3-028-490 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mr. Bright speaking at the Townhall, Birmingham, 1870. 'Speeches from Mr. Bright are always welcome, and they are especially so at a period when, in this country, there is an entire dearth of topics of political interest. The addresses which the President of the Board of Trade has been making at Birmingham have, moreover, a substantial value. This is, perhaps, more apparent in the two later ones than in the long and elaborate oration with which he began...The audiences that he had to address, though intelligent, were not of the sort best calculated to appreciate Mr. Bright's advance in the science of politics. When their turn came, a variety of opiniated persons of no very high social position favoured him with their views, and showed by their demand for specifics how little they had profited by the larger teaching of their representative. He had told them that it was impossible to drive six omnibuses through Temple Bar at once; but they were prompt to insist that the attempt should be made with at least a dozen'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.