666 



OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. (BRADLAUGH.) 



the Anarchists, and, most important of all, with the 

 Comte de Paris and the Orleanists, who furnished 

 the money for the agitation by which he attempted 

 to subvert the reputJie and become dictator. When 

 the Limouzm scandal began he publicly charged the 

 Minister of War with manufacturing it for the pur- 

 pose of diverting public attention from him. For 

 this he was ordered under arrest. Breaking his pa- 

 role, he went to Paris during the presidential crisis, 

 and might then have given the signal for an insur- 

 rection, but hesitated. The new President and his 

 Cabinet were chosen for the special purpose of com- 

 bating the danger of Boulangism. Adopting the 

 cry for the revision of the Constitution, he organized 

 a party and apolitical campaign with the money of 

 the Duchesse d'lizes and the Comte de Paris, was 

 elected under the scrutin de liste with the aid of 

 Royalist and Bonapartist votes, first in the Dordogne, 

 and in April, 1888, by an enormous majority in the 

 great Department of the Nord. In July his' chances 

 for the dictatorship were damped almost fatally by 

 the outcome of a duel with M. Floquet, who had been 

 insulted by him in the Chamber, in which the aged 

 Premier almost killed the fire-eating soldier by a 

 lunge in the neck. Noisy demonstrations and the 

 arts of political advertisement restored his popularity, 

 and his position was so strong when he presented 

 himself as a candidate for the whole city of Paris in 

 January, 1889, that he polled 245,236 votes to 102,875 

 given to the Republican candidate, M. Jacques. This 

 was his second opportunity to play the part of a 

 Bonaparte and seize the reins of power, but he lacked 

 the courage or the sagacity to avail himself of it. 

 M. Tirard formed a Cabinet with the avowed object 

 of putting down Boulangism by new legislation if 

 the existing laws were insufficient. M. Constans, the 

 new Minister of the Interior, went to work boldly by 

 suppressing the League of Patriots, and followed this 

 up by secretly warning Gen. Boulanger that a worse 

 fate than simple imprisonment was in store for him. 

 Frightened by this vague intimation, the boastful 

 representative of the military glory of France, to the 

 amazement and disgust of all his partisans, fled in 

 disguise to Brussels on April 2, 1889. The Senate 

 was constituted into a high court of justice to try him 

 and other fugitives for conspiracy and other crimes, 

 and his friends adjured him to redeem his reputation 

 by appearing at the trial. He was sentenced in, con- 

 tumaciam to imprisonment for life in a fortress. In 

 the autumn a general election gave an overwhelming 

 majority to the Republicans over the Boulangists and 

 Monarchists combined. From a safe distance he con- 

 tinued to issue manifestoes, but his prestige was gone 

 and most of the Boulangists who were not involved 

 in his disgrace turned contemptuously away from 

 him. The scrutin de liste imposed on the country by 

 Gambetta was repealed. The prospects of the Comte 

 de Paris were ruined by his perfidious alliance with 

 Boulanger, and Prince .Napoleon was implicated in a 

 scarcely less degree, as was revealed in a series of 

 articles published in the " Figaro " under the title of 

 " Les Coulisses de Boulangisme," by M. Mermeix, a 

 Boulangist Deputy. Gen. Boulanger passed the re- 

 mainder of his life in Jersey, London, and Brussels, 

 and finally blew out his brains on the grave of 

 Madame tie Bonnemain, the companion of his flight 

 and exile, for whom he had deserted his wife, and 

 who had sacrificed her fortune in his cause. For a 

 steel portrait of Gen. Boulanger, see " Annual Cyclo- 

 paedia" for 1886, page 352. 



Bradlaugh, Charles, an English statesman, born in 

 Iloxton, Sept. 26, 1833 ; died in London, Jan. 30, 

 1891. He went to work at an early age in the law 

 office where his father was a clerk, was later a wharf 

 clerk, a coal dealer, a traveling salesman, and, above 

 all, a zealous teacher, first of religion in a Sunday 

 school, and then of free thought after he had become 

 a disciple of Richard Carlile at the age of nineteen. 

 He was driven by poverty to enlist as a soldier, was 

 made orderly clerk, and in 1853 purchased his dis- 

 charge, after which he found employment as a law- 



yer's clerk in London and at the same time lectured 

 on religious subjects. Becoming known under the 

 name of" Iconoclast" as an aggressive atheist, he en- 

 tered on a career of pamphleteering and lecturing 

 that made him one of the most notorious and the 

 most obnoxious men in England. His audacious and 

 contemptuous treatment of sacred subjects was repul- 



sive to many who thought as he did, and he had con- 

 flicts with the authorities and was mobbed by his 

 audiences, winning all the time converts and admir- 

 ers by his courage, his adroitness, and his powers of 

 speech, especially when defenders of orthodoxy un- 

 dertook to vanquish him in argument on the same 

 platform. In the Hall of Science, where he made his 

 speeches in London, and in the pages of the " Na- 

 tional Reformer" he advocated secular education, 

 disestablishment, and the abolition of monarchy and 

 aristocracy, and unfolded a political programme parts 

 of which he and his friends believed could be brought 

 into practical politics. After several attempts to get 

 a seat in Parliament he was at last elected for North- 

 ampton in April, 1880. He had been prosecuted at 

 various times, and his natural acumen and legal 

 knowledge had been sharpened by his experience in 

 the courts, as when, in 1861, the superintendent of po- 

 lice at Devenport had interfered with his lectures, and 

 when he was successful in defying the Inland Revenue 

 officials who attempted to apply an obsolete law to 

 the " National Reformer," and when, in 1877, he suc- 

 ceeded in quashing the indictment after he and Mi's. 

 Besant had been condemned to six months' imprison- 

 ment and a fine of 200 for publishing the book called 

 " Fruits of Philosophy." A large number of the 

 older members of Parliament were determined that 

 he should not be received, and many Liberals shared 

 this desire with the Conservatives. When he first 

 appeared at the bar of the House he claimed the 

 rignt to affirm. The matter was referred to a select 

 committee, which reported against his right to take 

 advantage of the acts created for the Quakers and 

 Jews. Thereupon he offered to take the oath of al- 

 legiance, but another committee decided that he was 

 not competent, and the House passed a resolution de- 

 nying his right either to make affirmation or to go 

 through the form of taking the oath. When he re- 

 fused to recognize the authority of the House he was 

 removed by the sergeant-at-arms, at first with a show 

 of force, but on a repetition of the proceeding he 

 struggled fiercely to remain. Session after session the 

 same scenes were repeated. On Feb. 21, 1882, he went 

 up to the table, drew a Bible from his pocket, and, be- 

 fore the House knew what he was about, recited the 

 form of the oath. Successively excluded, he was al- 

 ways re-elected by his constituents. Among the 

 many lawsuits that grew out of this contest, he suc- 

 cessfully won the one brought against him for sitting 

 and voting without having taken the oath and the 



