A CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY OF EDWIN JAMES BRADY - Mallacoota ...

A girl who, through love (he was ever the romantic), produced an unwanted child
should not be ostracised but given care and understanding, if not sympathy. He
pleaded that unmarried mothers were treated with less feeling than were the animals.
Such girls, especially if they were working class people, were looked down upon by
their fellows and by the rich members of society. 1
Nevertheless, in spite of his sympathy, he could not agree that abortion was a morally
acceptable solution to the problem. He cited several cases where illegal abortion had
been committed and deplored the fact that it was usually the poor girl who received
the publicity. He urged strict police action to stamp out the back-yard operator in the
abortion trade, but advocated leniency for the girls driven to patronise such places.
He called for a change in social attitudes towards the whole problem so that women
would not be driven to such lengths to terminate pregnancy. 2 When a notorious
abortionist was hanged for his crimes, Brady was quick to protest that capital
punishment was not the answer to the problem, as the man’s unholy trade still
continued, in spite of the severity of punishment. In fact he opposed capital
punishment as a legitimate or effective solution to any problem. 3
A similar sympathy was extended to the men and women who through one
circumstance or another were not able to continue in the spirit of the marriage
covenant. In typical Brady fashion he wrote a light-hearted jingle on a contemporary
divorce issue, the Federal Divorce Bill, in which he took the view that divorce was
sometimes the only humanitarian recourse. This verse produced a reply from
Archdeacon Moxon in which he took Brady to task for his attitudes. In a long reply
of one-and-a-half columns, Brady presented a well-reasoned and generally respectful
reply to the good Anglican, who likewise replied at length. Brady pointed out that the
High Church of England and the Low Church could not agree about the morality of
the topic’s question. Stating his unwillingness to quote Scripture to an Archdeacon,
Brady based his case on practical and humanitarian grounds. He claimed that it was
against all morality for a defunct union to be perpetuated and that monogamy in this
irrevocable sense was impossible – “It is repugnant to morality and destructive to
happiness”. 4 He further argued that even the practice of condoning divorce but
refusing the innocent or the guilty party permission to remarry was a harsh and unjust
attitude towards the problem of human relationships, which are so much a part of the
cement of society. He pleaded for forgiveness for wrongs committed:
It has frequently occurred, and it is in accord surely with the idea of Divine
forgiveness, that under more propitious circumstances, even offenders may be
reclaimed, and the man or woman who was induced, perhaps, by marital
unhappiness, to err, may turn over a new leaf in the Book of Life. Let us, in a
Christian spirit, concede that there is something of good in every man and
woman, and let our Laws and Religions be framed as far as possible in this
noble and charitable belief! …The spirit of modern Divorce Law, as I
understand it, is the spirit of Him who said, ‘Go and sin no more,’ and the
spirit also of the prayer which asks not to be led into temptation but delivered
from evil. This, I deferentially and most earnestly hold to be true, for it is in
the spirit rather than in the letter that the modern student of Ethics is led to
look for Truth and Justice.
1 “The Wild beasts”. The Grip, 3.10.1901, p.2.
2 “The Unholy Trade”, The Bird-O’-Freedom, 29.2.1896, p.2.
3 “Straight Shots”, The Arrow, 2.5.1896, p.1.
4 “Divorce is Wrong”, The Grip, 13.3.1902, p.2.
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