recent occasions when he had advised them and
the result was not what he foretold.

To sum up, then, this criticism--what he said and did publicly in the
Convention could hardly by stretch of imagination have been bettered.
But outside its sessions he did not handle his team. On the balance,
probably, he thought it better to leave them to their own devices; but
his temperament weighed in that decision. As a result, the County
Councillors and other local representatives used to hold meetings of
their own. They were shrewd and capable men; but in the matters with
which we had to deal the most skilled direction was necessary; and there
was never a man more capable of giving them guidance out of a lifetime's
experience than was Redmond, nor one from whom they would have more
willingly accepted instruction.

Discussion in the Convention itself was not of great value for the
education of opinion, because men naturally were reluctant to get up and
state precisely their individual difficulties, which in a confidential
interchange of views might have been shown to proceed from some defect
in comprehension. The chief value in the debates lay in what they
revealed rather than what they imparted. One fact was salient. No
Nationalist was prepared to recommend acceptance of the Home Rule Act as
it stood, though some of its most vehement assailants adopted great
parts of its framework. Broadly speaking, Nationalists wanted for
Ireland the powers which were possessed by a self-governing Dominion,
but were content to leave all control of defence to the Imperial
authority and did not press any demand for a local militia. On the other
hand, there was strong insistence on the right of an Irish Parliament to
have complete power of taxation within its jurisdiction.

It was manifest that the financial clauses of the existing Act would no
longer apply. They were framed in view of a situation which found
Ireland contributing ten millions in taxation and costing twelve to
administer. Now, less than half the taxation paid the cost of all Irish
services and the balance went towards the war.

It was also evident that Nationalists were prepared to make concessions
to the minority quite inconsistent with the current democratic view of
what a Constitution should be. The Bishop of Raphoe, for instance,
expressed willingness to have the Irish peers as an Upper House. Lord
Midleton, however, for the Southern Unionists, insisted that those whom
he spo