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ut in England he had come over here to air his theories, and pick
 up pennies. 'You know where Cheshire is?' said Brindley, 'Cheshire,
 where the cheese is made,' and Brindley was about to tell a story on
 this head, when a donkey at the back end of the hall cried out, 'There
 ain't no cheese made there now. It's all done in Duchess county.'
 No telling what a good thing this fellow spoiled by his remark.
 Bradlaugh, anyhow, was scalped and vivisected, and Brindley took his
 tomahawk and himself away soon after."

But the farce was to end in a tragedy. Overcome by chagrin and
mortification, Dr Brindley died within a month of his appearance on the
Steinway Hall platform. He died in New York in poverty and neglect,
and was buried in a pauper's grave. The _Chicago Times_, alluding to
the terms of Mr Bradlaugh's appeal to the New York audience to give Dr
Brindley a hearing, said that the rev. gentleman was "slain by satire."
"Since Keats, according to Byron, was snuffed out by a single article,
there has been no parallel except this of a human creature snuffed out
by a single sentence."

 * * * * *

Following quickly upon the heels of the debate at Oldham with Dr
Brindley came one with the Rev. Joseph Baylee, D.D., Principal of St
Aidan's College, Birkenhead. Dr Baylee himself proposed the conditions
on which alone he would consent to discuss. These conditions threw the
entire trouble and expense of the three nights' discussion upon Mr
Bradlaugh's committee. They provided that Dr Baylee and his friends
might open and conclude the proceedings with prayer, and they also
provided that the debate should consist of questions and categorical
answers with no speeches whatever on either side. Those who recall
Mr Bradlaugh's marvellous rapidity of thought, and the way in which
he could instantly grasp and reason out a position, will see that
this condition would certainly be no disadvantage to my father. The
audiences, as usual, crowded the hall, and listened to both speakers
with the utmost attention. This discussion, which was reported at
length and published in pamphlet form,[49] has had a very wide
circulation. It is in many respects a remarkable debate; but as it is
easily obtainable, I will leave it to speak for itself, more especially
as, from its peculiar form of question and answer, it does not lend
itself conveniently to quotation.

[Footnote 49: God, Man, and the Bible. Three nights' discussion with
the Rev. Dr Baylee.]

Were it possible it would be tedious to follow Mr Bradlaugh through
the hundreds of lectures which he delivered during these ten years,
but it will be interesting, and will give us a clearer idea of the
turmoil and work of his life, to note some of the difficulties he had
to meet thirty or so years ago. Nowadays, as soon as Parliament rises
nearly every member of the House of Commons thinks himself called
upon to go and air his views throughout the length and breadth of the
country; then, public speaking was much more uncommon, and Freethought
lectures in especial were few and far between. To-day, almost every
town of any size has its own Freethought speakers, and speakers come
to it with more or less frequency from adjoining districts and from
London. Little difficulties create great stir and excitement now: then,
great difficulties came almost as a matter of course. But even when
difficulties were frequent and not altogether unexpected, that did not
make them the easier to endure. A brick-bat which reaches its aim hurts
just as much whether it is one out of many thrown or just one thrown by
itself.

At Wigan, in October 1860, my father went to deliver two lectures in
the Commercial Hall. The conduct of the people in this town was so
disgraceful, that he said in bitter jest that if he did much more of
this "extended propaganda" he should require to be insured against
accident to life and limb.

"I may be wrong," he wrote,[50] "but I shall never be convinced of
my error by a mob of true believers yelling at my heels like mad
dogs, under the leadership of a pious rector's trusty subordinate, or
hammering at the door of my lecture room under the direction of an
infuriated Church parson. I object that in the nineteenth century it
is hardly to be tolerated that a bigot priest shall use his influence
with the proprietor of the hotel where I am staying, in order to 'get
that devil kicked out into the street' after half-past ten at night. I
do not admit the right of a rich Church dignitary's secretary to avoid
the payment of his threepence at the door by jumping through a window,
especially when I or my friends have to pay for the broken glass and
sash frame. True, all these things and worse happened at Wigan."

[Footnote 50: _National Reformer_, October 20, 1860.]

There had been no Freethought lectures in Wigan for upwards of twenty
years; the clergy had had it all their own way there undisturbed. They
determined to oppose the wicked Iconoclast in every way, and began by
engaging the largest hall available and advertising the same subjects
as those announced for the Freethought platform. Had they contented
themselves with this form of opposition, all would have been well, but
their zeal outran discretion, carrying with it their manners and all
appearance of decency and decorum. My father, continuing his account of
this affair, said--

 "Being unknown in Wigan, except by hearsay, I expected therefore but
 a moderate audience. I was in this respect agreeably disappointed.
 The hall was inconveniently crowded, and many remained outside in the
 square, unable to obtain admittance. No friend was known to me who
 could or would officiate as chairman, and I therefore appealed to
 the meeting to elect their own president. No response being made to
 this, I intimated my intention of proceeding without one. This the
 Christians did not seem to relish, and therefore elected a gentleman
 named [the Rev. T.] Dalton to the chair, who was very tolerable,
 except that he had eccentric views of a chairman's duty, and slightly
 shortened my time, while he also took a few minutes every now and then
 for himself to refute my objections to the Bible."

With the exception of the excitable and somewhat unmannerly behaviour
of some of the clergymen present, this meeting passed off without
any serious disturbance, and was not unfairly reported by the _Wigan
Observer_, which described "Mr Iconoclast" as "a well-made and
healthy looking man, apparently not more than thirty years of age.
He possesses great fluency of speech, and is evidently well posted up
in the subject of his addresses. Of assurance he has no lack; and we
scarcely think it would be possible to put a question to him to which
he had not an answer ready--good, bad, or indifferent."

By the following evening the temper of the Wiganites had become--what
shall I say? More Christian? Mr Bradlaugh, when he arrived at the hall,
"found it crowded to excess, and in addition many hundreds outside
unable to gain admittance. My na

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