1846.] PRESENTATION TO MR. BRIGHT. 239 It was no sooner broached in Rochdale than the praiseworthy object was warmly approved of in other towns, and a subscription was easily set in motion and £5,048 8s. 1d. were contributed by 3,647 subscribers, and the towns and villages which responded to the call of the committee amounted to 172. The testimonial took the form of a library of 1,200 volumes, the selection of which was left to the hon. gentleman. From the bent of the man it is easy to call up the stamp of the books chosen. There are amongst them many of the brightest gems of English literature. History and biography fill up the bulk of the space, but the place of honour is given to the works of the great poets, whose thoughts, purified and condensed in simple, terse diction, are to be found in all the speeches of Mr. Bright. Here, as in one focus, are concentrated the rays of nearly all the great luminaries. Mr. Bright has found himself strengthened by the wholesome study of the past, and, like the matine bee, extracted from whatever he settled upon additional information and sweets. understands the injunction of Wordsworth : He His selections from the poets are numerous, and he derives much delight in reading them. The books are placed in a casket worthy of them. A large oak bookcase, running the whole length of one side of the library at "One Ash," forms part of the testimonial. Its design is in consonance with the deed to signalise which it was presented. The supports between the large glass panels are elaborately carved into sheaves of corn, figs, grapes, apples, and pears, while surmounting the cornice is a relief showing a vessel homeward bound, and on the quay representations of barrels of flour and bales of cotton. "Free Trade" is the burden of the design. Needless to say the bookcase and its contents form the most prominent features of the library. Two other sides of the room are also occupied with bookcases, filled with miscellaneous literature, and the little remaining space is devoted to portraits of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Daniel O'Connell, Joseph Hume, Charles P. Villiers, and a bust of Mr. Gladstone in mature life. His cabinet is placed between two windows, which command a view of the lawn, beyond which, through the encircling trees, is the town and the distant hills. Here it is that the right hon. gentleman when at home delights to spend most of his time. His favourite walk is on the terrace in front of his residence, which commands a fine view of Rochdale in the valley below: with its forest of factory chimneys, "Steeple-towers, And spires whose silent finger points to heaven." The old parish church, in the yard of which was delivered the celebrated "tombstone speech" that heralded the abolition of Church Rates, stands out sturdily through the smoke of the town; while far away a solitary clump of trees on the knoll, breaking the sky-line, marks Tandle Hill, where the Chartists met for training. Those days are gone, and a generation has arisen which, viewing with tenderness the faults of the patriots who manfully struggled for their political freedom, must endorse the policy of John Bright as against that of the Chartists. Their cry was, "The Charter, then cheap bread; "his counsel was, "Cheap bread first." Cheap bread came, and brought with it the stamina by which the people of this land were enabled to develop a waiting, patient policy, of forcing from unwilling Governments the concessions which open violence could never have obtained. Away in the distance, on the left of the terrace, ranges Blackstone Edge, which divides Lancashire from Yorkshire. Over this mountainous district the legions of Rome constructed a road, which the effacing influences of fifteen centuries have yet been compelled to spare, and which still crops out in sturdy squares of stone pavement. Those soldiers had their day of glory, but it has passed like sounds away. In the remembrance of Mr. Bright, pack-horses, with their tinkling bells, traversed this mountain and its moorlands, and later on the stage-coach made its appearance up the winding roadway into Yorkshire. In those days the "White House" that is perched nearly on the summit of the mountain, and is plainly visible, was a famous hostelry where the jaded travellers and smoking steeds were refreshed. CHAPTER XXVI. THE MONOPOLISTS' RETALIATION. Prophecies regarding Bright-Villiers's and Kinglake's opinion of Bright and Cobden-Mr. Bright entertained by the Corporation of Durham-The new Cabinet-The Ten Hours Bill-Mr. Bright's opposition-His workpeople in favour of the Bill-He consents to become a candidate for Manchester. MR. BRIGHT having completed the task which had called forth his best energies and given a strong impetus to his oratorical powers, it was circulated as the general opinion among his opponents that, in his earnestness, "his defects were likely to have been overlooked in the strong light which the triumphant success of the Anti-Corn-Law agitation threw round the leaders of that movement;" and it was further stated that, "had he been left to pursue his path alone, it is more than probable that he would never have emerged from the dead level of the society in which he had moved; or that if he had attained any eminence. at all, it would have been to achieve a distinction not more illustrious than that of a noisy and arrogant orator of a parish vestry." These critics seemed to overlook the fact that in the House of Commons, where able speakers and critics are always to be found, Mr. Bright had gained an honourable position as a rising orator, and had been applauded by both sides of the House. The opposition that he encountered brought forth abilities that might have otherwise lain dormant. "A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind. Even a head wind is better than nothing. No man ever worked his voyage in a dead calm." Still, it must be admitted that, owing to the times and circumstances by which he was surrounded, his powers were not fully developed. There had certainly been sufficient to call forth his antagonistic and debating skill; but the artistic and fascinating style of which he is now master had as yet to be evolved by circumstances and cultivation. "Perfection is attained by slow degrees, Erroneous judgments are always, sooner or later, reversed by time. Milton "a petty schoolboy scribbler." Winstanley was not more fortunate in saying that "his fame was gone out like a candle in a stink;" and Burnet drew upon himself more popular censure by the unlucky sentence in which he spoke of one Prior than by all the inaccuracies of his statements and his style. The Right Hon. C. P. Villiers has kindly furnished the following interesting information for this biography: : "I have been a close observer of Mr. Bright's public career for the last forty years, and nobody, I am sure, could be found who would more readily and amply bear testimony to the extraordinary ability that he displayed in all his addresses on public questions of interest during that time. It was, indeed, an observation made by many, and in which I shared myself, that during the fiercest times of the great Anti-CornLaw struggle, and when he and Mr. Cobden used to be thrown upon their defence of the proceedings of the League out of the House, that Mr. Bright was thought to be far more prompt and effective in his replies than Mr. Cobden; for though the latter used to assail the Prime Minister (Sir Robert Peel) with peculiar severity, owing to his conviction (often expressed to myself) that he (Sir Robert Peel) was not sincere in supporting the Corn Laws, yet Mr. Bright used, both in and out of the House, boldly and plainly to charge the whole land-owning class with the deliberate selfishness of their Corn Law policy, and was always ready to meet the reproaches with which he was fiercely visited in consequence (by his opponents in the House). I am, however, of opinion, with many others, that Mr. Bright became a much more finished orator after the repeal of the Corn Laws than he had ever been before, as if he had almost taken pains with himself to acquire the art of speaking. In some of his speeches, indeed, especially when he was advocating the lowering of the suffrage (when it was difficult to raise any feeling on the subject), and also in favour of disestablishing the Irish Church, he was not exceeded in style and effect by any of the greatest efforts made by Mr. Gladstone himself." Mr. Kinglake, who had no great sympathy with the principles advocated by John Bright and Cobden, acknowledged their argumentative power and their influence over the House of Commons, in these words : "The two orators had shown with what a strength, with what a masterly skill, with what patience, with what a high courage they could carry a scientific truth through the storm of politics. They had shown that they could arouse and govern assenting thousands, who listened to them with delight-that they could bend the House of Commons-that they could press their creed upon a Prime Minister, and put upon his mind so hard a stress, that after a while he felt it to be a torture and a violence to his reason to have to make a stand against them. Nay, more. Each of these gifted men had proved that he could go bravely into the midst of angry opponents, and show them their fallacies one by one-destroy their favourite theories before their very faces, and triumphantly argue them down." As for those whose names have been handed down to us as eminent in oratory, we find them, in the course of their lives, seldom fatigued with poring over their studies. They devoted much time to grammar, music, and poetry; painting, sculpture, and architecture; mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and history-subjects that they cultivated as so many handmaids of eloquence. Even at advanced periods of life they attended the schools of the rhetoricians, exercising themselves constantly in elocution, endeavouring to attain gracefulness in gesture, correct 1846.] THE ORATOR. 243 ness in pronunciation, and a flowing and varied modulation of voice. They travelled into foreign countries for the purpose of receiving instruction in foreign schools. What sensibility must an audience have possessed for whose ear such speakers thought it necessary to give harmony to their periods, and whose tastes they found capable of discriminating a common from a graceful expression, and a loose from a compact style! Their language possessed the spell which awakened or composed the emotions; and whether they had to contend with power or prejudice, with the passions of the rude or the interests of the enlightened, they bore down every obstacle by the irresistible torrent of their eloquence. But where, in this cold climate, shall we find an audience capable of allowing their feelings to be wound up to such a height that they will recognise and exult in the sway of such extravagant oratory? Mr. Burke, in the fine frenzy of his indignation against the French Revolution, produced a dagger from his bosom, one night in the House of Commons, as the most expressive emblem of the designs which the Republicans had in contemplation. But what was the effect of this extraordinary illustration? Some members deemed the sage mad, others scarcely suppressed their laughter; and his most attached friends blushed for the eccentricity of the thing. He was mistaken in thinking that his auditors were as ardently excited as himself, or that they were sufficiently prepared for such an illustration as this. For him it was scarcely strong enough; for them it was extravagant. Mr. Bright has never undergone a course of training in elocution. His ambition was to speak plainly, so that he might be understood by the working class, and to give his words force without theatrical gesture. His earnestness in the cause brought out his natural oratorical powers, and together with his thorough study of the subject matter upon which he speaks, produces the influence he exercises over his audience. One of the chief excellences of his style is the power of adorning barren and tame subjects, elevating them into something piquant and interesting. It cannot be called florid in style, for it is the luxuriance of natural feeling and fancy. The summer rose, in unfolding its leaves to the dawn, is not less guilty of vanity, or the hawthorn that puts forth its blossoms in the genial warmth of spring, of affecting to be fine. He looks abroad with the eye of a poet, with the minuteness of a naturalist, and the comprehensiveness of a historian; and the intelligence he gleans he devotes for the benefit of mankind. Mr. John Bright's constituents determined to celebrate the |