A truly momentous event, the importance of which it would be hard to overestimate. For it means that God has ceased to exist in England as a political entity. In like manner, the action of Wilkes, in severely criticising the Speech from the Throne in the _North Briton_ for April 23, 1762, and condemning the Ministers who were responsible for its production, raised, and settled for ever in England the question of the political position of the sovereign. In both cases the man who dared to raise such points was pursued rancorously and unfairly by the partisans of officialdom, in both cases the utmost force of law and order arrayed against him failed. The enemies of Wilkes and Bradlaugh failed, because the stars in their courses fought against them--because the time had gone by when kings could rule as well as reign, or when the qualification of religious belief was necessary for the full rights of citizenship. [1] The late Lord Randolph Churchill once referred in the House of Commons to Mr. Labouchere (greatly to his delight) by this title. [2] I have followed in this chapter the admirable account of Bradlaugh's parliamentary struggle given by Mr. J. M. Robertson, M.P., in the second part of Mrs. Bradlaugh Bonner's _Charles Bradlaugh: Life and Work_. [3] _Northampton Mercury_, March 27, 1880. [4] _Ibid._ [5] The Oaths Bill. [6] _Northampton Echo_, January 17, 1912. [7] _Hansard_, February 11, 1884, vol. 284. {165} CHAPTER VIII LABOUCHERE AND IRELAND 1881-1883