plaintiff was objected to from court to court till the Evidence Acts of 1869 and 1870 eventually relieved freethinkers from the disability so grievous and unjust. No sooner was he returned to Parliament than he found himself confronted by a similar difficulty. So fresh in the public mind and so dramatic were the circumstances attending the attempt to exclude him from the House, that they need not be narrated here. Suffice it to say that the courage, ability, and tact with which Mr. Bradlaugh conducted his case have been handsomely acknowledged even by bitter opponents.
During the Franco-Prussian war, Mr. Bradlaugh took no active part in favor of either side till the installation of the provisional republican government. Then, as might have been expected, he used his utmost influence on behalf of France. Great meetings were held in London, and in the leading provincial towns, to express sympathy with the struggling republic, which, it was hoped, might ultimately be able to drive the invader from French soil. Twice was Mr. Bradlaugh put under arrest—once by the provisional government, and once by M. Thiers—for his presumed support of dangerous sections of the republican party; but his loyalty to the cause of free government in France did not go unacknowledged. The Tours government thanked him for his fraternal efforts in a long and flattering letter signed by Gambetta, Cremieux, Glais Bizoin, and Fourichon; while M. Tissot, the French chargé d'affaires in England, and Emmanuel Arago, a member of the provisional government, addressed him individually, the last-named eminent man concluding his note with the words: "Mr. Bradlaugh est et sera toujours dans la republique notre concitoyen."
