John Morley

John Morley (1838-1923) was a British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor. He lived through the late Victorian era and into the early twentieth century, and he is remembered as one of the last great Liberals of the nineteenth century. His importance lies both in the offices he held and in his essays and biographies, as well as in his opposition to imperialism and the Second Boer War.

Born in Blackburn, Lancashire, to a surgeon, he was educated locally and at Cheltenham College. At Oxford he quarrelled with his father over religion, since his father wanted him to become a clergyman, and he left the university without a degree. That rift is usually linked to his essay On Compromise (1874). He was called to the bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1873, but chose journalism instead, a decision he later regretted. From 1880 to 1883 he edited the Pall Mall Gazette, with W. T. Stead as his assistant editor.

In 1883 he entered Parliament as the Liberal member for Newcastle upon Tyne. He served as Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1886 and again between 1892 and 1895, then as Secretary of State for India from 1905 to 1910 and once more in 1911. From 1910 to 1914 he was Lord President of the Council. He opposed imperialism and the Boer War, supported Home Rule for Ireland, and resigned in August 1914 because he objected to Britain entering the First World War as an ally of Russia.

As a writer, Morley favoured historical essays and biography, written in a clear and measured style. His great hero was William Ewart Gladstone, whose life he chronicled in a substantial biography published in 1903. His legacy rests largely on his writing and on his defence of a moderate liberalism, more than on any single reform he carried through.