At

Palmerston, and they felt that the grandest victory for the Liberal cause, would be Mr. Gladstone's rejection at Oxford. last it came. He was cast out, not by the true scholarship of Oxford, but by those rubicund country parsons who "stood in the fear of the Lord and the Squire." Wicked people said that the Squire often went before the Lord. At any rate, they were mindful of their "creators," and their gratitude took on a very lively anticipation of the crumbs that might yet fall from their "masters'" tables. The Liberals of South Lancashire had presented Mr. Gladstone's name as a candidate for that constituency in the event of his being thrown out of Oxford. As soon as that event happened, Mr. Gladstone hastened to Manchester to address the electors. Never will that occasion be forgotten. The magnificent Free Trade Hall never looked so fully alive as on that eventful day. The seats were taken out of the body of the hall and there could not be less than twelve thousand anxious auditors present. Mr. Thomas Bazley presided on the occasion. When Mr. Gladstone appeared the cheers were deafening, only to be increased to the pitch of the wildest excitement when he stepped forward and uttered the first words of that ever memorable campaign.

Pale and somewhat nervous, the hero of the hour con. fronted that great sea of upturned faces.

"At last, my friends," he said, "I am come among you; and I am come," using an expression which has become very famous, and is not likely to be forgotten, “ I am come among you unmuzzled!" At that one word "unmuzzled!" the pent-up enthusiasm of the audience burst all bounds, and there poured forth such a tide of applause as only Lancashire men know how to offer to the man they trust and honor.

From that day to this-saving the interregnum of Lord Beaconsfield's administration-Mr. Gladstone's hand has been on the helm of the State. It will be impossible to refer even in the briefest manner to the many toils of Mr. Gladstone during these eventful years. Looming up above all the rest, his determined purpose to do righteously toward Ireland demands

the gratitude of that country and the admiration of the world. Fifty years of service, and still he is the great Commoner, William Ewart Gladstone. He has wreathed a hundred brows; his own remains uncrowned save with the well-earned gratitude of his country and the admiration of the world. So may it be to the end! We should regret exceedingly to see that name which he has filled full of grandest meaning buried in some lordly or ducal sound that might catch vain ears but would be to the millions to whom "Gladstone" is brimful of meaning, only as "sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal."

When men foretell with solemn voices that England is on the decline, that her glory is departing, that her sun is setting, the venerable statesman presents the aspect of one who has taken a young heart into the autumn of his life. There is a smile upon his face as men predict disaster, as though forsooth his listening ear caught the strains of

THE RIGHT-HON. JOHN BRIGHT.

HE RT.-HON. JOHN BRIGHT-the great Tribune of the English people-one of the most popular, if not one of the greatest, of modern English statesmen, was A born on the 16th of November, 1811; he has therefore passed the limit of threescore years and ten.

Threescore years and ten! But what years they have been! The last half century is the best half century of the world's history. And now that this glorious nineteenth century is growing old, Mr. Bright may fairly claim that he has had at least some share in its glory and its growth. In the stirring years of his busy life, Mr. Bright has seen many changes in the policy of his country, and he has done much to bring these changes about. When he was a boy the story of Waterloo was fresh and thrilling, and when he was a young man he saw his country groaning with the burden of the almost fabulous war debt, the terrible legacy of that long and fearful conflict of which Waterloo was the close. He was but twenty-six years of age when Victoria was crowned Queen of England, but he had been surrounded from his boyhood by thoughtful men who loved their country and longed to see it freed from the burdens that hung around its neck. Mr. Bright's earliest public efforts were not made on the political platform. He was one of the early advocates of total abstinence, and a great speech delivered on that subject, in the Temperance Hall, Bolton, Lancashire, forty-five years ago, first broughtthe young Rochdale cotton-spinner before the public.

The condition of the people of England in the year 1840

awakened anxiety and alarm. Bad harvests had succeeded one another for four or five years. Commerce was depressed all the world over. But the toiling millions of England were • suffering all the miseries of undeserved poverty. Work was scarce and badly paid. Provisions were dear, and bread-the staff of life-was hard to get, to say nothing of the luxuries of life. A report of a committee of the House of Commons of 1840 revealed an appalling state of affairs. The workhouses were crowded to the doors, and millions were keeping body and soul together by the scant help of outdoor parish relief. Grave, earnest men who loved their country and loved the people too, began to ask questions, and sought diligently for the secret of these sorrows, and for some speedy way out of them. It was shown by the report of 1840 that of £22,000,000 of taxes, at least £20,000,000 were collected on raw material and food. This fact was the inspiration of a great movement to which Mr. Bright in the early days of his manhood paid the allegiance of an enthusiast. There existed an obnoxious tax on corn, which some called a war tax, and others, a farmer's tax, and others again a landlord's tax. But thousands believed that this tax on corn was the cnrse of the poor, and that so long as it remained unrepealed, it was vain to hope for better times for the toiling classes. The Anti-Corn-Law League was formed, of which the Hon. George Villiers and Richard Cobden were the leading spirits. The policy of the League was to educate public opinion on the question at issue and so to reach by moral force, the rulers of the nation. Every good cause needs efficient advocacy, and none knew this better than Richard Cobden. The work was fairly begun when Richard Cobden thought of John Bright, and felt assured that his advocacy would be of unspeakable value to the League. But Mr. Bright was at Leamington bearing the burden of a great sorrow. He had just lost his young wife. In these circumstances Mr. Cobden found him, and urged him to heal his sorrow by advocating the cause of the sorrowful. The appeal was not in vain. For three years Mr. Bright traveled

all over England pleading for an intelligent protest against what he called the "iniquitous and oppressive Corn laws." In these years he developed into the finished orator. And very few men in the last forty years have had such power over public audiences as "the fiery Quaker of the League."

The work of the League was triumphant. After five years, struggle in Parliament, Sir Robert Peel brought in the bill of repeal that cost him his office, but won for him an enduring place in the hearts of the great masses of the English people.

Mr. Bright was Member of Parliament for Manchester. But his independence and extreme radical views lost him his seat in the great cotton metropolis. He will be best known in history as "The member for Birmingham." He was not only the member for Birmingham, but the idol of the overwhelming majority of the elector. Mr. Bright's services in the British Parliament can never be fully estimated. He was one of the persistent forces whose results are not easy to calculate. In debate he was almost always the pride of his friends, and not infrequently the terror of his opponents. He sat for years "below the gangway," a position that indicated his thorough independence and his extreme radical opinions. The boldest prophet would hardly have foretold that Mr. Bright would have been a Minister of the Crown. But the whirligig of time brings many changes. And Punch was little to blame when he laughed aloud and shook his jester's bells at Quaker John kissing hands in a bobtailed coat. Cromwell himself did no hate the House of Lords with a more godly hatred than the member for Birmingham. And noble lords felt generally that when the affairs of state got into the hands of such men as Gladstone and Bright, the country was doomed. Mr. Bright was always a friend of education and an enemy of war. He has again and again proved his strong regard and admiration for America. He pointed long years ago to the press of America and to the schools of America as sure guarantees that the people of this great Republic would be worthy of their birthright. When America was bleeding at every pore with the