Was it a settlement by consent they wanted, or was their aim simply the destruction of the Bill ?" This emphasized what Redmond had said a few days earlier at Birmingham, when he declared that the fight against Home Rule was not an honest one, that its real purpose was to defeat the Parliament Act and restore to the Tory party its special control over the legislative machine.
The facts were plain on the surface.

The Tories clamoured for a fresh general election, urging that the electors never realized that the Liberal programme involved civil war.

But to concede this claim indirectly defeated the Parliament Act, which would then have broken down at the first attempt to apply it.

What added to the insincerity of the argument was Ulster's repeated refusal to be influenced by the result of any election.

Under no circumstances, speaker after speaker from Ulster declared, would they submit to Home Rule.