Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/337

 reforms. Bright had now attracted the notice of [q. v.] They had first met in 1835, when Bright called upon Cobden at his office in Mosley Street, Manchester, to invite him to speak at a meeting for the promotion of education held in the schoolroom of the baptist chapel at Rochdale. Cobden attended and spoke. The acquaintance presently ripened into a warm friendship, and Cobden pressed Bright into the service of the association known after March 1839 as the Anti-Corn-law League. It was towards the close of this year 1839 that Bright made his first appearance as a league orator outside his own town. At Cobden's request he attended a dinner at Bolton in honour of [q. v.], one of the leaders of the movement. He was present, as a Rochdale delegate, at a meeting at Peterloo, Manchester (13 Jan. 1840), preliminary to the foundation of the Free Trade Hall. At this meeting his subsequent colleague in the representation of Manchester, [q. v.], made his first public appearance in that town. On 29 Jan. 1840 Bright became treasurer of the Rochdale branch of the league. As mover of a resolution against the corn law he addressed a meeting of two thousand people at Manchester on 15 April, which decided upon stirring anew, by means of deputations, the agitation in the great towns. During 1841 the effects of the United States tariff were keenly felt in Lancashire. The Rochdale flannel trade was almost annihilated. Manufacturers who had hitherto been indifferent to corn laws were awakened by misfortune to a sense of the cogency of Bright's demonstrations that they had a common interest in free trade. In November 1839 Bright married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Jonathan Priestman of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Mrs. Bright died on 10 Sept. 1841 at Leamington, leaving one daughter, Helen Priestman Bright, afterwards married to Mr. W. S. Clark of Street, Somerset. Three days after his wife's death, when he was 'in the depths of grief, almost of despair,' Cobden paid him a visit of condolence. Cobden seized the opportunity to exhort his friend to forget his melancholy in work, and they pledged each other to 'never rest till the corn law was repealed.' From this time until the final triumph of the Anti-Corn-law League the two friends stood side by side in the public eye as the leaders of the movement.

In 1842 the league determined to carry its campaign to the doors of parliament. At a meeting attended by delegates from various parts of the country, held in the Crown and Anchor tavern in the Strand, Bright made his first great speech in London and at once established his reputation as an orator. He addressed a conference held at Herbert's hotel in Palace Yard on 4 July, in which he graphically described the destitution prevalent throughout the country. He interviewed the Duke of Sussex, who expressed sympathy with the league, an adhesion of the first importance at a time when repealers excited a vehement detestation in the minds of the governing classes. He formed one of a deputation to the home secretary, Sir James Graham, with whom he crossed swords in argument as to the economic condition of Manchester. At the board of trade his deputation waited upon Lord Ripon [see ] the president, and Gladstone the vice-president. In appearance all this activity was fruitless, except that Peel acknowledged himself impressed by the information afforded. The enemy sought to divert the attack by the agency of chartism. A general turn-out of operatives in South Lancashire was proclaimed foe 10 Aug. 1842. Bright's workpeople joining in the strike. He addressed the crowd in the neighbourhood of Greenbank mill and was successful in persuading them to abstain from the violence committed in other towns; On 17 Aug. he published an 'address to the working men of Rochdale.' In this he pointed out that 'with a bad trade wages cannot rise,' that the agitation for the charter would do nothing to improve their economic condition, and that the real cause of their misfortune was the corn law. The address was copied into the newspapers and had the effect both of tranquillising the operatives and of directing their attention to the corn law as the proximate cause of their sufferings.

During the late autumn and winter of 1842 Bright, in company with Cobden, Ashworth, Perronet Thompson, and other speakers, visited the midlands and Scotland, where they conducted their propaganda and gathered subscriptions for the league. They succeeded in collecting a sum of about 3,000l. At the same time Bright was not inactive with his pen. Rochdale was still agitated by the dispute about church rates. Dr. [q. v.], the vicar, having published a magazine entitled 'Common Sense' in the interest of the church, a counterblast was issued called 'The Vicar's Lantern.' It continued down to the end of 1843, Bright being a frequent contributor to its pages with sarcastic articles on the Rochdale church party and the corn