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

for an unsettled diplomatic question.
There are many social and political reforms, destined, it may be hoped,
to become matter of debate and action in a Reformed Parliament,
towards the accomplishment of which Mr. 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.
* * * * *
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.
* * * * *
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