John Bright | |
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![]() John Bright in the 1870s | |
President of the Board of Trade | |
In office 9 December 1868 – 14 January 1871 | |
Monarch | Victoria |
Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
Preceded by | The Duke of Richmond |
Succeeded by | Chichester Parkinson-Fortescue |
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
In office 30 September 1873 – 17 February 1874 | |
Monarch | Victoria |
Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
Preceded by | Hugh Childers |
Succeeded by | Thomas Edward Taylor |
In office 28 April 1880 – 25 July 1882 | |
Monarch | Victoria |
Prime Minister | William Ewart Gladstone |
Preceded by | Thomas Edward Taylor |
Succeeded by | The Earl of Kimberley |
Parliamentary offices | |
1843–1847 | Member of Parliament for City of Durham |
1847–1857 | Member of Parliament for Manchester |
1857–1885 | Member of Parliament for Birmingham |
1869–1870 | Member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland for Kennedy |
1885–1889 | Member of Parliament for Birmingham Central |
Personal details | |
Born | 16 November 1811 Rochdale, Lancashire, England |
Died | 27 March 1889 Rochdale, Lancashire, England | (aged 77)
Political party | Liberal Unionist (1886-89) Liberal (1859-86) Radical (until 1859) |
Spouses |
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Liberalism |
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John Bright (16 November 1811 – 27 March 1889) was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies.
A Quaker, Bright is most famous for battling the Corn Laws. In partnership with Richard Cobden, he founded the Anti-Corn Law League, aimed at abolishing the Corn Laws, which raised food prices and protected landowners' interests by levying taxes on imported wheat. The Corn Laws were repealed in 1846. Bright also worked with Cobden in another free trade initiative, the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty of 1860, promoting closer interdependence between Great Britain and the Second French Empire. This campaign was conducted in collaboration with French economist Michel Chevalier, and succeeded despite Parliament's endemic mistrust of the French.
Bright sat in the House of Commons from 1843 to 1889, promoting free trade, electoral reform and religious freedom. He was almost a lone voice in opposing the Crimean War; he also opposed William Ewart Gladstone's proposed Home Rule for Ireland. He saw himself as a spokesman for the middle class and strongly opposed the privileges of the landed aristocracy. In terms of Ireland, he sought to end the political privileges of Anglicans, disestablished the Church of Ireland, and began land reform that would turn land over to the Catholic peasants. He coined the phrase "The mother of parliaments."