MR. JACOB BRIGHT.
IT is with much interest and satisfaction that we have observed the emphatic tribute paid by leading citizens of Manchester to the character and work of Mr. Jacob Bright on Monday last, when a bust of that venerable politician, presented to the Corporation by the subscribers, was unveiled in the Town Hall. The letters read and speeches delivered on that occasion touched, as was natural and right, upon the value of Mr. Bright's services in the capacity of local Member, his zeal and efficiency in furthering the interests of Manchester in Parliament, and the ready aid which he always gave to those who were seeking to press the claims of the city upon the Ministers of the day. Remembering for how long a time the voice of Manchester in the House of Commons has been predominantly Conservative and Unionist, there is considerable significance in Sir John Harwood's remark that "when you desired an interview with the Government, whoever else failed, you could rely on Mr. Jacob Bright." Conscientious discharge of the duties of Parliamentary representation, simply on their local side, Is always a service of much more than merely local im- rortance, and very particularly so, of course, when the community concerned is the centre of one of the greatest branches of the national industry and commerce. But the special features of Mr. Jacob Bright's public life on which his neighbours have laid stress, in honouring him while, happily, though infirm and in retirement, he is still with them, are his absolute disinterestedness, his high-minded devotion to political and social truth as he saw it, and his fearless advocacy of the opinions he had thought out for himself, however unpopular they might be.
It is not the partiality of friends which pronounces Mr. Jacob Bright's career to have been marked, in an excep- tional degree, by the qualities of honesty, independence, and courage. The fact has been so. His figure has been unavoidably and continuously overshadowed by his close relationship to one of the most remarkably gifted, attractive, and picturesque personalities that have played a part in the modern life of England. The late Mr. Bright could take up no cause without bestowing on it a certain touch of poetic charm. When he stepped into the lists the feeling was at once diffused that the side on which he declared himself was either brought within measurable distance of winning, or, if not so, at least in- vested with that dignity which redeems the distress even of contending for the hopeless. Mr. Jacob Bright has not possessed this magic power. Not that he has been by any means wanting in intellectual vigour or resource. His illustrious brother, we believe, went so far as to say that Jacob was the clever member of the family; and if the justice of that fraternal estimate can hardly be recognised without extensive qualifications by im- partial observers, it is no doubt true that those who know Mr. Jacob Bright well have formed a high opinion of his ability as well as of his moral strength. But it is the robustness of his moral fibre which con- stitutes the claim recognised by his fellow-aitizens this week to their high esteem, and the presence in him of that quality is evidenced all the more decisively by the absence of the astonishing gifts of oratory possessed by his brother. The late Mr. Bright would, we are very sure, have been brave under any circumstances. But after all it is relatively easy to be brave when one wields the sword Excalibur. To take up one more or less unpopular cause after another when one is not equipped with any weapon by which the overpowering majority may be, if not vanquished, at least stricken with awe and forbidden to gibe,—that is courage of a necessarily high order. And it is courage of that type which Mr. Jacob Bright has consistently displayed. We acknowledge this all the more readily in that it has usually been our lot to disagree more or less strongly with the line which he has taken, though in obtaining the municipal franchise for women we recognise that he did undoubtedly good work. Nor has it commonly appeared to us that his arguments for the causes which to him seemed all-important were, though put no doubt with clearness and knowledge of the subject, and therefore with considerable effect, couched in such a form as to strike the imagination of a people whose imagination is by no means easily reached. Therefore, when we have disagreed with Mr. Jacob Bright, as has frequently happened from the time of his pre-Gladstonian advocacy of Home-rule, and possibly earlier, we have not deemed him a formidable opponent. But none the less, indeed all the more, do we respect the temper in which he haa borne himself through the long battle of life, and welcome the acknowledgment which Manchestergnen have made of his resolute adherence to the cause of abstract Justice.
It is, indeed, growingly important that in our political life there should be men approximating, in essential respects, to Mr. Jacob Bright's type of character. The tendency of the times is distinctly unfavourable to the multiplication of politicians who will think and speak for themselves. They are not the class of persons who commend themselves to the leaders of party organisations when a promising candidate is wanted. At the present time, there are a number of "social ques- tions" lying on the border-line between parties, and offering opportunities for rival political aspirants to outbid one another. In such circumstances the desideratum for which the managers of the "machine" look in a possible candidate, in addition to the gift of stating the common- places of party warfare with some rhetorical effect, is dignified and adroit flexibility of adaptation. The person who may be commended with safety to a constituency is, it is thought, one who can avoid committing himself on any by-question that happens to be interesting the electors until it is plainly seen in which direction the feeling of the majority is likely to point, and who can then pronounce definitely in that direction in such fashion as to produce the impression that he has never thought anything else. This art is a difficult one, and it is quite possible for its exponents to prove so awkward that the end for which they have practised it is defeated. But if they are, unhappily, smart enough, there is, we fear, little doubt that the ordinary party manager would say that they are the kind of men most likely to succeed in the game of modern politics. They are, of course, precisely the kind of men whose success is least favourable to the real advantage of the nation. And it is, therefore, highly desirable that it should be seen that the real respect of Englishmen goes out to those politicians who are ready to risk anything at any time in order to lead their countrymen in the right direction, as they see it in the best light that their independent thought can shed on the ques- tions that are from time to time to the front. That has been Mr. Jacob Bright's character as a public man, and he has thus always presented the exact antithesis of the machine-man's ideal candidate. As our excellent contemporary the Manchester Guardian says : "He told the people what he judged they ought to think, not what he imagined they would like to think ; and where he had to go counter to popular opinion he never minced the matter, but rather emphasised the points of difference than sought to belittle them." The last clause points, no doubt, to an overdoing of independence. The arts of conciliation should be studied by him who would lead the people aright. By all means, and always, let the politician tell the people what they ought, as he judges, to think; but let him, if he may, persuade them that, if they really understand the question at issue, and look at it with their best selves, they will agree with him. In our opinion, there is an infinite amount of good to be done by those who try to combine a sounder judgment than Mr. Jacob Bright's and a more persuasive manner with the exalted aims and the spirit of simple courage and self-sacrifice which animated him. He sought unquestionably to bring the Sermon on the Mount into politics. It is a magnifi- cent ideal, and needs for its advancement a wider outlook than Mr. Jacob Bright commanded. But the possession of such aims and such a spirit as his is of vital value, and Manchester has done well to honour them in him.
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