Without free speech no search for truth is possible... no discovery of truth is useful... Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people, and entombs the hope of the race.

Opposing his right to sit were the Conservative Party the Archbishop of Canterbury and other leading figures in the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church. First Select Committee
This Select Committee held only one brief meeting on 12 May 1880. P.

Charles Bradlaugh (26 September 1833 – 30 January 1891) was a political activist and one of the most famous English atheists of the 19th century.