Mr. Morley could not . believe that efficiency ,would bring
the millennium. Efficiency was not a principle; it was a catch-word. Napoleon was the most efficient mortal who ever bestrode this planet, but he brought blessings neither to his country nor to mankind. The great- ness and strength of nations did not come from a good official machinery, valuable as that was, but from the nerve, muscle, and moral fibre of the community itself. He predicted that the moving force of the Election would not be Imperialism or militarism, but social reform, and warned them that to achieve that end they must reduce public expenditure, and, in particular, place some limit on the expenditure on the Navy. Mr. Morley concluded a courageous but rather captious speech by warning his hearers against feeling any exultation over the Anglo- Japanese Treaty, which, though a good Treaty in certain ways, was at the same time "loose, wide, and vague," and might prove to be rather in the nature of a leap in the dark. .
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