Passing Notes.

Freethought Review, Volume I, Issue 9, 1 June 1884, Page 3

Passing Notes.

We have received a note from Mr. Pratt, in Melbourne at the time of writing. Mr. Pratt intended leaving for England by the Liguria on the 16th May.

In one of the essays of" George Eliot" lately collected and published, the author deals with the habit of <; unscrupulosity of statement" which pulpit oratory is apt to encourage. Perhaps it is safer (says the Melbourne Argus') to extend the generalisation a little further, and to say that this unscrupulosity is a besetting sin of the oratory addressed to the public in any way which exempts it from criticism and contradiction.

The ' Liberal' contains a verbatim report of a discussion in Sydney, between Mr. Robert White and Mr. Thomas Walker, on the Question : " That Theism is superior to Atheism in meeting the intellectual and moral requirements of mankind." Mr. White affirmative and Mr. Walker negative. The debate is a very able one. Our opinion is, and it may be taken for what it is worth, that Mr. Walker shows much greater power than his opponent. Perhaps he has the stronger case.

Mr. Joseph Symes, feeling the want of a Freethought paper in Melbourne for helping forward the movement, has succeeded in floating a Company with a capital of £SOO, for the purpose of starting a weekly paper to be called the Liberator, of which he will be editor and sole manager. Judging by his former contributions to the London ' Freethinker' it will probably be run on the same lines. The first number was to have been issued early in May. We wish our contemporary the success it is certain to obtain in Mr. Symes's hands.

Mr. Bradlaugh's present Parliamentary position is that he is being sued by the Government for penalties for voting. His answer is that he is not answerable under the statute, meaning that he has taken the oath and complied with the conditions required to make him a perfect member of Parliament. A dictum of Mr. Justice Stephen's favors Mr. Bradlaugh's contention. If Mr. Bradlaugh should win he will only be kept from exercising his privileges by brute force. If he should lose the penalties will be paid, and his appeal to the constituencies will not be weakened. The penalties sued for amount to £2500.

Charles Bradlaugh, seen through the French eyes of M. Philippi, of f Les Temps,' is " the genius of cavil personified, with the muscle of a tiger, crouched down in the jungle of the most tangled legislation of the world; perpetually occupied, not with extricating the spirit of the law, but with trying to discover its weaknesses." [This is a good illustration of that Gallic wit that sacrifices truth for the sake of the sentence. Looked at seriously, M. Philippi's disordered fancy yields nothing better than a gross caricature of a man whose motives and actions are beyond the sketcher's comprehension.]

Mr. Bradlaugh, in a public letter addressed to Sir Stafford Nortlicote, denounces the conduct of the right hon. gentleman in vigorous and dignified terms. The moving of the resolution in the House of Commons, which excludes Mr Bradlaugh from the precincts of the house, is described as mean, spiteful, and unworthy of an English gentleman. Sir Stafford Northcote and those who have acted with him are declared to have brought Parliamentary Government into contempt by upholding the House of Commons as “ the chief law-breaking assembly of the world,” “You have,” he writes, “ won sympathy for me throughout the land j you have made Northampton stand by me closer than ever; you are now awakening the country to stand by Northampton.” Mr. Justice Stephen, when dismissing the suit which Mr, Bradlaugh had instituted against the Sergeant-At-Arms advised that an appeal should be made to the constituencies. Mr. Bradlaugh tells Sir Stafford Northcote that he intends to make that appeal. “ Already,” he concludes, “ I hear it, too, on the day when, from my place in the House, I move — c That all the resolutions respecting Charles Bradlaugh, member for Northampton, hindering him from obeying the law, and punishing him for having obeyed the law, be expunged from the Journals of this House, as being subversive of the rights of the whole body of electors of this kingdom.”

Mrs. Besant in the ' National Reformer,' says that Mr. Bradlaugh was a member of the Grand Lodge of Masons of England until the Prince of Wales was elected Grand Master, when he sent in his certificate and withdrew on the ground of the notoriously immoral character of the Prince. Yet Mr. Bradlaugh's atheistical opinions had been proclaimed openly throughout the kingdom for upwards of twenty years.

Frederic Harrison, the distinguished writer and Positivist, says that Henry George is trying to import into England the morals of a Californian bandit and mail robber. This is hardly correct, for Californian bandits do not, we suppose, justify their actions to their victims. If Mr. George is a bandit, he is one with a benevolent purpose, though we approve as little as Mr. Harrison does of some of his doctrines.

It is often announced from the pulpit how willingly the preacher is prepared to grant perfect freedom to all and sundry, but with just a little reservation that Freethinkers who are taking away their faith are not deserving of toleration. Cardinal Manning is prepared to grant civil rights to all but Atheists, who are to be excluded and held unto perdition. He might fortify himself with the famous proclamation of Marshal Soult, issued to his army in 1804: —" Liberty, Equality, Fraternity !— To the Soldiers of the Army of the Rhine —The citizen-soldiers will vote tomorrow whether Napoleon Bonaparte, Consul for life, shall be Emperor of France. It is not my intention to influence the opinion of any of my soldiers, but anyone voting " No " will be shot before the front of the regiment. Vive la liberte ! Soult, General." To the Cardinal, with the editor's compliments !

Sir William Fox in a lecture on Freethought versus Christianity (New Zealand Times May 16th), gave expression to a foul slander in the following words : " Referring to the leaders of Freethought in the present day in England, he pointed out that the most popular was an advocate for that foul doctrine., destructive of all domestic happinessfree love. He and a female associate had published a book whose object was the spread of this doctrine, and for which they were eventually indicted, only escaping a long term of imprisonment by a technical flaw." He adds: " Men such as these could not come to an impartial consideration and investigation of the truth of the Scriptures, for every time they opened the Book they must receive a slap in the face." This is another illustration of the recklessness and untruthfulness of Christians in dealing with their opponents. Mr. Bradlaugh and Mrs. Besant are both the most determined opponents of everything savouring of free love. The Malthusian work for which they were indicted, so far from encouraging free love, is directed against it. Chief Justice Cockburn and die jury who tried the case, in express terms acquitted both publishers of impure or unworthy motive. But it suited Sir William Fox to utter a falsehood and keep back the truth. As for the Scriptures giving free love a slap in the face, the Book bristles with precious examples of " righteous " characters, whose loves were so licentious and gross and " free " that it is quite sufficient if we refer to the fact, without giving particulars, to excite the loathing and detestation of all pure minds.

Our contributor " Agnostic" thinks some notice is due from us of certain spiritualistic manifestations reported in the ' Liberal,' and vouched for by a long array of names. If "Agnostic" reflects however for a moment he will see that the O data necessary to enable us to criticise the phenomena are wanting. Let us give an illustration. The heir to the Imperial throne of Austria lately attended a seance in his own house, the conditions resembling those of Sydneythat is, in both instances the " spirit" passed in through a door provided with curtains which met in the centre. The archduke applied a test in the shape of a door which, on a spring being touched, closed and fastened itself securely. The " spirit " came into the room, and after a display of its ethereal qualifications, made for the curtained door, but found an obstacle in the secret door of wood which barred

the way. The " spirit" struggled to force the barrier, while the spectators roared with laughter, and at length the " spirit," finding its efforts to escape fruitless, changed itself into the medium who was supposed to be in a trance

in another room. Now, the reply of the believer of course

will be that one case of fraud proves nothing, and that the appearance of the Sydney spirit was genuine ; while the sceptic may rejoin that there was no secret door to put the

matter to the proof. But the onus is not on us to explain the phenomena until a serious attempt be made to find a scientific basis for spiritualism. When this has been discovered, analysis, qualitative as well as quantitative, will determine the elementary facts. And finally, let us say that as we have never come across a disembodied spirit, we prefer to remain an agnostic in this respect until we have received either illumination or inspiration.