has for the last quarter-century been the leading member returned to
Parliament as representing the borough, and must always rank foremost
among our men of note. Mr. Bright is the son of the late Jacob Bright,
of Greenbank, near Rochdale, and was born November 16, 1811. He and his
brother, Mr. Jacob Bright, M.P. for Manchester, began business as
partners in the affiliated firms of John Bright and Brothers, cotton
spinners and manufacturers, Rochdale, and Bright and Co., carpet
manufacturers, Rochdale and Manchester. At an early age Mr. Bright
showed a keen interest in politics, and took part in the Reform
agitation of 1831-32. In those days every householder was compelled by
law to pay the Church-rates levied in his parish, whatever his religious
creed might be, and it is said that Mr. Bright's first flights of
oratory were delivered from a tombstone in Rochdale church-yard in
indignant denunciation of a tax which to him, as a member of the Society
of Friends, appeared especially odious. It was not, however, till 1839,
when he joined the Anti-Corn Law League, that Mr. Bright's reputation
spread beyond his own immediate neighbourhood; and there can be no doubt
but that his fervid addresses, coupled with the calmer and more logical
speeches of Mr. Cobden, contributed in an appreciable degree to the
success of the movement. In July, 1843, he was returned as M.P. for the
city of Durham, which he represented until the general election of 1847,
when he was the chosen of Manchester. For ten years he was Manchester's
man in everything, but the side he took in regard to the Russian war was
so much at variance with the popular opinions of his constituents that
they at last turned on him, burnt his effigy in the streets, and threw
him out at the general election in March, 1857. At the death of Mr. G.F.
Muntz, in July following, Mr. Bright was almost unanimously selected to
fill his place as M.P. for this town, and for 25 years he has continued
to honour Birmingham by permitting us to call him _our_ member. (See
"_Parliamentary Elections_.") Mr. Bright has been twice married, but is