MR. MORLEY'S TASK IN IRELAND

From Irish Ideas by William O'Brien, 1893

Page 98

MR. MORLEY'S TASK IN IRELAND

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party have no notion of accepting office under any English Government of Ireland. Outsiders have more difficulty in understanding why Nationalists should not either take up the official burden themselves or cease prating against officialdom. I am not sure there would be much use in trying to explain our position in this respect. It is one of those cosas de Irlande which are as evident to us as the greenness of our fields, but which are nevertheless puzzling to our best friends across the Channel, and which are, indeed, themselves unanswerable arguments for Home Rule. Suffice it to say that the Nationalist determination to steer clear of office-seeking does not cover any deep plot against the integrity of the Empire.

The fact stands, however, that Mr. Morley has nothing better than criticism of his officials to expect from the Nationalists and nothing better to expect from most of those officials than the sort of complaisance associated with regard for one's bread and butter. He has also the disadvantage of his good qualities. Mr. Balfour had impressed every official, from the highest to the lowest, with the conviction that, no matter how he sinned from over-zeal, he had only to sin strongly to be promoted by leaps and bounds during Mr. Balfour's tenure of office, and provided with a luxurious place of retreat on any change of Government. The history of Mr. Cecil Roche's progress from a Liberal-Unionist lectureship to a Fishery Inspectorship can be read by the meanest official understanding. Your Irish Removable believes Mr. Morley to be a philosopher, and therefore a fool, who will concern himself more about being scrupulously just to his enemies than about promoting his friends. He showed the teeth of a lion at Newcastle, and they have no notion of testing the sharpness of those teeth by any open revolt; on the contrary, … continue reading »

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