Review of Reviews, 1/9/13. 



723 



NOTABLE BOOKS OF THE MONTH. 



JOHN BRIGHT: THE PEOPLES TRIBUNE. 



The Life of John Br'u/ht, by G. M. Trevel- 

 yan. (Constable, 15/- net.) 



In telling the story of such a book as 

 this there is no need to linger on the 

 character of the man therem depicted. 

 Conservative and Liberal, Radical and 

 Nationalist alike agree in their opinion 

 of the single-mindedness, impeccable 

 honesty, and unimpeachable courage of 

 this noble Friend. The word " Quaker " 

 John Bright disliked, as founded on a 

 basic untruth. 



John Bright was born in 1811, with 

 Thackeray, Darwin, Raikes, Mark 

 Lemon, and others who have influenced 

 our world. The first steamship had not 

 yet crossed the Atlantic, and England 

 was at war with France and America, 

 and m Spain and India. As Mr. fre- 

 velyan says : " War, though sometimes 

 sport to the rich, is always death to the 

 poor," and our national glories at that 

 time were paid for by taxation that 

 raised to starvation prices nearly every- 

 thing men required. 



The son of a Quaker cotion-spinner, 

 who had married a woman of excellent 

 natural capacity and qualities of head 

 and heart rarely excelled, John Bright 

 was the second of eleven children. 

 He was educated at various Friends' 

 schools, and at the age of fifteen 

 came home, and was employed in 

 his father's business. Here he was 

 entering a society democratic in its 

 atmosphere, for Jacob Bright was not 

 only the employer, he was the father of 

 his people, and their confidant in all 

 their troubles. W^ien John had been in 

 his father's factory about ten years he 

 spent a holiday on the Mediterranean, 

 and his letters home show his keen ob- 

 servation. On his return Bright became 

 more active than ever as a local politi- 

 cian, and, through his father's interest in 

 public education, he came in contact with 

 Cobden. Any statement that Bright 

 ever opposed laws to protect children is 

 untrue, says Mr. Trevelyan. 



OTHER MEN, OTHER MEASURES. 



In the eighteenth century the Whig 

 aristocrats thought of themselves as 

 the leading citizens in a free country. In 

 the farmhouses master and men ate to- 

 gether, worked together, and had the^ 

 same interests. Moreover, such indus- 

 tries as weaving, etc., were carried on 

 by the people in their own homes. The 

 coming of machinery altered all that. 

 People crowded into towns, the popula- 

 tion rapidly increased, and England, 

 from being a corn-exporting country, 

 needed to import wheat. Then Parlia- 

 ment passed the Corn Law of 181 5, pro- 

 hibiting the importation of foreign 

 wheat until its price was 80s. per quar- 

 ter (average now 37s. per quarter). Bread 

 became an impossible luxury for agricul- 

 tural labourers, who earned but 6s a 

 week. They and their families starved 

 on potatoes and turnips, and the hovels 

 in which they dwelt were noisome be- 

 yond belief. 



Chartism, the claim that the working 

 man should have a vote, was born of 

 these conditions. 



Neither Cobden nor Bright were 

 amongst the seven men who founded the 

 Anti-Corn Law Association of 1838, but 

 shortly after the name of John Bright 

 was added to the committee, his father 

 gave a donation of ;^50, and the son 

 started his public agitation. He had 

 been married about two years when there 

 came upon him the calamity of the 

 death of his wife, who was the light and 

 sunshine of his house, and in his trouI:)le 

 (x)bden came to him. He poured out 

 words of balm and comfort, and then 

 he looked up and said : " There are 

 thousands of houses in England at this 

 moment where wives, mothers, and chil- 

 dren are dying of hunger. Now," he 

 added, "when the first paroxysm of 

 your grief is past, 1 would advise you to 

 come with me, and we will never rest 

 till the Corn Law is repealed." 



