To Cobden, Jan. 28.—Criticism is busy; but the only thing really formidable is the unavowed but strong conflict with that passionate expectation of war, which no more bears disappointment than if it were hope or love.
Morley reflects on the intense public sentiment surrounding the prospect of war, comparing it to deep emotional attachments.
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All alike concerned themselves with its truth or falsehood, with what they counted to be its abstract fitness or unfitness.
To stint Ireland in power which might be necessary or desirable for the management of matters purely Irish, would be a great error; and if she was so stinted, the end that any such measure might contemplate could not be attained.
It would be a happy day for the Peace Society that should give the colonies a veto on imperial war.
But they were barren of any institutions by which the country could be governed and kept in prosperity for the future.”(166) This is a statement of the case that biographer and historian alike should ponder.
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