Bright, JOHN, a politician, first brought into notice by the Anti-Corn-Law agitation, son of Jacob Bright, a cotton-spinner and manufacturer at Rochdale, Lancashire, was born at Greenbank, near that town, November 16, 1811. The family were members of the Society of Friends, and Bright was educated at a Friends' school at Ackworth, and afterwards at York and at Newton. While in his father's factory he took a great interest in public questions, and before he had attained his majority spoke upon such subjects as capital punishment, church rates, temperance, and parliamentary reform. In 1835 he made a foreign tour, which included a journey to Palestine, and on his return delivered before a literary institution at Rochdale, of which he was one of the founders, lectures on the subject of his travels, and on topics connected with commerce and political economy. When the Anti-Corn-Law League was formed in 1839 he was one of its leading members, and, with Cobden, engaged in an extensive Free-trade agitation throughout the kingdom. In the spring of 1843 he offered himself as a candidate for the representation of Durham, and though at first unsuccessful, he became in July of the same year M.P. for that city. At all times an animated and effective speaker, Bright was incessant, both at public meetings and in parliament, in his opposition to the Corn Laws, until they were finally repealed. In 1845 he obtained the appointment of a select committee of the House of Commons on the Game Laws, and also one on the subject of cotton cultivation in India. An abridgment of the evidence taken before the former, published in one volume, contained from his pen an Address to the Tenant Farmers of Great Britain, strongly condemning the existing Game Laws. At the general election of 1847 he was elected one of the members for Manchester. He co-operated with Cobden in the movement in favour of financial reform. On the formation of the first Derby ministry, February 27, 1852, Bright aided in the temporary reorganisation of the Corn-Law League, in favour of the principles of Free-trade; and at the general election which followed, was re-elected for Manchester. Like Cobden, a member of the Peace Society, he energetically denounced the policy of the Crimean war (1854). A severe illness compelled him to withdraw for a time to the Continent, and in his absence he was rejected by Manchester. Elected in 1857 for Birmingham, he seconded the motion against the second reading of the Conspiracy Bill, which led to the overthrow of Lord Palmerston's government. Mr Bright advocated the transference of India to the direct government of the crown, together with other reforms affecting our eastern dependency. When the civil war in America broke out, he warmly supported the cause of the North, although his own business and the whole of the Lancashire cotton-trade suffered severely in consequence. His name next became chiefly associated with the movement for reforming the electoral representation, which resulted in the Act of 1867. In 1868 he accepted office as President of the Board of Trade, but in 1870 was again obliged to retire in consequence of severe illness. His health having been restored, he took office in 1873, and again in 1881, as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; he was appointed Lord Rector of Glasgow University in November 1880. Mr Bright retired from the Gladstone ministry in 1882, being unable to support the government in its Egyptian policy. His appearances in public were afterwards infrequent; but in 1883 he defended himself in the House of Commons from a charge of breach of privilege in connection with speeches delivered at Birmingham. His completion of 25 years of service to this town was marked by a series of popular demonstrations there, in June 1883. In 1886-88 he opposed the Home Rule policy of Mr
Gladstone. He is recognised as one of the most eloquent public speakers of his time. A collection of his Speeches was published in 1868; a Life by Robertson (1877); his Life and Speeches, 2 vols., by G. Barnett Smith (1881); and his Public Letters (ed. by Leech, 1885). He died 27th March 1889.