John Bright

1898. A history of the career of John Bright, British statesman and orator. Bright, a founder of the Anti-Corn Law League, rose to prominence on the strength of his formidable oratory against the corn laws. A staunch laissez-faire capitalist, and, with Richard Cobden, a bastion of the Manchester school of economics, he resented the protection given to landholders by these laws at the expense of manufacturing interests. After the repeal of the corn laws, Bright's principal concern was parliamentary reform, which he pursued relentlessly until passage of the third Reform Bill. A member of Parliament for Manchester he lost his seat because of his opposition to British involvement in the Crimean War, which he considered Unchristian and against Britain's economic interests. He served in other capacities, until he resigned in protest against intervention in Egypt for the same reasons that had led him to oppose the Crimean War.