Just as good people thought they could easily make Ireland protestant if only she could be got within earshot of evangelical truth, so statesmen expected that a few clauses on a parchment would suffice to root out at a stroke the inveterate habits and ideas of long generations.
Morley draws a parallel between misguided religious efforts and the political attempts to reform Ireland.
Share
More from John Morley
I think they will commit a great error if they take this course.
But Turgot was one of those severe and scrupulous souls, to whom a wicked promise does not cease to be degrading by becoming hypocritical.
Inspire him with the desire of pleasing; he will soon know more of the art than all the masters could teach him.
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.
Other voices in this conversation
