The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-02-18
Mr.. Bradlaugh---Woman's Rights.


Our readers are aware that Mr.. Brad
laugh, in consequence of ill-health, has
returned to England. In one of his re-
cent letters to his paper, the London Ma
tiolal Reformer, we find the following
I hardly know whether or not to make
an announcement of my belief in mira
cles. That Charles Bradlaugh, the
wicked hereto, could ever be called out
from a back seat in public meeting,
by a real, bona .Jide, live orthodox
bishop, to deliver an address, seems SO
near miracle that l hope my readers
will not think me romancing. 1 at
tended the recent Annual Convention of
the Woman Suffrage Association at
Steinway Hall. There was very re-
spectacle audience of probably 500 per-
sons present, and as l knew it was to be
a very orthodox meeting, 1 dropped
quietly into a side seat about half way
down the hall. Proceedings were
opened by prayer, by the Rev. Charles
Burleigh, and then Bishop Gilbert Ha-
ven, of Georgia, delivered the opening
address, in which texts abOunded. The
bishop is a portly, well-preserved man,
and made good chairman in all things
save One-his opening speech was too
long. The first lady speaker was DIR.
AntOinette Brown Blackwell, a rather
tall lady, with an intellectual face,
dressed in plain dark silk, and wearing
her hair smoothly on the sides of her
temples, and twisted in plain knot be-
hind. She spoke quietly, earnestly, and
to the purpose, but elected very little
enthusiasm. Mrs. Lucy Stone followed
in charming speech. l described this
lady last year, in my account of the
Boston Convention, and can only now
say that her power of quiet satire, and
her change to equally quiet yet passion
ate earnestness, was shown to much
more advantage in Steinway Hall than
at Boston. At the conclusion of Mrs.
Stones address, it appears that Miss
Mary E. Eastman called the bishops
attention to my presence, and to nay as
tOnishment Bishop Haven then said:
81 understand there is among the audi
ence the famous Democrat of England,
Charles Bradlaugh, and [ will call upon
him to say few words" This was re-
ceived with considerable cheering by
the meeting, and I take what follows,
with slight correction, from the New
York World:
''Mr. Bradlaugh at once came forward
from the rear of the hall, where he had
been sitting and, mounting the plat
form, said l only come forward in
obedience to a call which it would be
! impertinence to refuse here tonight. I
came to be listener, and with no sort
of intention of making any speech at
all, and the right should have on this
platform is, that for the last twenty-five
| years of my short life have pleaded for
those rights which are now pleaded for.
! (Applause.) The woman question is no
American question, no national ques-
| tion; it is a question for the whole
world, and the best men of every coun-
| try and of every age have held but one
view upon it, while the worst men have
naturally held the other view. 1t is not
question of mere taxation; it is ques-
tion of thorough humanity; a question
not of mere geographical Limitation, not
of America, not of England, not of
! France, not of Italy, not of Spain; but
were it a question in any of these coun-
| tries, in each a wOman's record would
stand out to show you that woman can
do and has done woman's work of max
ing man truer and purer-(applause)-
and there is no age of the world, how
ever confined the page of its history,
/ that you cannot find some woman who
has shown out through the darkness of
night to show you that, though such
stars were obscured by foolish societa-
rian regulations, she could still shine;
and whenever Woman Suffrage is de-
bated, my voice is at their service, and
this in no sense of doing favor, but be-
cause the grander woman is made the
purer man will be. (Applause)."