Mr. Bright received on Thursday the very , magnificent testimonial which
the Potteries have so gracefully prepared for him during his time of weakness and retirement. The gift consisted of a beautiful cabinet, filled with the most
perfect specimens of the work of the Potteries, purchased by the subscription which Mr. Pidduck, the ex-Mayor of Hanley, assisted by committees in all the six towns which make up the Parliamentary borough of Stoke-upon-Trent, had raised. Mr. Bright, in his speech of thanks, recurred with his usual vivid- ness to the history of the great Free-Trade agitation, and the wickedness of the system which it had broken down. He con- cluded his speech by a cordial tribute to the existing Government, and the characteristic remark that if the party which still com- plains of everything the liberals have done, which has obstructed everything, and combated everything, still has "the audacity to appeal to the support of the people," the only consolation is the charitable one that, opponents though they have been, " they partake fully of the things which we have provided for them," exactly as the just and unjust alike profit by the shining of the sun and the falling of the rain. No doubt that is a consolation, and it is a still greater consolation to know that Peel was compelled to give his party Free Trade in spite of themselves, and Disraeli to bestow upon equally reluctant and ungrateful followers the blessings of an extended suffrage.
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