r
support. In every workshop or factory, in all our great hives of
intelligence and life, the Secularists boast their thousands. All the
intelligent operative manhood of England is, according to their own
account, theirs; yet their organ--the child of a giant--is very weak on
its legs, and very short of wind.

The headquarters of the Secularists is Cleveland Street, a street lying
in that mass of pauperism at the rear of Tottenham Court Road Chapel. In
that street there is a hall, originally erected, I believe, by Owen
himself. At any rate, it is the resort of the illuminated to whom his
philosophy has opened up a new moral world,--which, as regards
appearances, is little better than the benighted Egypt out of which they
have departed. Here you will find no free Gospel. The Secularists are
determined to make the best of this world. If you wish to enter, you
must pay; if you wish to show your gentility and sit near the lecturer,
you must pay twopence more. Previous to the lecturer commencing, a boy
goes up and down the room selling copies of the _National Reformer_, and
a table at one end is devoted to the sale of publications of a similar
character.

Cleveland Hall, every Sunday evening, then, is devoted to what are called
Popular Free-thought Lectures. The doors open at seven, the lectures
commence at half-past. The programme for the month of August, which I
have now before me, will give the reader an idea of what is meant by free
thought:--

"On Sunday evening, August 2, Mr. Charles Watts--An Impartial
Estimate of the Life and Teachings of the Founder of Christianity; on
Sunday evening, August 9, Iconoclast (Mr. Bradlaugh)--Capital and
Labour, and Trades' Unions; on Sunday evening, August 16, Mrs.
Harriet Law--The Teachings and Philosophy of J. S. Mill, Esq.; on
Sunday evening, August 23, Mrs. Harriet Law--The Late Robert Owen: a
Tribute to His Memory, Drawn from a Comparison of Present
Institutions and their Effects, with those Advocated by that Eminent
Philanthropist; on Sunday evening, August 30, Mrs. Harriet Law, an
Appeal to Women to Consider their Interests in Connexion with the
Social, Political, and Theological Aspects of the Times."

Let me add, discussions are invited at the close of each lecture, and
that, as may be anticipated, after a discussion the combatants remain of
the same opinion. Nevertheless, the Secularists enjoy these discussions
immen