The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-06-29
BRIGHT AND CHAMBERLAIN.
Additional Details of the Recent
Tribute to the Former.
The Secret of Mr.. Bright's Power and Pop
ularity with the People-Brilliant Ca
reer Opening to Mr.. Chamberlain.
Correspondence of the indianapolis Journal

LONDON June 16-Ihe echoes of the
Bright celebration are still reverberating
throughout the world, and much as the
American press has already published re-
spectng that event, the readers of the Jour
nal must allow your correspondent, who
was an eye witness, to present them with
few more observations. The great occasion
was the public meeting on Wednesday night.
Mr. Bright looked anxious and worn. His
portraits we'll represent his face, and the
deep lines one sees in these, Indicating age
and hard work, are only too true to life. He
is of medium height, inclin to the rotund
in FORM with massive head whose great
weight seems to have forced it forward from
his shoulders, giving him, when in repose,
a slightly stoopy appearance. His white
hair falling gracefully back from dome
like forehead seems to have been specially
grown by nature to set off those grand fea
lures, and indeed his whole makeup is such
that the most casual observer would have no
difficulty in singing him out as great man
from among thousands. The eyes that used
to sparkle are now dull with age, but you
can see that there are slumbering fires in
them and occasionally as he speaks they
light up as of yore. In his voice great
change is observable. The clear, musical
tones of this organ have been from the first
one of the chief charms of his oratory. The
only other English speaker who
has borne any comparison with
him in the spell he has
been able to throw over audiences by the
magic of the human voice has been Mr..
Spurgeon. The latter being only in the
prime of life still Yields this sceptre of
power unimpaired, whereas just enough of
it remains in the grasp of the former to re-
mind one of what he must have been before
the blight of advanced years settled on his
faculties. But in the other qualities which
have combined to make him the greatest or
ator of the age Mr.. Bright is still himself
He uses the same strong Saxon speech. He
still draws his illustrations from common life
The soul OF conviction still shines through
his utterances. He is still transparency sim
cere and beautifully simple in what he says
and all the old power of humor and irony
remains Above all does the listener still
see, behind the spoken words, and towering
transcendentally above them, the noble char
acter of the man. Now, as always, this is
the great secret of his power to thrill and
move his countrymen and it was to this
quality more than to any other that the NAM
moth gathering of $4,000 paid its tribute of
enthusiasm and love on last Wednesday
evening.
Mr.. BRIGHTs GOOD FORTUNE.
To have their work passed in searching re-
view, and to hear from friends and foes
alike an almost unanimous judgment of APP
proval, falls to the lot of but few men dur
ing their life. Usually the verdict is
rendered after the seal of death has been put
on the record and when the
instinct which prompted the old
Latin proverb covers whatever of
the mantle of charity And it is well in
most cases that this is so. But Providence
and his Birmingham constituency have or
dered it otherwise in the case of John Bright
and no one so far has had reason to regret
the arrangement. The whole world has been
summoned to the jury box, and the man
who has taken leading part in moulding
the history of his country for nearly half
century has been placed on trial Where is
: such test so we'll? How fortunate for the
result that Mr. Bright's political career has
been marked by no inconsistencies that its
currents have set steadily from tie first in
one and the sa.ne direction, A singular fact
with reference t. many of the great statesmen
of England is that at some period in their
lives they have undergone a complete change
of views. Sir Robert Peel who gave the
country Catholic emancipation freed dis
senters from their satellites, and crowned
the victory of free trade by abolishing the
Corn Laws began his political life by oppos
ing every one of these measures. Dsraeli
the great Tory started out as a Radical
whilst Mr. Gladstone, it is we'll Known, was
q Tory at the beginning. 1t was against the
latter who was at that time the Tory Presi-
dent of the Board of Trade, that Mr.. Brght's
maiden speech in Parliament was directed
One passage in that effort reads cdriously in
the light of the present relations between the
two men. 81 can assure the Right Honor
able, the President of the Board
of Trade" said Mr. Bright
that his finlsy excuses will not avail him at
the bar OF public opinion. He knows what
is right, and refuses to do it. That this is
not the time is an excuse as untrue as it is
insulting" Since then, Mr.. Gladstone
happily for the country, has greatly changed
But Mr.. Bright has had no reason to change.
By an almost divine insight he perceived
at the first where the true interests of bis
countrymen lay, nor has any subsequent
light modified that early revelation or caused
him to wayer in striving to follow it. Hence
ne went to this weeks ordeal not only with
an unimpeachable character, but with an
unassailable record-one in the contempa-
ton of which his own spirit must have
found almost as much pleasure as was ex-
pressed in the laudatory addresses that were
showered upon him. These addresses, by
ho m her
read was that presented by the Liberal Asso-
citation of Birmingham. AS the chairman
turned to the hero of the occasion and COM
menced the reading of this document, those
near Mr.. Bright could see the muscles of the
face twitch with emotion and his eyes fill
lion. Il