MP For Birmingham: 1858–1889
In 1857, Bright's unpopular opposition to the Crimean War led to his losing his seat as member for Manchester. Within a few months, he was elected unopposed as one of the two MPs for Birmingham in 1858. He would hold this position for over thirty years though he would later leave the Liberal Party on the issue of Irish Home Rule in 1886.
On 27 October 1858, he launched his campaign for parliamentary reform at Birmingham Town Hall. This would lead to the Reform Act of 1867. In 1866 John Bright wrote an essay with the title "Speech on Reform". In this speech he demands the enfranchisement of the working class people because of their sheer number. He also says that one should rejoice in open demonstrations rather than being confronted with armed rebellion or secret conspiracy." In 1882, the acclaimed Liberal Prime Minister, William Gladstone, ordered the Royal Navy to bombard Alexandria to recover the debts owed by the Egyptians to British investors. Bright scornfully dismissed it as 'a jobbers' war,' war on behalf of a privileged class of capitalists, and resigned from the Gladstone cabinet."
Quite exceptionally, John Bright, from 1864 until his death, had a long and frequent association with Llandudno in North Wales. This following a holiday with his wife and son, staying at the St. George's Hotel. On a visit to St. Tudno's Church on the Great Orme and passing through the graveyard, his five year old son said: "Mamma, when I am dead, I want to be buried here" and so he was just a week later, the victim of scarlet fever. John Bright returned to Llandudno at least once each year for 25 years until his own death in 1889. And he is still remembered in Llandudno where the principal secondary school for many years (and there have been several on different sites) is known by his name. The present Ysgol John Bright was built new in 2004 ('ysgol' is Welsh for school).
Bright had much literary and social recognition in his later years. In 1880 he was elected Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow, and Dr Dale wrote of his rectorial address: "It was not the old Bright." He was given an honorary degree of the University of Oxford in 1886. He delivered the opening address for the Birmingham Central Library in 1882, and in 1888 the city erected a statue of him. The marble statue of him by Albert Joy was in store until it was recently restored to a prominent position in The Birmingham Art Gallery and Museum. John Bright Street, close to the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham, is named in his honour along with the township of Bright in the Victoria, Australia.
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