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dlaugh. The _Spectator_ was of opinion that Mr Bright had
succeeded "in more than neutralising the effect of Mr J. S. Mill's very
injudicious and unexpected testimonial to Mr Bradlaugh's (Iconoclast's)
claims as candidate for Northampton;" whilst the _Saturday Review_
considered that if this letter saved Northampton "from the discredit of
electing Mr Bradlaugh," Mr Bright would have done the borough "valuable
service."

Finding that this letter had been such a success, the Whigs next
addressed themselves to Mr Gladstone, asking him if he endorsed the
opinion expressed by Mr Bright. Mr Gladstone promptly replied in these
terms:--

 "Hawarden, N.W., Sept. 25, 1868.

 "SIR,--While I am very unwilling to do or say anything that
 could be construed into interference in any election, I cannot refuse
 to consider the question you have put to me. Having for many years sat
 in Parliament with Lord Henley and Mr Gilpin, I have always considered
 both these gentlemen entitled to respect and confidence as upright and
 highly intelligent men, cordially attached to the Liberal party.--I
 remain, Sir, your faithful servant,

 W. E. GLADSTONE.

 "I send this answer to you individually, and I should not wish it to
 be published unless you find that your brother-electors wish to know
 the purport of it."

I confess that I cannot understand the object of the postscript, for
it must be manifest to the meanest intelligence that immediately
it transpired that an elector had received a communication from Mr
Gladstone upon the subject of the representation of the constituency,
all the rest would be wild with curiosity "to know the purport of it."
As a matter of course, it was read at the next meeting of the Liberal
Association, and then reproduced in the public press.

In striving to win Lord Henley's seat, Mr Bradlaugh had not only Lord
Henley, and Mr Bright, and Mr Gladstone fighting against him, but also
Mr Gilpin, whose seat he was most anxious not to imperil. Mr Gilpin,
although personally very friendly to my father, felt in honour bound
to support his colleague, as he repeatedly stated at meeting after
meeting: "Infinitely would he rather go back to London the rejected
of Northampton than be the man who had deserted a friend in order to
get another in." Nor was this by any means all that he had to contend
against; he had actively against him nearly the whole of the press of
England and Scotland, and no terms seemed too vile or slander too mean
to use to injure him. Of all the newspapers circulating throughout the
United Kingdom, there were not more than three or four--of which the
_Newcastle Weekly Chronicle_ was one--who dared to say so much as a
kindly word of him or of his candidature.

In the town of Northampton itself the opposition of the Whigs and the
Tories grew so bitter and was carried to such an excess that in October
it was found necessary to form a society for the purpose of aiding
working men who lost their employment through their support of Mr
Bradlaugh.

Dr F. R. Lees started a personal house-to-house canvass; this was
followed by the joint canvass of Henley and Gilpin--undertaken at the
urgent request of Lord Henley, for Mr Gilpin publicly declared it to be
a practice which ought not to be encouraged--and then came my father's
canvass. Much as he disliked it, he felt obliged in this case to do
as the other candidates were doing; he issued an address, however, in
which he said: "I desire to put on record my formal protest against
the system of house-to-house canvassing, in which I only take part
in obedience to the wish of my General Committee, and because all my
opponents having resorted to it, some might think me slighting them if
I abstained. I hold with Mr Gilpin that the system is a bad one. In
canvassing, I do not come to beg your vote; if you need such a pitiable
personal appeal, I prefer not having your support. I come to you that,
seeing me, you may question me if you desire, and that you who cannot
be present at the meetings may have the opportunity of better knowing
my principles."

The canvassing in those days of open voting was even harder work than
it is to-day; but Mr Bradlaugh was gallantly supported by a number of
warm friends, amongst whom he was proud to have the veteran Thomas
Allsop, and there was also much that was inspiring in coming face to
face with the ardour and enthusiasm of the Northampton Radical working
men. But if there was much to inspire, there was likewise sometimes
much to sadden; in several instances a voter's wife answered that
her husband "must look to his bread," and one threw an ominous light
upon the penalty liable to be paid for a conscientious vote by saying
that her husband "had lost his situation last election, and this
time she would take care that he voted as his employer wished." My
father, in the course of his canvass also, as might be expected, met
with instances of "bitter and coarse fanaticism," which must have
been peculiarly unpleasant in the somewhat defenceless position of a
candidate making a personal canvass.

At a great town's meeting, held for the purpose of hearing an
expression of their political views and an account of their political
action from the borough members, Mr Bradlaugh's committee sent a
deputation to ask whether their candidate would be heard. They were
told that he would be refused admission; he attended, and was refused
admission, but his friends carried him in. The report before me says
that "Mr Gilpin, on appearing on the platform, shook hands with Mr
Bradlaugh and with Dr Lees; Lord Henley, supported chiefly by his legal
advisers and their friends, shook hands with nobody, but shook himself
when the groans echoed through the building." The four candidates
addressed the meeting, but the uproar during Lord Henley's speech
was so great that he could scarcely be heard, and the proceedings
terminated with "three cheers for Bradlaugh."

As the weeks flew on, fiercer and fiercer grew the fight. The Lord's
Day Rest Association came to the aid of the Northampton Whigs and
Tories, and posted the town with placards headed: "Do not vote for
Charles Bradlaugh unless you wish to lose your Sunday rest;" other
candidates for other constituencies rushed to the rescue. Mr Giffard,
Q.C.--now Lord Halsbury, then the Tory candidate for Cardiff, and the
all-time bitter enemy of Mr Bradlaugh--said, with that fine regard for
accuracy for which he has ever been distinguished: "Mr Bradlaugh was
the avowed author of a work so blasphemous that one or two boroughs
had refused to have anything to do with him."[119] Mr Charles Capper,
M.P., also betrayed a similar inclination towards fiction. At a public
meeting in Sandwich he related that he had been

 "told by the hon. member for Northampton (Mr Gilpin) that the man
 whose name you have heard to-night, Mr Bradlaugh, stood in the Market
 Place of Northampton, and taking his watch from his pocket, said: 'It
 wants so many minutes to so-and-so. I will give you five minut

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