-ships for their leading friends and supporters in
their several constituencies. But we all know how the temptation of
patronage grows: it is so fine a thing to be able to do "a good turn"
for one's friend or neighbour by merely inditing a letter to some
condescending Minister. And now, particularly since there was no
censure to be dreaded, it became one of the ordinary functions of the
Nationalist M.P.'s life. It was no secret that prominent leaders were
exercising a similar privilege, and the rank and file saw no reason
why they should not imitate so seductive an example.

I once heard a keen student of personalities in Parliament observe
that Mr Dillon and Mr T.P. O'Connor always appeared to him to be
sounder and more sincere Liberals than they were Irish Nationalists. I
agree, and no doubt much of Ireland's later misfortunes sprang from
this circumstance. I confess I have always thought of Mr Dillon, in my
own mind, as an English Radical first and an Irish Nationalist
afterwards. I believe he was temperamentally incapable of adopting
Parnell's position of independence of either British Party and of
supporting only that Party which undertook to do most for Ireland.
Then, again, Mr Dillon was more of an Internationalist than a
Nationalist. He delighted in mixing himself up in foreign affairs, and
I am much mistaken if he did not take more pride in being regarded as
an authority on the Egyptian rather than on the Irish question. Mr
T.P. O'Connor was so long out of Ireland, and had so completely lost
touch with genuine Irish opinion that much might be forgiven to him.
His ties with Liberalism were the outgrowth of years spent in
connection with the Liberal Press of London and of social associations
which had their natural and inevitable influence on his political
actions.

With Messrs Dillon and O'Connor and--at this time, probably, in a more
secondary sense--Mr Devlin, in control of the Party, it can be well
understood how easy was the descent from an independence of all
parties to an alliance with one. I believe that in all these things Mr
Redmond's judgment was overborne by his more resolute colleagues. I
believe also, as I have already said, that the weakness of his
position was engendered by the unforgettable mistake he made in regard
to the sale of his estate--that he felt this was held over him as a
sword of Damocles, and that he was never able to get away from its
haunting shadow sufficiently to assert his own