Mr. Redmond, accompanied by Mr. John Dillon and Mr. Devlin,
arrived in Cork last Saturday night and held a great popular demonstration on the Sunday. In his speech Mr. Redmond justified his action over the Budget. "If the Albert Hall pledge was observed, his duty was to support ten Budgets if necessary." There was one thing to be deplored in the present political situation,—the momentary check caused by the death of the King. Viewing the matter in its personal aspect, all parties in Ireland were sorry for the King's death, and sympathised with his family and the English people. But while the King of England was a Constitutional Monarch, the King of Ireland was not a Constitutional Monarch.—Here Mr. Redmond was greeted with cries, " You are our King ! "—He was not the head of a free Constitution. Hence, from the Constitu- tional point of view, it would be hypocrisy for Irishmen to pretend that they regarded the demise of the Sovereign as affecting Ireland in the same way as the demise of the Sovereign affected the people of England. But the moment they got a free Constitution in Ireland that moment the people would be found as loyal as those of Canada or South Africa. Turning to the future, he said that no retreat or compromise was possible for the Liberal Government. So long as the Government acted on the lines of Mr. Asquith's recent speech in Parliament, so long and no longer they would receive the enthusiastic support of the Irish Party.
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