phers have excogitated in the closet or whispered in the salon, Mr. Bradlaugh has with stentorian voice proclaimed from the housetop. It is not that his opinions differ so much from those entertained by many most respectable and intelligent members of "society:" his offence consists in having conveyed the news to the "man in the street." He has insisted on popularizing doctrines which "vested interests" desire to see imparted only to a select body of initiated.
In all such matters, however, there is really but one question to be asked: Has the propagandist acted in good faith? has he been true to his own convictions? Now, Mr. Bradlaugh is a very big man, as well in mind as in body, and large objects ought never to be inspected with a microscope. He has been the hero of a hundred fights, and it may well be that he has not on all occasions conducted himself with the perfect chivalry of a knight of romance. Still, taking him all in all, and having due consideration for the many hardships and temptations of a career such as his, I cannot doubt that he has been valiant—singularly valiant—for the truth as he has known it, and that he will be justly regarded by posterity as one of the most remarkable figures of his time and country. His anti-religious ideas are in the main repugnant to me, as I dare say they are to most of my readers; but let us not judge Mr. Bradlaugh or any other public-spirited citizen by our particular standard of spiritual rectitude. "Those who have not the law are a law unto themselves, their conscience accusing or excusing one another." To his own Master, to the light which lighteth every man who Cometh into this world, Mr. Bradlaugh must stand or fall. Judge not that ye be not judged. Rather let us
