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en in _National Reformer_,
November 22, 1868. The _Northampton Mercury_ of that week gives them
rather differently, and the _Souvenir_ brought out in June 1894 again
differently. They give the poll as follows:--

 _Mercury._ _Souvenir._

Gilpin 2691 2623
Henley 2154 2111
Merewether 1634 1631
Lendrick 1396 1374
Bradlaugh 1086 1069
Lees 492 492]

After the public declaration of the poll the various candidates were
supposed to "return thanks" for the support given them, but three
only--Mr Gilpin, Lord Henley, and Mr Bradlaugh--appeared on the
hustings. Mr Gilpin in a short speech said: "I turn to Mr Bradlaugh,
and I say to him that since I met him in Northampton I have had
prejudices removed in reference to himself, and I say unreservedly,
when I observed the peace of this town, after the exciting scenes that
we have had, I feel, and I should not be an honest man if I did not
acknowledge it, it is owing to Mr Bradlaugh having used his influence
to obtain it." These generous words of Mr Gilpin's were received with
much cheering, and when it came to the Mayor's turn to speak he too
said: "I feel it my duty to acknowledge my obligations to Mr Bradlaugh,
because he not merely endorsed the sentiments I uttered,[124] but
from the balcony of his hotel he backed them up by all the power of
argument he possesses in urging you to comply with my wishes. I knew
the appeal that was being made to you was made under the most exciting
circumstances, and I felt the way in which it was conducted might leave
an impression on the people of this country for a long time to come."

[Footnote 124: Praying that there should be no breach of the peace.]

Charles Gilpin did more than speak favourably of Mr Bradlaugh from
Northampton platforms. A day or two after the election he wrote to the
_Morning Star_:--

 "SIR,--I observe that several papers continue to reflect in
 strong terms on the candidature of Mr Bradlaugh at Northampton, and
 it is not of course for me to defend him; but I think it should be
 known that at the declaration of the poll, the Mayor publicly thanked
 him for his successful efforts to preserve peace and good order in
 the borough during an unusually exciting contest, and from my own
 observation I can fully endorse the observations of the Mayor.--I am,
 sir, yours truly,

 CHARLES GILPIN.

 November 20."

Mr Gilpin, moreover, undeterred by the furious onslaught made upon John
Stuart Mill, sent a donation of £10 towards Mr Bradlaugh's election
expenses, and in the March before he died he recommended Mr Pickering
Perry, his own agent, to vote for him.

The extracts from Mr Gilpin's and the Mayor's speeches I have taken
from the _Northampton Mercury_, a paper then thoroughly hostile to
Mr Bradlaugh, and I confess to a feeling of shame that it should be
necessary at this time of day to thus bring forward "witnesses to
character"; yet, while there are many now willing to concede that my
father was in his later years an honourable, temperate, law-abiding,
and even "distinguished" man, they add that he was not all this in his
early years: then he "was coarse, violent, and vulgar." If the word of
the Mayor of Northampton in 1868 counts for anything, and if the manly
testimony of one of Northampton's most honoured members, the Quaker
Charles Gilpin, has any weight, men will find that they must still
further revise their opinion of Charles Bradlaugh, and admit that the
change has been in themselves and not in him, that the qualities they
grant for him in 1890 were his in 1868, and from the very outset of
his career. There was no greater change in him than comes to us all
through the mellowing touch of time; in truth, he changed less than
would most men, and in spite of being a Radical and Reformer of a very
advanced type, he was in many ways extremely conservative. He clung to
old friends, to old habits, and to precedent. He formed his opinions
not hastily but yet rapidly, and after due deliberation, deliberation
which included a really marvellous power of putting both sides of the
question before himself and others. His judgment once formed, he was
extremely slow to alter it, and a course of action once entered upon,
he was rarely if ever diverted from it.

My father left Northampton, followed to the station by such an enormous
crowd of sorrowing men and women that his defeat was grander than
many a victory; he could never, he said, forget those whose hot tears
dropped on his hands on the day he left the borough, and as he wrote
those words we may be sure that his own tears dimmed his eyes and
blurred the page. Hard as iron to opposition, he was acutely sensitive
to every token of affection or kindly feeling.

But there were more to rejoice over his defeat than to sorrow for it.
The Rev. Thomas Arnold, addressing an audience of Northampton men,
said, regardless of his own blasphemy, that they had shown that "they
would not be servants of the man who trampled on their God and their
Saviour;" and the Rev. A. Mursell, who a few years later found more
kindly things to say of my father, speaking at Dundee, "thanked God
that Mr Bradlaugh had been so signally defeated."

CHAPTER XXVII.

SOUTHWARK ELECTION, 1869.

About a year after the General Election the appointment of Mr Layard
as ambassador at Madrid created a vacancy at Southwark, and a number
of working men electors immediately asked Mr Bradlaugh to become a
candidate for that borough. Meetings were summoned for the purpose of
proposing his name, and a committee was formed with a view of promoting
his election, and a very active committee it proved to be. At a crowded
meeting, convened by forty of the "chiefs of the Liberal Party," held
in the middle of November, six names of possible representatives were
brought forward--Mr Milner Gibson, Sir Francis Lycett, Sir Sydney
Waterlow, Sir John Thwaites, and Mr Odger. The "forty chiefs" did
not propose Mr Bradlaugh, whose name was however received with great
cheering, when it was proposed by way of amendment by Mr Hearn, a
Southwark Radical. A week later a meeting was held to decide upon a
candidate to be supported by the working-class electors of the borough,
and this meeting both Mr Odger and Mr Bradlaugh were invited to attend.
The room engaged for the purpose was soon full to overflowing, and at
length the speakers adjourned to the balcony in front of the house
and addressed the crowd of three thousand people congregated in the
road below. Mr Odger was unable to come, and after Mr Bradlaugh had
addressed the meeting a resolution in his favour was passed by "an
overwhelming majority."[125] He said that although he was there at the
earnest invitation of several working men, he was not to be regarded
as a candidate until he had issued his address. If Mr Odger came
definitely before the constituency and was pledged to go to the poll,
he should not contest the borough himself. He wished to see Mr George
Odger in Parliament, and he believed that he would be an admirable
representative.

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