FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136  
137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>   >|  
an lay dying in his poor lodgings in High Street, Oxford Street, and I find recorded in the _National Reformer_ of March 4th, that on February 28th we had been to see him, and that "he is very feeble and is, apparently, sinking fast; but he is as brave and bright, facing his last enemy, as he has ever been facing his former ones". He died on March 4th, and was buried in Brompton Cemetery on the 10th of the same month. A grave question now lay before us for decision. The Knowlton pamphlet had been surrendered; was that surrender to stand as the last word of the Freethought party on a book which had been sold by the most prominent men in its ranks for forty years? To our minds such surrender, left unchallenged, would be a stain on all who submitted to it, and we decided that faulty as the book was in many respects it had yet become the symbol of a great principle, of the right to circulate physiological knowledge among the poor in pamphlets published at a price they could afford to pay. Deliberately counting the risk, recognising that by our action we should subject ourselves to the vilest slander, knowing that Christian malice would misrepresent and ignorance would echo the misrepresentation --we yet resolved that the sacrifice must be made, and made by us in virtue of our position in the Freethought Party. If the leaders flinched how could the followers be expected to fight? The greatest sacrifice had to be made by Mr. Bradlaugh. How would an indictment for publishing an obscene book affect his candidature for Northampton? What a new weapon for his foes, what a new difficulty for his friends! I may say here that our worst forebodings were realised by the event; we have been assailed as "vendors of obscene literature", as "writers of obscene books", as "living by the circulation of filthy books". And it is because such accusations have been widely made that I here place on permanent record the facts of the case, for thus, at least, some honest opponents will learn the truth and will cease to circulate the slanders they may have repeated in ignorance. On February 27th our determination to republish the Knowlton pamphlet was announced by Mr. Bradlaugh in an address delivered by him at the Hall of Science on "The Right of Publication". Extracts from a brief report, published in the _National Reformer_ of March 11th, will show the drift of his statement: "Mr. Bradlaugh was most warmly welcomed to the platform, and reite
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136  
137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Bradlaugh
 

obscene

 

circulate

 
Freethought
 
surrender
 
Knowlton
 

published

 

pamphlet

 

ignorance

 

National


Reformer
 
Street
 

sacrifice

 

February

 

facing

 

forebodings

 

realised

 

friends

 

indictment

 

followers


expected
 

flinched

 

leaders

 
virtue
 

position

 
greatest
 
weapon
 

Northampton

 

candidature

 

assailed


publishing

 

affect

 
difficulty
 
delivered
 

Science

 
Publication
 

address

 

announced

 

determination

 

republish


Extracts

 

warmly

 
welcomed
 

platform

 
statement
 
report
 

repeated

 

slanders

 
accusations
 

widely