John Morley

I do not agree that any organised society has ever subsisted upon either of those principles, or that brutality is always present as a fundamental postulate in the relations between rulers and ruled.

Reforms that we have publicly announced, adopted, and worked out for more than two years--how is it a concession to violence, to persist in those reforms?

I am sick of all the retrograde commonplaces about the weakness of concession to violence and so on.

I myself recognise this necessity with infinite regret, and with something, perhaps, rather deeper than regret.

We deplore the necessity, but we are bound to face the facts.

You must protect peaceful and harmless people, both Indian and European, from the blood-stained havoc of anarchic conspiracy.

It is like war, a hateful thing, from which, however, some of the most ardent lovers of peace, and some of those rulers of the world whose names the most ardent lovers of peace most honour and revere--it is one of the things from which…

But there are situations in which a responsible Government is compelled to run these risks and to pay this possible price, however high it may appear to be.

Again, I do not for an instant forget, and I hope those who so loudly applaud legislation of this kind do not forget, the tremendous price that you pay for all operations of this sort in the reaction and the excitement that they provoke.

I do not ignore, and I do not believe that Lord Lansdowne opposite, or anyone else can ignore, the frightful risks involved in transferring in any form or degree what should be the ordinary power under the law, to arbitrary personal…

Either of these paths of folly leads to as great disaster as the other.

The other is to think that all you have got to do is what I see suggested, to my amazement, in English print--to blow a certain number of men from guns, and then your business will be done.

One is to regard all Indian matters, Indian procedure and Indian policy, as if it were Great Britain or Ireland, and to insist that all the robes and apparel that suit Great Britain or Ireland must necessarily suit India.

But I said to myself then, and I say now, that I decline to take out of the hands of the Government of India any weapon that they have got, in circumstances so formidable, so obscure, and so impenetrable as are the circumstances that…

Quite early after my coming to the India Office, pressure was put on me to repeal the Regulation of 1818, under which men are now being summarily detained without trial and without charge, and without intention to try or to charge.

The view of important persons in the Government of India is that in substance the position of our Government in India is as sound and as well-founded as it has ever been.

There are growing indications that the native population itself is alarmed, and that we shall have the strong support of native public opinion.

There is no fear of anything in the nature of a rising, but if murders continue, a general panic may arise and greatly increase the danger of the situation.

It must also be borne in mind that the ordinary man or lad in India has not too much courage, and that the loyal are terrorised by the ruthless extremists.

The anarchists are few, but, on the other hand, they are apparently prepared to go any length and to run any risk.

Let me invite your Lordships to look at the formidable difficulties that now encumber us in India, with a due sense of proportion.

Do not let us consider the clouds to be darker than they really are.

But, my Lords, do not let us make the Indian sky cloudier than it really is.

We shall get through it--but only with self-command and without any quackery or cant whether it be the quackery of blind violence disguised as love of order, or the cant of unsound and misapplied sentiment, divorced from knowledge and…

I am confident that if the crisis comes, it will find us ready, but let us keep our minds clear in advance.