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BRADLAUGH, CHARLES (1833-1891)

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 373 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BRADLAUGH, See also:CHARLES (1833-1891) , See also:English See also:free-thinker and politician, was See also:born at Hoxton, See also:London, on the 26th of See also:September 1833. His See also:father was a poor See also:solicitor's clerk, who also had a small business as a See also:law stationer, and his See also:mother had been a nursemaid. At twelve years old he became See also:office-boy to his father's employer, and at fourteen See also:wharf-clerk and See also:cashier to a See also:coal See also:merchant in the See also:City Road. He had been baptized and brought up in the See also:Church of See also:England, but he now came into See also:con-tact with a See also:group of free-thinkers who were disciples of See also:Richard See also:Carlile. He was hastily labelled an " atheist," and was turned out of his situation. Thus driven into the arms of the secularists, he managed to See also:earn a living by See also:odd jobs, and became further immersed in the study of 'free-thought. At the end of 185o he enlisted as a soldier, but in,1853 was bought out with See also:money provided by his mother. He then found employment as a lawyer's clerk, and gradually became known as a free-thought lecturer, under the name of " Iconoclast." From r86o he conducted the See also:National Reformer for several years, and displayed much resource in legal See also:defence when the See also:paper was prosecuted by the See also:government on See also:account of its alleged See also:blasphemy and See also:sedition in 1868-1869. Bradlaugh became notorious as a leading " infidel," and was supported by the sympathy of those who were enthusiasts at that See also:time for See also:liberty of speech and thought. He was a See also:constant figure in the law courts; and his competence to take the See also:oath was continually being called in question, while his See also:atheism and republican opinions were adduced as reasons why no See also:jury should give See also:damages for attacks on his See also:character. In 1874 he became acquainted with Mrs Annie See also:Besant (b. 1847), who afterwards became famous for her gifts as a lecturer on See also:socialism and See also:theosophy.

She began by See also:

writing for the National Reformer and soon became co-editor. In 1876 the See also:Bristol publisher of an See also:American pamphlet on the See also:population question, called Fruits of See also:Philosophy, was indicted for selling a See also:work full of indecent physiological details, and, See also:pleading guilty, was lightly sentenced; but Bradlaugh and Mrs Besant took the See also:matter up, in See also:order to vindicate their ideas of liberty, and aggressively republished and' circulated the pamphlet. The See also:prosecution which resulted created considerable See also:scandal. They were convicted and sentenced to a heavy See also:fine and imprisonment, but the .See also:sentence was stayed and the See also:indictment ultimately quashed on a technical point. The affair, however, had several See also:side issues in the courts and led to much See also:prejudice against the defendants, the distinction being ignored between a protest against the suppression of See also:opinion and the championship of the particular opinions in question. Mrs Besant's See also:close See also:alliance with Bradlaugh eventually terminated in 1886, when she drifted from See also:secularism, first into socialistic and labour agitation and then into theosophy as a See also:pupil of Mme See also:Blavatsky. Bradlaugh himself took up politics with increasing fervour. He had been unsuccessful in See also:standing for See also:Northampton in 1868, but in 188o he was returned by that See also:constituency to See also:parliament as an advanced See also:Radical. A See also:long and sensational See also:parliamentary struggle now began. He claimed to be allowed to affirm under the Parliamentary Oaths See also:Act, and the rejection of this pretension, and the refusal to allow him to take the oath on his professing his willingness to do so, terminated in Bradlaugh's victory in 1886. But this result was not obtained without protracted scenes in the See also:House, in which See also:Lord See also:Randolph See also:Churchill took a leading See also:part. When the long struggle was over, the public had gradually got used to Bradlaugh, and his transparent honesty and courageous contempt for See also:mere popularity gained him increasing respect.

Experience of public See also:

life in the House of See also:Commons appeared to give him a more balanced view of things; and before he died, on the 3oth of See also:January 1891, the progress of events was such that it was beginning to be said of him that he was in a See also:fair way to end as a Conservative. Hard, arrogant and dogmatic, with a powerful physique and a real See also:gift for popular See also:oratory, he was a natural Ieader in causes which had society against them, but his sincerity was as unquestionable as his combativeness. His Life was written, from a sympathetic point of view, with much interesting detail as to the See also:history of secularism, by his daughter, Mrs Bradlaugh See also:Bonner, and J. M. See also:Robertson (1894).

End of Article: BRADLAUGH, CHARLES (1833-1891)

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