Yet even in his confidence there was the pathetic accent of one who feels need to bid defiance to despair.
"Although I know I lay myself open perhaps to ridicule as too sanguine a prophet, I have some assured hope that the result may be blessed for Ireland as for the Empire.

...

The life of a politician, especially of an Irish politician, is one long series of postponements and compromises and disappointments and disillusions....

Many of our cherished ideals, our ideals of complete, speedy and almost immediate triumph of our policy and of our cause, have faded, some of them almost disappeared.
And we know that it is a serious consideration for those of us who have spent forty years at this work and now are growing old, if we have to face further postponements.

For my part, I feel we must not shrink from compromise.