The prejudice aroused by Bradlaugh's entrance into the House of Commons was slow to disperse. Numerous petitions for his exclusion from Parliament were signed, in some cases, _en bloc_, by Sunday-school children. The varieties of English Protestantism were all zealous in the good cause, and Cardinal Manning, who wrote a violent article in the _Nineteenth Century_ on the subject, succeeded in presenting a monster petition from English and exiled Irish Roman Catholics. There were, however, some notable exceptions among those who represented the religious principle. Several clergymen of the Church of England and not a few Non-conformist ministers wrote to the papers on his behalf. Newman refused to sign the petition, on constitutional grounds, and the "Home Government Association of Glasgow" sent to Bradlaugh a resolution stating "that this meeting of Irish Roman Catholics ... most emphatically condemns the spirit of domination and intolerance arrayed against you, and views with astonishment and indignation the cowardly acquiescence and, in a few instances, active support, on the part of a large majority of the Irish Home Rule members to the policy of oppression exercised against you." Such voices were, however, few and far between; in the House itself the Opposition could not resist the temptation of such a weapon against the Government. It was good policy, as Lord Henry Lennox said, in a moment of expansion, "to put that damned Bradlaugh on them." Mr. Labouchere held an unswerving course in support of his colleague. Temperamentally, as has been said, he did not {157} sympathise with Mr. Bradlaugh's attitude. He did not share Mr. Bradlaugh's view of the importance of transcendental opinions of any shade, and his wider experience of life and human nature led him to gauge more truly perhaps, certainly very differently, the value in the social scheme of other people's religious belief. He would never himself have raised the question raised by Mr. Bradlaugh, but he was wise enough to realise that, once it was raised, there was only one way of settling it. In the course of his long life, he championed many a victim of oppression and prejudice, but it may be doubted whether his championship ever showed to greater advantage, was ever more firmly based on those wide views of justice which underlie genuine political sagacity, and distinguish the true statesman from the mere politician, than in the case of Mr. Bradlaugh's parliamentary struggle.