He added a caution that there must be no attempt to mix up the problem of an Irish settlement with conditions about recruiting or conscription.  “That question must be left to a change of heart in Ireland.”  In conclusion he expressed to the House of Commons—­though in no sanguine accents—­what he had expressed to me a fortnight earlier in private talk:  his belief that the time was “ripe for drastic, decided and bold action” by the Prime Minister.  Powerful influences were at Mr. Lloyd George’s back—­in the Press of all parties, in the opinion of leading men of all parties.  Three-quarters of the House of Commons, Redmond said, would welcome such action:  the whole of the overseas Dominions would be for it; and it would have “the sympathy of all men of good will in the Empire.”

For the first time I noticed lack of cordiality in the response of the House—­not from want of agreement, but from a profound depression.  The old temper of bickering had revived, especially between some of our party and those who disagreed with them.  One was glad to get back to France for Christmas, even in that grim winter.

When I was invalided back in February, I found that things had not stood still in Ireland.  Redmond’s suggested palliative had been applied, and the deported persons were let back home for Christmas.  But this produced little easing of the situation, and within a few weeks Government rearrested several of them.

One, however, Count Plunkett, was still in Ireland when a vacancy occurred in Roscommon.  He was not in himself a likely man to appeal to that constituency.  He had been an applicant for the Under-Secretaryship at Dublin Castle, and was therefore clearly not a person of extreme Nationalist views.  But one of his sons, a young poet, had been among the signatories to the proclamation of an Irish Republic, and had paid for it with his life; Count Plunkett stood really as the father of his son.  He was returned by a very large majority.  This was the first open defeat inflicted by the physical force men on the Constitutional party since the beginning of Parnell’s day.

In March, Redmond desired to bring the Irish question again before Parliament, and Mr. T.P.  O’Connor introduced a motion calling on the House “without further delay to confer upon Ireland the free institutions long promised her.”

That debate will always be remembered by those who heard it for one speech.  Willie Redmond was among the oldest members of the Parliamentary party; not half a dozen men in all the House had been longer continuously members; he had always been one of the most popular figures at Westminster and in Ireland; and he had always spoken a great deal.  Yet he had never been in the front rank either as a speaker or as a politician.  The humour and the wit which made him the joy of groups in the smoking-room on the occasions when he was in full vein of reminiscence never got into his set speeches—­though no