John Morley

I think any man who lays down a firm proposition that all is well, or any man who says that all is ill--either of those two men is probably wrong.

I have had in my days a good deal to do with experts of one kind and another, and I assure you that I do not think an expert is at all the worse when he gets a candid-minded and reasonably well trained amateur.

But there must be a thorough comprehension in the mind of the Secretary of State of two things--first of all, of the Indian point of view; and, secondly, the point of view as it appears to those who are the masters of me and of you.

But show me where it fails--that it is perfect in every respect no sensible man would contend for a moment--but show me at any point, let any of my hon. friends show me from day to day as this session passes, where this bureaucracy, as…

In this we are making a marked advance in humanity and common sense,--which is itself a kind of humanity.

When you have to deal with complex communities of varied races, and all the other peculiarities of India, you have to think out how your proposals will work.

The present proposals of the Government of India are inadequate to allay the existing and growing discontent.

After all, this absence of a sense of proportion is what, more than any other one thing, makes a man a wretched politician.

Let me beseech my hon. friends at least to try for some sense of balanced proportion, instead of allowing their wrath at one particular incident of policy to blot out from their vision all the wide and durable operations, to which we have…

We are grateful that they have fallen on much barren ground, but we can no longer allow their dissemination.

The seeds of sedition have been unscrupulously scattered throughout India, even amongst the hills of the frontier tribes.

I hope that your Excellency will on my behalf as Viceroy and as representing the King convey to His Majesty's Indian troops my thanks for the contempt with which they have received the disgraceful overtures which I know have been made to…

To take anybody and deport him without bringing any charge against him, and with no intention of bringing him to trial, is a step that, I think, the House is perfectly justified in calling me to account for.

I am not so unwise as to say that the clouds will never come back again; but what has been done by us has been justified, in my opinion, by the event.

But what I submit with the utmost confidence is that the situation to-day is a considerable improvement on the situation that we found, when we assumed power two years ago.

Is there any rational man who holds that, if you can lay down political principles and maxims of government that apply equally to Scotland or to England, or to Ireland, or to France, or to Spain, therefore they must be just as true for the…

If I had to frame a new system of government for India, I declare I would multiply the Baroda system of government, rather than have an Imperial Duma and universal suffrage.

Surely that is not a very ripe idea of democracy.

I for one certainly say that I would not remain at the India Office, or any other powerful and responsible Departmental office, on condition that I made short work of settled facts, hurried on with my catalogue of first principles, and…

I think democracy will be just as reasonable as any other sensible form of government, and I do not believe democracy will for a moment think that you are to rip up a settlement of an administrative or constitutional question, because it…

Now, if that be so, I am very sorry for democracy.

We shall at least have made not only a beginning, but a marked advance both in order and progress, by resolute patience, and an unflagging spirit of conciliation.

We shall not see all the fruits of it in our day.

I do not forget that I come from a constituency which, so far as I have known it, if it is most generous, is also most prudent.

I watch the expenditure of Indian revenue as the ferocious dragon of the old mythology watched the golden apples.