ability with which he disarmed the weapons of our opponents, elicited
the respect of our people and have made his name one of veneration among
them. His position in our favor, amid the many discouragements which
beset him, justifies an attempt to lay before our readers an account of
his career and character, which, we doubt not, they will be interested
to hear.

John Bright, Member of Parliament for the great city of Birmingham, is
the son of respectable Quaker parents, and was born at Greenbank, near
Rochdale, in the year 1811. His family being largely interested in the
cotton manufacture, he was bred to a participation in this employment,
and is now the senior member of an extensive and enterprising firm, in
company with his brothers. It is hardly to be expected that one whose
early youth had been devoted to the restricted sphere of a
counting-room, would be remarkable for an extensive knowledge of men and
events, liberal opinions, freshness of intellect, and vigorous
brilliancy of declamation; and yet Mr. Bright has always manifested
superiority in these qualities. Known, while occupied exclusively in the
details of his proper avocation, for skill, promptness, and enterprise,
he has also been distinguished, since his sphere of usefulness has been
extended to the national councils, for the scope and accuracy of his
general information, the comprehensiveness of his mind, the richness of
his imagination, and the effective energy of his eloquence. He early
manifested an interest in politics, which was intensified by the
agitation of questions nearly affecting his own business interests. The
celebrated Anti-Corn-Law League, which was instituted in the time of
Lord Melbourne's ministry, by some eminent Whigs, for the purpose of
opposing the tariff erected by the corn-laws, excited his enthusiastic
cooeperation, and afforded him an early opportunity of entering political
life. The enlightened ideas of the Reformers had already effected a
glorious renovation in the machinery of the government; and the
regeneration of the commercial system was next to be accomplished, by a
successful resistance to the selfish restrictions imposed upon trade by
the landed proprietors. In such a cause, John Bright embarked in his
twenty-seventh year; and his subsequent career has been a consistent
adherence to the same views which marked his entrance into public
notice. He espoused with ardor the principles avowed by the League, and
leaving th