Of course I remember a good deal about the late Mr. John Bright and his visits to Birmingham.  So do other people, and as many of these others are scribes and quasi-historians who have published their records, there is really not much for me to tell.  I may say that I heard nearly every speech our distinguished member delivered in Birmingham, for I hardly ever missed a meeting at which Mr. Bright was a spokesman.  Even now I distinctly recall the first occasion on which he spoke after he became M.P. for Birmingham.  The Town Hall was more than crowded, it was packed; indeed, I might almost say that herrings in a tub have elbow room compared with the very compressed gathering that welcomed Mr. Bright on the occasion.

In order to make more space the benches were removed from nearly all parts of the Town Hall, and the curious sight of the sea of faces when Mr. Bright appeared lingers in my memory still.  One curious thing I observed at this gathering was that so long as our member was speaking the vast assembly was held spellbound.  But when he paused for a moment to turn over his notes or take a sip of water, the tightly squeezed audience swayed for a little bodily relief and expansion, and this resulted in big surging waves of humanity, which rolled from one end of the body of the hall to the other, and often lasted for some little time.

At this moment I can recollect almost word for word the stirring and eloquent peroration with which Mr. Bright closed his first address to his Birmingham constituents.  It roused his hearers to a pitch of demonstrative enthusiasm such as I have never seen equalled.

I could quote from memory many striking passages from the principal speeches I heard our distinguished member deliver.  But why?  Are they not recorded in a hundred books, or at least in many books and hundreds of newspapers?  I will, therefore, now content myself with just one or two personal reminiscences connected with our great Parliamentary representative.

One little story I have to tell is connected with Mr. Bright’s speech on the occasion of unveiling the statue of Mr. Joseph Sturge, erected at the Five Ways, Birmingham.  There was an immense gathering on that occasion, and of course I was there.  I secured a good position for hearing, but, unfortunately, there was a woman near me with a crying baby in her arms.  This prevented me hearing much that the speaker said, and at last I got quite out of patience, and turning to the woman I remarked, “Why don’t you take that noisy child home?” “Oh,” said the woman in reply, “her’s just as bad at home.”  I felt I had my answer, and that there was no more to be said.

On another occasion I remember Mr. Bright walking down New Street, just after delivering one of his grandest speeches, when a working-man, one of the real “horny-handed,” stepped up to him and patted him on the back in the most familiar and approving manner.  I will also just note one other little incident in connection with Mr. Bright and Birmingham and then I have done.  I have to give this second-hand, but I believe what I say may be accepted.