exclude the whole of Ulster from
the operations of the Home Rule Act.

By people forgetful of the facts, it is sometimes supposed that the
Partition was agreed to by the Irish Party under the pressure of war
conditions. This is not so. The Party have not even this poor excuse
to justify their betrayal, which was the culminating point in the
steep declivity of their downfall. The All-for-Ireland Party resisted
with all the strength at their command the violation of Ireland's
national unity. We spoke against it, voted against it, did all we
could to rouse the conscience of the people as to its unparalleled
iniquity. But though a proposal more offensive to every instinct of
national feeling could not be submitted, the Irish Party determined to
see the thing through--they seemed anxious to catch at any straw that
would save them from an irretrievable doom. On account of the deadlock
between the Lords and Commons on the question of exclusion, and with a
view to the adjustment of differences, it was announced that the King
had summoned a Conference of two representatives from each
Party--eight in all--to meet at Buckingham Palace. It is believed that
this Conference was initiated by His Majesty but taken with the
knowledge and consent of the Ministry. Messrs Redmond and Dillon
represented the Irish Party, and thus the man (Mr Dillon) who had been
for ten years denouncing any Conference with his own countrymen went
blithely into a Conference at Buckingham Palace, where the only issue
to be discussed was as to whether Sir Edward Carson should have four
or six counties for his kingdom in the North. On this point the
Conference for the moment disagreed, but nothing can ever undo the
fact that a body of Irishmen claiming to be Nationalists had not only
ignobly agreed to the Partition of their native land but, after twelve
months for deliberation, agreed to surrender six counties, instead of
four, to the Covenanters. And the time came when it was remembered for
them in an Ireland which had worthier concepts of Nationality than
partition and plunder.

CHAPTER XXIV

FORMATION OF IRISH VOLUNTEERS AND OUTBREAK
OF WAR

Meanwhile Nationalist Ireland was deep in its heart revolted by the
way the Parliamentary Party was managing its affairs. They sought
still to delude it with the cry that "the Act" was on the Statute Book
and that all would be we