6 JULY 1901, Page 23

MR. BRADLAIIGH.

[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

Sin,—In a notice of the Rev. R. Armstrong's book (which I have not seen) in the Spectator of June 22nd your reviewer positively declares that my father, Mr. Bradlaugh, did "actually deny the existence of God." Mr. A. P. Dawson kindly corrects this statement in your last issue, but himself falls into error by saying that in my Life of my father it is "strongly insisted that he was no atheist." Permit me to Bay that Mr. Bradlaugh was an atheist—that is, " without God "—but he held that "to deny that which was unknown was as absurd as to affirm it." It is an error to suppose that the atheist necessarily denies the existence of God. Mr. Bradlaugh defined the atheistic position over and over again, and we have in print his explicit statements, covering a period of thirty years,—from 1859 to 1890. The " two Bradlaughs" spoken of by your reviewer exist only in the imagination of those who are not familiar with my father's life and teaching.—I am, Sir, &c.,

H. BRADLAUGH BONNER.

23 Streathbourne Road, Upper Tooting, London, S.W.