JOHN BRIGHT.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXIII, Issue 281, 6 December 1911, Page 2

JOHN BRIGHT.

(Born .November 16, 1811.) The hundredth anniversary of the birth of .John bright KJI on lb," and Liberals jinned w'uJi heart and soul in tile celebrations that titinigiy marked the occasion. I rue that in iooo he. kit us over lite- qiustion ol' Home Rule, litis we deeply regretu'd I hen, and shall always ixgra. mil this delection, in his" old age, on a single point—the one- a.nd only tiling o.i which Me Tories, of wnoiii on all use. he was the litelong, determined foe. have reason for celebrating his memory—weighs with Liberals but us the dust in the balance when set against the invaluable services he- rendered to Liberalism during some titty years of strenuous manhood. Along with Cobden, John Bright was the. hero of the historic campaign that won us Tree Trade. He was a leader in the long struggle for Electoral Reform which secured the great extensions of the Franchise, in 18o< and 1884. 'ihere was no more doughty champion of the rights of the people against the privileges of the peers, and it was he who as long as the early "eighties, indicated the policy for abolishing the absolute veto of the peers which had just been brought £o a triumphant issue. by the passing of the I'arliani.int Act. Above all, no greater voice than his has ever been raised in the cause, of peace. His advocacy of these, with an eloquence that rank's with the noblest in in our language, was a. service of inestimable value, not only to Liberalism, but to the progress of the nation. But higher still must be put the- service be rendered to the standard of public life among us. Profoundly "inspired with the belief," in the words of his friend and leader, '.Mr Gladstone, "that life is a, great, and noble calling,'' he eonsistenty acted on the beliLf throughout, the whole, of his public career. Whatever the subject, his appeal was always to conscience- and to principle, especially to justice, and, as a consequence, his discussion of public questions was always on the highest level, at a .height at which the trivial, the petty, ihe ignoble could not live. For all this Liberals think to-day of John Bright with heartfelt gratitude and high admiration, and for it they will always revere, his memory.