VISCOUNT MORLEY.

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15359, 6 October 1923, Page 11 (Supplement)

VISCOUNT MORLEY.

IN THE FULLNESS OF YEARS. (By “Marama.”) A groat man has recently passed away. To the younger generation Lord Morley is but a name, and so entirely has the war wiped out the recollection of previous events, that it may well be that even his name is forgotten. Yet there was a lime when John Morley, as he was then, was (considered to be a probable future Prime Minister. That is a very great distinction for any man to achieve, but it was not his only, or, indeed his greatest title to fame, for he was a great man of letters, author and journalist end editor, and celebrated in each capacity. And when we have mentioned these two achievements we have still to say that he impressed his generation as the transparently honest man, of the highest ideals consistently followed. Politics lias been defined as a game of mingled chance and skill. He is a wise politician who makes no pre.r > tensions to especial rectitude, for the path is a thorny one beset with many temptations. John Morley never made pretensions, but friend and foe alike recognised in him a man of the highest’ Ideals and one who consistently lived up to them. To Be Rich Was Not My Wish. A good many years ago there was a book which 'well meaning uncles used to present to youngsters for their moral good. It was called “Self Help,” and detailed the career of many successful men of business. In some, of the instances complaint might Have been made of the methods employed. If any similar book were now to be written John Morley’s career might be taken as a model. His father was a country doctor who by an effort sent his son to Oxford. lie was to have gone into the Church, but when the lime came he had changed or lost his faith, and had become an Agnostic. From that position he did not move, and as the Church was impossible, and there was no money to support him during the weary years that a barrister must wait for employment, he took to literature and journalism. In literature his interests lay with politics and social matters. He wrote the lives of Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot, and of Walpole and Burke and Gobden. He edited also the remarkable Men 'of Letters series, and for those whose whose taste incliites to biography these books are a constant pleasure. From his first start in London he seems to

have won admittance to the most select society. John Stuart Mill was a friend and mentor; with Herbert Spencer he was familiar, and for some years they used to meet at a weekly dinner at George Eliot’s house. Frederick Har- > rison, the positivist, was another * chosen companion, and yet in spite of the august company he kept the young man’s thoughts tended more and more I towards politics. Hs edited the Fort- ’ nightly Review for some time, and made it famous. Then he took

M charge of the Pall Mall Gazette, an ■' evening paper which had been conservative and fashionable, but which be made liberal and thoughtful. Finally at the age of 45 he entered Parliament. Literature or Politics. The men who have been successful as literary men and as politicians have been a small and select company. Macaulay is the, most remarkable, but

then Disraeli wrote novels, and became Prime Minister, and Bulwer Lytton wrote every thing and became a Cabinet Minister, while both were noted speakers. Lord Rosebery has the literary gift in even more marked degree than the political, but life opened 60 many avenues to him that he never thoroughly expressed any. Many men Fvho would never be accused of writing a book maintain that literature and

politics are incompatible and that J-ohn Morley’s career was a failure. That, of course, depends upon what is considered to be success or failure, though ,as John Morley held Cabinet position several times he may fairly be said to have been a success in the commonly acoepted meaning. He was identified for years with the cause of Home Rule. When Mr Gladstone invited him to become Secretary for Ireland it was an intimation to the world what the policy of the Cabinet was to be. In spite of the adoption of Home Rule by the Liberals, the feeling between them and the Irish members was far from friendly, and Parnell was the most frigid of mortals. The one man whom they placed confidence in was John Morley, and thus he became for the second time Secretary for Ireland in 1893.

After Life’s Fever He Sleeps Well. The Liberal party in 1893 was weak -for want of numbers and weak from internal disagreements. Gladstone overshadowed his colleagues in reputation, hut then he was 85, and did not agree with them on questions of defence. It was an unhappy position in every way, and when the choice of a Premier to succeed Gladstone iiad to be made Rosebery was chosen instead of Harcourt. For this choice Morley was to some extent responsible. Whether a different choice would have been better we cannot say; it is certain that the choice made was not a success and one of the unhappy results was to wreck Lcrd Rosebery’s career. The Liberals were long in opposition and Morley wrote' the Life ot Gladstone, which will take rank amongst the great biographies in the language. When the Liberals returned to power he became Secretary for India, and introduced reforms in the direction of placing power in the hands of Indians, but not by any means to the extent which has since been done. He was a convinced democrat, but not a doctrinaire, although that was a term occasionally applied to him by those who could find nothing else to attack. He did not think that self-government was possible for everybody. It has been said that he was a Whig, which is obviously incorrect. lie was, in fact, too big a man to be included in any label, and reading and experience forbade his swallowing any formula entire. Ills was a full life, passed in ’ strenuous work, with certain definite aims, which were helped, even if no outstanding triumphs were won. A politician’s fame like that of an actor is somewhat ephemeral: but Lord Mnrley’s memory will bn kept green by his books, which represent the best thought of Ihc nineteenth century clothcrl in language which it is pure -pleasure li mar). Asquith's sentence jS+iis lilting epitaph. “The last survivor of an heroic age.”