New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-03-18
MIR. JOHN MORLEY.
NOT LIKE SAINT JUST-WIIAT lie IS REAlL1
LIKE

,rcox TIN utsUIAR CORRESPONDENT or THE tribune
~ ~ LONDON, March 3.
NJ co,ohon,o doscription of Mr. john Morley
NJ ,h [" Saint lust of our Revolution has ehclued
from tbe ex-Chief Secretary for Ireland an eiao-
o.o rrotost which takes the form OF an article
IN the March Nineteenth Century on french
Revolutionary Models The article Is interesting
.r MORO nojnts Of view than one; most OF all
nc Mr. Morley's first distinct effort to ruo OH the
label of Jacobn which has, rightly or Wrongly
s,uck 70 him for some time past Perhaps IL hrSt
became CONSPICUOUS when he quilted the serene
heights of literature and plunged into the qua8-
mi,e If poljtics Yet in literature it was, serene
or otherwise that he had first given to his critics
a pretext for fastening upon him the name he now
seeks 70 get rid Of If Mr. Morley had not
written about Robesplerrc and Danton about
Voltaire and Rousseau-and written of these and
others let me add, in what must be called a
sympathctic sprit-never would he have Dech
called upon to distinguish between himself ana
the Jacobins Never would he have been told
that he found his models in the heroes OF the
French Revolution and looked for his methods III
the Reign of Terror.
So long as these accusations were couched III the
usual form, Mr.. Morley seems to have Thought
they might be neglected. But he is himself Il
forger Of epigrams and nclSnames, ana he KNOWS
bettcr. than most people the value of telling
summed up and condensed all these charges into
the phrase quoted above, the most long suffering
and amiabe of men thought it time to turn. No
body will complain for lis defence is the occasion
of very characteristic piece Of autobiography
AS for Saint Just. Mr. Morley meets the suggestion
of "a likeness between himself and that lurid reVo-
dictionary figure by quoting NJ Iaine's account Of
him. The hand of the practiscd dialcctician Is
visible in this proceeding. NJ Tame paints Saint
Just all black:
A sort Of projections Sula, who OF five-and-
twenty suddenly springs from the ranks and by
force Of atrocity wins his place. Blood
calcincd by study colossal pride, conscience
completely unhinged. an Imagination haunted by
the bloody recollectons of Rome and sparta, an
Intelligence falsied and twisted until it found
Itself most at its in the practice of enormous
paradox, barcfaced sophism, and murdcrous lying
all these perilous ingredients, mixed in furnace
If concentrated ambition. boiled and fcrmentcd
long and silently in his breast"
Can be such monster as this? queries Mt
John Morley with his most innocent arr You
might as we'll have called me Nero or Bluebeard or
Toroue,nada No doubt but the Saint just Of
Iaine is one thing. The Saint just OF the writers
to whom Mr. Morley seems to have gone for Some
Of his views about the French Revolution is an
other and very different man. What is liameIs
life of Saint Just but one long eulogy upon man
whom the world ought, he declares. to bless with
out reserve? Louis Blanc's admiration of him is
more iudiciouslv expressed. but is none the less
profound 1t is the Saint just Of the tTiumvraie,
the colleague Of Robcspierre and Couthon, whom
most men have in mind when they speak Of him,
whether by way Of comparison with Mr.. Morley or
not. Re is a sufficiently appalling figure how
ever YOU look at him, but neither Mr. GCSchon nor
ANYBODY else ever dreamed Of suggesting the
fantest analogy between the private lives Of Mr.
John Morley and Of the young robbcr and ilber'Inc
whom Mr. Taine describes Mr.. Morley * him
self so familiar with the literature OF the French
Revolution that he docs not always appreciate
other PEOPLES Ignorance Of it, If he had reflected,
he might have reminded his readers that NJ
Tame. who began his career as a radical, wrote
his history as partisan Of tn, counterrevoution
What Mr.. Goschen had in mind was possibly
trait very remote from all these evil qualiiies OF
Saint Just With all his sweetness and sweet
ressonablcncss there is in Mr. Morley note of i'm
placabie auserity. lie is profoundly loyal to his
own convictions; he holds to them with an
apostolic fervor; he believes that thus and not
otherwise is the world to be regcncratcd, II at
all He would go to the stake for them, or TO the
gaiilotine and Mr.. GOschen perhaps imagined he
would expect others TO do as much for theirs
nay. be m glit, in pressing circumstanc s, ana IN
conf,lr;ng upon some Of the more dangerous
rnemics Of civilization the gOres Of martyrdom.
1orQucmada? Well, possibly even Torqucmada.
Mr. Morley would revolt against the suggestion OF
cruelty; unaware it may be, how far the cool
eSceticiSm of his political faith may carry him.
But the 1orqucmada | mean is not the hideous
monster Of the story books. bat the more gentle
yet no, less awful figure whom Victor Hugo has
drawn
Against Mr. Morley's private life one, 50
far rs know has said single word, nor
is there. to my knowledge, single word to be
said. His character is Stainless and something
more Stainless, after all. is but a negative cpl
tibet aud Mr.. John Morey's is one Of those
natures aoounding in positive virtues, and sym
sathctic beside No man in public lie has 50
few enemies. / don't know whether hc has one.
Few have more friends attached and affection
ate friends no one has more OF charm and fas-
clnation Of character and conversation. This
may seem TO you the strained panegyrc Of per
sonal friendship, and wanting in reserve. But
will take leave to relate anecdote, though to
relate IL may itself be departure from that re-
serve which private life imposes ] once sat with
half a dozen others at a dinner-table in country
house when some one started this question: " If
you had to be shut up In a dungeon on Il
desert island with but one for company
whom would you choose?" Five out Of the seven
men-whose names 1 should like to give-an-
swercd. John Morley. II that be not a proof OF
charm both Of character and conversation, know
not what is.
He has read evcryth said one man SO have
many others, in the sense in which the words
were spoken. But the results Of Mr. Morley's
reading dow out to others with much simplicity
and natural ease, with such absence OF all pr
tension, with such accuracy, and are at the same
time so fused with his own thought that his
talk is like nobody ese's whether in variety, or
fulness, or deghtfulness Of manner You must
admit get him to talk on some subject he cares
for and not merely on frivolities. Then his talk
Is an illumination. lie is even agreeable in argu
ment. OF how many men that be said?