[57] The Mayor's exact words.
[58] The Norfolk News prefaces its account by saying: "For some months past considerable excitement has been caused amongst the religious community of the town by the delivery of lectures tending to subvert the fundamental principles of Christianity by a Freethinker under the soubriquet of 'Iconoclast.' We have attended none of these lectures ourselves, but, judging from what we have heard, we should think that 'Iconoclast' was a gifted man so far as regards his elocutionary powers. He has been combated on his own platform, denounced from various pulpits in the town, and at length a determined effort seems to have been made to shut him out from all the places in the town in which a public meeting could be held."
[59] It is not without interest to note the number of police that were always employed when there was any question of forcibly removing Mr Bradlaugh. The Devonport superintendent contented himself with six. Twenty years later the House of Commons employed fourteen—at least, I am told that it was eleven policemen and three messengers.
[60] The descriptions of Mr Bradlaugh which appeared in some of the Devonshire papers, and the opinions expressed in them, are rather amusing to read now, so many years after they were written. The Devonport Telegraph said that Mr Bradlaugh was twenty-eight years of age, and his cross-examinations were such "as would have done credit to an able barrister."
The Western Morning News said that he was "apparently about thirty-four years of age, and 5 ft. 10 ins. in height, is stoutly built, of a sallow complexion, and his countenance is adorned with neither whiskers nor moustache. He possesses intelligent features, and a commanding forehead, and he wears his hair brushed behind his ears.... His examination of the witnesses was conducted with facility and with much regularity.... He sustained his equanimity of temper in an admirable manner."
The Devonport Independent, referring to the presence in Court of the various dissenting ministers and others, said "they could not help admiring his [Mr Bradlaugh's] remarkable precision, his calm and collected demeanour, and the ability with which he 'conducted his own case' as well as that of his friend.... He is about twenty-eight years of age, slight, and of a fair complexion, above the ordinary height, and bearing the impress of an intelligent countenance."
The Plymouth Mail thought "the infidel lecturer Bradlaugh and his friend Steer got off easily."
The Western Daily Mercury gave very full reports of the trial, and under the heading "Scandala Magnata" wrote a condemnation of the prosecution. It also inserted a number of letters on both sides: one, from "an old subscriber," who described himself as "the father of a family and lover of the truths of Scripture," wished that the inhabitants had "routed the wicked man Bradlaugh out of the neighbourhood," and expressed a desire that the Government should punish the dockyard men who co-operated with Bradlaugh.
[61] Meanwhile the Park was occupied by the military and the police in readiness to clear away the "infidels" should they appear.
[62] National Reformer, the Western Morning News, and Western Daily Mercury.