On Tuesday, Mr. Newdegate having resumed the adjourned debate in
a rambling tirade against atheists, whom ho tried to show that Napoleon Bonaparte had found it necessary to put down, Mr. Gladstone, in a very. powerful speech, which leaned more to the side of Mr. Bradlaugh's being permitted to take the oath than to the substitution of the affirmation, warned the House of the consequences of entering on a struggle with the Constituencies, as they did in the Wilkes cane,—a struggle in which they were sure to be worsted sooner or later, and declared emphatically against the attempt, after abolishing the Church test, and the Christian test, to cling to a dogmatic test on the basis of abstract theism, which would not keep out, as they knew, Agnostics, Pantheists, or even Positivists, and could only exclude those who chose to reiterate their opinions in the House of Commons, even though the opinions not so reiterated were notorious to all the world. Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Synan, speaking for the Catholics, insisted on the necessity for keeping a test of Theism,—at all events, while Atheists were so few,—a
position of melancholy imbecility ; and Mr. Chillers, analysing the view of each Committee, showed that both contained a majority in favour of enabling Mr. Bradlaugh to take his seat in one way or the other, though they were far from confident about the true method.
Previous page
