Charles Bradlaugh: a Record of His Life and Work, Volume 2 (of 2): With an Account of his Parliamentary Struggle, Politics and Teachings. Seventh EditionRobertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Religion
Charles Bradlaugh: a Record of His Life and Work, Volume 2 (of 2): With an Account of his Parliamentary Struggle, Politics and Teachings. Seventh Edition
Robertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Bradlaugh, Charles, 1833-1891
Up to the time of Mrs Besant's illness she used to ride with us
regularly when time permitted, but after that she gave it up for a
while. I was never very strong, and one day the doctor had said to me,
"If you were a rich young lady, I should order you horse exercise," to
which my father, who was with me, replied, "She is not a rich young
lady, doctor, but we will see what can be done." And my riding, which
was purely the outcome of fatherly love and a desire for his daughter's
health, has been turned by some people into a sort of crime against Mr
Bradlaugh!
My sister cared very little about riding, so after Mrs Besant gave it
up I used to go out alone, riding a little mare, Kathleen, which Mrs
Besant then kept at livery stables. As Kathleen had several little
peculiarities of temper, and I was accustomed to ride quite alone, I
used to ride her in Regent's Park in the quiet of the morning. One
snowy morning in March she bolted with me, and after a considerable
run we fell together just within the Clarence Gate. I was carried
insensible to the nearest doctor, and my sister was summoned by a
passer-by who recognised me. Mr Bradlaugh had been lecturing in
Scotland, and was travelling all night so that he might reach London
in time to be in the Appeal Court at half-past ten, where Mrs Besant
was appealing against the decision of the Master of the Rolls. When he
was near home some one stopped my father's cab, and he came on at once,
to find me lying unconscious on the floor of the doctor's parlour.
Nothing had been done for me; the doctor could not even say whether
any bones were broken; his wife had indeed brought me a cup of tea,
but of that I knew nothing. To make up for any lack of attentions to
my poor body, they turned their thoughts to my sister's soul, and in
the afternoon the doctor's wife wrote to my sister that she would pray
to her "Heavenly Father" that "in this great affliction you may be led
to know Him as your Saviour and Comforter." If a Freethinker wrote to
a Christian who was sick or in trouble that hell was a delusion and
heaven a myth, it would justly be considered an outrage, but the zealot
has two codes of morality--one for those who differ from him, and
another for himself.
It must have been very hard for my father that day in Court; three
lectures the day before, travelling all night, and at home a daughter
who, for aught he had been able before leaving to learn to the
contrary, might be dying or permanently injured.
CHAPTER V.
MORE DEBATES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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