[151] In the House of Commons on 7th February 1882 Earl Percy asserted that Bradlaugh's friends had fabricated tickets for the meeting. The statement was absolutely false.
[152] April 27, 1881.
[153] May 6, 1881.
[154] Given in a special number of the National Reformer.
[155] Formally, Newdegate was bound to pay Bradlaugh's costs if Bradlaugh won, but had the fact of the maintenance never come out, it would have been an easy matter for Clarke to become bankrupt, and leave Bradlaugh no redress, while he himself could be privately reimbursed by Newdegate.
[156] Mr Vaughan had twice previously given decisions against Bradlaugh, and both had been upset on appeal.
[157] The essential unveracity of Northcote's political character is shown by the fact that after thus using the "numbers" argument against Bradlaugh, he himself solemnly denounced the principle. Speaking at Edinburgh in 1884 (see Mr Lang's "Life," ii. 218) he said: "I am afraid that the Government will take far too much to the numerical principle, and if you take to the principle of mere numbers, depend upon it you will be introducing the most dangerous change into the Constitution." Exactly what Bradlaugh had said to him.
[158] In this particular speech he used the phrase "that grand old man" of Gladstone. It was probably he who set the fashion.
[159] Mr Cavendish Bentinck.
[160] Elected for Oxford.