(Russell), or of the right hon. member for Bucks (Mr. Disraeli), they do not find in each of those cases something to admire, while at the same time they must see in the conduct of the noble lord the member for Tiverton something to humiliate them, and which they must inevitably condemn.' (Loud cheers.) The cheering was renewed, this time mingled with laughter, when Mr. Bright, still referring to Lord Palmerston, said that the Queen might make a Prime Minister, but it was not in royalty to make a statesman. If the waters were smooth, if the sky were clear, he could have no confidence in the noble lord; but the waters were not smooth, the sky was not clear -never less so. We were at a critical hour of the national career. 'He seems to me to be insensible to the fact that the clouds are gathering round the horizon of this country; he appears not to know that his policy is the doom of death to thousands upon thousands, carrying desolation to the homes of England, and sorrow to millions of hearts. He may perchance never see that which comes often to my vision, the interminable ghastly procession of our slaughtered countrymen, to which every day fresh lists of victims are added. I see these things, I speak in apprehension of them, and in their presence I have no confidence in the noble lord, whose conduct is, I believe, humiliating to the House and full of peril to the country.' (Loud cheers.)

The sympathy of the public went with the hon. member for Manchester in his vigorous denunciation of Lord Palmerston's conduct towards his late colleague, although the country was not at one with him upon the general war question.

With this trenchant address we read the end of Mr. Bright's Parliamentary utterances on the Crimean war. But before peace was concluded he spoke on many occasions out of the House on this question. In October, 1855, he attended a meeting at Rochdale, called for the purpose of making a presentation to Mr. Sharman Crawford, the late member for the borough, and in the course of his speech made some references to his own opinions on the war. He had attacked the press, he said, but fairly and honestly, and of course he would be abused by the press. He reminded his hearers that in the great war with France at the commencement of the century, the English press had made it impossible for the Government to preserve the peace. eleven years of war made hundreds of thousands of beggars and criminals within the United Kingdom, and every hundred pounds now which the Chancellor of the Exchequer took in taxes for the present war was making also its pauper or its

The

criminal.

'The (Crimean) war may be honourable, but I assure you that those little children of yours who are now ornamenting your homes and gladdening your hearts, when they grow up to be men and women, and look back to the history of the times through which we are now passing, will have wonderful difficulty to discover in the restoration of Mohammedan power, or the humiliation of Russia, or the glory of the British arms, anything that can compensate them for the crushing taxes from which they can only escape by emigrating from a country which should have afforded them a happy home during their lives.'

At Hulme, and at Marsden, on other occasions, Mr. Bright affirmed his desire for legislation based upon just, moral, and Christian principles. He did not believe in the grand schemes of policy advanced by kings, queens, or cabinets, which flew in the face of almost ordinary resolutions of Christian morality; and there was no greater evil that came from a condition of national twilight than that we were always getting into a state of panic. When the hon. member and Mr. Milner Gibson addressed their constituents in the Manchester Corn Exchange on the 28th of January, 1856, Mr. Bright ridiculed the phrase 'the defence of the liberties of Europe,' which Lord John Russell had borrowed from the King's speech in the time of William III. 'The balance of power,' was another admirable phrase, which no man living had ever understood, or succeeded in defining. It would last until men grew wiser, and found there was nothing whatever in it. It was like hunting for the philosopher's stone, or perpetual motion. They had been living under a government of old, old lords since 1688; and they would not have been able to sleep in their beds, if those who managed the affairs of the country were also the managers of their private affairs. Amidst general laughter and cheering, he quoted these lines from Ben Jonson :

'Hood an ass with reverend purple,

So you can hide his two ambitious ears,
And he shall pass for a Cathedral Doctor.'

Who would say that the rulers of the United States were not as good rulers as the average monarchs of this country, or of the rest of Europe? For himself and his friends, Mr. Bright said that they would continue to confront unflinchingly all the batteries that ridicule or malice might point against them.

There is no need for us to trace further the progress of the Crimean war, the facts being within the recollection of all

readers of English history of the present generation. Suffice it to state that the allies were victorious, and that on the 30th of March, 1856, the treaty of peace was signed. There are many, however, who on this matter will take up the language of the ballad in which Southey makes old Kaspar describe the battle of Blenheim,

'But what good came of it at last?

Quoth little Peterkin ;

Why, that I cannot tell, said he,
But 'twas a famous victory.'

It is no part of our duty to attempt to define in what degree English statesmen were wrong and Mr. Bright was right-or vice versa-in the Crimean war. There are few, however, who now defend that war from its inception to its close; while Mr. Bright and those who agreed with him have only been confirmed in their original views with the lapse of time. It has been our object rather to put the reader in possession of full information from Mr. Bright's own lips of his attitude and convictions upon this great question; and upon this information we must leave him to form his own judgment. But one lesson may be gathered by the friends and opponents alike of this eminent statesman, from the consistent and upright conduct which he pursued throughout the struggle. This lesson was well indicated by Mr. Gladstone in a speech delivered in Birmingham, twenty years after the conclusion of the conflict with Russia, when he said that we ought all to be ready to make sacrifices, as Mr. Bright showed himself to be ready, at the time of the Crimean war, to lay his popularity as a sacrifice upon the altar of his duty. It is sometimes difficult, even when our convictions support us, to dare to be in the right with two or three. Mr. Bright did this, nevertheless, in a cause which he believed to be right, and his courage and honesty will continue to draw forth, in consequence, a tribute of admiration from all classes, including those who are separated from him in political sentiment and opinion.

CHAPTER XIII.

MR. BRIGHT'S FIRST ILLNESS.-REJECTION AT MANCHESTER.

Mr. Bright's Illness in 1856.—Visits to Scotland, Algiers, and Nice.—Interesting Interview with the Empress of Russia.-Mr. Bright visits Rome and Switzerland.-Offers to resign his Seat for Manchester. The offer not accepted. The Palmerston Government defeated on the Chinese question.Mr. Bright in accord with Mr. Cobden.-Dissolution of Parliament.-The Election for Manchester.-Messrs. Bright and Gibson defeated by a Coalition.-Opinion of the Press on the Election. Mr. Bright's Farewell Address to his late Constituents.-His temporary Retirement from Public Life.

THE anxieties of several critical and memorable years began to tell upon Mr. Bright, and in January, 1856, he became ill. There was thorough prostration of the nervous system, the result of the arduous nature of his public duties, combined with the excitement arising from the war with Russia. Nevertheless, he went up to London at the opening of Parliament, hoping to be able to bear some part in the work of the session, but he was compelled to return home.

In the month of March, Lord Brougham generously offered the use of his villa at Cannes to Mr. Bright and his family until the following winter. The offer, however, which was conveyed through Mr. Cobden, was gratefully declined. Mr. Bright went to Ben Rhydding, a well-known hydropathic establishment in Yorkshire, where he spent two months. Not deriving the benefit he expected from this, he then went down to Scotland, and spent several months in the Highlands, fishing in its lochs and rivers. Some weeks were spent at Glengarry, on the invitation of his kind friend Mr. Edward Ellice, the member for Coventry. In the autumn, Mr. Bright paid a visit to Lord Aberdeen, at Haddo House, in Aberdeenshire. It may be stated here that the subject of our biography always recognized the earnest efforts made by Lord Aberdeen to secure peace before the outbreak of the Crimean war, and he was a statesman whom, in many respects, he held in high regard.

In the month of November, Mr. Bright left England for Algiers, and spent some weeks in the French colony. He afterwards visited Italy, in company with his eldest daughter, who went out from England to join him.

At Nice, in January, 1857, Mr. Bright had an interesting interview with the Empress of Russia, the wife of the Emperor Nicholas, and grandmother of the present Emperor. The Empress, hearing of his arrival in Nice, sent Baron Meyendorf to ask him to call upon her, which he accordingly did-in company with his daughter-on the Russian New Year's Day.

The Empress gave her reasons why she wished to see him, and said, 'I know you have been just to my country.'

Mr. Bright replied that he wished to be, and thought he had been, just to both countries.

The Empress spoke with much feeling, saying that she could never understand why England should have made war upon Russia. Her Majesty spoke English, though not

fluently.

Baron Meyendorf, who was one of the attached servants of the Empress, lost his son at the siege of Sebastopol; and as he mentioned his loss to Mr. Bright, the tears coursed down his cheeks. Speaking of the Empress after the interview, he said, "The Empress is so good,-I love her as my mother.'

From Nice, Mr. Bright went by way of Geneva to Civita Vecchia and Rome. In the 'Eternal City' he stayed about two months—that is, until the middle of March, and then he went north to Florence and Venice, and thence to Milan and Turin. At Turin he had a long and interesting conversation with the celebrated Italian statesman Count Cavour, chiefly relating to the Emperor of the French, and the manner in which the Treaty of Paris had been concocted in the preceding year.

Going next by the Italian lakes, Mr. Bright passed over the Simplon into Switzerland, where Mrs. Bright joined him for a short tour. Upon its conclusion, in the month of July, they returned to England. The right hon. gentleman found his health much improved after his prolonged absence from England.

During the absence of Mr. Bright upon the Continent, important political events had been transpiring in England; but before tracing these, some mention must be made of the hon. member's relations with his Manchester constituency. Feeling that so important a city should enjoy a more active and vigorous representation than he could hope to give it for some time to come, Mr. Bright wrote a letter to his committee, before leaving England for the Continent, in which he said, 'I have consulted physicians of extensive practice and eminent in