Book Description

This book is a 2-volume record of life and work of the English political activist Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891), written by his daughter, that features his parliamentary struggle, politics and teachings. Bradlaugh was an advocate of trade unionism, republicanism, and universal suffrage, and he opposed socialism. His anti-socialism was divisive, and many secularists who became socialists left the secularist movement because of its identification with Bradlaugh's liberal individualism. He was a supporter of Irish Home Rule, and backed France during the Franco-Prussian War. In 1880, he was elected as the Liberal MP for Northampton. His attempt to affirm as an atheist ultimately led to his temporary imprisonment, fines for voting in the Commons illegally, and a number of by-elections at which he regained his seat on each occasion. Bradlaugh was finally allowed to take an oath in 1886. Eventually, a parliamentary bill which he proposed became law in 1888 which allowed members of both Houses of Parliament to affirm, if they so wished, when being sworn in. The new law resolved the issue for witnesses in civil and criminal court cases._x000D_ Part I:_x000D_ Parentage and Childhood_x000D_ Youth_x000D_ Army Life_x000D_ Marriage_x000D_ Hyde Park Meetings, 1855_x000D_ Early Lectures and Debates_x000D_ A Clerical Libeller_x000D_ The "National Reformer" and the Government Prosecutions_x000D_ Italy_x000D_ Platform Work, 1860-1861_x000D_ "Kill the Infidel"_x000D_ Debates, 1860-1866_x000D_ The Reform League, 1866-1868_x000D_ Provincial Lecturing, 1866-1869_x000D_ Ireland_x000D_ Northampton, 1868_x000D_ Southwark Election, 1869_x000D_ Litigation, 1867-1871_x000D_ Lectures, 1870-1871_x000D_ France – the War_x000D_ The Commune, and After_x000D_ A Dozen Debates_x000D_ Republicanism and Spain_x000D_ First Visit to America_x000D_ Two Northampton Elections, 1874…_x000D_ In the United States Again_x000D_ The Prosecution of Mr Bradlaugh and Mrs Besant_x000D_ An Unimportant Chapter_x000D_ More Debates_x000D_ Some Later Lectures_x000D_ The "Watch" Story_x000D_ Peace Demonstrations, 1878_x000D_ The National Secular Society…_x000D_ Part II (by John M. Robertson):_x000D_ Philosophy and Secular Propaganda_x000D_ Political Doctrine and Work_x000D_ The Parliamentary Struggle_x000D_ Closing Years