New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1889-05-15
One Of Englands Greatest Statesmen,

At the opening Of Parliament on
January y, Charles Bradlaugh was
sworn in as a member from North
ampton. Thus a controversy which
began in 1880, has been settled in
fovor OF the man presistently re-
turned by All intelligent constituency,
and both they and he have received,
at last, their just rights from the
House of Commons.
Charles Bradlaugh was born in,
Hoxton, London, September 26,
1888. Owing to the extreme poverty
of his parents, he ceased attending
school before he was eleven years old.
He early developed a taste for
politics, for at the age of fifteen he
appeared as an orator before street
audiences during the political tur-
moils OF 1S47-4S. The origin of his
atheistical opinions dates from
the same period. Studying to
fit himself for a Sunday-school ex-
hibition before the Bishop OF London,
he became skeptical,, and declared
his inability to reconcile the Thirty
nine articles with the Four Gospels.
His father; influenced by the clergy,
gave him three days in which to
change his opinions, on penalty Of
losing his situation. He accepted
the penalty and quilted the situation
and his home forever.
For year he earned an made
quate support by selling coal on
commission. and then, becoming
slightly involved in debt, he enlisted
in the service of the East India COM
pany, where he remained until a
small legacy enabled him to pur-
chase his discharge.
He now secured a clerkship in a
solicitors Office in London, and en-
tered at once upon his life career OF
a political and atheistical writer and
speaker. In 1S5S-59 he gained con-
siderable notoriety by. editing a
journal called the Investigator, which
Was soon suspended for want of cap
ital. He was now well known under
the appropriate name Of "Iconoc-
last which he signed to all of his
writings. A year later the journal
which he now edits, the National Re
former, was established, and in the
conduct of this his reputation for
ability was greatly increased. System
attic attempts were made to sup
press his journal, but their only effect
vvoc tn rs 10
His sympathies for the oppressed
have not been confined to his own
country. When Italy was fighting
for freedom, he raised by his own ex-
ertions one hundred guineas and sent
them to Garibaldi He visited Ire
land, conferred with the advocates
of home rule, !" and raised his voice
in their justification. In the year
1869 an attempt was made by the
Gladstone ministry to suppress his
journal because he refused to have it
licensed. He argued his own case and
won brilliant victory. Like him
self, in politics it is republican, in-re-
,ligion atheistic, in social economy.
Malthusian.
Mr.. Bradlaugh's republicanism as
sumes that the right to deal with.
the throne is inalienably vested in the
Encyclopaedia exercised by them
through their representatives in
Parliament argues that the House
of Brunswick occupies it only from
the Acts Of Settlement and Union,
and seeks the repeal of those acts af-
ter the abdication or demise of the
present monarch. 1t aspires to a
commonwealth after the American
model, to be attained as peacably as
possible.
Mr.. Bradlaugh's personal popular
said of him in 1878, that he had the
largest personal following of any
man in England. In the autumn of
1878, Mr.. Bradlaugh visited the
United States, and delivered lectures
in most Of the prominent cities.
His political status as the member
from Northampton, was for more
than five years one of the most agi-
tating before the British Parliament.
At the beginning of the controversy,
in 1880, he refused to take the
oath of allegiance on the ground
that it would not be binding upon
his conscience. The House refused to
let him affirm, inasmuch as no pro-
vision is MADDEN the Parliamentary
Oaths Act for affirmation by others
than Quakers and the like. Upon
PREDICTION Mr. Bradlaugh changed
] his ground and offered to take The.
oath, but the house now refused to
receive it. Insisting upon entering
the House and admins tering the
oath to himself, he was removed by
/ the police. Afterwards, on several oc-
casions, a similar flrce was gone