John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn

John Morley
Woodburytype, ca.1890 (?)

John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn , OM , PC (born December 24, 1838 in Blackburn , Lancashire , † September 23, 1923 in Flowermead, Wimbledon Park, London ) was a British statesman, biographer, literary critic and publicist.

Life

John Morley was educated at Cheltenham College , studied at Oxford University and practiced as a lawyer from 1873 until after a few years he turned to political journalism with undivided strength. As a 22-year-old he was - "on the side" - taking over the editor of the Literary Gazette . From 1867 to 1882 he was the successor to George Henry Lewes published the Fortnightly Review , from 1880 to 1883 the Pall Mall Gazette , on which he worked with Matthew Arnold , and from 1883 to 1885 Macmillan's Magazine .

Political career

In 1883 Morley was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal MP for Newcastle-upon-Tyne (until 1895). From 1896 to 1908 he represented the constituency of Montrose Burghs (Scotland).

Morley soon rose to the leadership of the Liberal parliamentary group. In February 1886 he was appointed by Gladstone to the cabinet and named Chief Secretary for Ireland . His first term in this key position ended six months later as a result of the Liberals' defeat in the lower house elections in 1886.

Chief Secretary for Ireland

When the Liberals came back to government with the 1892 elections, Morley was again entrusted with the post of Chief Secretary for Ireland . As Gladstone's shop steward in Dublin Castle , he represented Gladstone's policy of a moderate home rule . H. an autonomy for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . In return, Morley tried to negotiate with Charles Stewart Parnell to secure the support of Irish MPs for the Liberal government in the British Parliament. The reputation that he gained among many Irish benefited him in the 1892 general election in his labor-majority constituency of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Although Morley spoke out against the introduction of the eight-hour day because of his liberal economic convictions , he was re-elected thanks to the votes of Irish workers.

When King Edward VII founded the Order of Merit in 1902 , Morley was among the first personalities to whom he bestowed the order. In the same year he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the British Academy .

Secretary of State for India

In the cabinet of Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1905-1908) was Morley Secretary of State for India , d. H. Minister for India. For the first time he appointed two Indians as members of the Council of India assigned to him . With Gopal Krishna Gokhale , the leader of the Indian National Congress , he negotiated the demands of the Indian national movement and implemented steps to further decentralize the administration of the colony. When Campbell-Bannerman resigned in 1908 and Herbert Henry Asquith succeeded him as Prime Minister, he confirmed Morley as India Minister. Together with the Viceroy , Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 4th Earl of Minto , he pioneered the Indian Councils Act 1909 (commonly referred to as "Morley-Minto Reforms"), a constitutional law that laid the foundations for the participation of Indians submitted to the government of British India .

Lord President of the Council

In 1908, John Morley was raised to the nobility with the title of Viscount Morley of Blackburn . Aside from the distinction it gave, Asquith had a practical purpose, namely to relieve Morley of the time-consuming duties of a House of Commons MP.

In 1910, Morley was appointed Lord President of the Council with cabinet rank. In 1911, Morley was instrumental in getting the Parliament Act through the House of Lords . With this long-contested law, the House of Lords agreed in an act of self-disempowerment to repeal its right to veto bills from the House of Commons, thereby confirming the House of Commons as the actual legislature.

When Britain declared war on Germany on August 5, 1914 , Morley resigned as Lord President of the Council , as did a second minister, John Elliot Burns . In the Cabinet, Morley had always opposed Great Britain joining an alliance with France and thereby encouraging French revanchism . He set out the reasons for his resignation in his Memorandum on Resignation , which his nephew Guy Morley published in 1928 after the death of his uncle and which caused a sensation.

He spent his old age in his Wimbledon mansion . He was a trustee of the British Museum from 1894 to 1921 and - until six months before his death - Chancellor of the University of Manchester .

Lord Morley was cremated in Golders Green Crematorium and his ashes were buried in Putney Vale Cemetery , London. His marriage to Rose Ayling in 1870 remained childless, the title Viscount Morley of Blackburn expired on his death.

John Morley as a man of letters and biographer

Morley dedicated the years in which he was not a member of the cabinet and "only" a member of parliament, his second passion (besides politics): biography. He had already started as a journalist: with the biographies of Edmund Burke , Voltaire , Rousseau , Diderot and Richard Cobden . The selection of those portrayed by Morley is by no means accidental. To trace a path in life was always (also) an opportunity for him to develop his own convictions. From 1878 to 1892, Morley published the English Men of Letters series, published by Macmillan , as well as their New Series, which appeared from 1902 to 1919.

His masterpiece is Gladstone's biography, published in three volumes in 1903, a milestone in the development of historical-political biography. Morley wrote in an elegant style. He was also a brilliant speaker. This wore him u. a. the honorable invitation to hold the Romanes Lecture 1909 (via Machiavelli ).

One expression of the recognition Morley enjoyed as a historian was that Andrew Carnegie gave him the important library of Lord Acton , who died in 1902 , which he had bought from his estate. Morley, in turn, bequeathed it to Cambridge University .

At the age of almost 80, Morley completed his two-volume memoir Recollections in 1917 .

Works

Biographies

• Edmund Burke. A historical study . Macmillan, London 1867.
• Voltaire . Chapman and Hall, London 1871.
• Rousseau . 2 volumes. Chapman and Hall, London 1873.
• Diderot and the Encyclopaedists . Chapman and Hall, London 1878.
• The Life of Richard Cobden . 2 volumes. Chapman & Hall, London 1881.
• Walpole . Macmillan, London 1889.
• Oliver Cromwell . Macmillan, London 1900.
• The Life of William Ewart Gladstone . 3 volumes. Macmillan, London 1903.

Other fonts

• Critical Miscellanies . Chapman and Hall, London. In 3 volumes between 1871 and 1886. <Essays on literature, current events, politics, philosophy and history>
• The Struggle for National Education . Chapman & Hall, London 1873.
• On compromise . Chapman & Hall, London 1874. German edition: Faithfulness . Carl Rümpler, Hanover 1879.
• Aphorisms. An address delivered before the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution . Macmillan, London 1887.
• Studies in Literature . Macmillan, London 1891.
• Literary essays . Humphreys, London 1906.
• Notes on Politics and History . Macmillan, London 1913.
• Recollections . 2 volumes. Macmillan, London 1917.

literature

(in order of appearance)

• Algernon Cecil: Six Oxford thinkers: Edward Gibbon. John Henry Newman. RW Church. James Anthony Fronde. Walter Father. Lord Morley of Blackburn . Murray, London 1909.
• Francis Wrigley Hirst: Early life and letters of John Morley , 2 volumes. Macmillan, New York 1927.
• Winston Churchill : Great Contemporaries . Butterworth, London 1937. Therein: John Morley , pp. 93-107.
• Philip Woodruff (pseudonym of Philip Mason ): The men who ruled India . Vol. 2: The guardians . Cape, London 1954.
• Stanley Wolpert: Morley and India 1906-1910 . University of California Press, Berkeley 1967.
• David Alan Hamer: John Morley. Liberal Intellectual in Politics . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1968.
• Stephen E. Koss: John Morley at the India Office 1905-1910 . Yale University Press, New Haven 1969.
• Edward Alexander: John Morley . Twayne, New York 1972.
• Marjorie Katz Berman: John Morley and Ireland . University of Colorado, Boulder 1980.
• Ian Packer: From left to right? The career of John Morley . In: Journal of Liberal History . Vol. 47 (2005), pp. 16-21. ISSN  1479-9642 .
• Patrick Jackson: Morley of Blackburn . Fairleigh Dickenson University Press, Madison 2012. ISBN 978-1-611-47534-0 .

Web links

• Catalog of the papers, 1829-1923, of John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838-1923), Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
• Some of Morley's works can be downloaded as e-texts
• Morley's works at Project Gutenberg

Footnotes

1. ↑ Patrick Jackson: Morley of Blackburn . Fairleigh Dickenson University Press, Madison 2012. p. 25.
2. ^ Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, 6th edition, Volume 14. Leipzig 1908, pp. 151–152.
3. ^ Kurt Kluxen : History of England. From the beginning to the present (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 374). 2nd Edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-520-37402-1 , p. 640.
4. ^ Francis Stewart Leland Lyons: Ireland since the famine . Fontana Press, London, 10th ed. 1987. ISBN 0-00-686005-2 . P. 191.
5. ^ Francis Stewart Leland Lyons: Ireland since the famine . Fontana Press, London, 10th ed. 1987. pp. 197 and 264.
6. ^ David Alan Hamer: John Morley. Liberal Intellectual in Politics . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1968. p. 297.
7. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed July 9, 2020 . 
8. ^ Percival Spear: A History of India . Vol. 2. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1973. p. 178.
9. ^ Percival Spear: A History of India . Vol. 2. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 1973. p. 177.
10. ^ Kurt Kluxen: History of England. From the beginning to the present (= Kröner's pocket edition. Volume 374). 2nd Edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-520-37402-1 , p. 682.
11. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from November 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ↑ Patrick Jackson: Morley of Blackburn . Fairleigh Dickenson University Press, Madison 2012. p. 461.
13. ↑ Patrick Jackson: Morley of Blackburn . Fairleigh Dickenson University Press, Madison 2012. pp. 313-348.
14. ↑ Patrick Jackson: Morley of Blackburn . Fairleigh Dickenson University Press, Madison 2012. p. 14.