ent, were a mere handful, are already
assuming, under the vigorous lead of Bright, Cobden, and Villiers, the
proportions of a systematic and powerful element in the lower house.
Caring little for the impotent sneers of an aristocracy in its dotage,
and mindful only to advance systems of popular improvement and
alleviation, he has become a nucleus around which has gathered the
extreme wing of the liberal party. The last century beheld the
profligate Wilkes and the shallow Burdett at the head of the ultraists;
our own time is more fortunate in superseding vicious and unprincipled
radical leaders by men more virtuous and ingenuous. The great
manufacturing towns and districts, composed mainly of the lower orders
of society, and devoted to the interests of commerce, as opposed to the
narrow demands of the agricultural interest, have, owing in a great
degree to Mr. Bright's exertions, become pillars of his party. Lord
Palmerston, than whom a more sagacious politician does not or has not
existed, testified his knowledge of the influence of the Bright party,
by offering Mr. Cobden a seat in the Cabinet, and afterward by sending
him as special agent of England to negotiate a commercial treaty with
France.

John Bright has always shown himself a staunch friend to the prosperity
of the United States. Whenever an opportunity offered in which to
propose this country as an example worthy of the imitation of his own
countrymen, he has never failed to urge the superiority of our system.
His political ideas, approaching to republicanism, and abhorring the
dominance of hereditary aristocrats, and a political Church, have found
their theories realized in the admirable machinery of our own
government. Untainted with that jealous prejudice which appears to
animate many of his fellow-citizens, he can discern, and is ready to
acknowledge, the superior efficacy of the principles which underlie our
Constitution. No one has, of late, been more earnest in denunciation of
the irritating policy of Great Britain toward America, than Mr. Bright.

His personal appearance is that of a hearty, good-natured, and yet
determined Englishman, and both his form and face betoken the John Bull
as much as any member of the House. His morals are of a high order, his
honesty proverbial, his courage undoubted, his social character amiable,
and calculated to make him welcome to every circle. It is said, that
although opposed in the extreme to the political doctrine