Mr. Morley made a speech at Portsmouth on Wednesday, in
which he treated the institution of trial by jury almost as an absolute right of man, without any relation at all to the genius or character of the people amongst whom it should be applied. For ourselves, we can only say that we not only believe that it is unsuitable to some peoples because in order to be successful it assumes too much sobriety of mind, but that it is unsuitable to other peoples because it implies too little respect for the moral impartiality of a highly disciplined judgment. It is a very clumsy sort of scientific apparatus, after all ; though with those who know how to use it, it has so far justified its use as to compensate for its remarkable defects. Supposing that the Irish people ever obtain Home-rule, we should not think worse, but much better of them, if one of their first steps were to abolish trial by jury, which certainly does not work well in Ireland. Nor, indeed, we venture to predict, would Mr. Morley find fault with them for taking such a step. He attacked Mr. Balfour for the rashness and folly of serving the warrant on Father MacFadden after mass on a Sunday in the presence of the people, and said that the Government must have been stark mad to sanction such a course ; and he declared the treatment of Mr. O'Brien " brutal and senseless," and ventured on a confident prediction that as the General Election approaches, there will be found plenty of Conserva- tive Members to press on the Government the necessity of making distinctions between so-called " political" and ordinary prisoners. It may be so ; but if it be so, it will only show that the fear of popular prejudice often operates very badly even upon those who, if they were not representatives, would look with the utmost moral scorn on that popular prejudice. Mr. Morley's speech was hackneyed.
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