Description
JOHN BRIGHT autograph Letter Signed
British (English) Radical Liberal politician and orator. With Richard Cobden, the founder of the Anti-Corn Law League.
ALS. 1p plus integral blank leaf. One Ash, Rochdale. April 18th 1881. To John Haldeman, Esq. Together with original envelope.
"I cannot tell you when I will speak and I cannot give you an order for the gallery - my order has been given more than a week ago. Our House of Commons affords some accommodation for 'strangers' and when any particular speech will be delivered is uncertain and is rarely to be known. I fear therefore there is no chance of my being able to comply with your request."
8vo. Approx 7 x 4.5 inches. Very fine.
John Bright was of a Quaker family from Rochdale, the son of a mill owner. He met Richard Cobden in 1836, when Cobden was an alderman of the newly formed Manchester Corporation. Cobden was so impressed by Bright's oratory powers that he urged him to speak against the Corn Laws. His first speech against the Corn Laws was made in Rochdale in 1838, and in the same year he joined the Manchester Provisional Committee, which in 1839 founded the Anti-Corn Law League. He entered parliament as a Free Trade candidate and quickly made a name as one of the greatest speakers of his generation. He coined many expressions that are now in common use, such as "the mother of parliaments" and "flogging a dead horse".
|
