Richard Congreve, Positivist Politics, the Victorian Press, and the British Empire

Preface
Contents
Abbreviations
Chapter 1: Prelude: ‘Who Is RICHARD CONGREVE?’ It Will Be Asked
	‘Cut Your Throats’ for Grandmother’s ‘Ditchwater’
	‘Worshippers of His Madness’
	A ‘Social Cuckoo’?
	A ‘Mass of Wounds and Bruises, Ending in Death’
	References
Chapter 2: Things About a Highly Strung Evangelist, 1818–1838
	Old Clothes
	School of ‘High Glee’, ‘Hateful in Many Ways, and Loveable in None’
	The Family Table and Fishing Hole
	Manly Christian ‘Fighting’ Muscles Versus ‘Immoral Boyishness’
	Tracts on Spiritual Independence
	Lonely Quadrangles and ‘Social Fathers’
	‘Conceited Boys’
	Chapel of Compulsory Evangelicalism
	References
Chapter 3: Once Timorous, Now a ‘Very Dangerous’ Infidel, 1838–1845
	A Ghostly Chair and a ‘maiden sword’
	The Congreve Quartet and the ‘evil’ Examinations
	The ‘struggle for oneself’
	Poison-Pen Papers on Tax and Tracts
	A ‘national calamity’, ‘banquette of diligence’, and a ‘heretic’
	A ‘very dangerous infidel’ of Christian Society
	Embracing a ‘hopeless species of infidelity’
	The ‘cock of the school’
	References
Chapter 4: A ‘Man of Fiery Temperament’, 1845–1852
	A ‘Dreadful’ Man Under the ‘Greatest Heat’
	Marooned on Hero Island with Atheism in ‘an English Dress’
	A ‘Political Art’, a ‘Faulty and Untenable’ One
	A ‘Death-Blow to Class Legislation’
	The ‘Fiery Rocket’ Man Misfires
	Regions of Imminent Peril, and a Happy ‘Humanity Lecturer’
	In Between ‘Mumbo Jumbo’ and the ‘Presence of a Master’
	Awaiting ‘Some New Pilot’ of a ‘Philosophic Priesthood’
	In Defence of the ‘Balaks of Manchester’, the ‘Great Instrument of Our Ruin’
	‘Savage Snarls’ at the ‘Ignorant Bumpkin’
	References
Chapter 5: Leader of a ‘Slightly Terrorist School of Philanthropists’, 1852–1857
	One Last Week Under a Cloud of ‘Dissatisfaction with All Things’
	Oh ‘Evil’ Oxford, the ‘Frightful Waste of Time’
	A ‘Nervous Experiment’ in ‘the Preaching of the Day’
	A ‘Truly Eloquent Lecturer’, ‘Free from All Pedantry’
	A ‘New Line of Country’ or ‘Hot Undigested Philosophy’
	A ‘Dreary Suburb’ with All Too ‘Chatty’ Visitors
	Symptoms of a ‘Warped’ Mind
	By ‘No Means a Trustworthy Guide’
	A Moment of ‘Saddest Aberration’
	A ‘Most Grievous Blow’
	References
Chapter 6: Comtist ‘Vicar’ and ‘Accuser of the Nation’, 1857–1866
	Holding on to ‘God’s Creatures’
	A Fanatic of ‘worthlessness and folly’
	Fulfilling ‘the Scripture’ of a ‘childish and dismal’ Socialism
	An Artery Divided Above the ‘Wandsworth Temple of Humanity’
	A ‘Comtist Coterie’ and Other ‘fruits of his studies’
	A Building Strike ‘their congregations would not tolerate’
	‘Devil’ Minister of an ‘Impracticable’ Working-Class Gospel
	‘Whitewash’ Philosophizing of History
	‘Almost incapable of supporting the struggle’
	A Hunched Up ‘Recreant Priest’ of International Workingmen
	The Poorest Martyr’s Privileges
	References
Chapter 7: On a ‘Sort of Celebrity or Peculiarity’ of an ‘Atheistical Monastery’, 1866–1877
	A ‘Distinguished Person’ with ‘Lame’ Cromwellian Plans
	An ‘Illiberal and Narrow-Minded’ Petition
	A ‘Little Bubble of Interest’
	Beastly, in a ‘Wild, Incoherent Rhapsody’
	A ‘Shallow Pretender’ and His ‘Stubborn Donkey’
	A Marble Tablet ‘Violently Rejected’
	‘Fiery Placards’ of a Holy ‘War-Monger’
	Of a Whimsical ‘Atheistical Monastery’ or a ‘Mad-House’
	References
Chapter 8: ‘Pope’ of Back-Parlour ‘Ambiguities and Illusions’, 1877–1899
	Distilling ‘reason out of nightmares’
	Raising a Storm by ‘mumbling Catholic rites in a sordid hole’
	From a Man Who ‘Hates’ Clerics but Urges Unity
	British ‘Barbarians’ and the Opioid Epidemic
	On a ‘Cold-Blooded’ Man of ‘Perverse Conclusions’
	When ‘the Comtists cannot recognise us as saints’
	A Leading ‘Hysterical Humanitarian’
	‘Idle Boasts’ and ‘parodies of Christian worship’?
	A ‘graceful, if somewhat tardy, recognition’
	The ‘faintest hope of support’ Once More
	‘St. Paul of the gospel of Humanity … alone against the world’
	References
Index