SON of Jacob Bright, of Greenbank, Rochdale, Lancashire; born in 1811; one of the firm of John Bright and Brothers, cotton spinners and manufacturers, Rochdale; a member of the Society of Friends; joined the Anti-Corn-Law League soon after its formation in 1838, and, with Mr. Cobden, became one of its leading members, and the powerful champion of Free Trade; returned to Parliament for the city of Durham in 1843, and continued to sit as its representative till 1847, when he was elected for Manchester; opposed the war with Russia, 1854; rejected at Manchester at the General Election in 1857, consequent on the defeat of Lord Palmerston’s Government on the China question; returned for Birmingham the same year, and is still member for that constituency; the great advocate of Free Trade, Financial Reform, a wide extension of the Suffrage, a redistribution of Seats and the Ballot, of the cause of Ireland and India, of National Education, and of Peace; in the American Civil War took the Anti-Slavery side, and was the staunch supporter of the Northern States; visited Ireland in 1866; accepted a post in Mr. Gladstone’s Cabinet in 1868 as President of the Board of Trade—the state of his health prevented him from undertaking the duties of the India Office—when he was nominated a Privy Councillor; resigned office at the end of 1870; on his health becoming more satisfactory, he returned to the Gladstone Cabinet in 1873, as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, but retired with his colleagues at the beginning of the following year.

Mr. Bright is one of the most eloquent and effective orators of his time, and his speeches were collected and published in 1868; the policy which he has for so many years advocated has in most points been in the end accepted by the nation.