But to do that would involve the danger of having again to appeal to the country, which even at this high tide of Liberal triumph they could not face with Home Rule as an election cry.

So, with the tame acquiescence of Mr.Redmond and his followers, they spent four years of unparalleled power without laying a finger on Irish Government, a course which was rendered easy for them by the fact that, on their own admission, they had found Ireland in a more peaceful, prosperous, and contented condition than it had enjoyed for several generations.

Occasionally, indeed, as was necessary to prevent a rupture with the Nationalists, some perfunctory mention of Home Rule as a _desideratum_ of the future was made on Ministerial platforms--by Mr.Churchill, for example, at Manchester in May 1909.

But by that date even the contest over Tariff Reform--which had raged without intermission for six years, and by rending the Unionist Party had grievously damaged it as an effective instrument of opposition--had become merged in the more immediately exciting battle of the Budget, provoked by Mr.Lloyd George's financial proposals for the current year, and by the possibility that they might be rejected by the House of Lords.

This the House of Lords did, on the 30th of November, 1909, and the Prime Minister at once announced that he would appeal to the country without delay.
Such a turn of events was a wonderful windfall for the Irish Nationalists, beyond what the most sanguine of them can ever have hoped for.