Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/32

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EMINENT LIBERALS IN PARLIAMENT.

facturer from Yorkshire. While the game was proceeding, the Yorkshireman's wife chanced to ask some of the hotel attendants how her husband was engaged, and was beside herself with alarm on" learning that he was in the company of one against whom she had so often heard him express the most bloodthirsty sentiments. "Are they fighting?" she asked, and could with difficulty be pursuaded that no altercation was going on. About a couple of hours afterwards the husband turned up, rubbing his hands, and told his wife with much satisfaction that he had just been having a game at billiards with a most pleasant casual acquaintance, and that they had arranged for another trial of skill next day. "Why," exclaimed the lady, "it is John Bright you have been playing with!" The manufacturer's countenance fell; but, speedily recovering himself, he observed, in extenuation of his conduct, that the newspapers always told lies about people, and, so thoroughly was he now satisfied of Mr. Bright's entire harmlessness, that, in given circumstances, he should vote for him himself.

At home, at One Ash, Mr. Bright enjoys universal respect. His abode, though most unostentatious, is a model of comfort and good taste. His library is noteworthy, being specially rich in history, biography, and poetry. At the close of the corn-law agitation upwards of twenty-five thousand dollars were subscribed by his admirers, and twelve hundred volumes purchased therewith, as some slight acknowledgment of his powerful advocacy of the good cause. As of yore, he regularly attends the services at the humble meetinghouse of the Friends; and, as age advances, the sources of his piety show no symptom of drying up. His charities, and—