Bright, John

Bright, John (1811–89). Radical politician and son of a Rochdale textile manufacturer, his first public speech (on temperance, 1830) and first political campaign (against church rates in Rochdale, 1834) mark the strong quaker influence on him. A leading public speaker for the Anti-Corn Law League (1839–46), Bright was elected MP for Durham (1843), Manchester (1847–57), and thereafter Birmingham. He supported free trade, opposed legislation limiting the hours of adult workers in textile factories, and, in the 1850s, called for peace, retrenchment, and reform, gaining unpopularity for his opposition to the Crimean War. He also took up the cause of India, opposing the renewal of the East India Company's Charter in 1853 and advocating devolved government in India under Westminster control, but when offered the secretaryship of state for India by Gladstone in 1868 he declined it because of its military responsibilities. He favoured extending the franchise to adult male householders in 1866, but was never a true democrat. He entered Liberal cabinets as president of the Board of Trade (1868–70) and chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster (1873–4, 1880–2), resigning on the latter occasion in protest at the naval bombardment of Alexandria. He was a long-standing advocate of church and land reform in Ireland, but attacked Gladstone's Home Rule proposals in 1886. Said to be the most belligerent of pacifists, Bright was one of the greatest orators of the 19th cent.

Edward Royle