Freethought.
A Monthly Journal Devoted to Spiritualism, Mesmerism, Clairvoyance and Occult Sciences / A Monthly Journal of Freethought, Spiritualism, Mesmerism, etc / A Monthly Journal of Free and Advanced Thought, Psychology, Metaphysics, Spiritualism, &c. .
1880--1880 Monthly
Sydney, Australia.
Editor: Charles Bright.
Publisher: Edwin Cyril Haviland (1853- ), publisher and proprietor.
1/1, February 1880-2/5, December 1880(?)
6s. a year; 50 pp.

Announced as to appear in February 1880 in Harbinger of Light, February 1880. "Papers have been promised by eminent men against Spiritualism, and well-known writers will argue in favour of it, so that the subject will be well ventilated. Well authenticated phenomena will find a place in its pages. The latest and best instructions as regards holding of seances, mesmerism, &c., will be given. Notices of public mediums and speakers arrived or to arrive in the Colony, with reports of their doings, will be published, and everything will be done to make Freethought a vehicle for thought in its freest sense." The journal carried as a supplement "Catalogue of the Library of the Psychological Society of N.S. Wales." It was devoted primarily to freethought but with significant contributions on Mesmerism and spiritualism. Haviland had earlier, in 1879, after Slade's visit to Australia, publicly sworn to Slade's bona fides: "I do solemnly and sincerely declare, that the phenomena and occurrences as stated in my paper, "Spiritualistic Facts, or Scepticism Bewildered," are true, and took place in every particular as I have therein set forth, and that Dr. Slade used no apparatus to produce them, and that I carefully examined the table and slates used. And I make this solemn declaration, conscientiously believing the same to be true, and by virtue of the provisions of an Act of the Parliament of Victoria rendering persons making a false declaration punishable for wilful and corrupt perjury." Curiously, the Spiritualist later reported that "Miss Agnes Slade is about to be married to Mr. E.C. Haviland, of Sydney. He leaves for America by the next mail to bring her back as Mrs. Haviland." This was Slade's "orphan niece" who traveled with him for more than a decade and whom he is said to have adopted. No more was forthcoming about the marriage, and Agnes L. Slade died single in Staten Island in 1931. Bright's wife later helped edit the Harbinger of Light. BL.

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