and their leader.  It was some time before Redmond braced himself to the struggle; but from the opening of the autumn recess in 1907 he undertook a campaign throughout Ireland which it would be difficult to overpraise.  In a series of speeches at chosen centres, delivered before great audiences, he laid down once more the national demand as he conceived it; and in each speech he dealt with a different aspect of the case for Home Rule.

A formal outcome of this campaign was the re-establishment of national unity.  Mr. O’Brien and Mr. Healy returned to the Irish party for a brief period.  But the more important result was the re-establishment of Redmond’s personal position.  He had made an effort which would have been great for any man, but for him was a victory over his own temperament.  That temperament had in it, negatively, a great lack of personal ambition and, positively, a strong love for a quiet life.  He did his work in Parliament regularly and conscientiously, always there day in and day out; and it was work of a very exacting kind.  This had become the routine of his existence and he did it without strain.  But to go outside it was for him always an effort.  He hated town life; but more than this, he hated ceremonies, presentations, receptions in hotels, and all the promiscuous contact of political gatherings.  Nevertheless, when he came to such an occasion no living man acquitted himself better.  Apart from his oratory, he had an admirable manner, a dignified yet friendly courtesy which gained attachment.  In the course of the autumn and winter following the Irish Council Bill he must have met and been seen by a hundred times more of his adherents than in any similar period of his leadership.  People all over Ireland heard him not only on the public platform but in small addresses to deputations, in impromptu speeches at semi-public dinners, and all of this strengthened him where an Irish leader most needs to be strengthened—­in the hearts of the people.  The hold which he gained then stood to him during the years which followed and up to the outbreak of the war.  But it could have been still further strengthened, and if ambition had been a motive force in him, he would have strengthened it.  More than that, if he had realized his full value to Ireland, he would have felt it his duty to do so.  Modesty, combined with a certain degree of indolence, made him leave all that contact with the mass of his followers which is necessary to leadership to be effected through his chief colleagues, Mr. Dillon and Mr. Devlin—­who, through no will of theirs, became rather joint leaders than lieutenants, so far as Ireland was concerned.

Circumstances helped to emphasize this tendency.  His work lay very greatly in London, Parliament occupied every year a longer and longer space.  The task of platform advocacy all over England was urgent, and in England Redmond stood out alone.  It was little to be wondered at that when each long deferred recess came he made it a vacation and not a change of work.  The seclusion from direct intercourse with the mass of his followers which conditions imposed upon him was further accentuated by his personal tastes and his choice of a dwelling.