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lime have left
a body to bury--are without mark save on the monuments of memory, more
enduring than marble, erected in such temples by truer toast-givers
than myself. To these we drink, sadly and gratefully; to the oppressed
of the present--to those that struggle that they may win; to those that
yet are still, that they may struggle; to the future, that in it there
may be no need to drink this toast."

At this time when English Freemasons chose to cast doubts upon the
reality of Mr Bradlaugh's membership, Freemasons on the other side of
the Atlantic welcomed him to their Lodges.

While visiting Boston, Mr Bradlaugh was by special invitation of the
Columbian and Adelphi Lodges present at their Masonic festivals. The
last occasion should almost be looked upon as historic, as far as the
annals of Freemasonry are concerned, since it was a special festival
in honour of the installation of Joshua B. Smith as Junior Warden of
the Adelphi Lodge, South Boston, the first coloured Freemason elected
to hold office in any regular Lodge. Eight years before[74] the St
Andrew's Lodge had made Mr Smith and six other coloured men Freemasons,
with the idea that they should establish a coloured men's Lodge, but
the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts would not issue the warrant. In the
interval Joshua B. Smith, already a Justice of the Peace, was elected
to the Senate, and joined the Adelphi Lodge, which now took this
opportunity of showing him honour.

[Footnote 74: This was in December 1874.]

Mr Bradlaugh himself always liked to remember that he was a "Free and
accepted mason," and the outward and visible sign of that is to be
found in the fact that he almost invariably selected the Masonic Boys'
School as the charity to be benefited by any money paid as damages for
libelling his personal character.

CHAPTER XXI.

DEBATES 1862-1866.

In September 1862 Mr Bradlaugh held a six nights' discussion with the
Rev. W. Barker, a gentleman who had been lecturing against Atheism to
a Christian Society in Clerkenwell. The debate was held in the Cowper
Street School Rooms, City Road. The report I have by me was published
by Ward & Co., and was taken from the notes of a shorthand writer, and
approved by both disputants. The first two evenings were controlled by
a chairman for each speaker, with Mr James Harvey for umpire; but Mr
Harvey's impartial judgments gave so much satisfaction that the last
four meetings were left entirely under his charge. The attendance--on
some nights so great that people were turned away--averaged twelve
hundred persons, and it was estimated that a thousand heard the whole
of the debate. Some enthusiastic people journeyed long distances,
such as from Yorkshire, Lancashire, Devonshire, and Norfolk, to be
present. After all expenses were defrayed the surplus of £20 was sent
to the Lord Mayor for the Lancashire Relief Fund. The subjects under
discussion were:--

 "I. Are the representations of Deity in the Bible irrational and
 derogatory?

 "II. Is Secularism, which inculcates the practical sufficiency of
 morality, independent of Biblical religion, calculated to lead to the
 highest development of the physical, moral, and intellectual nature of
 man?

 "III. Is the doctrine of Original Sin, as taught in the Bible,
 theoretically unjust and practically pernicious?

 "IV. Does Secularism, which admits the authority of nature alone, and
 which appeals to reason as the best means of arriving at truth, offer
 a surer basis for human conduct than Christianity, which rests its
 claims on a presumed Divine revelation?

 "V. Is the plan of Salvation through the Atonement repulsive in its
 details, immoral in its tendency, and unworthy of the acceptance of
 the human race?

 "VI. Is the doctrine of personal existence after death, and of eternal
 happiness or misery for mankind, fraught with error and injurious to
 humanity?"

My father, writing during the progress of this debate, described Mr
Barker as a speaker not calculated, so far as he had yet seen, to
excite his audience. "He is," said he, "a robust, happy-looking man,
slightly inclined to go to sleep during his speeches, and hardly lively
enough in his sallies. He appears to wish to strike occasionally,
but fears the result of his own blow. Perhaps as the debate proceeds
he will be more vigorous in his replies, and more piquant in his
affirmations."

Mr John Watts spoke of the reverend gentleman in much the same
terms,[75] paying special tribute to Mr Barker's evident desire to
fairly represent his opponent's views.

[Footnote 75: Contrast the delicate words of personal description
written by a Christian in the _Clerkenwell News_: "The manner and
appearance of the minister and the Atheist were as much at variance as
the Gospel of the one is with the 'reasoning' of the other. The one
with a kind, affectionate air--a calm self-reliance, resulting from
faith in a beneficent God and loving Redeemer--was a fit defender of
love and mercy. On the other hand, the Atheist's looks stamped him as
a low demagogue. He was throughout restless; now displaying his ring,
after admiring it himself; now turning with an idiotic grin towards his
followers, who certainly resembled Falstaff's recruits in appearance;
and throughout conducting himself as a boastful, ill-bred man. His
personal appearance did not aid him, for it partook of that animal
which is said much to resemble some men. His voice, like the whine of
a dog, was rendered more unpleasant by a spluttering lisp, occasioned
by his inability to bring his lower jaw forward enough to meet his
protruding upper lip."]

The report of this debate, carried on for six nights, and dealing
with six separate questions in eighteen speeches a side, makes quite
a formidable volume of more than two hundred pages. It has in it much
that is interesting and much that is dull, a little that is witty,
and more that is weak. It would weary the reader, and serve no useful
purpose, were I to attempt a representation of the arguments used.
I will only note that on the sixth and last evening Mr Bradlaugh
opened with an impeachment of the morality of the doctrine of a future
existence in happiness or in torment, the bribe and the penalty of the
Christian religion; and in his final speech, after briefly reviewing
the whole debate, he stated his position. Mr Barker, he tells his
listening audience, "comes as an exponent of God's will to man. I come
as a student of rising thought, of the endeavour to know--as a student
of the great problem of life. I have no revelation; I have no bitter
excommunications--no anathemas to hurl upon you; but I have this to
say: the wide book of humanity lies open before you. Turn its pages
over. I can offer you no inducements to come here. I admit that to be
a Freethinker is to be an outlaw, according to the laws of England. I
admit that to profess your disbelief renders you liable at the present
moment to fine and imprisonment and penal servitude. I admit that that
is the statute law of Engl

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