Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/191

 ''is aristocratic. The idea of a Great Being who watches over oppressed innocence and punishes triumphant crime is essentially the idea of the people''."

Mr. Morley's admiration for Burke I am wholly unable to comprehend. To bracket him with Milton is like comparing a penny whistle to an organ. Nay, those who thought only of dining when he thought of convincing were not so culpable as has been insinuated. It would have been greatly to the advantage of England and of Europe if Burke had never crossed St. George's Channel.

As a practical politician, Mr. Morley has strenuously exerted himself to secure two great objects,—to level down the Church politically, and to level up the working-class socially, with a view to unite the whole people in the pursuit of national as distinguished from sectional ideals. As president of the Midland Institute, in 1876, he delivered a remarkable address on "Popular Culture" in the Birmingham Town Hall,—an address which will be found to embody opinions of the highest wisdom, and sentiments of the noblest aspiration. It ends thus, and with it this notice must also end: "When our names are blotted out and our place knows us no more, the energy of each social service will remain, and so, too, let us not forget, will each social disservice remain like the unending stream of one of Nature's forces. The thought that this is so may well lighten the poor perplexities of our daily life, and even soothe the pang of its calamities. It lifts us from our feet as on wings, opening a larger meaning to our private toil and a higher purpose to our public endeavor; it makes the morning as we awake 'to its welcome, and the evening like a soft garment as it wraps us about; it nerves our arm