nd effective control to Irish public opinion over those matters
of administration referred to the Council? If not the scheme is worse
than useless." After protesting strongly against the nominated element
in the Council as being undemocratic, Mr. Redmond went on to express his
willingness "to accept it or any other safeguard that the wit of man
could devise, consistent with the ordinary principles of representative
government, which is necessary to show the minority in Ireland that
their fears are groundless." He then proceeded strongly to criticise
the power of the Lord Lieutenant under Clause 3--a power not confined to
a mere exercise of veto such as is possessed by a colonial governor, but
something much more than this--"a power on the part of the Lord
Lieutenant to interfere with and thwart every single act, so that a
hostile Lord Lieutenant might stop the whole machine. If that was the
intention of the Government it destroyed the valuable and genuine
character of the power given to the Council." Having protested against
the proposal that the Chairmen of Committees were to be the nominees of
the Lord Lieutenant, and, therefore, not necessarily in sympathy with
the majority of the Council, Mr. Redmond went on to say:--"The whole
question hinges on whether the finance is adequate. The money grant is
ludicrously inadequate. I fear that the L650,000 would be mortgaged from
the day the measure passed, and that it would be impossible with such an
amount to work the scheme."

Mr. Redmond then concluded his speech with the paragraph to which most
prominence was given in the English Press, with a view to suggest that
he accepted, with only minor reservations, the proposals of the
Government. I quote it _in extenso_ to show how slender is the ground
for this imputation:--

"I am most anxious to find, if I can, in this scheme an instrument
which, while admittedly it will not solve the Irish problem, will, at
any rate, remove some of the most glaring and palpable causes which keep
Ireland poverty-stricken and Irishmen hopeless and disaffected. It is in
that spirit that my colleagues and I will address ourselves to the Bill.
We shrink from the responsibility of rejecting anything which after the
full consideration which this Bill will secure, seems to our deliberate
judgment calculated to ease the suffering of Ireland, and hasten the day
of full convalescence."[27]

No one can suggest, in view of these words, that Mr. Redmond