Lord Hartington remarked that Mr. Bright did not profess to
be a statesman, and in the sense of official training perhaps was not exactly a statesman ; but that few men of equal power had ever applied so consistently to their public conduct the moral standard by which they regulated their private lives. This was the characteristic which had made Mr. Bright's memory so precious a possession to us, and which would make his example a guide to all who aspired to lead public opinion. Mr. Justin McCarthy, in the absence of Mr. Parnell, followed with a kindly tribute to Mr. Bright's early exertions in the cause of Ireland, which he said that the Irish would remember long after his recent differences with them had been forgotten; and then Mr. Chamberlain said a few grateful words on behalf of Birmingham, and recalled a remark of Mr. Bright's that whenever he entered a strange house, if there were a dog or a cat in it, they always came to him directly to make friends ; and "I think," said Mr. Chamberlain, "that these domestic animals are good judges of character ; and I know, I am certain, that theirs was the only popularity that Mr. Bright ever courted,"—a finishing touch which happily completed the portrait of the great tribune of the people who never courted the people, but courted only the creatures which had nothing to give beyond their instinctive trust and mute regard.
