Bright had much literary and social recognition in his later years. In 1882 he was elected lord rector of the university of Glasgow, and Dr Dale wrote of his rectorial address: "It was not the old Bright." "I am weary of public speaking," he had told Dr Dale; "my mind is almost a blank." He was given an honorary degree of the university of Oxford in 1886, and in 1888 a statue of him was erected at Birmingham. The 3rd marquess of Salisbury said of him, and it sums up his character as a public man: "He was the greatest master of English oratory that this generation--I may say several generations--has seen.... At a time when much speaking has depressed, has almost exterminated eloquence, he maintained that robust, powerful and vigorous style in which he gave fitting expression to the burning and noble thoughts he desired to utter."
See _The Life and Speeches of the Right Hon. John Bright, M.P_., by George Barnett Smith, 2 vols. 8vo (1881); _The Life of John Bright, M.P._, by John M^cGilchrist, in Cassell's Representative Biographies (1868); _John Bright_, by C.A. Vince (1898); _Speeches on Parliamentary Reform by John Bright, M.P., revised by Himself_ (1866); _Speeches on Questions of Public Policy_, by John Bright, M.P., edited by J.E. Thorold Rogers, 2 vols. 8vo (1868); _Public Addresses_, edited by J.E. Thorold Rogers, 8vo (1879); _Public Letters of the Right Hon. John Bright, M.P._, collected by H.J. Leech (1885).
BRIGHTLINGSEA (pronounced BRITTLESEA), a port and fishing station in the Harwich parliamentary division of Essex, England, on a creek opening from the east shore of the Colne estuary, the terminus of a branch from Colchester of the Great Eastern railway, 62½ m. E.N.E. of London. Pop. of urban district (1901) 4501. The Colchester oyster beds are mainly in this part of the Colne, and the oyster fishery is the chief industry. Boat-building is carried on. This is also a favourite yachting centre. The church of All Saints, principally Perpendicular, has interesting monuments and brasses, and a fine lofty tower and west front. Brightlingsea, which appears in Domesday, is a member of the Cinque Port of Sandwich in Kent. Near the opposite shore of the creek is St Osyth's priory, which originated as a nunnery founded by Osyth, a grand-daughter of Penda, king of Mercia, martyred (c. 653) by Norse invaders. A foundation for Augustinian canons followed on the site early in the 12th century. The remains, incorporated with a modern residence, include a late Perpendicular gateway, abbots' tower, clock tower and crypt. The gateway, an embattled structure with flanking turrets, is particularly fine, the entire front being panelled and ornamented with canopied niches. The church of St Osyth, also Perpendicular in the main, is of interest.