hom he
had never looked to be associated in any such task as the framing of a
Constitution. It was all oddly haphazard, full of interest and
surprises; all of us were a little out of our bearings, but much
disposed to reconnoitre in the spirit of friendly advance.

After the first day of Sir Horace Plunkett's chairmanship there was an
adjournment of something like a fortnight to give the Chairman and
secretariat time for preparation: and in this interval a plan of action
was formed. The object in view was to avoid the danger of an immediate
break and to give play to the reconciling influences. It was decided to
begin by a prolonged process of general discussion, in which men could
express their minds freely without the necessity of coming to an
operative decision on any of the controversial points, until the value
of each could be assessed in relation to the possibility of a general
agreement.

The plan adopted was to discuss, without division taken, the schemes
which had been submitted by members of the Convention and by others.
Members would propose and expound their own projects: for the exposition
of the others some member must make himself responsible.

At this "presentation stage" and at all stages, Redmond absolutely
declined to put forward a plan in his own name. This was not only from
temperamental reasons: there was an official obstacle. He was an
individual member of the Convention: but he was Chairman of the Irish
party, pledged not to bind it without its consent. He felt, no doubt,
that any detailed proposal from him would be taken as binding the party,
whom he could not consult without bringing them into the secrets of the
Convention.

But this attitude of self-abnegation was pushed very far by him, and
perhaps too far. In his early utterances he deprecated all official
recognition of sections. Yet from the moment when committees came to be
appointed this recognition was claimed; and from the first the Ulster
group maintained a compact organization. They had their own chairman,
Mr. Barrie, and their secretary; they secured a committee-room for their
own purposes; they voted solidly as one man. All this, though we did not
know it at first, was dictated by the conditions of their attendance.
They were pledged to act simply as delegates, who must submit every
question of importance to an Advisory Committee in Belfast--behind which
again was the Ulster Unionist Council. They had therefore no freedom of
ac