Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/169

, for alleged complicity in the Orsini conspiracy. In the defence of both Mr. Bradlaugh rendered material assistance.

"In October, 1860," said Mr. Bradlaugh in his "Autobiography," "I paid my first visit to Wigan, and certainly lectured there under considerable difficulty, the resident clergy actually inciting the populace to ph3'8ical violence and part destruction of the building I lectured in. I, however, supported by a courageous woman and her husband, persevered, and, despite bricks and kicks, visited Wigan again and again until I had, bon gré, mal gré, improved the manners and customs of the people, so that I am now a welcome speaker there. I could not," he naively adds, "improve the morals of the clergy, as the public journals have recently shown; but that was their misfortune, not my fault."

In 1861 Mt. Bradlaugh was arrested at the instance of the Young Men's Christian Association of Plymouth; but he succeeded, thanks to his forensic skill, in wringing from an unwilling bench of magistrates a prompt certificate of dismissal. Mr. Bradlaugh then, in turn, raised proceedings against the Plymouth superintendent of police for illegal arrest. The verdict, one farthing damages, though unsatisfactory in the main, had yet two important results: it made the Plymouth authorities pay sweetly for their intolerance in the shape of costs, and it secured the right of free speech in Plymouth and adjoining towns.

In 1862 a Church of England clergyman was guilty of a foul libel affecting the late Mrs. Bradlaugh and her two amiable and highly accomplished daughters, whom to know is to respect. "This fellow," says