[131] It is worth noting that Mr Keir Hardie, a professed Christian Socialist, when recently (28th June) protesting against the foolish ceremony of congratulating the Queen on the birth of a great-grandchild in the direct line, went the length of declaring, "I owe no allegiance to any hereditary ruler"—this after he had sworn allegiance to the Queen. Bradlaugh never stultified himself in this fashion.
[132] Report in Standard of 11th June 1880.
[133] See the report of the Committee's proceedings, reprinted in his "True Story of my Parliamentary Struggle."
[134] In a case not legally reported, however—that of ex parte Lennard vs Woolrych, in the Court of Queen's Bench, in April 1875.
[135] On the other hand, Tory journalists went much further astray in asserting that Bolingbroke believed in future rewards and punishments.
[136] It should be noted that the "kicked-out" idea is a favourite one with the cartoonist. He used it lately in the case of the Irish Evicted Tenants Bill.
[137] The Select Committee persistently examined him to get avowals which he had not made, and had no wish to volunteer.
[138] The Echo of 25th May 1880 has the passage: "Say what we like, occupants of the Tory benches are penetrated with deep and undying religious convictions. The very reference to an unbeliever, unless it is in fierce denunciation of him, reddens their faces.... But strange to say, the very men who apparently were so jealous of religious or semi-religious forms last evening will this evening vote that Parliament shall not sit to-morrow because it will be the Derby day. Now if there be one place on this wide earth which may be denominated a pandemonium it is the Epsom Downs on a Derby day."
[139] See the verbatim report reprinted in the volume of his Speeches.
[140] The reference was to the ever-offensive Sir Henry Tyler, who had made a cowardly allusion to Mrs Besant.