Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-03-28
A Great orator Gone.

graphical details of the life of John Bright,
who died yesterday in England, and we
therefore dismiss all the hackneyed
minutie of tn 9 career of that illustIious
Englishman. He died at an age which
admits of all except specially endowed
men, both intellectually and mentally,
changing their opinions and their atti-
tudes disastrously to their sagacity and
consistency, but without diminution of
the respect in which they are held by
mankind. Foibles of character John
Bright possessed, but they have not OBJ
scured virtues and attributes that were
of an exceptional prominence, that made
him illustrious and will give him place in
the annals of mankind as long as the de-
mands OF index-learning shall not re-
quire him to be supplanted by somebody
else. AT the rate at which this index
learning is being burdened, even Bright
will be reduced to luminary of the
Eucus a non lucendo sort in fifty years
from now.
Bright's public career was peculiar
one. Born of Quaker parents, he always
retained that horror of war, contention
and bloodshed inherent in that denom-
ination. He early figured in that sa-
gacious school of British statesmen,
most distinctively represented by Richard
Golden, who realized that England,
having for years protected her manufac-
lures almost to the point OF annihilating
those of other countries, and being mis-
tress of the exchanges of the world,
could safely enter upon career of Free
Trade. As cotton spinner of Manches-
ter, he, perhaps insensibly to himself,
made his principles correspond to bis in
terest. That it was probably an insen-
| sible operation, due to the easy gravita-
tion which tempts one to side with peo-
pie who surround one, his uniform gen.
eroeity and liberality on all questions
but one, makes it very probable. Of that
one later on.
John Bright, the Quaker-born, was
always demonstrative advocate of peace.
This phase of his temperament, and per-
haps inherited character, was made
specially prominent during the Crimean
war. He denounced that war with an
invective clothed in the most persuasive
and the purest English. He opposed it
from the inherited Quaker's love of
peace, and not from the subtly developed
ideas which underiie Kinglake's history
of that memorable conflict. He showed
the same sturdy love of peace on earth,
good will towards man, when, as men,
Der of Mr.. Gladstone's cabinet, he re-
signed office when that immortal prem
ier ordered the bombardment of Alexan-
dria. He may have been abstractly
right on both occasions, but IN both the
traditional and victorious policy of Eng
land would have suffered a grievous
shock, if not downright eclipse, if his
ideas had prevailed. For good or i'll
England has staked her prestige
and the ascendancy of her power
on maintaining her hold both on Asia
and Asia Minor and, on both occasions
when Palmerston leagued England
with France, Sardinia and Turkey to
resist the advance of the Russian stand
ards towards the Bosphorus, and when
Gladstone played his cards for a con-
tinued control OF Egypt, John Bright
showed the sentimental side of his
character. To the practical politician
his energetically advanced ideas were
mere vagaries which, if they had been
accepted by the British Government,
would have ended that drum beat of the
English legions which is heard from the
rising to the setting of the sun-equally
resonant on the banks of the Thames,
the st. Lawrence and the Coromandel.
Strange to say, when wholesome SEN
timentality should have shown itself in
Bright's career, it WAS unaccountably
absent. Estranged from Gladstone on
the issue of bombarding Alexandra, he
antagonized that illustrious statesman's
attitude on the issue of justice to Ireland.
The natural sweetness of Gladstone's dis
position has been exemplifed number
of times since their estrangement by his
having made repeated efforts to bring
about personal reconciliation with his
old-time friend and coIleague-efforts
which in every instance were repulsed.
With the exception of Gladstone,
Bright was the greatest of the later
English orators. He had an attractive
person, warm and animated delivery
and style which appealed with irresist-
ible force to the masses. He was great
contrast to his old chief in the style of
his oratory. He even ostentatiously
affected plain diction which rejected
as much as possible the opulent
vocabulary with which the English
language has been enriched from
the Latin and the Greek. The
contrast was the more marked
because both of these great and typical
Englishmen had the same ardent tenn
permanent which made their delivery
| like torrent. In their choice of Ian
guage Gladstone aud his great rival Dis
raeli were at one in their preference
for a flexible and unlimited vocabulary,
in which the euphonies of all languages
contributed what was needed to add
force or impart ornament. Macaulay, in
his History of England, says that the
highest attainments of the English