myself to wish all men my friends, and to greet them
as friends if possible. The habit, like a garment, fits me, and I have
in this discussion used the phrase 'my friend;' but, believe me, I did
not mean it. Friendship with you would be a sore disgrace and little
honour."

A verbatim report was taken of this debate; but when the MS. of his
speeches was sent the Rev. Brewin Grant for approval, he refused to
return it, and thus the debate was never published.

Another person who came forward to champion Christianity against
"Infidels" generally, and Mr Bradlaugh in particular, was the Rev.
Dr Brindley. This gentleman, well known as a confirmed drunkard and
a bankrupt, was yet announced as the "Champion of Christianity, the
well-known controversialist against Mr Robert Owen, and the Socialists,
the Mormons, and the Secularists." A four nights' debate was arranged
to take place at Oldham in June in the Working Men's Hall.

The meagre reports show nothing of any interest beyond the fact that on
each evening there were enormous audiences. Mr Bradlaugh had another
four nights' debate with Dr Brindley at Norwich a few months later,
but this did not appear to be worth reporting at all. Dr Brindley was
not by any means so clever as Mr Grant, nor did he use quite such
scandalous language upon the public platform and to his adversary's
face, although, if rumour did not belie him, he was more unrestrained
both as to matter and manner when relieved of his antagonist's
presence.[48] One thing at least he and Mr Grant had in common--an
overwhelming antagonism to Mr Bradlangh. This feeling led each man
into continuous hostile acts, overt or covert, each according to his
temperament and opportunity. Dr Brindley's rage amounted to fever heat
when Mr Bradlaugh became candidate for Northampton, and in that town
he frantically used every endeavour to hinder his return. When Mr
Bradlaugh determined to go to America in 1873, Dr Brindley's feelings
quite overpowered him, and he rushed after his enemy to New York, with,
I suppose, some sort of idea of hunting down the wicked Atheist, though
really, looking back on the past, it is difficult to see that the poor
creature could have had any clear ideas as to what he was going to do
to Mr Bradlaugh when he reached America. He must have been carried
away by some sort of wild frenzy, which amounted to insanity. My
father's first lecture upon the Republican Movement in England, at the
Steinway Hall, New York, proved to be an immense success, and at its
close Dr Brindley offered some opposition. By his language he aroused
such a storm of hisses and uproar, that Mr Bradlaugh was obliged to
interpose on his behalf, which he did by appealing to the audience
"to let the gentleman who represents the aristocracy and the Church
of England go on." This convulsed the assembly, who--in laughter and
amusement--consented to hear the rev. gentleman out. Four days later Dr
Brindley publicly answered Mr Bradlaugh at the Cooper Institute, and
the _Germantown Chronicle_ (Philadelphia) gives the following amusing
account of the proceedings:--

[Footnote 48: This, I gather, did not apply to his attitude to Mr
Bradlaugh only.]

 "Brindley's purpose in life is to go for Bradlaugh hammer and tongs,
 and he has actually paid his way out here, cabin passage, to hunt up
 and show up and finally shut up the six foot leader of the English
 Radicals. He is determined to keep on after Bradlaugh hot foot, and
 wherever that eminent individual leaves a trace of his presence, there
 will the indefatigable Brindley be, with his orthodox whitewash brush,
 to wipe out the name and memory of his Freethinking countryman. Dr
 Brindley is an interesting orator, and the most simple-minded Briton
 that has presented himself at the Cooper Institute for some time. His
 voice is as funny as a Punch and Judy's, and when the audience of
 last night roared with laughter, it was impossible to tell whether
 it was at what Brindley had said, or Brindley's method and voice in
 saying it. Some of the audience were beery, and disposed to ask beery
 questions. The speaker said England was full of wealth, and that
 labour was never so well paid. Everybody was happy, and Bradlaugh was
 an incendiary, a story-teller, a nuisance, who would make a rumpus
 and make everybody miserable, even in the Garden of Eden. 'Were you
 ever in a casual ward?' asked a smudgy fellow in the back of the hall.
 'No,' answered the bold Brindley, 'but if you were there now it would
 save the police trouble.' And so he replied to other impertinent
 questions, until he made the impression that he was not quite such a
 fool as he looked. He said Bradlaugh was an Atheist, whose belief is
 that 'brain power is the only soul in man,' and that as he was played
 o

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