ng in Ulster, that the Home
Rule Act of 1914 would necessarily come into force as soon as peace was
finally declared, while as yet nothing had been done to redeem the
promise of an Amending Bill given by Mr. Asquith, and reiterated by Mr.
Lloyd George. The compact between the latter and the Unionist Party, on
which the Coalition had swept the country, had made it clear that fresh
Irish legislation was to be expected, and the general lines on which it
would be based were laid down; but there was also an intimation that a
settlement must wait till the condition of Ireland should warrant
it.[104]

The state of Ireland was certainly not such as to make it appear
probable that any sane Government would take the risk of handing over
control of the country immediately to the Sinn Feiners, whom the recent
elections had proved to be in an overwhelming majority in the three
southern provinces. By the law, not of England alone, but of every
civilised State, that party was tainted through and through with high
treason. It had attempted to "succour the King's enemies" in every way
in its power. The Government had in its possession evidence of two
conspiracies, in which, during the late frightful war, these Irishmen
had been in league with the Germans to bring defeat and disaster upon
England and her Allies, and the second of these plots was only made
possible by the misconceived clemency of the Government in releasing
from custody the ring-leaders in the first.

And these Sinn Fein rebels left the Government no excuse for any
illusion as to their being either chastened or contrite in spirit.
Contemptuously ignoring their election as members of the Imperial
Parliament, where they never put in an appearance because it would
require them to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown, they openly
held a Congress in Dublin in January 1919 where a Declaration of
Independence was read, and a demand made for the evacuation of Ireland
by the forces of the Crown. A "Ministry" was also appointed, which
purported to make itself responsible for administration in Ireland.
Outrages of a daring character became more and more frequent, and gave
evidence of being the work of efficient organisation.

President Wilson's coinage of the unfortunate and ambiguous expression
"self-determination" made it a catch-penny cry in relation to Ireland;
but, in reply to Mr. Devlin's demand for a recognition of that
"principle," Mr. Lloyd George pointed out that it