The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1886-02-27
St"a''5- /" literature and B'os'as'p.
An Original WING Feature.
MR.. JOHN MORLEY.
| The Spectator.

on Mr.. Morley's sudden spring into the
most important Cabinet office under MIR.
GladstoIe's government with certain
amount Of pride. Except the late Lord
Lytton, he is probably the first English
man who can be supposed to owe his
Ministerial advancement to his pen, and
We are by no means sure that Sir Edward
Bulwer's popular novels were not rather
an obstacle than help to him i'll his
political life. About Mr.. Morley's Case
there can be no doubt. His influence in
politics dates from his journalism, and as
journalist no one can deny his power.
And yet that power is not distinctively
of the journalistic type. Mr.. Morley is
erature than even in the field of political
literature. He estimates genius more
truly than he estimates ordinary men.
He estimates literary genius better even
than he estimates political genius. The
Life of Golden is good book, but as a
literary production it will not rank be-
side his books on Voltaire and Rousseau.
I
| He is more at home in field which is
partly at least imaginative, than in
| field which is altogether homely. In his
| careful study of Burke he is perhaps at
his best; and it is good omen,-pelhaps
the only good omen,-for the great and
difficult talk which, with courage al
most reminding us of the knight Grant,
he has und rtaken, that he has given to
| Burke's writings SO Jealous and discrimi-
mating study. But, whatever his sue
cess or whatever his faIlure,-and we
venture to say that no one appreciates
more adequately than Mr.. Morley how
much more likly he is to encounter fail
ure than to achieve successful is i'm
| possible for literary men not to feel the
deepest interest in an experiment which
| France tried long ago with results which
different men res ard very differently,
when NJ Guizot and NJ. Theirs directed
in turns the counsels of Louis Philippe.
England has rot yet given any serious
trial to the literary man as Minister. In
Mr.. John Morley as Irish Secretary, and
that in time when our relations with
| Ireland are far the most important of the
questions of the day, we shall have a
| good opportunity to ties; the calibre of a
brilliant literary man in one of the most
difficult parts of the political field. With
out coucealing for moment our belief
| that Mr.. Morley has some of the qualities
| which will be of the highest possible adj
vantage to the Cabinet, and it is difficult
| to over rate the Importance of genuine
political Imagination which we conf
IDENTITY attribute to him, I'VE annot deny
that some even Of the greatest of these
qualities bode little good to the peace Of
mind aud political sang.trOM of their
possessor. The true literary nature is
uuquestionably sensitive,-we do not
mean to personal attacks, which we dare
say that Mr.. Morley will regard with
nearly as much Indifference as even his
chief, by whom they pass with as little
effect as the whistling of the wind The
kind of sensitiveness to which We refer
is sensitiveness to the greatness of great
issues, to the responsibilities of grave de-
cisions, to the serious national dangers
which must be r!sked and ignored if any
thing great is to be achieved. This SEN
sitiveness it is which successful states.
men have to fear, if they should wish to
accomplish great designs without break
ing their own hearts land yet, without this
seusitiveness it is very hard to be sure
that they will rightly appreciate the
difficulties in their way. We doubt, for
example, whether Mr. Gladstone himself
has this sensitiveness. He guides his
course by certain constitutional princi-
Piles with which he is deeply imbued, and
if they fail him,-and dealing with lie
land what principles are there which will
not fail him?-he has, we think, very
much of the Frenchman feeling, so
much the worse for the facts If you
treat the Irish as you treat other political
| peoples, constitutionally, and they do
not answer to your treatment he thinks,
perhaps, We'll, SO much the worse for
Ireland, but so much the better for the
statesman who held to his faith in prin-
cipe and was deceived Mr.. John Nor
ley, we may be sure, has not that high
contentious faith in abstract principles.
If We read his recent speeches at New
castle and Chelmsford at all Alright, he is
now feeling IL ore as Eliphaz the Temanite
felt when the vision OF the night startled
him, than as politician feels who has
just earned the first-fruits of noble am
bitlon. Then spirit passed before my
face; the hair of my flesh stood up. IL
stood still, but could not discern the
appearance thereof Mr. Morley, WHO
only entered Parliament in the critical
spring of 1888, and who for some years
appeared to be possessed by sympathy
with the extreme party in Ireland, has
latterly been evidently awakening to a
still deeper sympathy with the British
nation in its perplexing relation to Ire
land. He knows SO much of the Irish
Party, he has seen SO much both of their
political craft and of their resources for
paralysng government in Great Britain,
that he probably appreciates better than
any other Member of Parliament, the
whole difficulty of the problem before
him. In his recent speeches he has shown
! that he is almost aghast at the magni-
tude of that problem, that it weighs upon
him more and more. that his imagination
is buraened with it, that his conscience
isoppressed with it, that his political
sagacity is almost COMPOUNDED by it. We
should expect thus much from Il e fine
ness of his literary insight, and in one
sense, no doubt, it is a vast advantage
that he realises the situation in all its
gravity. But then, how will this sensi-
tive literary insight tell on his power of
doing what he will have to do? The
most responsible work Of the world has
generally been done by men who were
half unaware of the responsibility they
were mourning, who trod right by sort
of dumb instinct, and without realising
how narrow path they had to tread
between the devil and the deep sea, as
the phrase goes. Mr.. Morley certainly
will not be one of these. If he proves
equal to the great task before him, he
will have far more true merit than the