eist all over the place, which I accordingly did. At
the first public meeting of the Shelley Society at University
College, addressed by Stopford Brooke, I made my then famous (among
100 people) declaration "I am a Socialist, an Atheist and a
Vegetarian" (ergo, a true Shelleyan) whereupon two ladies who had
been palpitating with enthusiasm for Shelley under the impression
that he was a devout Anglican, resigned on the spot.

My second Hall of Science appearance was after the last of the
Bradlaugh-Hyndman debates at St. James's Hall, where the two
champions never touched the ostensible subject of their
difference--the Eight Hours Day--at all, but simply talked Socialism
or Anti-Socialism with a hearty dislike and contempt for one another.
G. V. Foote was then in his prime as the successor of Bradlaugh; and
as neither the Secularists nor the Socialists were satisfied with the
result of the debate, it was renewed for two nights at the Hall of
Science between me and Foote. A verbatim report was published for
sixpence and is now a treasure of collectors. Having the last word on
the second night, I had to make a handsome wind-up; and the
Secularists were much pleased by my declaring that I was altogether
on Foote's side in his struggle with the established religion of the
country.

When Bradlaugh died, the Secularists wanted a new leader, because
B.'s enormous and magnetic personality left a void that nobody was
big enough to fill--it was really like the death of Napoleon in that
world. There was J. M. Robertson, Foote, and Charles Watts. But
Bradlaugh liked Foote as little as most autocrats like their
successors; and when he, before his death surrendered the gavel (the
hammer for thumping the table to secure order at a meeting) which was
the presidential sceptre of the National Secular Society, he did so
with an ill will which he did not attempt to conceal; and so though
Foote was the nearest size to Bradlaugh's shoes then available, he
succeeded him at the disadvantage of inheriting the distrust of the
old chief. J. M. Robertson you know: he was not a mob orator. Watts
was not sufficient: he had neither Foote's weight (being old) nor
Robertson's scholarship.

So whilst the survivors of Bradlaugh were trying to keep up the
Hall of Science and to establish a memorial library, etc. there, they
cast round for new bl