were the limitation), Government would
"accept the responsibility for taking all the necessary steps to enable
the Imperial Parliament to give legislative effect to the conclusions of
the Convention."

A recommendation was added, amounting to a direction, that the
Convention should sit with closed doors and publish nothing of its
proceedings till their conclusion.

Nothing was said to define the all-important words "substantial
agreement." But the Prime Minister laid grave emphasis on the importance
of a settlement for the purpose of the war. The limitation upon Ulster's
claim was plainly conceived by him to lie in Ulster's sense of an
Imperial necessity. "The Empire cannot afford uncured sores that sap its
vigour. The entire strength of Great Britain and the whole-hearted
support of Ireland are essential to victory." He appealed "to Irishmen
of all faiths, political and religious, and especially to the patriotic
spirit of Ulster, to help by healing."

Redmond, in following him, assumed that there would be concurrence from
all sections of Irishmen. It must be "a free assembly"--no proposal must
be barred in advance: it must be representative of "every class, creed
and interest"--and in recapitulating these, he added the Irish peers. In
regard to political parties and bodies, as such, he desired a very
limited representation. The United Irish League, "the militant official
organization of the Irish party," should be unrepresented, and he
advised the same in regard to other purely political organizations and
societies. For the Irish party itself he asked a representation only
equal in number to that given to Irish Unionists. The Cork Independents
must have what they considered a full and adequate number; and for Sinn
Fein he asked "a generous representation."

Then he added:

"So anxious am I that no wreckers, mere wreckers, should go on that
body--I do not believe any men would go on as wreckers, but any men who
would be regarded by their opponents as going on it as wreckers--that on
the question of personalities, I would be very glad, if there are
protagonists on one side or the other who during the last twenty or
thirty years or more have been engaged in the struggle and who--there
have been faults on both sides--have done things and said things which
have left bitter memories, I should be very glad that such men should be
left off. If there were any feeling that I am such a man myself, I would
be only too willi