Mr. Bradlaugh, "I compelled to retract every word he had uttered, and to pay a hundred pounds, which, after deducting costs, was divided amongst various charitable institutions. The reverend libeller wrote me an abject letter, begging me not; to ruin his prospects in the Church by publishing his name. I consented, and he has since repaid my mercy by losing no opportunity of being offensive. He is a prominent contributor to 'The Rock,' and a fierce ultra-Protestant. "Mr. Bradlaugh's relations with the Anglican priesthood, it must be admitted, have at all times been most unfortunate.
To the Reform League, in 1867, Mr. Bradlaugh rendered most valuable services,—services which, when his connection with the association ceased, were handsomely acknowledged in writing by the president, Mr. Beales, and the secretary, Mr. George Howell. To his marvellous courage and perseverance is it likewise owing that the last fetter has been struck off the press of England. Up to 1869 every newspaper was required by law to give securities to the extent of four thousand dollars against the appearance of blasphemous or seditious libels. Mr. Bradlaugh, refusing compliance, printed his journal "in defiance of her Majesty's Government," and so repeatedly baffled the law officers of the crown in their prosecutions, that the statute had finally to be repealed, the late Mr. J. S. Mill writing thus to the defendant in connection with the event: "You have gained a very honorable success in obtaining a repeal of the mischievous act by your persevering resistance." Mr. Bradlaugh was likewise instrumental, after much costly litigation, in establishing the competency of freethinkers to give evidence in courts of law. He carried a case in which his testimony as
