29 NOVEMBER 1902, Page 2

Mr. Morley, in fact, spoke through most of his speech

as an "ideologue," a man, that is, who rejects opportunism, and believing that his convictions are true, waits for their demonstration with a certain indifference to party victories. He expects St. Helena though Napoleon with his great sword is on the throne. Mr. Morley is certainly justified in classing himself among ideologues, and we, who differ widely from most of his views, welcome his popularity and the security of his seat as proof that there is still room for such as he in the House of Commons. We have not half enough men there who think for themselves, and thinking, dare say their thoughts. The men whom Whips think " safe " are too often also stupid, and no nation was ever well governed without some purely intellectual men in its governing Assembly. The House now more than ever needs a Chorus, a man who will tell it what it is doing, and whither it is drifting, and what it really desires. If he is also a great humourist, so much the better, for he will never be a bore ; but, failing that character—which seems to be extinct among us—a perfectly honest orator with a "white light" intellect who dare say anything that his mind conceives, and can so say it as to compel attention, is perhaps the very next best to fill the role. Mr. Morley is that.