From the time that Mr Dillon and his friends got control of the Party and the national organisation the country was never allowed to exercise an independent judgment of its own, for the simple reason that the facts were carefully kept from its knowledge by a Press boycott unparalleled in the history of any other nation.  Under this tyranny all independence and honest conviction were sapped.  And with a brutal irony, which must compel a certain amazed admiration on the part of the disinterested inquirer after truth, the men who set the Party pledge at defiance, who set themselves to destroy Party unity and to scoff at majority rule, were the men who at a later date, when it suited their malevolent purpose, used the catch-cries of “Unity,” “Majority Rule” and “Factionists” with all their evil memories of the nine years of the Split to intimidate the people from listening to the arguments and reasonings of Mr O’Brien and his friends.  And when their kept Press and their subservient Parliamentarians did not prevail, they did not hesitate to use hired revolver gangs and to employ paid emissaries to prevent the gospel of Conciliation from being preached to the people.

With the entrance of false principles and the employment of pernicious and demoralising influences the moral of the Party began to be at first vitiated and then utterly destroyed.  It lost its independent character and cohesive force.  To a certain extent it became a party of petty tale-bearers.  The men most in favour with the secret Cabinet were the men who kept them informed of the sayings and doings of their fellows.

The members of lesser note simply dare not be seen speaking to anyone suspected of a friendly feeling to Mr O’Brien or his policy.  Woe to them if they were!  In the expressive phrase of Mr O’Donnell, they were “made to suffer for it.”

The proud independence and incorruptibility which the Party boasted in Parnell’s day of power now also began to give way.  With the accession of the Liberal Party to office in 1906 the Nationalist members began to beseech favours.  It may be it was only in the first instance that they sought J.P.-ships for their leading friends and supporters in their several constituencies.  But we all know how the temptation of patronage grows:  it is so fine a thing to be able to do “a good turn” for one’s friend or neighbour by merely inditing a letter to some condescending Minister.  And now, particularly since there was no censure to be dreaded, it became one of the ordinary functions of the Nationalist M.P.’s life.  It was no secret that prominent leaders were exercising a similar privilege, and the rank and file saw no reason why they should not imitate so seductive an example.