life-blood flowing out. Who can say that is an exaggeration? Twenty
years of resolute government by the party above the gangway have
diminished the population of Ireland by a million. No man in any
position of influence can take upon himself the awful
responsibility of despising and putting upon one side any device
that may arrest that hemorrhage, even although he believed, as I
do, that far different remedies must be applied before Ireland can
stand upon her feet in vigorous strength. We are determined, as far
as we are concerned, that these other remedies shall be applied;
but in the meantime we should shrink from the responsibility of
rejecting anything which, after that full consideration which the
Bill will receive, seems to our deliberate judgment calculated to
relieve the sufferings of Ireland and hasten the day of her full
national convalescence."

There is no doubt that the element in him which urged him to welcome
anything that could set Irishmen working together on Irish problems made
it almost impossible for him to throw aside this chance. It was clear to
me also that by long months of work in secret deliberation the proposals
originally set out had been greatly altered, so much so that in
surveying the Bill he was conscious mainly of the improvements in it;
and that in this process his mind had lost perception of how the measure
was likely to affect Irish opinion--especially in view of his own
hopeful prognostications. At all events, the reception of Mr. Birrell's
speech, even by Redmond's own colleagues, marked a sudden change in the
atmosphere. Some desired to vote at once against the measure; many were
with difficulty brought into the lobby to support even the formal stage
of first reading. In Ireland there was fierce denunciation. A Convention
was called for May 21st. The crowd was so great that many of us could
not make our way into the Mansion House; and Redmond opened the