If our advice is
solicited, and if there is any likelihood that that advice will be of
practical use, I do not think we ought to hesitate to give the best
advice in our power; but while giving it under a deep sense of moral
responsibility, as being in our judgement the best, we ought carefully
to avoid involving ourselves or the country in any responsibility for
the results of following that advice in a matter where no English
interest is concerned. I do not think we ought to put ourselves in
such a position that any Power could say to us, 'We have acted upon
your advice, and we have suffered for it. You have brought us into
this difficulty, and therefore you are bound to get us out of it.' We
ought not, I say, to place ourselves in a position of that kind. And
now, Sir, I have stated all, I think, that it is possible for me
to state at this time, and it remains for me only to assure the
House--knowing, as I do, how utterly impossible it is for any member
of the Executive to carry on his work effectively without the support
of public opinion--it only remains for me to say that, as far as the
nature of the case allows, I shall always be anxious that the House
shall be conversant with everything that is done.
JOHN BRIGHT October 29, 1858 PRINCIPLES OF FOREIGN POLICY
The frequent and far too complimentary manner in which my name has
been mentioned to-night, and the most kind way in which you have
received me, have placed me in a position somewhat humiliating, and
really painful; for to receive laudation which one feels one cannot
possibly have merited, is much more painful than to be passed by in
a distribution of commendation to which possibly one might lay some
claim.
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