John Morley: “The difficulty arose from the huge and bottomless ignorance of those in whose hands the power lay.”

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.

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

If the idea was the direct gift of heaven, the policy was due to the sagacity and mother-wit of the great ecclesiastical statesmen.

I am trying to feel my way through the most difficult problem, the most difficult situation that a responsible Government can have to face.