John Morley: “On the whole, I rejoice to think that, come what may, this affair will really effect progress in the Irish question.”

Could ministers justify abandonment, without far stronger evidence than they then possessed that they could not govern the Transvaal peaceably?

Do not weary or fret or nag him with your superior wisdom.

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.

All alike concerned themselves with its truth or falsehood, with what they counted to be its abstract fitness or unfitness.