Speeches on Questions of Public Policy, vol 1 | Page 4

Bright has powerfully contributed. There is that without which Reform is a fraud, the redistribution of seats; that without which it is a sham, the ballot; that without which it is possibly a danger, a system of national education, which should be, if not compulsory, so cogently expedient that it cannot be rejected. There is the great question of the distribution of land, its occupancy, and its relief from that pestilent system of game preserving which robs the farmer of his profit and the people of their home supplies. There is the pacification of Ireland. The only consolation which can be gathered from the condition of that unhappy country is, that reforms, which are highly expedient in Great Britain, are vital in Ireland, and that they therefore become familiar to the public mind. There is the development of international amity and good-will, first between ourselves and the people of our own race, next between all nations. There is the recognition of public duty to inferior or subject races, a duty which was grievously transgressed before and after the Indian mutiny, and has been still more atrociously outraged in the Jamaica massacre. Upon these and similar matters, no man who wishes to deserve the reputation of a just and wise statesman,--in other words, to fulfil the highest and greatest functions which man can render to man,--can find a worthier study than the public career of an Englishman whose guiding principle throughout his whole life has been his favourite motto, 'Be just and fear not.'
I have divided the speeches contained in these volumes into groups. The materials for selection are so abundant, that I have been constrained to omit many a speech which is worthy of careful perusal. I have naturally given prominence to those subjects with which Mr. Bright has been especially identified, as, for example, India, America, Ireland, and Parliamentary Reform. But nearly every topic of great public interest on which Mr. Bright has spoken is represented in these volumes.
A statement of the views entertained by an eminent politician, who wields a vast influence in the country, is always valuable. It is more valuable when the utterances are profound, consistent, candid. It is most valuable at a crisis when the people of these islands are invited to take part in a contest where the broad principles of truth, honour, and justice are arrayed on one side, and their victory is threatened by those false cries, those reckless calumnies, those impudent evasions which form the party weapons of desperate and unscrupulous men.
All the speeches in these volumes have been revised by Mr. Bright. The Editor is responsible for their selection, for this Preface, and for the Index at the close of the second volume.
JAMES E. THOROLD ROGERS.
OXFORD, June 30, 1868.
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The Second Edition of these volumes is an exact reprint of the first, certain obvious errors of the press only having been corrected.
OXFORD, Dec. 21, 1868.
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CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
INDIA.
I. House of Commons, June 3, 1853
II. House of Commons, June 24, 1858
III. House of Commons, May 20, 1858
IV. House of Commons, August 1, 1859
V. House of Commons, March 19, 1861
CANADA.
I. House of Commons, March 13, 1865
II. The Canadian Fortifications. House of Commons, March 23, 1865
III. The Canadian Confederation Scheme. House of Commons, February 28, 1867
AMERICA.
I. The _'Trent' Affair_. Rochdale, December 4, 1861
II. The War and the Supply of Cotton. Birmingham, December 18, 1862
III. Slavery and Secession. Rochdale, February 3, 1863
IV. The Struggle in America. St. James's Hall, March 26, 1863
V. London, June 16, 1863
VI. _Mr. Roebuck's Motion for Recognition of the Southern Confederacy_. House of Commons, June 30, 1863
VII. London, June 29, 1867
IRELAND.
I. Maynooth Grand. House of Commons, April 16, 1845
II. Crime and Outrage Bill. House of Commons, December 13, 1847
III. Employment of the Poor. House of Commons, August 25, 1848
IV. Rate in Aid. House of Commons, April 2, 1849
V. Habeas Corpus Suspension Bill. House of Commons, February 17, 1866
VI. Dublin, October 30, 1866
VII. Dublin, November 2, 1866
VIII. House of Commons, March 14, 1868
IX. House of Commons, April 1, 1868
RUSSIA.
I. _War with Russia--The Queen's Message_. House of Commons, March 31, 1854
II. _Enlistment of Foreigners' Bill_. House of Commons, December 22, 1854
III. Negotiations at Vienna. House of Commons, February 23, 1855
IV. On the Prosecution of the Russian War. House of Commons, June 7, 1855
Letter of John Bright to Absalom Watkin on the Russian War
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INDIA
I
HOUSE OF COMMONS, JUNE 3, 1853.
From Hansard.
[The ministerial measure for the government of India was introduced by Sir Charles Wood on June 3, 1853. The particulars of the Bill were as follows: The Government proposed that for the future the relations between the Directors and the Board of Control should be unchanged, but that the constitution of the former should be altered and its patronage curtailed. It reduced the