Eeview of Beviews, 1/9113. 



NOTABLE BOOKS. 



725 



went very near that time. If you had 

 said ' -flapping ' instead of ' beating of 

 his wings,' the House would have 

 laughed." But, as Mr. Trevelyan says, 

 Bright would no more have said " flap- 

 ping " than Gladstone would have made 

 a false quantity. 



HOME RULE. 



John Bright was against Home Rule 

 'in 1872, but that does not necessarily 

 mean that he would have opposed it 

 now. His reasons for objecting w^ere 

 that " two Legislative Assemblies in the 

 United Kingdom would, in my opinion, 

 be an intolerable mischief," because they 

 would lead to separation. Moreover, he 

 considered that that which obtained in 

 the Colonies was no guide, as "the 

 Canadian Confederation is even now- 

 showing symptoms of breaking down." 

 His alternative was an Irish Committee 

 for Irish Bills in the House of Com- 

 mons. 



woman's suffrage. 



He was not as decided as usual in his 

 opinion on Woman's Suffrage. He wrote 

 in 1858: "I know no valid argument 

 against it " ; indeed, his arguments for 

 the franchise were as valid for the work- 

 ing woman as for the working man. 

 But he had his fears, as in the case of 

 Home Rule, and though in 1867 he 

 voted for the inclusion of women, in 

 1 87 1 he wrote to Miss Sturge : — 



I do not think the bestowal of the suffrage 

 on womev. will be of any advantage to them, 

 and I fear at present, and perhaps always, 

 it will tend to strengthen the party which 

 hitherto lias opposed every good measure 

 passed during the thirty years in which I 

 have taken part in political affairs. 1 think 

 it would add to the power of priestcraft in 

 every part of the three kingdoms. 



Thus, unlike his usual modes of 

 thought, it was as a Liberal and a Non- 

 conformist he objected, and in 1876 re- 

 corded his vote against woman suffrage. 



Whole-hearted was his appreciation 



at the settlement of the Alabama dispute 



with the United States. In 1872 he 



wrote : — 



'•My Dear Lord Granville, — . . . The 

 great virtue of the Treaty, beyond the settle- 

 ment of a dangerous dispute, is the ex-hibi- 

 tion and adoption by two great nations of a 

 principle of fairness and reason in its settle- 

 ment, and, as we may trust, in the adjust- 

 ment of any future question tliat may ari.so 



between them. I believe if the English 

 Government had shown the same wise and 

 just disposition in times past, almost all 

 ivars with European powers since the days 

 of William III. might have been avoided. 



THE "CAVE OF ADULLAM." 

 In dipping into John Bright's story 

 the " Cave of Adullam " speech must 

 not be forgotten. It occurred during a 

 debate on the Reform Bill, 1866. Mr. 

 Trevelyan's account of it is delectable. 

 Two Liberals, the quarrelsome Horsman 

 and the fier\' Lowe, were dissentient. 

 John Bright, in the course of his speech, 

 said : — 



The riglit lion, gentleman Olr. Horsman) 

 is the first of tlio new party who lias ex- 

 pressed his great grief, wlio lias retired into 

 what may be called his political Cave of 

 Adullam, and he has called about him every 

 one that was in distress and everyone that 

 was discontented. . . . When a party is 

 formed of two men so amiable, so discreet, 

 as the two right lion, gentlemen, we may 

 hope to see for the first time in Parliament 

 a party perfectly harmonious and distin- 

 guished by mutual and unbroken trust. But 

 there is one difficulty which it is impossible 

 to remove. This party of two reminds me 

 of the Scotch Terrier, which was so covered 

 witli hair that .you could not tell which was 

 the head and which was the tail of it. 



Among the jokes which Mr. Tre- 

 velyan records is one which otcurred in 

 a reference to the Bradlaugh difficulty. 

 Mr, Bright had said : " It is not Brad- 

 laugh's atheism which they hate, but his 

 unconscious (Christianity," and this anec- 

 dote is given in a footnote: — 



Bradlaugh had his admirers even among 

 old ladies. One of them came to the House 

 to see him, and asked for " the Member for 

 \orthampton." She was promptly intro- 

 duced to Bra-dlaugli's colleague in the repre- 

 sentation of that city, Mr. Labouchere. 

 ■ .Vre you Mr. Bradlaugh r"" she eagerly 

 asked. " Xo, ma'am," was the reply, "I'm 

 the Christian ^h-mber for Xortham]>ton I" 



JOHN bright's RETIREMENT. 



John Bright was the first Noncon- 

 formist to become a Cabinet Minister, 

 and his retirement was as characteristic 

 as his entr}-. ^^'hcn the question of the 

 occupation of Egypt arose, and he heard 

 that the British fleet had bombarded 

 Alexandria, he resigned. " 1 think," he 

 wrote to Mr. Gladstone on Jul\- 12th, 

 1882. "in reviewing the doctrines con- 

 nected with our foreign policy, which I 

 have preached and defended during 



