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ss, particularly in those which we
associate with the names of men like Richard Carlile, Wooler, and Hone.

In March 1864 occurred the great inundation at Sheffield; along the
valleys of the Loxley and the Don all was ruin and desolation. Whole
rows of houses, mills, and bridges were carried away, and huge trees
were torn up by the force of the rushing water. Many lives were lost,
and those who escaped with life lost every atom they possessed save the
garments in which they escaped. Many funds were started for the relief
of those so suddenly made destitute, and Mr Bradlaugh was not slow in
offering his help. A Sheffield man, writing at the time, said that the
quality of practical sympathy was one possessed by Mr Bradlaugh "in
a pre-eminent degree, and it is a trait in his character which will
add lustre to his name, and form a rich gem in the wreath which shall
adorn his memory long after he shall have laid his honoured head in the
silent tomb.... His large, generous heart is never insensible to the
sounds of human distress; and accordingly no sooner did he hear of the
Sheffield catastrophe than he at once volunteered his services towards
the relief of the sufferers."[84]

[Footnote 84: He gave two lectures in the Mechanics' Institute (lent
to the Freethinker for this occasion), and the proceeds, £8 11s. 4d.,
were handed over to the fund. "No lecturer gave more to the needy than
Iconoclast," said Mr Austin Holyoake.]

I have mentioned these cases with the idea of showing how wide and
how ready were my father's sympathies. To give money help was no easy
matter to him: he could not write a cheque and say, "Put my name down
for this sum or for that;" he could not even give by denying himself
some little luxury: every penny he gave had to be specially earned for
that purpose, but notwithstanding this, real distress rarely appealed
to him in vain.[85]

[Footnote 85: One of the latest letters he ever wrote, bearing date
Jan. 12, 1891, shows him always the same. He says: "I am extremely
sorry to read your letter, but I have, unfortunately, no means whatever
except what I earn from day to day with my tongue and pen. If the
Committee think it wise, I will lecture for the benefit of such a
fund."]

Unable to do so much provincial lecturing in consequence of the demands
made upon his time by his business, Mr Bradlaugh was yet often to be
found during the latter part of 1865 at the Hall of Science, City Road;
but in the early part of 1866 he was away in Italy so much, sometimes
for weeks together, that he could do very little lecturing. The
proceeds of these winter lectures at the old Hall of Science were to go
to the Hall of Science Company, which he was then actively projecting.
The lease of the City Road Hall expired early in 1866, and the renewal
had been refused. It was proposed to lease or purchase a suitable
building, or a site of land on which to build a lecture-hall and rooms
for classes for secular instruction, etc. To aid in providing funds
for this purpose, it was Mr Bradlaugh's desire to purchase one hundred
shares out of the proceeds of his lectures, and to that end he devoted
the whole of his profits on each occasion that he lectured at the Hall
of Science.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE REFORM LEAGUE, 1866-1868.

In 1866 the National Reform League was proving itself an extremely
active organisation. Mr Edmund Beales was its honoured President,
and Mr George Howell the Secretary. Mr Bradlaugh was one of its
Vice-Presidents, and he had, oddly enough, amongst his colleagues the
Rev. W. H. Bonner, the father of his future son-in-law. Mr Bonner
had been, and was until his death in 1869, a Lecturer for the Peace
Society, and was then a Vice-President and Lecturer of the Reform
League. They worked together with the greatest cordiality, and Mr
Bradlaugh on one occasion wrote that he wished there were more
clergymen like the Rev. Mr Bonner. My father took part in most of the
meetings of the League which were held in London and in many of those
held in the provinces, and his value as an advocate was appreciated by
men opposed to the Reform Bill--then before Parliament--as well as by
those on his own side who were not blinded by bigotry.

On May 21st a great demonstration in support of the Bill was held
upon Primrose Hill, and was addressed by Mr Beales, Mr Cremer,
Colonel Dickson, Mr Lucraft, and others. Mr Bradlaugh moved the
second resolution, and his eloquence so impressed the reporter to the
_Standard_ that that gentleman, who had assuredly come "to scoff,"
remained, if not "to pray," yet to give and record a reluctant
admiration. The leader which appeared in the _Standard_ for the
following day was intended to be humorously descriptive of the
proceedings without too fine a regard for facts; and in it we find the
following notice of Mr Bradlaugh and his speech, which the writer said
was frequently and enthusiastically applauded:

 "At length, however, a young gentleman--by the name, we believe, of
 Bradlaugh--sprang into the chair, and for the moment awakened in the
 wind-chilled throng a faint thrill of something like enthusiasm. At
 first, judging from the cast of his countenance and from a certain
 twinkle in his eye as he adjusted himself to his task, we anticipated
 a decidedly comic address. But the event soon showed that we were
 mistaken, and the speaker, admirably as his face was adapted for
 purposes of comedy, was himself terribly in earnest; so earnest,
 indeed, and so thoroughly _d'accord_ with his audience, that he soon
 woke them up from the lethargy in which they had remained ever since
 the first old gentleman had begun to read to them the unpublished
 proofs of next morning's _Star_, and set them crying 'Hear, hear,'
 'That's so,' 'Hurray,' 'Down with the Peers,' 'Shame, shame,' and so
 on. Bearing in mind the blood-red banner and the _bonnet rouge_, it
 is needless to say that the speech of this energetic gentleman--who,
 be it observed, spoke really extremely well--consisted simply of a
 furious onslaught upon English institutions in general, and upon
 Government and the House of Lords in particular. He would like to
 see that wretched institution that battened upon the life-blood of
 the English people swept away for ever; and here the Reformers cried
 'Hear, hear,' and applauded with voice and hand. And that was what
 things were tending to; that was what this Bill really meant; and
 he differed from their worthy president--who had apparently been
 endeavouring to persuade the meeting to adopt that convenient little
 Liberal fib that the present Bill had really nothing democratic about
 it--in being ready and willing to take his stand as a supporter of the
 Government measure upon the ground that it was democratic, and that
 its real effect would be to sweep away the whole expensive machinery
 of the constitution, Government itself included. All this, of course,
 everybody knew before, but it is not every Liberal Reformer who is
 bold enough to say it.... T

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