Mr BRADLAUGH ON A REGENCY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 52, 20 January 1872, Page 3

Mr BRADLAUGH ON A REGENCY.

At the Hall of Science, Sheffield, Mr Charles Bradlaugh began another political crusade against the reigning monarchy. The hall was crowded, although admission was by ticket, the attendance being mainly made up of trades’ union secretaries and members of the Sheffield Republican Club, with numbers of women. Mr Bradlaugh addressed the meeting on the subject—“ The Queen; Is she morally and physically incapacitated ; if, so, what ought the people to do?” Mr Disraeli, he said, had declared in his speech at Hughenden that the Queen was incapacitated to reign on account of moral and physical incapability. He (Mr Bradlaugh) preferred to say that her Majesty was mentally and physically unfit. He declined to say anything against the personal character of the Queen. He referred to the recent statements as to a Regency, and strongly condemned the idea of the Prince of Wales being appointed Regent. The Prince, he said, was the last person who ought to be appointed. Mr Bradlaugh spoke of his Royal Highness in most severe terms, the mildest phrase being that he “ had made himself the scarecrow of an autumn manoeuvre.” For the last few years, at least for seven, documents had been returned from Balmoral which her Majesty was unable to sign. He did not say that she was insane, because he had no means of proving it, but as she was incapable of discharging the duties of Royalty, tlie next question was, What should be done ? He denied her right to abdicate in favor of any of her family, as there was no right of successions to the throne of England in the House of Brunswick. He and his friends were determined, come what might, that the Prince of Wales should never be Regent, or succeed the Queen The country was not yet prepared for a Republic, although lie expected to take part before he died in the Republic of Great Britain. He warmly counselled the people to prepare for the struggle which was coming, when the working classes would have to contend against au expensive Royalty, which to them meant dear bread, high rent, few comforts, and poor wages. The regency should be given to the fittest in the land, and the poorest in it should aspire to the post if he had courage to climb that height. He and his friends had a proposition to put before the country. If the Queen died or abdicated, it w r as the duty of Parliament to appeal to the country and seek the instructions of the people. He and his friends thought a Council of Regency should be appointed, consisting of the Lord Chancellor and two Judges from

the three principal Law Courts. Of the thirty-seven monarchies since the Conquest, twenty councils of regency had been appointed, so that it was no new proposal, but one justified by law and precedent. He advised the men and women of Sheffield to go to their factories and homes, and think of these things, and tell their fellow-workers he did not advise them to break up a rotten throne all at once. They could not have a Republic to-day, but, seeing that the great crisis had now come, they should make a grand effort to build up fair seats for the people, to speak for the people in the People’s Chamber of England. Mrßradlaugh afterwards thanked Mr Gladstone for quoting from his “questionable” book at Greenwich. The effect, he said, had been to greatly assist the sale of the book. The audience were most enthusiastic in their applause of Mr Bradlaugh’s utterances, which were extremely pointed and severe.