urtesy was not shown them. The position of Mr Redmond
was most humiliating of all. He did not lack many of the qualities
which might have made for greatness in leadership, but he did
undoubtedly lack the quality of backbone and that strength of
character to assert himself and to maintain his own position without
which no man can be truly considered great. Whenever it came to an
issue between them it is well known he had to submit his judgment and
to bend his will to the decision of the three others--Messrs Dillon,
Devlin and T.P. O'Connor--who must historically be held responsible
for the mistakes and weaknesses and horrible blunders of those years,
which no self-respecting Irishman of the future can ever look back
upon without a shudder of horror.

The Home Rule Bill, which was the product of those shameful years of
debility and disgrace, was so poor and paltry a thing as to be almost
an insult to Irish patriotism and intelligence. It proposed to
establish merely a nominal Parliament in Dublin. It was financially
unsound, besides being a denial of Ireland's right to fix and levy her
own taxes. As a matter of fact, the power of taxation was rigorously
maintained at Westminster with a reduced Irish representation of
two-thirds. And this was the measure which was proclaimed to be
greater than Grattan's Parliament or than any of the previous Home
Rule Bills! Furthermore, it made no provision for the completion of
land purchase, but Mr Asquith was not really to be blamed for this, as
Mr Dillon proclaimed that one of the great attractions of the Bill was
that it would leave the remnant of the landlords to be dealt with by
him and his obedient henchmen. Finally, neither the Liberal Party nor
their faithful Irish supporters would hear of any concessions to
Ulster.

These people were now so arrogant in the fancied security and strength
of their position to do just as they pleased that Mr Redmond rashly
undertook "to put down Ulster with the strong hand" and rather
prematurely declared: "There is no longer an Ulster difficulty." One
further financial infamy the Bill perpetrated. The twenty millions
sterling which were, under the Land Purchase Act of 1903, to have been
a free Imperial grant to lubricate the wheels of agrarian settlement,
was henceforth and by a "Home Rule Government" to be audaciously
charged as a debt against Ireland. And this, be it noted, was part of
the pact come to with the "Nationalist" leaders at the Dow