Mr. Bright made on Wednesday, at Bradford, three speeches, and
two of them in his best manner, on the occasion of unveiling a monument of Cobden. He told Cobden's life as it had never been told before, in a speech which will be the classic biography of his friend, to be read by posterity ; and repeated, with new effect, the story of Cobden's coming to him when his young wife had just died, and saying, "There are thousands and thousands of homes in England at this moment where wives and mothers are dying of hunger. Now, when the first paroxysm of your grief is passed, I would advise you to come with me, and we will never rest until the Corn Laws are repealed." The second speech was marked by a rather forced attempt to lay the blame of the railway strikes on the shoulders of American Protectionism. But the third was an eloquent argument, in Mr. Bright's happiest vein, against being led into hostilities by the Rowdy war-party playing upon a foolish jealousy of Russia. He thought Russia's interference was only a just and logical consequence of the Con- ference; and that it was wrong to say to her, ,g You must not go to Constantinople," since attacking an enemy in his capital is the speediest mode of bringing a war to a close. The Dardanelles and Bosphorus must be opened, but "on the block system,s- that is, only a limited number of ships-of-war should be between the Straits at the same time. Meantime, men of business, who are now the shuttlecocks of wild rumours, have a right to get from the Government a distinct enunciation of their policy, and particularly to know whether they mean to occupy Gallipoli, a tittle place where Mr. Bright once nearly ran ashore, and where he hopes the Government will not get aground. Ile warned the people of Bradford that if England thought of seizing or purchasing Egypt, she would draw down the protest of France, and run a risk of a European combination. The speech, un- answerable and timely in the main, will have more influence at Manchester and Bradford than elsewhere, owing to an under- current of "peace at any price," and an assumption that the utmost benefit ever derived from war is a knowledge of geography.
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