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spectacle, not of armies and military commanders, but of the magnanimity and mercy of a powerful and victorious nation. The vanquished were treated as the vanquished, in the history of the world, have never before been treated.' We might now say, if history had no sadder, yet, taking a different view, it had probably also no brighter page. To Mr. Garrison more than to any other man was this due; for his was the creation of that opinion which had made slavery hateful, and had also made freedom possible in America. His name was now venerated in his own country and in Europe, and in time to come it would be the herald and the synonym of good to millions of men who now dwelt on the almost unknown continent of Africa. Mr. Bright then referred to our own champions of freedom, Clarkson, Wilberforce, Buxton, Sturge, and Thompson; and returning, in conclusion, to the guest of the day, said: 'I have kept within my heart his name, and the names of those who have been associated with him in every step which he has taken; and in public debates in the halls of peace, and even on the blood-soiled fields of war, my heart has always been with those whe were the friends of freedom. We welcome him, then, with a cordiality which knows no stint and no limit for him and for his noble associates, both men and women; and we venture to speak a verdict which, I believe, will be sanctioned by all mankind, not only by those who live now, but by those who shall come after, to whom their perseverance and their success shall be a lesson

and a help in the future struggles which remain for men to make. One of our oldest and greatest poets has furnished me with a line that well expresses that verdict. Are not William Lloyd Garrison and his fellow-labourers in that world's work-are they not

"On Fame's eternal bead-roll worthy to be filed?" '

These are the utterances of Mr. Bright upon a question which divided Englishmen into passionate and hostile camps. He never swerved in his judgment upon the great issues at stake in the American civil war; and this is no light boast when we look back upon the momentous events of that terrible period, or regard the happy consolidation which has since taken place in that great nation, which speaks the same language as ourselves, and is moved by the same impulses. It was but natural that his unwearied persistence in the cause of the North-a cause which he believed to rest on just and righteous principlesshould earn for him the gratitude of the people of the United States. How deep and lasting that gratitude was, and is, may be gathered, amongst other things, from a statement made by an eminent merchant of New York, who a few years ago came upon a visit to this country. Addressing the children of Gravel Lane Ragged School, Salford, he said, 'If you were to ask in the schools of America, Who are the three men whom, as a country, we love the most? the reply would be: First, Washington, because he was the father of his country; secondly, Abraham Lincoln, because he was the saviour of his country; thirdly,

VOL. II.

8

John Bright, because he is the friend of our country.' During the progress of the war, and after the debate on Mr. Roebuck's motion, the members of the New York Chamber of Commerce sent to Mr. Bright, through the American Minister in London, a resolution which had been unanimously passed at one of their meetings, to the effect, That this Chamber desires to place on its records an expression of the grateful sense entertained by its members of the intelligent, eloquent, just, and fearless manner in which Mr. John Bright has defended, before the people of England in the British Parliament, the principles of constitutional liberty and international justice, for the maintenance of which the American people are contending, and that the proceedings be communicated to Mr. Bright.' This compliment, which was of no merely formal character, was suitably acknowledged.

But perhaps the most interesting reminiscence relating to Mr. Bright and the United States is one respecting which we are able to give the following particulars. The staff used by President Lincoln was bequeathed to Mr. Bright by the Rev. Dr. J. Smith, of Springfield, Illinois, the latter having first received it from Mr. Lincoln's family. The President's gold-headed staff, or cane, bears the following inscription on the gold head: 'J. A. M'Clernand to the Hon. A. Lincoln, June, 1857;' and on a gold ferule below are the .words, 'Presented to the Rev. Jas. Smith, D.D., late pastor of First Presbyterian Church,

Springfield, Ills., by the family of the late President Lincoln, in memoriam of the high esteem in which he was held by him and them as their pastor and dear friend, 27th April, 1868.' On another gold ferule, lower down, is the following: 'Bequeathed by the Rev. Dr. Smith, U. S. Consul, Dundee, to the Right Hon. John Bright, M.P., in recognition of his tried friendship to the United States.'

The following is an extract from the will of Dr. Smith:

'I give, devise, and bequeath unto John Bright, Esq., member of the British House of Commons, and to his heirs, the gold-mounted staff, or cane, which belonged to the deceased President Lincoln of the United States, and presented to me by the deceased's widow and family as a mark of the President's respect; which staff is to be kept as an heirloom in the family of the said John Bright, as a token of the esteem which the late President felt for him because of his unwearied zeal and defence of the United States in suppressing the civil rebellion of the Southern States.'

Mr. Reid, the Executor of Dr. Smith, in a note of the date of July 17, 1871, informing Mr. Bright of the bequest, says, 'I may mention that the late President's family are much pleased at Dr. Smith's bequeathing it to you, as it was the President's wish that you eventually should get it.'

There have been some moral campaigns upon which men have entered with hope and courage,

whose results have not, unhappily, during the lifetime of those engaged in them, been witnessed in the furtherance of the cause of truth and freedom. But it was the good fortune of Mr. Bright, and those who laboured in the same cause, during the great American struggle, to witness the attainment of the noble ends for which they strove, viz., the liberation of the slave, and the re-knitting with surer and stronger force those great national bonds which had been momentarily severed.

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