Redmond's appeal was to men's judgment and convictions, not to those instincts which lie deepest and most potent in the heart of man.

That was the limitation to his greatness.

He could lead only by convincing men that he was right.
If in the end it is true he failed to convince his countrymen and failed to carry them with him, this book has told what difficulties were set in his way, not so much by those who desired a different end than his, but by those who desired the same end.

Yet admit that he failed and that he fell from power.

No man holds power for ever, and during seventeen continuous years he held the leadership among his own people with far more than all the personal ascendancy of a Prime Minister in one of the oversea Dominions; and he held it without any of the binding force which control of administration and patronage bestows.