every day. With his increasing poverty he fell into debt: it was not much that he owed, only ￡4 15s., but small as the sum

of 1850, in words that have brought tears to my eyes. Tall, gaunt, white-faced and hollow cheeked, with arms too long for his sleeves, and trousers too short for his legs, he looked, what indeed he was, nearly star

Barralet met him looking as I have said, and invited him into a coffee house close by to discuss some scheme or other. They went in and chatted for some minutes, but when the waiter had br

e threw his arms up above his head and asked Mr Record in a jesting tone, "How do you think I should look in regimentals?" The elder man replied, "My boy, you ar

r inviting smart young men to join the East India Company's Service, and holding out to recruits the tempting bait of a bounty of ￡6 10s. This bounty was an overpowering inducement to the poor lad; his debts amounted to ￡4 15s.; this ￡6 10s. would enable

nce volunteered. Bradlaugh little imagined, when he stepped out of the cellar and crossed Trafalgar Square once more-this time with the fatal shilling in his pocket-that after all he would never go to the East Indies, but remain in England to gather around him vast mu

of Bradlaugh; so that after some hocus-pocus transactions between the two sergeants, Bradlaugh was surprised to find that he had been duly enrolled in the 50th Foot, and was destined for h

home forces, but he invited him to look out of the window, where the sergeants were pacing about, and select the regiment he might prefer. As a matter of fact, Bradlaugh was not particularly disappointed at being compelled to remain in England; he objected princi

of the window, his choice fell on a very smart cavalry man, and,

Guards, and thus, through the kindly assistance of the doctor, at the age of "17

airs, and the news seems to have been conveyed and received in a somewhat tragic manner. A day or so before Christmas Day she came with a face of gloomy solemnity to tell something so serious about Charles that the daughte

is character underwent a great change after he let himself come under the influence of Mr Packer. He who before never went inside a church, now never missed a Sunday; he became concentrated and, to a certain extent, morose, and at length, on the 19th August 1852, some twenty months after his son's enlistment, he was taken suddenly ill at his desk in Cloak Lane. He was brought home in a state of unconsciousness, from which he was only arou

. S. Headingley tells at length the tragic-comic adventures the new re

her recruits he seemed absurdly attired; and as he looked pale and thin and ill conditioned, it was not long before some one ventured to destroy the dignity of his appearance by bonneting him. The silk hat thus disposed of, much to the amusement of the recruits, who considered horse play the equiva

ble. The Arabic vocabulary was a smaller volume, and it fared better. Ultimately, Bradlaugh recovered the book, an

h hands of his fellow recruits, Bradlaugh certainly did not present the picture of a future leader of men. Yet, even

ove the cargo, and his crew were not numerous enough to accomplish, unaided, so arduous a task. Their services also were urgently required to man?uvre the ship. The captain, therefore, summoned the recruits to help, and promised

was at hand. The recruits began to inquire about the ￡5 which had been offered as the reward of their gallant services; but, with the disappearance of the danger, the captain's generosity had considerably subsided. He then hit on a mean stratagem to avoid the fulfilment of his

of every one, he delivered a fiery, menacing, unanswerable harangue, upbraiding the captain in no measured terms, exposing in lucid language the meanness of his action, and concluding with the appalling threat of a letter to the Tim

iers on their side at once formed a very different opinion of their companion, and, from being the butt, he became the hero of the

the ceiling on a board, above the two girls, who listened to the lecture, wineglass in hand. Later on, when he had gained a certain amount of popularity amongst his comrades, he used to be let out of the barrack-room windows when he could not get leave of absence, by means of blankets knotted together, in order to attend and speak at temperance meetings in Kildare. But the difficulty was not so much in getting out of barracks as in getting in again; and sometimes this last was not accomplished without paying the penalty of arrest. The men of his troop gave him the nickname of "Leaves," because of his predilection for tea and books; his soldier's knapsack contained a Greek lexicon, an Arabic vocabulary, and a Euclid, the beginnings of the library which at last numbered over 7

pin at Rathmines Church, and the assertion of a right of way by "Private Charles Bradlaugh,

which he described as being beyond the understandings of the military portion of his congregation. This somewhat irritated the Dragoon Guards, and Bradlaugh, to their great delight, wr

listened carefully to the sermon. The Rev. Mr Halpin did not fail to allude to the letter he had received, but at the first sentence that was impertinent and contemptuous in its tone thr

quences would have ensued; but, fortunately, the Duke of Cambridge came to Dublin on the next day,

Mrs Besant's words. While the regi

while letting the gentry pass through it. 'Leaves' looked up the question, and found the right-of-way was real; so he took with him some soldiers and some peasants, pulled

law on his side, for Private Bradlaugh generally knew what he was about. The peasants, whose rights had been so boldly defended, did not confine their gratitude to words, but hen

er might have got over the Rathmines affair, Mrs Besa

he officer went, but in a few minutes the grounding of muskets was heard outside, the door opened, and the Colonel walked in, accompanied by the officer. It was clear that the private soldier had committed an act for which he might be court-martialled, and as he said once, 'I felt myself in a tight place.' The officer made his accusation, and Private Bradlaugh was bidden to explain. He asked that the officer should state the exact words in which he had add

near "that historic village." "When Fair time came near the peasantry circulated a well-planned taunt to the effect that the men of the Seventh would be afraid to present themselves on the great day. The Seventh acted accordingly. Sixteen picked men got a day's leave-and shillelaghs. 'I was the shortest of the sixteen,'" said Mr Bradl

in my father's own words, for in these he most movingly describes a sc

beating down; there was no flooring to take up; the walls were more mud than aught else; and there was but little trouble in the levelling of them to the ground. We had got our work about three parts done, when out of one of them a woman ran, and flung herself on the ground, wet as it was, before the Captain of the troop, and she asked that her house might be spared-not for long, but for a little while. She said her husband had been born in it; he was ill of the fever, but could not live long, and she asked that he might be permitted to die in it in peace. Our Captain had no power; the law agent from Dublin wanted to get back to Dublin; his time was of importance, and he would not wait; and that