A View of John Bright in 1867

A VIEW OF JOHN BRIGHT IN 1867 By Opal Thornburg* In April 1867 three of the ten members of the Class of 1865 of Earlham College set out together on a carefully planned period of travel and study in Europe. In the words of one of the three, they wanted "to learn as many real life lessons as possible. . . . What do people travel for, if it is not that they may better know what the world is and how the people act &c, in short lay up such a knowledge of men and things as will make one better able to discharge the duties of after life."1 Henry C. Wright, son of Earlham's Superintendent,2 Parvin Wright, was to stay for eight months before entering business in Richmond and Indianapolis. Calvin W. Pearson, who became his lifelong friend, was to begin study at the University of Berlin, transferring later to the University of Göttingen, from which he received his doctorate in 1869, thereafter serving for fifteen years as Professor of History and Languages at Earlham. Edward Taylor, principal of the Friends Academy at Spiceland, Indiana, longed especially to see Italy that summer, and was then to study at the University of Berlin for a year. Later, he was a school superintendent in various cities and a representative in the Iowa State Legislature. A letter from Henry Wright to his parents and friends at home,3 postmarked in London on May 7, 1867, tells of the journey from Liverpool through the Cotswolds, of a visit to Ackworth School and the Friends School at York, and the journey on to *Opal Thornburg, formerly Executive Assistant to the President, is now Archivist-Historian at Earlham College. 1 Letter from Calvin W. Pearson to Parvin Wright, Eleventh Month 2, 1867, written from Berlin. 2 From the opening in 1847 until the first President was named in 1868 Earlham's governing head was the Superintendent. 3 The letters referred to here are a recent gift to the Earlham College Archives from Henry Wright's daughter, Susan Wright Johnson, of Trenton, New Jersey. 43 44Bulletin of Friends Historical Association London. There Wright and Pearson (Taylor having gone his own way for a time) secured lodging in a private home "& are as much at home here as we used to be in Hades" — a comment rather startling unless one knows that various sections of Earlham Hall, where they had spent their college days, were known by such names as East Hades, Purgatory, Elysium, Paradise, Macedonia. One of their objectives in London was to visit the House of Commons and to see John Bright, internationally famous Quaker, in action. It was a propitious time, for in 1867 John Bright was at the height of his influence. In the preceding quarter century he had led the iight which led to repeal of the Corn Laws; he had worked toward reform in the affairs of Ireland and India; he had promoted the extension of suffrage, free trade, and the establishment of a national system of education. More recently, he had opposed entrance into the Crimean War. When the slavery issue in America became acute, he urged the abolition of the practice, despite the losses he would suffer in his cotton-spinning business. In the year of the visit by Henry Wright and Calvin Pearson, the principles of electoral reform for which John Bright had contended were being embodied in the Reform Bill, carried that year after much debate in Commons. When Gladstone became Prime Minister in 1868, he was to make Bright President of the Board of Trade, in which post he was influential in passing the act for the disestablishment of the Irish Church (1869) and the Irish Land Act (1870). To attend sessions of the House of Commons required a permit from a member. Henry Wright's letter tells the story of their visit to John Bright's office and to Commons: We called upon John Bright—showed him our letter from Sumner4 and C. Coffin.5 We were after a permit to visit session of House of Commons. He had us taken up to his room instead of sending us the permit. We talked with him for...