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he speaker concluded with a significant
 reminder that on this occasion they were allowed to meet undisturbed,
 because they met in support of a Government measure, but that their
 normal condition--he did not say normal, but that was the meaning of
 it--was one of opposition to all Government, and that he might have
 to call upon them to meet here or elsewhere, or even under the walls
 of the sham Parliament at Westminster, when the whole strength of
 Government would be put forth to prevent the meeting, and when the
 English people would rise in their might," etc.

The sarcasm and humour of the foregoing make it no easy matter to pick
out the scattered grains of truth: nevertheless, we may gather from it
that the boldness, earnestness, and eloquence of the "young gentleman
by the name, we believe, of Bradlaugh," did this much--it made an
unusual impression upon his Tory listener.

At a great gathering[86] held in Trafalgar Square on the 2nd of July,
my father was one of the speakers. Lord Russell and Mr Gladstone
had resigned from the Ministry, and Lord Derby had been "sent for."
Parliament stood adjourned until July 5th, and the Reform League held
this meeting prior to the reassembling of the House to protest against
the proposed Derby administration, and to deplore the retirement of
Mr Gladstone and Lord Russell. There was unusual excitement about
this meeting, for Sir Richard Mayne had first of all intimated that
it would not be allowed to take place. He, however, met with such a
strenuous outburst of condemnation that for the moment he was checked,
and withdrew his prohibition. By this time Mr Bradlaugh's popularity
in London was becoming very great, and in the _Times_' notice of the
meeting it is remarked that he was the chief favourite, and that "the
mass soon commenced clamouring" for him.

[Footnote 86: The number of persons present was variously estimated at
from 30,000 to "upwards of 60,000."]

The Derby Cabinet, as every one is aware, was formed with Disraeli[87]
in Gladstone's place as Chancellor of the Exchequer, and with the
formation of the new Cabinet all immediate hopes of the passing of any
real measure of Reform were abandoned, although the League continued
its work with untiring energy. An utterance of Mr Bradlaugh's on the
chief point in the programme of Reform then advocated, viz. extension
of the Suffrage, is worth repeating here, as it indicates a line of
conduct which Mr Bradlaugh himself pursued and enjoined upon others in
regard to other matters of Reform than the Suffrage. He would always
seek and work for a thorough and complete measure; but if he could
not get all that he asked for, rather than have nothing, and thus
leave matters in the bad state in which he found them, he would take
what ameliorations he could get _without ceasing to aim at ultimately
winning the whole_. He had, at the time of which I am writing, occasion
to allude to a little pamphlet published in 1838. He remarked:--

[Footnote 87: Mr Bradlaugh commented somewhat epigrammatically: "The
Right Hon. Benjamin Disraeli is perhaps the man best fitted to be in
opposition, and the least fitted to govern amongst our prominent men.
His waistcoats have been brilliant, but his Parliamentary measures
cannot always successfully compare with the result of his tailor's
skill."]

"The author says well when he tells you, 'Demand universal Suffrage;'
but I am not quite sure that he is right in saying, 'Take no less than
your full demand.' He is right in declaring the Suffrage a natural
right, and therefore undoubtedly all our agitation should be based
on this principle; but I am not of opinion that the extension of the
Suffrage to a portion of the working or middle classes necessarily
makes them enemies to their unenfranchised brethren. Each step in
the Reform movement, whether theological, social, or political, is
educational in its effects even beyond the circle in which the step
is taken. My advice would be: Seek justice; but refuse no point which
may be conceded, for each concession gives you additional means and
strength to enforce your claim. The people are growing stronger
and more worthy every day; but there are, alas! even yet in this
country hundreds of thousands who are intellectually too weak for,
and apparently hardly worthy of, enfranchisement. Our mission is to
educate them to strength and worthiness, to strip off the badge of
servitude they wear, to teach them that labour's rights and duties are
as honourable and onerous as the rights and duties of the wealthiest
employer of labour, and that the labourer--if honest and true to his
manhood--has a higher patent of nobility than was ever given by yellow
parchment or crumbling seal."

The Tories had declared that the people themselves did not want
any extension of the suffrage, and spoke sneeringly of the apathy
and indifference of the working classes towards any measure of
enfranchisement. Determined to show they were not apathetic, working
men in London and the provinces held meeting after meeting. The one
in Trafalgar Square was followed three weeks later by that famous
gathering in Hyde Park, when the railings "came down." This meeting
was announced for Monday, July 22nd, but a few days before the time
arrived Sir Richard Mayne posted a notification on the park gates
forbidding the meeting to take place; and this time Sir Richard Mayne
held to his prohibition. The Council of the National Reform League
met on the 20th specially to consider this police order; Mr Beales,
the president, stated the case as impartially as possible, and put
the legal difficulties before the Council. Mr Bradlaugh moved that
notwithstanding the police notice of prohibition the meeting be
persisted in. Mr Cremer and others opposed the resolution, but when it
was put it was carried by a large majority. Mr Bradlaugh put himself
entirely under the direction of Mr Beales, and it was arranged that at
the given time the leaders of the demonstration should appear at the
Marble Arch and demand admission into the park; if this was refused,
having made their protest, they should separate into divisions and
proceed quietly by different routes to Trafalgar Square.

When the time came, procession after procession marched in orderly
fashion to the park gates, and the meeting became a truly magnificent
one, composed as it was mainly of respectable working men, thoroughly
earnest in their desire for Reform. They were not all Londoners either;
there were representative men from the provinces, from Yorkshire,
Lancashire, Plymouth, and other parts, men who had travelled many miles
and undergone much fatigue to take part in the forbidden demonstration.
From a brief notice of the meeting which Mr Bradlaugh wrote for the
_National Reformer_, it appears that Mr Beales and the committee
reached the Marble Arch Gates shortly after seven o'clock, and leaving
their vehicles they went together to the police at the gate to demand
admission. "The police, however, meant misch

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