future Master of Balliol. The
former was carried by rugged force and sheer ability to the highest
position in the Church; the latter won a peculiar place, in Oxford and
in the world outside, by his gifts of judging character and stimulating
intellectual interest. Morier became his favourite pupil and lifelong
friend. F. T. Palgrave, the friend of both, tells us how 'Morier went up
to Balliol a lax and imperfectly educated fellow; but Jowett, seeing his
great natural capacity, took him in the Long Vacation of 1848 and
practically "converted" him to the doctrine of work. This was the
turning-point in Morier's life.' Together the two friends spent many a
holiday in Germany, Scotland, and elsewhere, and must have presented a
strange contrast to one another: Jowett, small, frail, quiet and
precise in manner, Morier big in every way, exuberant and full of
vitality. It was with Jowett and Stanley (afterwards Dean of
Westminster) that Morier went to Paris in 1848, eager to study the
Revolutionary spirit in its most lively manifestations. Stanley
describes him as 'a Balliol undergraduate of gigantic size, who speaks
French better than English, is to wear a blouse, and to go about
disguised to the clubs'.

He took his degree in November 1849, and a month later he was visiting
Dresden and Berlin, making German friends and initiating himself in
German politics and German ways of thought. Though his British
patriotism was fervid and sustained, he was capable of understanding men
of other nations and recognizing their merits; and in knowledge of
Germany he acquired a position among Englishmen of his day rivalled only
by Odo Russell, afterwards Ambassador at Berlin. Morier's father had for
many years represented Great Britain in Switzerland and could guide him
both by precept and by example. Free intercourse with the most liberal
minds in Oxford had developed the lessons which he had learnt at home.
But his own energy and application effected more than anything. He was
not satisfied till he had mastered a problem; and books, places, and
people were laid under contribution unsparingly. He started on his tour
carrying letters of introduction to some of the famous men in Germany,
including the great traveller and scientist, Alexander von Humboldt. Of
a younger generation was the philologist Max Mueller, who was a frequent
companion of Morier in Berlin, and gave up his time to nursing him back
to health when he was taken ill with quinsy.