One hundred years ago
We hardly remember any time during the last 40 years in which there has been so general despondency as to the politics of the future as there is now. This is natural enough, when we consider the condition of Ireland, the condition of public business in the House of Commons, and finally, the condition of public feeling, in so Jar as it tends to multiply the gnats and mosquitoes of politics, — the personalities and pettinesses of political intrigue, — and to put the gravest obstacles in the way of masculine principle and popular earnestness. But though we heartily admit the very serious character of all these sources of obstruction, — and here we use obstruction in a much larger sense than that of mere impediment to public business, — we cannot and do not believe that pessimism is a reasonable state of feeling, or that it will be justified by the event. On the contrary, we hold that even the very circumstances which seem most to justify pessimism, exhibit, when properly considered, grounds for reasonable confidence.
Spectator, 8 May 1881
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