While the Bill was not yet law, it was a flag, a symbol.

Once it became an Act, men's attitude changed; they turned to criticizing what they had got; and one powerful newspaper, bitterly hostile to the Parliamentary party, expended much ingenuity in exaggerating the limitations of what had been gained.

While one set of critics endeavoured to show how miserable was the price obtained, another dwelt on the unrighteousness of making such a bargain without Ireland's consent.

In Redmond's speech at Kilkenny there was a note of resentment.

He refused at any great crisis to consider "what might please the gallery or the crowd, or might spare him the insults of a handful of cornerboys." But the kernel of all his thought was put into one sentence by him at Belfast.