John
Bright,
the son of Jacob Bright, a self-made and successful cotton manufacturer,
was born in Rochdale on 16th November, 1811. Jacob was deeply religious
and sent John to Quaker schools in Lancashire
and Yorkshire. This Quaker education helped
to develop in Bright a passionate commitment to political and religious
equality.
After his formal schooling came to an end, Bright joined the rapidly
expanding family business. He also became involved in local politics
and joined the campaign to end compulsory tax support of the Anglican
Church in Rochdale.
In October 1837, Joseph Hume, Francis
Place and John Roebuck formed the
Anti-Corn Law Association in London.
The following year Richard Cobden joined
with Archibald Prentice to establish
a branch of this organisation in Manchester. In March 1839 Cobden
was instrumental in establishing a new centralized Anti-Corn
Law League. Cobden was now able to organize a national campaign
in favour of reform. Cobden was a friend of Bright and suggested he
should join the League. Bright agreed and over the next few years
he toured the country giving speeches on the need to reform the Corn
Laws. Bright was an outstanding orator and he drew large crowds
wherever he appeared.
In his speeches John Bright attacked the privileged position of the
landed aristocracy and argued that their selfishness was causing the
working class a great deal of suffering. Bright appealed to the working
and middle classes to join together in the fight for free trade and
cheaper food.
In 1843 Bright was elected to represent Durham
in the House of Commons. In Parliament
he campaigned for the repeal of the Corn Laws.
He also supported those Whigs advocating universal suffrage and the
secret ballot. However, unlike most Radicals, Bright was opposed to
Parliament regulating the hours of factory workers. Bright feared
that factory legislation would lower wages and threaten Britain's
export trade and as a result voted against the 1844
Factory Act.
The failure of the Irish potato crop in 1845 and the mass starvation
that followed, forced Sir Robert Peel and
his Conservative government to reconsider the wisdom of the Corn
Laws. Irish nationalists such as Daniel
O'Connell also became involved in the campaign. Peel was gradually
won over and in January 1846 a new Corn Law
was passed that reduced the duty on oats, barley and wheat to the
insignificant sum of one shilling per quarter became law.
Bright was now a national hero and he used his high standing to campaign
for other progressive causes. As a Quaker
Bright was opposed to the aggressive foreign policy of Lord
Palmerston. Bright joined with Richard
Cobden to campaign against the Crimean
War (1854-1856). The two men were much abused by the press and
some MPs even accused them of treason.
The British public shared the government's enthusiasm for the war
and in the 1857 General Election, both Bright and Richard
Cobden lost their seats in the House of
Commons. However, five months later, he won a by-election in Birmingham.
Bright refused to change his view on Britain's foreign policy. He
blamed the Indian Mutiny of British misrule
and advocated that the Indian people should be allowed to elect their
own government.
Bright was now one of the leading advocates in the House
of Commons for universal suffrage. In a speech made in 1858 he
pointed out that only one out of six adult males had the vote in Britain
and that less than 200,000 voters regularly returned more than 50%
of all MPs. Bright called for an end to all rotten
boroughs and the introduction of the secret ballot.
Bright was shocked by the outbreak of the American
Civil War. As a Quaker he was totally
opposed to slavery and was a passionate supporter of Abraham
Lincoln. However, his religious views also stopped him for arguing
in favour of Britain sending troops to help the Union forces against
the Confederacy.
In 1865 Lord John Russell, leader of the
Liberals in Parliament, became Prime Minister.
Russell and William Gladstone, the government's
leader of the House of Commons, were both
supporters of parliamentary reform and although many Liberals were
still opposed to universal suffrage, they were determined to try.
Bright toured the country and used his considerable public speaking
skills to drum up support for the measure. However Russell's government
found it impossible to get the bill passed by the House of Commons.
When Russell resigned in 1866 he was replaced by the Earl
of Derby and with the support of Benjamin
Disraeli the new government managed to pass the 1867
Reform Act.
William Gladstone became Prime Minister
in 1868 and as he was a great admirer of Bright he appointed him as
his President of the Board of Trade. Bright now had the pleasure of
seeing the Liberal government pass several
measures that he had been advocating for many years. This included
opening the universities to Nonconformists,
the secret ballot and government funded education.
Unfortunately ill-health forced him to retire from the Cabinet in
December 1870.
The Liberals were in opposition between
1874 and 1880 but after William Gladstone
became Prime Minister in 1870, Bright returned to government as Chancellor
of the Duchy of Lancaster. Bright objected to the Liberal government's
foreign policy and when the British fleet attacked Egypt in 1882,
he resigned from the
Cabinet. John Bright remained
MP for Birmingham
until his death on 27th March, 1889.
(1)
Tom Mann, Memoirs, (1923)
During the period I spent in Birmingham,
John Bright was one of the three Members of Parliament for the borough.
I frequently heard him in the Birmingham Town Hall. I have heard many
prominent speakers in the hall, and in many other places, but never
one comparable to John Bright. The plainness of his language, the
unaffected simplicity of his illustrations, his power to drive home
the points of his speech, in conjunction with the mellifluous vocalization
of which he was master, made one feel that it was a great privilege
to listen to such oratory, and to observe the orator.
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