But a new power was coming to the front, at once assisting and thwarting our efforts.

Mr.
Lloyd George put a new fighting spirit into Liberalism: but the objects which he had at heart could only be achieved by a great expenditure of electoral power, and among those objects Irish self-government found only a secondary place.

When Mr.Gladstone spoke of liberty he thought of what he had helped to bring to Greece, Italy, Bulgaria and Montenegro--what he had tried to bring to Ireland.

When Mr.Lloyd George spoke of liberty, he thought of what he wanted to bring to England first, and to Ireland by the way; his conviction that Ireland needed self-government was not so deeply rooted as his conviction that the poor throughout the United Kingdom needed help.
Old Age Pensions had been popular, but had not been a fighting issue.
Mr.Lloyd George provided the fighting issue with a vengeance when he set himself to pay for them.

Unfortunately, Nationalist Ireland had no enthusiasm for the Budget which English Radicalism made its flag.