The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-12-23 00:00:00

MR. BRAT/LAUGH AT STOUEBRIDOF..
To the Editor of the " Objerrer."

Sin,—ln last week's impression of your contemporary
the Pricrhy Atleerliser, I noticed a letter signed
Republicim " (who states he is a member of the Stone.
bridge Republican Club), in which he complains that you
only had a brief notice from
°the Birmingham papers of
13radlaugh's lectures, whilst you admitted six letters
abusing Mr. Bradlaugh and his audiences, in which let-
ters, he says, known falsehoods and coarse abuos stand
'in the place of argument. I, for my part, cannot see
i that such is the :sae. After a miserable attempt to cols.
tradict three letters, this mighty •• Republican " pounces
on me, and commences in the following melodious strain.
"The next writer whom. I am s irry to find is • A Towns.
man, describes the audiences at the Corn Exchange in
the following choicest Billingsgate. • A motley group,
looking as though they had let bet u any mottleiyid soap
for weeks past: ' Knights of the coal.hole, making a
a frightful discord by yelling at the top of their voices.'
• Poor lialf.atarved uliserablolooking wretches.' how,
sir, I should like to know where the Billingsgate is in
those few passages he hue quoted from my letter. I say
there is none; but I cannot say as much for the letter he
has written. I think that when a man cannot control his
feelings without alleging that people are liars, I am Cl-
smilingly sorry for him. But, perhaps, calling people
liars is not Billingsgate in " Republican's opinion ; eon
thinly it is not the language you would expect one gentle.
man to use to another. He says he is sorry I am a
townsman. Perhaps it is because lam not • member of
the Stourbridge Republican Club. He then gives the
following quotation. " When Mr. Bradlaugh's eloquence
was at fault, his writingn and twistings were horrible to
witness. Now, I contend. I did not say writings, for the
simple reason that I have never seen say of Bradlaubh's
writings if he, " Republican," has; but I observed his
twisting., which were by no means an edifying spectacle.
I have often heard the remark made that the schoolnias.
ter was abroad, and I should think this must have been
the ease when •• Republican received his education ; or,
he most have been like that historic personage who Re-
counted for his imperfect tuition by the fact that he only
weLt to school on two Lights, on one of which the master
was absent, and on the other there was LK/candle. If this
had not been the case he would not have described
writhings as writimes. Surely his brains must have been
addled when he wrote thnt.

'Republican" nest bakes the following assertion.
He says, "I am not aware whether or no Mr. B. put np
as the republican camiLiate for Northampton, but
know that he nbtained 1.0,30 votes, although several can.
iLdates were in the field, and a host of nice, amiable,
truthful men like • LAVIISWILD, were vilifying him in the
papers." Republican " has all through his letter been
very fond of impugning the veracity of others, but I
think the above quotation will prove that lie himself is
anything but truthful. I would ask him the following
(petition. How is it possible for him to be unaware that
Bradlaugh put up a: a candidate for Northampton.
while at the same time he knows the exact number of
votes which he polled on that occasion, and is also well
up as to what was said of him by Ids opponents. I will
leave this last fact to speak for itself, so that your readers
can easily judge which is the more truthful of the two—
Republican " or myself.
There is • passage of Scripture which recommends a
Person b, pluck the Leant from his own eje before he
attempts to remove the mote from his neighbours. la
the same spirit I would recommend ••liepublican,•' before
be again accuses others of lying, to try to acquire the art
of speaking the truth himself; but perhaps his uuUuth-
ful propensities are mainly due to his republican procli-
vities.

I am, Sir, yours truly,
TOWNSMAN.
Hagley.road, Dec. 20th.

BRADLAUGH, OR THE MAN WITH THE
" CULTIVATED CONSCIENCE."
thc Edit, the" Ob.,crrtr.-

Sin,—l see there is a letter in your last issue, signed
" Sine Odio," defending liradiaugh; but as the writer
has not taken the slightest notice of my communication,
f course I have nothing to answer. I may, however,
tor the benefit of " Enquirer," relate the following inci-
dent which occurred on the evening of the second lecture
which was delivered by Bradlaugh. In in:roducing the
lecturer on that occasion the chairman said "He Was
disappointed in 31r. Eradlaugh." And he went on hi
explain the cause of his disappointment. It was this.
Ito was " disappointed because he had always heard that
Mr. Bradlaugh could not speak upon any topic without
"ragging his religion into the matter." Now the chair-
man must have known as well as any one in that ruoin
that as Bradlaugh does not believe in any religion, under
vie ordinary acceptation of that term, it was impossible
ter him to introduce his religion into the matter; eon,-
q rentiy he must have been "disappointed " becanse lie
eid not interlard his discourse on a professedly political
topic with Infidel doctrines. Previous to these lecturis
I have occasionaely happened to be in the same company
with the chairman, ana having heard him impugn the
divinity of Christ, and make sneering allusions to other
parts of the Holy Scriptures, I naturally concluded that
oe was Infidel, and consequently thought it was only a
hub over-zeal in the cause which made him disappointed
that liradlaugh had not introduced his peculiar tenets
low a eubject that had not the slightest connection with
them. You may judge of ray astonishment, then, when
afterwards learnt that imitead of beitg an Infidel he
was a prominent member of the Unitarian community in
this town. This fact, to my thinking, goes far to prove
,that is, taking the chairman as a fair specimen of that
Leidy; that Infidel doctrines cannot be so repugnant to
Unitman mind* as " Sine Odio would have us believe:
or, to say the least, that they must place politics before
religion, for if this Lad not been the case one of their
ioody would never have mat on the same platform with a
.ecturer who, he anticipated, would introduce his disbe•
iief 111 religious matter* into his discourse, mach less
express himself as "disappointed " that he had not done
so, I venture to assert, without fear of contradiction,
tuat no prominent member of any other religious deno•
initiation in the town could have countenanced, by his
iireaence on the platform, the teachings of a man who,
~c expected, would, under the pretence of enlightenios
his audience on a political or histcrizal subject, try to i oiculcato t-ce doctrines of Infidelity.
It seems, however, Mr. Editor, that if your correspon- ,
ount " Moe Ohio," has not thought it worth his while to
outice any of the arguments I used in my communica-
tion to you, that imother of the same fraternity lass it. a
.irierley Hill paper freely commented upon them. The
fact thai a person should newer • lettei in a Brier.ey
lilt p iper which only appearel in the Stourbridge paper,
was riitiin oil it lecture that was li 1,016,1 I't
niournridge, to say the least of at, uppearA nott.-sti, a I
I,lt et•pteinl, tts 1 feel Colltlth'llt lust y.a, 11"1..11

1 :.our usail Clamps, would have ii al nal it in your jots-
'at if you li.el been requested to do so. I can ...ely
aecouut for it by the presumption that `. Republican "
tuought in this inanner to evade any replies to hi: luen.
~rutiou, and I certaiely tires ly 111 my own case that tie
•..ery resrlv satateeded. us ~ a - • L ...- by the merest aCCI-
•,,,a, that Ib. ',a.- ilvad- . it:: conduct is ti.i•
CA.4, reminds moot a a:I, , • . ..; • Ili /hat Pal once related
t• oMaby a friend. Ile . e.. : ,•, :taw two men quarrelling,
•illes suddenly one chalk- _ • I -the other to tight. Ti e
:otter immediately rushed Into the house, oateasibly f r
tire purpose of putting his coat in a place of safety ; bat
..11 boon as he got laSi•te he Wai heard to lock the door,
and shortly afterwards he was seen at the attic window,
geatiettlating violently, and vowing what he would do if
ue could only get at his would-be opponent in the street.
" Republicau" seems to have exactly the same unfair
.tany of dealing with toy letter, that his noble prototyp-
dradlaugh has of dealing with the House of Bruuswi,a.
and the rottenness of which I exposed in my last letter
to you. He selects • part of any sentence that bethink*
aid suit his purpose, and without making the slightest
reference to the context, makes it convvv a totally differ-
ent meaning to that which it had originally. I might
treat Ins effusion iu the same manner, and it would be
only equitable retaliation on nay purl: but I would scorn
to atoop to such mean, unmanly practices. 1, therefore,
propose to take all that part of hi: letter which refers t 1
aline straight through from end to end, and try to refute
it sentence by sentence. Whether or not I succeed iii
doing this, yourself and your readers will be the best.
judges.
'the first thing he refers to in my letter is a statement
:nf mine to the effect that Iliad heard that Bradlaugh
was a 'scoffer and defier of the Almighty God, and a
despiser of everything religious; in fact, one who woul I
trample under 1 ot every law, whether human or divine."
in answer to the first part of this, I wawa ask "Reps),.
icon' whether he ean give • straightforward denial t i
the fact that Bratilaugh has been known to stand on a
platform, snatch in hand, and to give God five minutes in
•cinch to strike him dead ? And, also, whether he has
not been known on another occasion to stop a lame mann
tu the streets, and tell him that lie would spit upon se..h
a tiod an his that would allow him to remain in that de-
plorable condition. Now, unless " Repablican" Call
prove that these two etatements (which I have had from
what I believe to be a reliable aonrce) are utterly un-
founded, I think I have thoroughly established, the two
tied allegations he refers to. 1 Irate next to answer the
tilegation that he would trample under foot every law,
w Crhuman or divine, and I propose to do it In the
fo Mg manner. At a time when all the eivilised world
4 .
was orritied at the barbarous atrocities perpetrated bv
the Commune in Paris—when they were desecrating •
1 churches, murdering clergymen, men, women, and chit-
.lren in the streets in cold blood; when they were confis-
' eating and destroying private and public property, ales.
halting the laws relating to marriage, and committing
other abominations teen nnmerous to mention—the B'--
publican Club. of London, of which Bradlangh is one of
• the shining lights, sent them • letter of sympathy and
encouragement, approving of their barbarities. Now. j
as. I think this is proof positive that they would do the !
-mune in London, ouly that they lack the power. I
"Republican " next states that 13radlaugh advocates
"doing good and being good, and acting up to the highest
standard of a cultivated conscience and a pure morality "
With reference to hia allocation of doing good and
h..ing good, I think what I have already stated is • Corn'
fete answer ; but with reference t n what was me int by
the latter part of the sentence I must confess, Mr. Edi-
tor, that I was at tint sorely puzzled. I had heard of
linen with no consciences. of MOM with easy consciences,
al! of men with elastic consciences; but the man with
tine" cultivated conseience " Was quite a new era in my
experience. To ascertain what sort of a thing a cultiva-
ted conscience could be. I reasoned within myself in the
f 'Bowing mermen An ordinary or uncultivated conacience
is that Minded monitor which enables us to distieguish
might from wrong, and I naturally concluded that •
"cultivated conscience " must enable its happy possessor
to do more than this ; in fact, it must make it easy to
convert wrong into right. Having arrived at this conclu-
sion, many things which hefore had seemed to me rather
equivocal in tine character of Iconoclast and his eom-
peers, judged by this light were easily to be accounted
for.

Republican's " next statement is to the effect that
He tgradlaughl does nut are evidence, he says, to
prove the existence of a personal flod ;" and he goes On
to say that this is his misfortune, he thinks. And I cer-
tainly can thoroughly coincide with the latter part of hi/