John Morley

It will mark the breakdown of what has never yet broken down in any part of the world--the breakdown of British statesmanship.

Now I do not believe anybody--either in this room or out of this room--believes that we can now enter upon an era of pure repression.

You cannot enter at this date and with English public opinion, mind you, watching you, upon an era of pure repression, and I do not believe really that anybody desires any such thing.

But I do not believe anybody in this room representing so powerfully as you do dominant sentiments that are not always felt in England--that in this room there is anybody who is for an era of pure repression.

We in this country are so accustomed to look upon political changes as the only important changes, that we very often forget such a change as the establishment of Universities.

It is my firm belief that if our plans of education are followed up, there will not be a single idolater among the respectable classes in Bengal thirty years hence.

And this will be effected merely by the natural operation of knowledge and reflection." Ah, gentlemen, the natural operation of knowledge and reflection carries men of a different structure of mind, different beliefs, different habits and…

I am not going to embark you to-night upon these vast controversies, but when we talk about education, are we not getting very near the root of the case?

I will tell you what I think of--as I have for a good many months past--I think first of the burden of responsibility weighing on the governing men at Calcutta and Simla and the other main centres of power and of labour.

Now the Government--if you will allow me for a very few moments to say a word on behalf of the Government, not here alone but at Simla--we and they, for after all we are one--have been assailed for a certain want of courage and what is…

I do not believe in short cuts, and I believe that the Government in these difficult circumstances is wise not to be in too great a hurry.

Yet I see, to my great regret and astonishment, that this Act is described as an Act for judging cases of seditious libel without a Jury.

But it is perfectly natural to ask: Should the Imperial Parliament have no voice?

When I am told that an Act of this kind is a restriction on the freedom of the Press, I do not accept it for a moment.

I do not believe that there is a man in England who is more jealous of the freedom of the Press than I am.

When you have men admitting that they deliberately write these articles and promote these newspapers with a view of furthering murderous action, to talk of the freedom of the Press in connection with that is wicked moonshine.

But an incendiary article is part and parcel of the murderous act.

To talk of public discussion in connection with mischief of that kind is really pushing things intolerably far.

I will not be in a hurry to believe that there is not a great body in India of reasonable people, not only among the quiet, humble, law-abiding classes, but among the educated classes.

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

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…

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

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

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

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