MR. BRIGHT, M.P.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1778, 14 September 1874, Page 3

MR. BRIGHT, M.P.

Mr. Bright's humour is not sardonic like Mr. Disraeli's but it resembles it, inasmuch as its manifestations have chiefly been in. the direction of hitting off some person or party by a single phrase ; in Mr. Blight's case containing a parallel or a comparison drawn ii'om a source familiar to the least educated mind. Two at least of his happiest strokes of this sort have their inspiration from the Bible. Had Mr. Lowe wanted to say;something damaging about Mr. Bright, he would, in all probabiliity, have looked through his Homer or his Horace for an illustration! When Mr. Bright desired, during the debate on the Reform Bill, to cover with ridicule the clique of which Mr. Lowe was the head, he bethought him of David's escape from Achish, King of Gath, and the character of the people who subsequently foregathered with him in the Cave of Adullam, and a new name was added to the vocabulary. When only the other day, he had occasion to complain of the determined dissatisfaction of the Conservatives, he again turned to the clas sical book of the people, and on the morrow all England was laughing at the party who "if they had been in the wilderness, would have complained of the Ten Commandments as a harassing piece of legislation. Mr, Bright's, illustrations;, „wJieri drawn from other sources, are equally homely, and therefore, effective. Thus, when he dubbed Mr. Disraeli "the mystery man' of the Ministry," and when he likened Mr. Lowe and Mr. Horsman to a Scotch terrier, " of which no one could with certainty say which was the head and which the tail,"' everybody could comprehend and enjoy the reference. The fearful sting contained in, his casual remark about Sir Charles Adderly, in a letter written about two months ago, " I hope he thought he was speaking .the truth, but he is so liable to make blunders/ will be best appreciated by those who know the right honorable baronet. But the volume of sarcasm hidden in the parenthetical remark about the gentleman's ancestors who came over with the Conqueror, " I neyer heard tnat they did anything else," is plain reading for all. So is the well-merited retort upon a noble lord who, during a time when Mr. Bright was temporary .laid aside, by illness, took this opportunity of publicly declaring that, by way of punishment for the uses,hehad made of his talents, Providence had inflicted upon Mr. Bright a disease of the brain. "It may be so, said Mr. Bright to the House of Commons when he cams back ; " but in any case, it will be some consolation to the friends and family of the noble lord to know that the disease is one which even Providonce could not inflict upon him."—Gentleman's 'Magazine.