The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-14 00:00:00

eloquence.

There is no chance of Mr. BRIGHT'S impressing
the generation in which he lives, or of his really
being influential in carrying any great measure.
He will never be able to bewilder the intelligent
classes and confuse the thinking minds of the com-
munity by his violent and denunciatory epistles ;
but as he certainly exercises a dangerous power as
a demagogue over the ignorant and uneducated, it
is as well to notice a few of his glaring consistencies,
and his most outrageous comments. Mr. BRIGHT had
no college education. Perhaps he is sharp enough
to detect the deficiencies such a loss has occasioned
in his public career, for he loses no possible chance
of depreciating and running down all that apper-
tains to our time-honoured universities. Such a
course would be beneath contempt in a less conspicu-
ous person, but in a man of his rank it is necessary
to point out his want of perception. Mr. BRIGHT
has read a good deal of history, but it has done him
no good. He has ransacked its pages to find when
Kings have erred, and when nobles have gone
astray. He forgets that these individuals have
lived in a strong light, and that their faults, as well
as their virtues, have been prominently put forward.
No doubt, if the deeds of Mr. BRIGHT'S own class
in society for the last few hundred years were
snatched from the shadows of time, we might find
much to denounce and deplore in their doings. Mr.
BRIGHT talks so much himself that he has no
patience with any one else who presumes to open
his mouth without his leave. If he has not-received
a polished education, we might have supposed that
the great Birmingham orator knew something of
manners ; and it is really quite out of character
for a member of Parliament nowadays to talk after
this fashion : "These men, your PARINGTONS and
ADDERLEYS," &c. Unfortunately for thesegentlemen,
so unscrupulously assailed, they cannot return the
compliment, for the idea of two " BRIGHTS" in one
generation would be, indeed, a preposterous thing.
The Tories, not content with their sins of old in
creating all the revolutions of Europe, have now, we
learn, passed across the Atlantic, and occasioned the
great war in the American Republic. There is
one question to ask Mr. BRIGHT, and that is, how
did the Conservative slaveholders spring up in his
paradise ? According to his theory, earth would
be an Eden still if it were not infested with innu-
merable serpents, who will intrude, in the shape of
Tories, or the still more dangerous form of Conser-
vatives. Mr. BRIGHT wasted a great deal of the
time of his audience in casting aspersions upon those
who have presumed to dilate upon his speeches at
various meetings and assemblies. He appears to
forget who threw down the gauntlet, and is en-
raged at its being taken up. It is right that it
should have been raised from the ground, where he
flung it in so contemptuous a style. We will not
say "we trust we have within the land five hun-
dred good as he," but we entertain the firm con-
viction that among all shades of political opinion,
and among all diversities of taste and character,
there is no :public man of our time who does not
entertain a more correct view of his responsibilities
than does the vehement and unscrupulous member
for Birmingham.
With respect to the conclusion of Mr. BRIGHT'S
discourse, we must again protest against his bitter,
unmeaning, and savage attacks upon all who
occupy a high station in life. He contradicts him-
self, as is always the case with these pretentious
demagogues. In one part of his speech we find
him reviling the great increase that has taken
place in the peerage, and in the next place denounc-
ing the upper ten thousand for having been born
rich and titled. Have not the additions to the
peerage been taken from the House of Commons
for the most part, and is not that almost entirely
recruited from the middle ranks of society. Mr.
BRIGHT goes on to talk as if the poor and over-
worked were treated with contempt by the rich and
powerful, but we must tell him that when the
great measure of lessening the hours of labour in
factories, which crushed the energies of women
and children as well as of men, was passed in
the House of Commons, it met with the
most strenuous opposition from the manufacturing
interest, and Mr. BRIGHT and all his friends and
supporters fought against it tooth and nail. He
now tells us that he hopes the " cry of the toil-
laden and the suffering which even now ascends to
lleaven will reach further, and be heard on the
floor of Parliament ;" and we retort on him, that it
reached there some years ago, and he turned a deaf
ear to it, and induced his friends to do the same.
Again, when in the centre of our teeming industry
a solemn silence fell, and the great cotton trade
was paralysed, who came forward in the crisis?
Did the employers of the operatives give up of their
abundance to those who had heaped up the riches
they had garnered ? Was it not the higher ranks
who exerted themselves ? We can assure Mr.
BRIGHT that it may be hard work to stand up be-
fore a public asssembly and rail for two hours at
all of birth, education, and refinement, but it is
harder to give twelve hours out of the day to the
management of committees, as was mentioned of
Mr. MACLURE the other day. Which has earned
more right to the gratitude of his countrymen,
ordained by the laws of GOD to labour, but like-
wise entitled to the support and sympathy of his
brother-men—the Earl of DERBY, who has devoted
so much time and trouble to the service of the dis-
tressed operatives, or Mr. BRIGHT, who gets upon a
platform and exhausts language itself in reviling the
aristocracy ?
iv
ceac According to his own showing in
America, where
is n
forests,
or mingle with the roar of mighty cataracts,