Speeches on Questions of Public Policy, vol 1

Speeches on Questions of Public
Policy, vol 1

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Title: Speeches on Questions of Public Policy, Volume 1
Author: John Bright
Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7080] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 7,

2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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ON PUBLIC POLICY ***

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SPEECHES
ON QUESTIONS OF PUBLIC POLICY BY JOHN BRIGHT, M.P.
EDITED BY JAMES E. THOROLD ROGERS
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I.
'BE JUST AND FEAR NOT'
SECOND EDITION
* * * * *
PREFACE.
The speeches which have been selected for publication in these
volumes possess a value, as examples of the art of public speaking,
which no person will be likely to underrate. Those who may differ from
Mr. Bright's theory of the public good will have no difficulty in
acknowledging the clearness of his diction, the skill with which he
arranges his arguments, the vigour of his style, the persuasiveness of

his reasoning, and above all, the perfect candour and sincerity with
which he expresses his political convictions.
It seems likely that the course of events in this country will lead those,
who may desire to possess influence in the conduct of public affairs, to
study the art of public speaking. If so, nothing which can be found in
English literature will aid the aspirant after this great faculty more than
the careful and reiterated perusal of the speeches contained in these
volumes. Tried indeed by the effect produced upon any audience by
their easy flow and perfect clearness, or analysed by any of those
systems of criticism which under the name of 'rhetoric' have been saved
to us from the learning of the ancient world, these speeches would be
admitted to satisfy either process.
This is not the occasion on which to point out the causes which confer
so great an artistic value on these compositions; which give them now,
and will give them hereafter, so high a place in English literature. At
the present time nearly a hundred millions of the earth's inhabitants
speak the English tongue. A century hence, and it will probably be the
speech of nearly half the inhabitants of the globe. I think that no master
of that language will occupy a loftier position than Mr. Bright; that no
speaker will teach with greater exactness the noblest and rarest of the
social arts, the art of clear and persuasive exposition. But before this art
can be attained (so said the greatest critic that the world has known), it
is necessary that the speaker should secure the sympathies of his
audience, should convince them of his statesmanship, should show that
he is free from any taint of self-interest or dissimulation. These
conditions of public trust still form, as heretofore, in every country of
free thought and free speech, the foundation of a good reputation and of
personal influence. It is with the fact that such are the characteristics of
my friend's eloquence, that I have been strongly impressed in collecting
and editing the materials of these volumes.
Since the days of those men of renown who lived through the first half
of the seventeenth century, when the liveliest religious feeling was
joined to the loftiest patriotism, and men laboured for their conscience
and their country, England has witnessed no political career like that of

Cobden and Bright. Cobden's death was a great loss to his country, for
it occurred at a time when England could ill spare a conscientious
statesman. Nations, however, cannot be saved by the virtues, nor need
they be lost by the vices, of their public men. But Cobden's death was
an irreparable loss to his friends--most of all to the