Civil War, and the magic of his eloquence and his name was a force of
perhaps decisive potency in keeping the working classes on the same
side; so that mass meetings of unemployed laborers with half-starving
families resolved that they would rather starve altogether than help to
perpetuate slavery in America. He shares with Richard Cobden the credit
of having obtained free trade for England: Bright's thrilling oratory
was second only to Cobden's organizing power in winning the victory, and
both had the immense weight of manufacturers opposing their own class.
That he opposed the game laws and favored electoral reform is a matter
of course.

Mr. Bright entered on an active political career in 1839, when he joined
the Anti-Corn-Law League. He first became a member of Parliament in
1843, and illustrates a most valuable feature of English political
practice. When a change of feeling in one place prevented his
re-election, he selected another which was glad to honor itself by
having a great man represent it, so that the country was not robbed of a
statesman by a village faction; and there being no spoils system, he did
not have to waste his time in office-jobbing to keep his seat. He sat
first for Durham, then for Manchester, and finally for Birmingham,
remaining in public life over forty years; and never had to make a
"deal" or get any one an office in all that period.

He was in Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet from 1868 to 1870, and again from 1873
to 1882. On the Home Rule question the two old friends and long
co-workers divided; Mr. Bright, with more than half the oldest and
sincerest friends of liberty and haters of oppression in England,
holding the step to be political suicide for the British Empire.

As an orator, Mr. Bright stood in a sense alone. He was direct and