No question cuts deeper in the art of administering a vast system like that of Great Britain, than the influence of the agent at a distant place; nowhere is the balance of peril between too slack a rein from home and a rein too tight, more delicate.
Morley reflects on the complexities of governance in a vast empire, emphasizing the delicate balance of authority between the home government and distant agents.
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This is no mere case of barren wrangle and verbal recrimination.
We ought to be able to separate in thought the question of the grounds and evidence for a given dogma being true, from the distinct and purely historic question of the social and intellectual conditions which made men accept it for true.
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.
I am trying to feel my way through the most difficult problem, the most difficult situation that a responsible Government can have to face.
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