John Morley

But I well know, from a thousand indications past and present, that a new project of mine launched into the air, would have no momentum which could carry it to its aim.

You have opened a vista which appears to terminate in a possible concession to Ireland of full power to manage her own local affairs.

But I own my leaning to the opinion that, if that consummation is in any way to be contemplated, action at a stroke will be more honourable, less unsafe, less uneasy, than the jolting process of a series of partial measures.

Meantime be assured that, with a good deal of misgiving as to the future, I shall do what little I can towards enabling all liberals at present to hold together with credit and good conscience.

But one must remember that in Ireland the population is on several subjects deeply divided, and a government is bound ’on all matters of essential justice’ to protect a minority against a majority.

In a large central authority, the wisdom of several parts of the country will correct the folly and mistakes of one.

To follow the extension of the franchise by coercion, would have been a gross inconsistency.

To show confidence by one act, and the absence of confidence by a simultaneous act, would be to stultify parliament.

The plain fact is that boycotting “is more like the excommunication or interdict of the middle ages, than anything that we know now.” “The truth about boycotting is that it depends on the passing humour of the population.

I would say that civil liberty can have no security without political power.—C.

As a scheme for securing representation of minorities it proved of little efficacy, and many believe that the substitution of a smaller constituency for a larger one has tended to slacken political interest, and to narrow political…

In the Transvaal,” he said, “we averted a war of European and Christian races throughout South African states, which would have been alike menacing to our power, and scandalous in the face of civilisation and of Christendom.

All half-hearted nationalists, the doubters and the faithless, were dismissed, and their places taken by men pledged either to obey or else go.

The British public now found out on what illusions they had for the last four years been fed.

They had now a revelation what a fool’s paradise it had been.

As a supreme electoral demonstration, the Irish elections of 1885 have never been surpassed in any country.

They showed that neither remedial measures nor repressive measures had made even the fleeting shadow of an impression on the tenacious sentiment of Ireland, or on the powerful organisation that embodied and directed it.

Whether you counted seats or counted votes, the result could not be twisted into anything but what it was—the vehement protest of one of the three kingdoms against the whole system of its government, and a strenuous demand for its…

It was ingeniously explained that their confidence in British rule had been destroyed by the Carnarvon surrender; a shopkeeper would not offend his customers for the sake of a Union Jack that no longer waved triumphant in the breeze.

There are situations that require a dictator, not to impose an opinion, but to kindle an aspiration; not to shape a demand, but to be the effective organ of opinion and demand.

Ireland is not that portion of the universe in which this is least true.

Whoever has held the post of minister for any considerable time can never absolutely, unalterably maintain and carry out his original opinions.

Why should not a solution of the present difficulties be sought in the same co-operation of parties, that had been as advantageous as it was indispensable in other critical occasions of the century?

Gladstone’s help would settle the Irish question as Peel with the help of the whigs settled the question of corn.

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