We regret to record that Mr. Bradlaugh died yesterday at
6.30 ELM, His religious views were to us dangerous delusions, and some of his social views were morally detestable ; but he was a most useful Member of Parliament, and a man who, while genuinely desiring the advantage of the labourer, had the power both to understand opponents and to look facts in the face. His strong masculine sense saved him from all viewiness, and he was especially free from the dominant fallacy of our day, that all misery can be cured, as Charles Dickens was supposed to preach, "by good feeling and more punch." Mr. Bradlaugh, though he rose entirely by popular favour, would have resisted a majority as strenuously as a minority, and, indeed, did defy all England in defence of his bad hypothesis that the super- natural cannot be. He will be missed in the House of Com- mons when labour questions are discussed; missed outside in the battle with Socialism, and missed even in India, where, though he represented impracticable ideas, he always tried to reduce them into manageable shape.
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