JOHN BRIGHT

Hokitika Guardian, 16 February 1931, Page 4

JOHN BRIGHT

DIARIES TO BE PUBLISHED. Although John Bright died forty-one years ago, the diaries he kept during his long political life have remained unpublished, except for some extracts which appear in “The Life of John Bright,” written hv G. M. Trevelyan, and published in 1914. These diaries contain a great deal of matter of political, historical and personal interest, and it has appeared to members of the Bright family that the time lias come when they may he made available for the public. They have been prepared for publication hv Air R. A. J. AVailing, and will he issued shortly by Alessrs Cassell in two volumes, with a foreword by Air Philip Bright. John Bright was horn in 1811. His interest in politics began to he aroused in the stormy ’thirties of the last century. He was a young man of twentyone when the Reform Bill was passed in 1832, and he was no more than twenty-five when, after a tour in the Near East, he began an active political career. That career had begun when Queen A'Tctoria succeeded to the Throne, and when it came to an end the juhilloe* of A ictoria had became a matter of history.

In tlie agitation for the repeal of the Corn Laws, Bright became the idol of the people; in the next decade lie was abused because of his opposition to the Crimean Walk He was in the thick of controversies on the government of Ireland and of Indht, on the American Civil War, on franchise re* form, and on nit the questions that made up the politics of the first fifty years of the Victorian era. For more than fifty years he was one of the members of Parliament for Birmingham, which gave him a seat and many friends after he had suffered defeat at Manchester. On all these matters the diaries throw much light. For readers whose memories go back to the exciting controversies of the ’eighties, the diaries will in particular have a lively interest. These, as well as the readers of a Inter generation, will, it is thought, find very acceptable the whole of the selections which will be published in the two volumes.