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journals to my father. Week after
week, the _Wigan Examiner_ persisted in the attack, being especially
virulent in its onslaught upon his personal character. It reprinted Mr
Packer's mendacious letter to Brewin Grant, and the following extract
prefacing the letter will serve to show how great was the desire of the
editor to keep the commandments of his Deity, and not to bear false
witness:--

 "Born in the classic region of Bethnal Green, he [Mr Bradlaugh]
 devoted his juvenile faculties to the advocacy of teetotalism, but
 finding that this theme did not afford sufficient scope for his
 genius, he formed (_sic_) himself to a select band of reformers who
 met in an upper room or garret in the neighbourhood. Being a fluent
 speaker, he was soon exalted to the dignity of an apostle in his new
 vocation, and finding the work in every respect much more congenial
 to his mind than weaving, he broke loose from all restraint, and went
 into the new business with energy."

The debate between Mr Hutchings and Mr Bradlaugh was finally arranged
for the 4th and 5th February (1861). On his way to the hall on the
first evening, my father received "one evidence of Christianity in
the shape of a bag of flour;" this was, of course, intended to soil
his clothes, but "fortunately it was flung with too great violence,
and after crushing the side of another new hat from Mr Hipwell,[54]
covered the pavement instead of myself. I shall need a special fund
for hats," wrote Mr Bradlaugh, "if I visit Wigan often." On his return
from the debate, although he was followed by a large crowd of men and
boys, all hooting was quickly suppressed, and was, in fact, attempted
only by a very few. On his first visit to Wigan he had "retired to
rest, not only without friends to bid me good-night, but with many a
score of loud-tongued, rough lads and men bidding me, in phraseology
startling and effective, everything but so kindly a farewell;"[55]
but during the three months which had elapsed since Mr Bradlaugh's
earliest visit to this Lancashire mining town public feeling had
considerably changed and modified; and in the evening, the house where
he was staying "was crowded out," he tells us, "with rough but honest
earnest men and women, who insisted, one and all, in gripping my hand
in friendliness, and wishing me good speed in my work. The change was
so great that a tear mounted to my eye despite myself." His was always
the same sensitive nature; he was ever moved to the heart by a sign
of true sympathy or real affection. Persecution found him stern and
unflinching, hypocrisy found him severe and unforgiving, but kindness
or affection, instantly touched the fountain of his gratitude and his
tenderness.

[Footnote 54: A Freethinking hatter of Bradford.]

[Footnote 55: C. Bradlaugh in _National Reformer_, February 16, 1861.]

Out of this debate, which contains nothing particularly noteworthy,[56]
arose a lawsuit. The reporter, a person named Stephenson M. Struthers,
after having sold "the transcript" to Mr Bradlaugh at 8d. per folio,
sold a second copy of his notes to Mr William Heaton, on behalf of Mr
Hutchings' Committee, for 3 guineas. This my father did not discover
until he had used some of the copy, and paid Struthers £5 on account.
He then refused to pay the balance (£11, 16s.), and for this the
shorthand-writer sued him. Mr Bradlaugh expressed his willingness to
pay for the labour involved in making a copy; but he objected to pay
for the _sole_ copy when he had not received that for which he had
contracted. The suit came on in the Wigan County Court, before J. S. T.
Greene, Esq., on April 11th (1861). After the case for the plaintiff
was closed, Mr Bradlaugh entered the witness-box to be sworn--at that
time the only form under which he could give evidence. Mr Mayhew (for
the plaintiff), after some preamble as to not desiring to be offensive,
asked "with regret" if Mr Bradlaugh believed "in the religious
obligations of an oath?" Mr Bradlaugh objected to answer any question
until he was sworn. The Judge would not allow the objection; and after
a considerable interchange of opinion and question and answer between
the Judge and Mr Bradlaugh, in which the latter explicitly stated his
readiness to be sworn, he asked to be allowed to affirm. This the Judge
refused to permit. And this is how the episode ended:--

[Footnote 56: The following short passage from this debate may serve as
an example of the incisive eloquence of which my father was capable at
the age of eight-and-twenty:--

"Men say, 'I believe.' Believe in what? 'I believe' is the prostration
of the intellect before the unknown--not an exertion of the intellect
to grasp the knowable. Men who have taught in Sunday Schools,
and children who have been taught there, men worshipping in our
churches--men following men in this way have their ideas made for them,
fitted on to them like their clothes; and, like the parrot in its
gilded cage, they say 'I believe,' because they have been taught to say
it, and not because they have a vital faith when they do say it."]

 The JUDGE: Only give me a direct answer.

 Mr BRADLAUGH: I am not answering your question at all. I have
 objected on two grounds, both of which your Honour has overruled, that
 I am not bound to answer the question.

 The JUDGE: If you put it in that way, I should be sorry to
 exercise any power that I believe I possess according to law. You
 won't answer the question?

 Mr BRADLAUGH: I object that I am not bound to answer any
 question that will criminate myself.

 The JUDGE: You will not answer my question. Do you believe in
 the existence of a supreme God?

 Mr BRADLAUGH: I object that the answer, if in the negative,
 would subject me to a criminal prosecution.

 The JUDGE: Do you believe in a state of future rewards and
 punishments?

 Mr BRADLAUGH: I object that--

 The JUDGE: Then I shall not permit you to give evidence at
 all; and I think you escape very well in not being sent to gaol.

The Judge, having thus taken advantage of his magisterial position to
insult a defenceless man as well as to refuse his evidence, proceeded
with consummate injustice to sum it up as an "undefended case," and
gave a verdict for the plaintiff for the full amount. After the Case
was over, Mr William Heaton wrote to Mr Bradlaugh denying a material
point in Mr Struthers' sworn evidence as to what had occurred between
them. Thus did the laws of Christian England treat an Atheist as
outlaw, and in the name of justice deal out injustice in favour of a
man who, as his fellow Christian stated, had spoken falsely under his
oath in the witness-box.

Mr Hutchings himself felt the disgrace of this so keenly that he wrote
expressing his desire to co-operate in a public movement in Wigan in
favour of Sir John Trelawny's Affirmation Bill. "I do feel strongly,"
he said, "that you were most wrongfully and iniquitously deprived of
the opportunity of defending your cause, and this I feel the more
strongly that it was done

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