John Morley

The liberalism of to-day is better in what I have described as ennobling the old conservatism; nay, much better, yet far from being good.

Its pet idea is what they call construction,—that is to say, taking into the hands of the state the business of the individual man.

I have even the hope that while the coming change may give undue encouragement to “construction,” it will be favourable to the economic, pacific, law-regarding elements; and the sense of justice which abides tenaciously in the masses will…

Upon the whole, weak-kneed liberals have caused us more trouble in the present parliament than radicals.

But I think these declarations by Chamberlain upon matters which cannot, humanly speaking, become practical before the next parliament, can hardly be construed otherwise than as having a remote and (in that sense) far-sighted purpose which…

In my opinion, differences of views stated, and if need be argued, and then advisedly surrendered with a view to a common conclusion are not “divisions in a cabinet.” By that phrase I understand unaccommodated differences on matters…

Gladstone was as little disposed as Chatham or Palmerston to shrink from the defence of the legitimate rights or obligations of his country.

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…

It is not surely possible that he should decide policy, and that we should adopt and answer for it, even where it is in conflict with the announcements we have made in parliament.

Lord North did not, as I read history, require to change his opinions to suit the popular cry.

They were already in accordance with the popular cry; and it is a serious reproach against him that without sharing his master’s belief in the propriety of the war, he long persisted in carrying it on, through subserviency to that master.

It is also, if not one of the necessities, at least one of the natural probabilities of our imperfect condition, that when a nation has its forces engaged in war, that is the moment when other nations may press inconvenient questions of…

All I say is, we cannot in that state of things close this book and say, ‘We will look into it no more.’ We must do our best to have right done in the matter.

Some time ago I told you that dark as the sky was with many a thunder-cloud, there were the possibilities of an admirable situation and result, and for me a wind-up better than at any time I could have hoped.

So also upon the Irish complications there is more hope than there was yesterday, although the odds may still be heavily against our getting forward unitedly in a satisfactory manner.

A minority with these misgivings and more felt that the minister’s pregnant phrase about the government “having no moral force behind them” too exactly described a fatal truth.

The Crimes Act would expire in August, and the state of parties in parliament and of sections within the cabinet, together with the approach of the general election, made the question whether that Act should be renewed, and if so on what…

Ireland must be in an awful state, or else the radical members of the cabinet would never have assented to such unanswerable evidence that the liberal party could not govern Ireland without resort to that arbitrary force which their…

Why not put some kind thoughts towards England in Irish minds, by using the last days of this unlucky parliament to abrogate all that harsh legislation which is so odious to England, and which undoubtedly abridges the freedom and insults…

Under the circumstances, while the duty of the hour evidently was to study the means of possible accommodation, the present aspect of affairs was that of a probable split, independently of the question what course I might individually…

I doubt very much if it is wise or was right to cover over the serious differences of principle that have lately disclosed themselves in the cabinet.

I think it is now certain that they will cause a split in the new parliament, and it seems hardly fair to the constituencies that this should only be admitted, after they have discharged their function and are unable to influence the…

But it sometimes happens that the errors gravest in their consequences are also the most pardonable.

I do not remember a single good measure recommended by opponents, which we have declined to adopt (or indeed any good measure which they have recommended at all).

I would use my best endeavours to make these States independent in matters of administration.