gland and the Empire. She was to find
that such proofs were for the most part thrown away, and merely were
used by her enemies, and by some who professed to be her friends, as a
starting-point for demands on her for further concessions. But, although
all British parties in turn did their best to impress upon Ulster that
loyalty did not pay, she never succeeded in learning the lesson
sufficiently to be guided by it in her political conduct.

FOOTNOTES:

[93] Mr. Lloyd George's memory was at fault when he said in the House of
Commons on the 7th of February, 1922, that on the occasion referred to
in the text he had seen Sir Edward Carson and Mr. Redmond together.

[94] The quotations from this speech, which was never published, are
from a report privately taken by the Ulster Unionist Council.

[95] See _ante_, p. 105.

CHAPTER XXII

THE IRISH CONVENTION

After the failure of Mr. Lloyd George's negotiations for settlement in
the summer of 1916 the Nationalists practically dropped all pretence of
helping the Government to carry on the war. They were, no doubt,
beginning to realise how completely they were losing hold of the people
of Southern Ireland, and that the only chance of regaining their
vanishing popularity was by an attitude of hostility to the British
Government.

Frequently during the autumn and winter they raised debates in
Parliament on the demand that the Home Rule Act should immediately come
into operation, and threatened that if this were not done recruits from
Ireland would not be forthcoming, although the need for men was now a
matter of great national urgency. They ignored the fact that Mr. Redmond
was a consenting party to Mr. Asquith's policy of holding Home Rule in
abeyance till after the war, and attempted to explain away their own
loss of influence in Ireland by alleging that the exasperation of the
Irish people at the delay in obtaining "self-government" was the cause
of their alienation from England, and of the growth of Sinn Fein.

In December 1916 the Asquith Government came to an end, and Mr. Lloyd
George became Prime Minister. He had shown his estimate of Sir Edward
Carson's statesmanship by pressing Mr. Asquith to entrust the entire
conduct of the war to a Committee of four, of whom the Ulster leader
should be one; and, having failed in this attempt to infuse energy and
decision into the counsels of his Chief, he turned him out and formed a
Ministry with Carson in the office of