Home Rule could, in a sense, have been put into place in spring 1917, but Redmond was reluctant to shoulder the burden of exclusion and hoped the eventual area to be excluded could in time be narrowed down. It was a difficult choice, as Redmond might have seized and exercised power in the twenty-six counties to the advantage of the Home Rule cause and might well have provided "the freedom to achieve freedom". His choice of a conference, all going well, could possibly secure the future of constitutional nationalism and halt the progress of the separatist movement.