Richard Congreve

Congreve was the first thinker to offer a systematic policy, on positivist lines, to dismantle the British Empire.

In 1859, after issuing controversial anti-imperialist pamphlets on Gibraltar and India, he delivered his 'first sermon' as a Positivist apostle and 'vicar' of the Religion of Humanity.

His success in the schools was naturally followed by election to a fellowship at his college; he was a master at Rugby from 1845 to 1848,;[3] he resided as tutor for the next ten years.

In 1878, however, he issued a circular (17 June) in which he claimed for himself an authority independent of Pierre Laffitte, Comte's principal executor, and as such then universally acknowledged as the head of the positivist community.

Some positivists joined him; others, among whom were Frederic Harrison, John Henry Bridges, Edward Spencer Beesly, Vernon Lushington, and James Cotter Morison, remained in union with Laffitte, and opened Newton Hall, Fetter Lane, London, as their place of meeting.

Despite failing health, he maintained his unfashionable opinions, and kept up his priestly functions, until his death, at Hampstead, on 5 July 1899.