Morley, JOHN, M.P., was born at Blackburn, 24th December 1838; he was educated at Cheltenham and Lincoln College, Oxford, and, after taking his degree in 1859, was called to the bar, but chose literature as a profession. The best known of his books are Edmund Burke (1867), Critical Miscellanies (1871 and 1877), Voltaire (1872), On Compromise (1874), Roussau (1876), Diderot and the Encyclopaedists (1878), Richard Cobden (1881). From 1867 till 1882 he edited the Fortnightly Review; and he has edited the 'English Men of Letters' series. He is an honorary LL.D. of Glasgow. Though possessing great literary faculty and power of phrase, Mr Morley's desire has not been merely to write a readable book or to transmit knowledge, but always to make character stronger and deeper. He seems oppressed by the triviality of life; he feels that only the best is worth an effort, but that this is worth all effort, while indifference and mediocrity of aspiration are the greatest curses of mankind. In politics he has been throughout life a pronounced Radical, and in religious questions he has long stood far apart from the great majority of his countrymen.
He unsuccessfully contested Blackburn in 1865, and Westminster in 1880. From 1880 to 1883, when he was elected for Newcastle-on-Tyne, Mr Morley was editor of the Pall Mall Gazette. His articles in favour of Home Rule written then, and followed up by action in the House of Commons and speeches in the country in 1885, did much to influence public opinion before Mr Gladstone's change of policy was known. In 1886 he became Irish Secretary till the dissolution which followed the rejection of the Home Rule Bill in that year. In 1890, during the difficulty as to the leadership of the Irish party, he directly supported Mr Gladstone. In 1892 he again became Irish Secretary. As a speaker Mr Morley has few of the superficial gifts of an orator, but he never fails to convey to a public audience an irresistible impression of earnestness and sympathy, which has given him a personal hold on men's minds. Though not an advocate of state interference, he wishes politics to be regarded as a means for raising the oppressed, and elevating national character. His political opponents say that Mr Morley is a man of letters, more fitted to write history than to make it, but seized with a perverse desire to be a politician; and doubt whether his earnest courage is matched by penetrating insight into the affairs of the moment and the quickness of decision essential to the highest success in public life. His opposition to the compulsory Eight Hours Bill lost him his popularity and his seat at Newcastle in 1895. In 1896 he was elected for the Montrose Burghs. He took a somewhat less conspicuous part in public affairs, but strongly opposed the new Soudan expeditions. His Studies in Literature appeared in 1891; his Romanes lecture on Machiavelli in 1897. In 1898 he was selected to write Mr Gladstone's Life. See the Review of Reviews for December 1890.