He had already, he observed, in the government of 1880 made concessions on other subjects that might be thought to have shaken public confidence in him; he could go no further without destroying that confidence altogether.
Morley reflects on the delicate balance politicians must maintain to preserve public confidence while making concessions.
Share
More from John Morley
If they, situated exactly as we are, decline to join, we are not bound single-handed to make up the deficiencies of the rest.
Gladstone protested against the bill as “inequitable, unusual, and unwise,” and it was largely modified in committee.
It is a case so to speak of “limited liability.” We are bound in honour—you cannot put a legal construction upon it—to see in concert with others that these arrangements are maintained.
Happy the man who from out the floods has fled the storm and found the haven; happy too is he who has surmounted toil and trouble.—Bacchae, 902-5.
Other voices in this conversation
