John Morley

Protests against charging Indian revenues with expenses of Afghan war.

In favour of enabling Irish tenants to purchase their holdings.

We give no concessions to France which do not apply to all other nations.

Honour give to sterling worth, Genius better is than birth, So here’s success to Gladstone.

We have no rational course as a party but one, which is to adjourn for a while the solution of the grave parts of the education problem; and this I know to be in substance your opinion.

The question, What is education? was nearly as hard to answer as the question of which we have seen so much, What is a church?

The rival claims of old classical training and the acquisition of modern knowledge were matters of vivacious contest.

The truth is that all laxity and extravagance in dealing with what in a large sense is certainly public property, approximates more or less to dishonesty, or at the least lowers the moral tone of the persons concerned.

Abstract principles urged without stint or mercy provoke the counter-assertion of abstract principles in return.

I would rather see Oxford level with the ground, than its religion regulated in the manner which would please Bishop Colenso.

Gladstone’s phrase had unset every joint of the compacted fabric of continental Europe.

I do not believe that England ever will or can be unfaithful to her great tradition, or can forswear her interest in the common transactions and the general interests of Europe.

If there be a fear abroad that England has forever abjured a resort to force other than moral force, is that fear justified by facts?

Is England so uplifted in strength above every other nation, that she can with prudence advertise herself as ready to undertake the general redress of wrongs?

Would not the consequence of such professions and promises be either the premature exhaustion of her means, or a collapse in the day of performance?

Is any Power at this time of day warranted in assuming this comprehensive obligation?

For the eccentricities of other men’s belief no one can answer; but for any reasonable belief in such an abnegation on the part of England, there is no ground whatever.

I am persuaded that at this juncture opinions of this colour being true and sound, are also the only opinions which the country is disposed to approve.

All this, however, was no more than the fringe, though one of the hardest things in history is to be sure where substance begins and fringe ends.

The cardinal fact for France and for Europe was German unity.

Here was the substantial fact, feeding the flame of national pride with solid fuel.

When reminded that Belgium was guaranteed by the European Powers, Bismarck replied that “a guarantee was in these days of little value.” This remark makes an excellent register of the diplomatic temperature of the hour.

Rumour and gossip of a pacific tenor could not hide the vital fact of incessant military preparation on both sides—steadfast and scientific in Prussia, loose and ill-concerted in France.

To Napoleon the secretary of state spoke of the monster armaments, the intolerable burden imposed upon the people, and the constant danger of war that they created.

As the matter appears to me, the best that can be said for this letter is that it contains matter which might be used with more or less force in a conference on disarmament, by way of abating the amount of relative call on Prussia.