John Morley: On Compromise

John Morley (1838-1923) is best remembered for his three-volume Life of William Ewart Gladstone, published in 1903. On Compromise was his initial response to James Fitzjames Stephen's critique of Mill's doctrine of liberty which had been published in the Pall Mall Gazette between November 1872 and January 1873. It became an appeal to the supremacy of individual conscience at a time when systems of thought and the power of ideas were being called into question. What Morley urged upon his readers was a handful of intellectual foundations for the modern age -rationality, duty, diligence, moral courage, love of truth, optimism - which, he claimed, were consistent with the fundamental English love of liberty and cautious common sense. On Compromise aimed to force its readers to face the fact that truth matters to the well-being of the individual and to his society and that one should strive for ethical living even - or most especially - in the midst of public service.