The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-04-04
JOHN BRIGHT DEAD.
England's Great Statesman Pass,
Away March OF

England's Great Statesman Passes
Away March 81.
Two generations of Englishmen have had
prominently before them two great figures
Each have had their enemies and each their
hosts of friends. But enemies and friends
alike have united in rendering TO each the
merit Of truthfuness and sincerity. Posterity
will write the names of Gladstone and
Bright beside that Of Abou Ben Adhem las
one that loves his fellow-men' The first of
these is still the champion of humanity; the
second has finished his work and his name
alone now remains, fragrant memory.
In 1885 at the age of "a years, Mr. Bright
began his public career. He had formed a
warm friendship with Mr., Richard Golden,
who was Just then greatly interested in the
movement then in embryo, for the repeal of
the co laws. 1t is related that Mr.. Bright
lost his youthful wife, to whom he had been
married only two years in the autumn OF
1871, while they were at bennington, where
Mr.. Golden was staying at the same time,
The great anti-c IN law agitator called upon
his bereaved friend while yet his wife lay
unburied in the house, and there and then
urged upon him career of political reform,
saying: 'Cume with me, and we viii
never rest until we are rid of the accursed
corn law
In the month of February, the following
year, Mr.. Bright made his first speech in
London in favor of the repeal of the law inn
posing a tax upon breadstuffs. The speech
arrested the attention of the country and at
once fixed Mr. Brights place in the very
front rank of popular orators. That first
speech in London was marked by the same
dignity of manner and elevation of form
which throughout his career character
lied his public utterances. 1t was prin-
ted as handful and was as a message
given by the winds, scattered everywhere
throughout the length and breadth of the
kingdom Thenceforward Mr.. Bright's was
| the most potential voice raised on behalf of
the repeal of the corn laws. His powerful
advocacy continued without abatement in
either personal devotion or popular indorse-
ment, until Sir Rob TT Peel brought in a bill
| for the repeal of the tax upon the bread of
the people which finally became the law of
the land on the 18th of June, 1916.
| In 1860 he took leading part in bringing
about the commercial treaty with France.
| From 1861 to 1865, during the years of the
civil war in the United States, even in its
darkest hours, he was the steadfast friend of
the American Union. AT time when Eng
| lands most illustrious statesmen, scholars
and divines were throwing the weight of
their splendid abilities and social influence in
favor of the cause of secession, John Bright
had the grace of speech and the gift of cour-
age to espou.e the cause of the Federal Union
!
| good report.
A critical writer in a London publication
has thus considered Mr.. Bri hit as an orator
and a rhetorician: 1.-THE first condition of
his success was this-that business was the
backbone of his speeches They were always
animated by purpose which was clear to
himself, and which he never failed to make
clear to his hearers. No one could fail to
know what he was driving at. Few things
finer have ever been uttered by any
orator than Mr.. Brights appeal to the
rival leaders to lay aside their animosities in
order to seek a remedy for the wrongs of Ire
land, than the passage in which he described
the angel of death visiting the homes to be
desolated by the Crimean war, or than the
moral di nifty Of the sentences in which he
indicated his own career at Birmingham
Mr. Bright, even in his boldest flights and
most passionate appeals, is always master Of
himself He is sever carried away by any
gusty impulses