ABSTRACT
Mrs Besant’s decision to join forces with Bradlaugh was soon made. In September of that same year she helped him in his renewed fight for Northampton, and by the following January she had made up her mind to devote herself wholly to propagandist work for the cause of Freethought and all that went with it. Mrs Besant was instantly successful in her chosen field. In the very first year of her new life she became a vice-president of the National Secular Society, the body of which Bradlaugh was President. In 1874 Mrs Besant gave her first public lecture, on “The Political Status of Women,” though, as this was a written paper, it can hardly be classed as a speech. The usual nervousness vanished as she rose to her feet and again she emphasized the fact that her chief feeling was one of power, a feeling dangerous to all but the strongest heads.
