warm, and the attacks on Bradlaugh were
often gross. The Speaker honourably pointed out that such attacks on an
elected member whose absence was enforced by their own order, were unfair
and unbecoming, but the feelings of the House were too strong for him and
too strong for chivalry. The opposition turned affairs to ignoble party
account, and were not ashamed in their prints and elsewhere to level the
charge of "open patronage of unbelief and Malthusianism, Bradlaugh and
Blasphemy," against a government that contained Gladstone, Bright, and
Selborne, three of the most conspicuously devout men to be found in all
England. One expression of faith used by a leader in the attack on
Bradlaugh lived in Mr. Gladstone's memory to the end of his days. "You
know, Mr. Speaker," cried the champion of orthodox creeds, "we all of us
believe in a God of some sort or another." That a man should consent to
clothe the naked human soul in this truly singular and scanty remnant of
spiritual apparel, was held to be the unalterable condition of fitness for
a seat in parliament and the company of decent people. Well might Mr.
Gladstone point out how vast a disparagement of Christianity, and of
orthodox theism also, was here involved:--

They say this, that you may go any length you please in the denial
of religion, provided only you do not reject the name of the
Deity. They tear religion into shreds, so to speak, and say that
there is one particular shred with which nothing will ever induce
them to part. They divide religion into the dispensable and the
indispensable, and among that kind which can be dispensed with--I
am not now speaking of those who declare, or are admitted, under a
special law, I am not speaking of Jews or those who make a
declaration, I am speaking solely of those for whom no provision
is made except the provision of oath--they divide, I say, religion
into what can and what cannot be dispensed with. There is
something, however, that cannot be dispensed with. I am not
willing, Sir, that Christianity, if the appeal is made to us as a
Christian legislature, shall stand in any rank lower than that
which is indispensable. I may illustrate what I mean. Suppose a
commander has to despatch a small body of men on an expedition on
which it is necessary for them to carry on their backs all that
they can take with them; the men will part with everything that is