Liberty is on the march, and this year promises to be a great year in European history. Our Government is blind enough, and the Parliamentary majorities are more regarded than opinion out of doors. We must have another League of some kind, and our aristocracy must be made to submit again.

Letter to Jonathan Priestman (26 March 1848), quoted in G. M. Trevelyan, The Life of John Bright (London: Constable, 1913), p. 183.