Bygones Worth Remembering, Vol. 1 (of 2)

ead. I was born April 13, 1817, which readers complained I omitted to state in a form

n Agitator's Life,"

"Sixty

or so far as they rested on the dogma that men can believe if they will-irrespective of evidence whatever may be the force of it before them. Mr. Owen's now truistical statement set the dry sticks of every church aflame for seventy years. In many places the ash

a poet run into verse; but if there be a more intrinsic characteris

y of my meaning. I can take no interest whatever in hearing or saying anything merely as a fact-merely as having happened. I must refer to something within me before I c

the first periodical edit

I was in Gloucester Prison.* There is no othe

t Trial fo

ed), I had a brass tablet cast

is spot

ELI

rge Jacob and E

PERI

er! 1

word "Perished." When I explained to them the circumstances of Madeline's death, they permitted its erection, on my paying a cemetery fee of two guineas. T

as continued. I had introduced it into Co-operation, where it became a watchword. I have wondered whether Dr. Smiles borrowed the name from me. He knew me in 1841, when he was editing the Leeds Times

on I had used in drawing up a statement of Secular Principles

hat we call nature-human, animal, and insect-is founded upon competition, nobody has the means of abolishing it. In the first number of the Reasoner, June 3, 1846, in the first artic

ing forth that there is a mathematics of morality as well as of lines and angles. There are problems in morality, the

ry man to answer withou

ss and unjust insinuations to reply to withou

and to praise without pride, adducing with fairness the objections to

nvincing rather than retorting. All opportunities of "thrashing" him are to be passed by, all pain to

sary to annihilate with the same vigou

to construct a public body, who shall tolerat

iage. The sun was shining brightly on the carriage floor, and there in the middle, lay, all glittering and conspicuous, my lost ring unseen and untrodden. I picked it up with incredulity and astonishment. How it came there or could come there, or being there, how it could escape the heavy feet of the passengers who went out, or the eyes of the one remaining, I cannot to this day conceive. After I had lost it, I had walked through Kidderminster, Dudley

mber 3

n near unto death, and have asked myself what has been the consolation of this life, I found it in cherished memories of illustrious persons of thought and action, whose fr

ute had value in my eyes, coming from one of the toiling class-and being a recognition on the part of working

ut had a secular heart, and on questions of freedom at home and abroad he could be counted upon, as though he was merely human. The dedication brought Mr. Crosskey into trouble with Dr. M

mes Martineau to R

an as Holyoake, or any attempt to gag him, I could hardly dedicate a book to him: this act seeming to imply a special sympathy and admiration directed upon that which distinctively characterises the man. Negative defence from injury is very different from positive h

of W. H. Cros

n his having respect for me, he need not have made it public. At that time it was

ything I knew, and a good deal more. He inscribed to me, 1866, a remarkable "Argument for the Extension of the Franchise," which had all the characteristics of statement, which have brought him renown in later y

admiration and envy, as he once told me, for the power of expressing a

pe and believe, grown better than it was when we came into it. In respect of freedom of opinion and industri

e are here distinguished a

t they contained too little about myself. If they read the last four pa

ale, exclaimed, "Take off your hats, lads! That's where Holyoake was imprisoned." They did so. That incident-when it was related to me-impressed me more than anythi

atory incidents which I recount with pleasure. One was their contribution to the Annuity of 1876, which Mr. Hughes himself com

ndered in Ten Letters in Defence of Co-operation. When I rose to make acknowledgment, all the large audience stood up. It was th

e presence and intrepid eloquence, was regarded as the "noblest Roman of them all." Theodore Parker, he des

om, unfriende

types, a poor un

low, unfurni

freedom of a

heroic days. It is one of the lett

os

22,

your pamphlets on John Stuart Mill and the Rochdale Pioneers-and with so kin

n Rhetoric-'Public Speaking and Debate,' methods of address, hints towards effective speech, etc.-which I studied faithfully, until some one to whom I had praised and lent it, acting probably on something like Coleridge's rule, that books belong to those who most need them-never returned me my well-thumbed essay, to my keen regret. Probably you never knew that we had printed your book. This was an American reprint-wholly exhausted-proo

ithfully,

ll Phi

.J. Ho

entified long before his day. My conviction was that a Free Thinker should have as much courage, consistency, and self-respect as any Apostle, or Jew, or Catholic, or Quaker. All had in turn refused to make a profession of opinion they did not hold, at the peril of death, or, as in the case of O'Connell and the Jews, at the certainty of exclusion from Parliament. They had only to take an oath, to the terms of which they could not honestly subscribe. Mr. Bradlaugh had no s

nd ceaseless aim was the ascendancy of the right through him. It was this passion which inspired his best efforts, and also led to certain aberration of action. But what we have to remember now, and pe

e lent imperiousness to his manners. In later years, when he was in the society of equals, where masterfulness was less possible and less necessary, he acquired courtesy and a certain dignity-the attribute of conscious power. He was the greatest agitator, within the limits of law, who appeared in my time among the working people. Of his own initiative he incurred no legal danger, and those who followed him were not led into it. He was a daring defender of public right, and not without genius in discovering methods for its attainment. One form of genius lies in discovering developments of a principle which no one else sees. Had he lived in the first French Revolution, he had ranked with Mirabeau and Danton. Had he been with Paine in America, he had spoken "Common Sense" on platforms. He died before being able to show in Parliament the best that was in him. Though he had no College training like Professor Fawcett, Indian lawyers found th

take it. This was the well-known Utilitarian doctrine that the consequences of an act are the justification of it. Francis Place had explained to me that Bentham's doctrine was that the sacrifice of liberty or life was justifiable only on the ground that the public gained by it. A disciple should have very strong convictions who differs from his master, and I differ with diffidence from Mr. Mill as to the propriety o

ely requires exceptional justification. It is nothing to the purpose to allege that the oath is binding upon you. The secur

They knew their subjects, were masters of the outlines, which by making bold and plain, we were instructed. Outline is the beginni

of truth is simplicity-with children it is their first fascination. I had only to show them that the alp

The root of the fifteen straight line letters is J placed in various ways. The

eaning against each other at the

ght lines with a stra

ing at the bottom. If two upright li

T and X and Z make themselves, so easy is it

s a C. If two half O's are joined together they make S. Half O and an upright li

time a child will unders

s when the method is made plain to them, and within a week will compose their own name and their mother's. At the same

sequence from what is, but to define distinction well

well as delight hearers. It would be an attraction to the outside public. Few congregations know anything of the eloquence, the happy and splendid illustrations and passages of thought to be found in the fathers of the Church of every denomination. Professor Francis William Newman, whose wide knowl

n the following paragraph under the title of the "National Charter As

s attended at the office, 14, Southampton Street, Strand, and having inspected the

onnor, John Arnott, T. M. Wheeler, James Grassby, J

r Trevelyan having declined to serve, the votes

persons first named to be duly elected to form

ington, Ci

Loomes, Fins

ber 31

ne, about 1830, that Dr. Abernethy told a lady "she might eat anything eatable in moderation." In the second and later half of my life I gave heed to Carnaro, and sought to limit each meal to the least quantity necessary for health. The limitation of quantity included liquids as well as solids, decreasing the amount of both "in

tion. By not expecting much, I have been saved from worry if nothing came. When anything desir

ed with the ti

ents its stro

rmined thing

ewailed t

art of every

all far more likely to live than myself, have long been dead. Had I been as strong as they, I als

the

ndow is a g

gh f

ning through

he friend

rience at 88. Principles are like plants and flowers. They sui

-another year the caterpillars ate them-another year a greedy neighbour stole them-another year the blight withered them. Nevertheless, when I have a garden again, I shall plant another cherry-tree." My years now