~Brickkiln Lane,~ now called the Horse Fair, gives its own derivation.
~Bright.~--The Right Hon. John Bright, though not a Birmingham man, nor
connected with the town by any ties of personal interest or business,
has for the last quarter-century been the leading member returned to
Parliament as representing the borough, and must always rank foremost
among our men of note. Mr. Bright is the son of the late Jacob Bright,
of Greenbank, near Rochdale, and was born November 16, 1811. He and his
brother, Mr. Jacob Bright, M.P. for Manchester, began business as
partners in the affiliated firms of John Bright and Brothers, cotton
spinners and manufacturers, Rochdale, and Bright and Co., carpet
manufacturers, Rochdale and Manchester. At an early age Mr. Bright
showed a keen interest in politics, and took part in the Reform
agitation of 1831-32. In those days every householder was compelled by
law to pay the Church-rates levied in his parish, whatever his religious
creed might be, and it is said that Mr. Bright's first flights of
oratory were delivered from a tombstone in Rochdale church-yard in
indignant denunciation of a tax which to him, as a member of the Society
of Friends, appeared especially odious.
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