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LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 183

now Right Honorable John Bright, and occupies a high place in the British
Cabinet, was friendly to the loyal and progressive spirit which abolished our
slavery and saved our country from dismemberment. I have seen and heard
both of these great men, and, if I may be allowed so much egotism, I may
say I was acquainted with both of them. I was, besides, a welcome guest at
the house of Mr. Bright, in Rochdale, and treated as a friend and brother
among his brothers and sisters. Messrs. Cobden and Bright were well-
matched leaders. One was in large measure the complement of the other.
They were spoken of usually as Cobden and Bright, but there was no reason,
except that Cobden was the elder of the two, why their names might not have
been reversed.

They were about equally fitted for their respective parts in the great
movement of which they were the distinguished leaders, and neither was
likely to encroach upon the work of the other. The contrast was quite marked
in their persons as well as in their oratory. The powerful speeches of the one,
as they traveled together over the country, heightened the effect of the
speeches of the other, so that their difference was about as effective for good
as was their agreement. Mr. Cobden—for an Englishman—was lean, tall,
and slightly sallow, and might have been taken for an American or
Frenchman. Mr. Bright was, in the broadest sense, an Englishman, abound-
ing in all the physical perfections peculiar to his countrymen—full, round,
and ruddy. Cobden had dark eyes and hair, a well-formed head, high above
his shoulders, and, when sitting quiet, had a look of sadness and fatigue. In
the House of Commons, he often sat with one hand supporting his head.
Bright appeared the very opposite in this and other respects. His eyes were
blue, his hair light, his head massive, and firmly set upon his shoulders, sug-
gesting immense energy and determination. In his oratory Mr. Cobden was
cool, candid, deliberate, straight-forward, yet at times slightly hesitating.
Bright, on the other hand, was fervid, fluent, rapid; always ready in thought
or word. Mr. Cobden was full of facts and figures, dealing in statistics by the
hour. Mr. Bright was full of wit, knowledge, and pathos, and possessed
amazing power of expression. One spoke to the cold, calculating side of the
British nation, which asks "if the new idea will pay." The other spoke to the
infinite side of human nature—the side which asks, first of all, "Is it right'?
is it just? is it humane?" Wherever these two great men appeared, the people
assembled in thousands. They could, at an hour's notice, pack the town hall
of Birmingham, which would hold seven thousand persons, or the Free
Trade Hall in Manchester, and Covent Garden theater, London, each of
which was capable of holding eight thousand.