Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History BookOpen Original Text e possible results of the extended
franchise in a West of England paper, in which the writer says: "Mr
Bradlaugh would perhaps take the Government of India from the hands
of Sir Stafford Northcote, his intelligence being not less, and his
catholicity in religious matters making him a more acceptable ruler to
the 'mild' but shrewd Hindoo." In place of the Government of India Mr
Bradlaugh was destined to take other things of not quite so pleasant
a nature from the hands of Sir Stafford Northcote, although it is
rather curious that the _Western Times_ should have selected in jest an
appointment which would have afforded him so much scope for good and
useful work.
Some time before anything definite had been said as to my father's
candidature at the forthcoming elections in 1868, it was regarded as
so much of a certainty that people began spontaneously to subscribe
towards his election expenses. In June he notified his friends through
the _National Reformer_ that he would shortly announce the name of the
borough to which he proposed to offer himself, and at the same time he
would issue his address. This was done within the next few days, in
the midst of the burden and anxiety of the Government prosecution of
the _Reformer_.
My father was well known in Northampton. Since he went there to lecture
on the invitation of Mr Gurney and Mr Shipman, he had, as we have seen,
many times visited the town, and his opinions on political, social, and
religious questions were thoroughly well understood. As his address
forms a sort of landmark of Mr Bradlaugh's views on many of these
important subjects, some of which are still hotly discussed, and most
of which still await a satisfactory solution, I give it exactly as he
issued it.
"_To the present and future electors of the borough of Northampton_:
"In seeking your suffrages for the new Parliament, I am encouraged
by the very warm feeling exhibited in my favour by so many of the
inhabitants of your borough, and by the consciousness that my own
efforts may have helped in some slight degree to hasten the assembly
of a Parliament elected by a more widely extended franchise than was
deemed possible two years ago.
"If you should honour me by electing me as one of your
representatives, I shall give an independent support in the new
Parliament to that party of which Mr Gladstone will probably be chosen
leader; that is to say, I shall support it as far as its policy and
action prove consistent with the endeavour to attain the following
objects, which I hold to be essential to the progress of the nation:--
"1. A system of compulsory National Education, by which the State
shall secure to each child the opportunity of acquiring at least the
rudiments of a sound English education preparatory to the commencement
of the mere struggle for bread.
"2. A change in our land laws, commencing with the abolition of the
laws of primogeniture and entail; diminishing the enormous legal
expenses attending the transfer of land, and giving greater security
to the actual cultivation of the soil for improvements made upon it.
"3. A thorough change in our extravagant system of national
expenditure, so that our public departments may cease to be refuges
for destitute members of so-called noble families.
"4. Such a change in the present system of taxation that for the
future the greater pressure of imperial taxes may bear upon those who
hold previously accumulated wealth and large tracts of devised land,
and not so much upon those who increase the wealth of the nation by
their daily labour.
"5. An improvement of the enactments relating to capital and labour,
so that employer and employed may stand equal before the law, the
establishment of conciliation courts for the settlement of trade
disputes, and the abolition of the jurisdiction in these matters of
the unpaid magistracy.
"6. A complete separation of the Church from the State, including in
this the removal of the Bishops from the position they at present
occupy as legislators in the House of Lords.
"7. A provision by which minorities may be fairly represented in the
legislative chambers.
"8. The abolition of all disabilities and disqualifications consequent
upon the holding or rejection of any particular speculative opinion.
"9. A change in the practice of creating new peerages; limiting the
new creations to life peerages, and these only to be given as rewards
for great national services; peers habitually absent from Parliament
to be deprived of all legislative privileges, and the right of voting
by proxy in any case to be abolished.
"10. The abolition as a governing class of the old Whig party, which
has long since ceased to play any useful part in our public policy.
Toryism represents obstructiveness to Radical progress, but it
represents open hostility. Whiggism is hypocritical; while professing
to be liberal, it never initiates a good measure or hinders a bad one.
I am in favour of the establishment of a National party which shall
destroy the system of government by aristocratic families, and give
the members of the community born poorest fair play in their endeavour
to become statesmen and leaders, if they have genius and honesty
enough to entitle them to a foremost place.
"In order that my competitors shall not have the right to object
that I unfairly put them to the expense of a contest, I am willing
to attend a meeting of the inhabitants of your borough, at which Mr
Gilpin and Lord Henley shall be present, and to be governed by the
decision voted at such a meeting as to whether or not I persist in my
candidature.
"In asking your support I pledge myself, in the event of a contest, to
fight through to the last moment of the Poll a fair and honest fight.
It would give me special pleasure to be returned as the colleague
of Mr Gilpin, whom I believe to be a thoroughly honest and earnest
representative; and if you elect me I shall do my best in the House of
Commons for the general enfranchisement and elevation of the people of
the United Kingdom.
CHARLES BRADLAUGH.
"Sunderland Villa, Northumberland Park, Tottenham."
In the above address as it appears in the pages of the _National
Reformer_ for July 5, paragraphs 7 and 9 are lightly struck through in
pencil by my father's hand, but whether these pencil marks have any
significance I am not prepared to say. His ideas for a reform of the
House of Lords certainly went very much farther, in later years at
least, than those indicated in the ninth paragraph. He believed in a
single Legislative Chamber and considered two unnecessary, but as a
rule he disliked any sudden abolition of old-established customs, and
therefore in advocating reforms of the House of Lords, he put forward
such as would lead gradually and naturally to its discontinuance as a
House of hereditary legislators.
This address was read in Northampton to a large audience on the last
Sunday in June. Two days later, at Previous Next |