ABSTRACT
IN 1845 John Bridges went to Rugby, then under Tait, carrying with him to the public school that same power of imprinting his personality on others and interesting them in the larger questions of life, noted in his cousin's memories of him as a boy at Stoke. In these years of school life, the drama of English and European history was developing on great lines—the spirit of progress slowly but steadily beating down the forces of reaction. Free Trade, ushered in by the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, saved England, seething with rebellion and social upheaval, from the perils of actual revolution; Peel, as Bright long afterwards finely said, by giving bread to the people, had put the Lord's Prayer into an act of Parliament. Shaftesbury, then Lord Ashley, a rock in a stormy sea, was doggedly pushing forward those reforms of the Factory Laws, which have made his name a torch to hand down to future generations. In France and Italy great events were being brought to the birth. The republic of 1848 in France, the glorious, if shortlived Roman republic, with Mazzini and Garibaldi to appeal to all the romance and idealism of youth, roused the enthusiasm of the thinking set of Rugby boys among whom John Bridges took his place, and whom, fresh as he was from Saffi's influence, he soon inspired. Goschen, Godfrey Lushington, Horace Davey, Shadworth Hodgson, Jex Blake, Arthur Butler, Franck Bright, all to make their mark in later life, looked up to him as their leader. The revolution of 1848 was followed with intense excitement. Wordsworth became the boys’ hero from his sympathies with republican France. John was steeped in the Prelude and Sonnets, and his love of Wordsworth remained with him through life. Coleridge too and Shelley enthralled him.
