wen was a man of blameless life--a man who made great
sacrifices of wealth, and time, and labour, on account of his ideas. As
his last apologist has well stated, "his condemnation of religion was not
the result of libertine excesses, nor of a philosophical conceit, but
followed honestly from the shallow theory he had adopted." Amongst the
poor, ignorant, superficial denizens of our crowded cities he was hailed
as the regenerator of manhood, and made many converts. Nor are they to
be blamed. Owen met with an attentive hearing from such as Brougham and
Bentham, Earls Liverpool and Aberdeen, Jefferson and Van Buren, the Duke
of Kent and the King of Prussia; actually, we believe, he was presented
at Court. It is true in his old age he became a believer in spirits,
after all, and was buried in the little churchyard of Newton,
Montgomeryshire, in the sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection
to eternal life; but by that time the truth or falsehood he had
proclaimed had sunk into many minds, had been re-uttered by many tongues,
had been commended to the working classes by no less a master of language
and argument than George Jacob Holyoake. Certainly, in the hands of the
latter, Owenism, under its new name of Secularism, lost none of its
power. The master was apt to be egotistic--dogmatic--much given to
repetition--very diffuse. Mr. Holyoake's enemies cannot conscientiously
say he is that. His friends, many of them the cleverest of London men,
claim for him talents of no common order. A shop in Fleet Street was
opened--the _Reasoner_ was established--and Mr. Holyoake went all over
the land to emancipate the human mind, spell-bound by priestcraft, and to
roll back the double night of ages and of ignorance. In a little while
he retired from business, the shop in Fleet Street was shut up, the
_Reasoner_ reasoned no more--Mr. Holyoake ceased perambulating. Still we
have a genuine Apostolical succession: Mr. Bradlaugh takes up the
wondrous tale, and the _National Reformer_ records the triumphs of his
cause. According to him, all is prosperous. Hope paints a glorious
future--when man's

"Regenerate soul from crime
Shall yet be drawn,
And Reason on this mortal clime
Immortal dawn."

Yet what is the fact? The _National Reformer_ costs 10_l._ a week, and
it does not pay. Its readers tell us their name is legion; yet it does
not pay. At any rate, it is constantly appealing to its public fo