134 Redmond's Opinion of Morley [1906 



It was a trifling quarrel pushed to extreme lengths, and most foolishly 

 engaged in by our Government, who ought to have known that its 

 connection with the pilgrim route was sure to rouse Mohammedan feel- 

 ing against us and place it on the Sultan's side. And so it proved, 

 as will be seen. 



"31st March. — To-day John Redmond came to see me, and stayed 

 an hour and a half talking. I asked him how they were getting on with 

 the new Parliament, and he said they were doing capitally. All on the 

 Government side except a very few were with him. Bannerman was 

 sound about Home Rule and Reid, and he thought he could count on 

 Bryce and Morley and on the rank and file. The Whig section of the 

 Cabinet, Grey, Haldane, Asquith and Fowler were opposed, but had 

 hardly a handful with them. If he, Redmond, were to propose a 

 resolution in favour of Home Rule of however complete a kind, he 

 should have a large majority for it in the House; he only did not 

 propose one, because he was waiting to see what the Government would 

 bring forward as a measure next session, and he did not wish to 

 embarrass them. Talking about Morley I noticed a kind of hesitation 

 in what he said of him, and I put in ' Yes, Morley is a wretched 

 fellow,' to which he answered, ' You may well say so, he is exactly that. 

 Last year when I was bringing forward my resolution in favour of 

 Home Rule, which I got the whole Liberal party to vote for, I wrote 

 to Morley and asked him to look through the terms of it, and suggest 

 amendments. This he did, and struck out the words " National self- 

 government," and other expressions of the kind. But after the vote, 

 Bannerman told me, " You might just as well have left in the words 

 you struck out, we should have voted for it all the same." Morley has 

 no courage, you can't depend upon him. Yes, he is a wretched fellow.' 

 I then asked about the quarrels there had been in the Irish party, and 

 he said, ' It is entirely a personal matter between O'Brien, and Dillon, 

 and Sexton.' O'Brien and Dillon had been at two ever since the Par- 

 nell split, and now they were quite at loggerheads, did not even speak 

 when they met. O'Brien insisted there should be a round table con- 

 ference about Home Rule as there had been about the Land Bill, but 

 the conditions of the two cases were not the same. About the Land 

 Bill, both sides wanted to come to an agreement. On Home Rule, 

 the Ulster members and the Home Rulers were hopelessly at odds. 

 All they could hope for this Parliament was to get a half-way house 

 as an instalment. No half-way house could last, and it must end in 

 Home Rule. About the influence of the priests in Ireland, he said 

 it was quite untrue that it had increased in the last twenty years. On 

 the contrary it had never recovered from the shock it had sustained 



