The London Heretics, 1870-1914 #271693

This cartoon was originally the work of George Jacob Holyoake, the eminent Secularist, who sometimes wrote and drew under the pseudonym, ion. It was first drawn by him in the seventies and then, with the help of the artist F. C. Gould, revised in 1883. I first read of this picture in Moncure Conway's Autobiography where it is described in considerable detail. Conway, who is one of the characters depicted, was obviously amused and pleased with it. However, he gave no source or date, and in all of my paging through the Secularist magazines of the period, I never came across it. Eventually, I discovered a copy of it, almost by accident, hanging on the wall of the museum room in London's City Temple. I am indebted to the curator, Mr. Bertram Hammond, for his permission and co-operation in having it photographed. Apparently it did not appear in a publication at all, at least in this revised form, but was distributed separately for Sixpence. Naturally I do not endorse Holyoake's point of view on all the people and movements he has brought into his cartoon. It is such an inclusive assembly, however, and so pertinent to the matter of the book, that I thought a perusal of it might serve the reader as well as a written introduction.