COURAGE
Hilaire Belloc, the well-known historian –author of “How The Reformation Happened”- and inseparable friend of Maurice Baring and G.K. Chesterton stood for the Liberals at South Salford in a General Election.
Belloc’s Conservative opponents adopted the campaign slogan “Don’t vote for a Frenchman and a Catholic”.
Belloc responded in the first public meeting: “Gentlemen, I am a Catholic. As far as possible, I go to Mass every day. This (taking a rosary out of his pocket) is a rosary. As far as possible, I kneel down and tell these beads every day. If you reject me on account of my religion, I shall thank God that He has spared me the indignity of being your representative.”
In the audience was a hush of amazement and after the public stood up cheering.
He got elected.
