Speeches on Questions of Public Policy, Volume I

John Bright (1811-1889), Quaker, was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with Richard Cobden in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League. He was one of the greatest orators of his generation, and a strong critic of British foreign policy. In 1840 he led a movement against the Rochdale church-rate, speaking from a tombstone in the churchyard, where it looks down on the town in the valley below. He entered parliament towards the end of the session of 1843 with a formidable reputation. He had been all over England and Scotland addressing vast meetings and, as a rule, carrying them with him; he had taken a leading part in a conference held by the Anti-Corn Law League in London and he was universally recognised as the chief orator of the Free Trade movement. He took his seat in the House of Commons as one of the members for Durham in 1843. In 1857, his unpopular opposition to the Crimean War led to his losing his seat as member for Manchester.