MR. BRADLA.UGH AND THE BLASPHEMY LAWS.
LTO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPEC TATOR."]
SIR,—You would not, I am sure, wish to do an injustice even to "such a man" as Mr. Bradlaugh. Allow me, therefore, to assure you that Mr. Bradlaugh did not " boast " a the meeting in St. James's Hall at all ; his speech was most studiously moderate and self-restrained; he stated, indeed, his belief that those who had prosecuted Messrs. Foote and Ramsay had hoped to catch him in the same net, that political and not religious motives were at the back of the prosecution. But there was nothing in his speech to show that "notoriety is turning his head ;" much to show that he felt the tremendous responsibility of his position as leader of an enthusiastic body of men and women, smarting under a sense of political wrong done in the name of the religion of Jesus Christ.
May we not hope that by-and-by the Spectator may think it worth while to find out accurately what "such a man" with such followers does actually say, for if Mr. Maurice's teaching as to the difference between "the mob" and "the people" is true, it is no mere mob which regards the Freethinkers now in prison as martyrs.—I am, Sir, &c., STEWART D. HEADLAH. [Mr. Bradlaugh's language did convey such a boast to one of his audience, but we are quite willing to let another of his audi- ence give his different impression.—En. Spectator.]
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