with Ireland he was liable to come upon some outburst such as the one which I have quoted.  These things were pin-pricks, yet pin-pricks administered in public; and the mere effort to endure such things without wincing saps a man’s vitality.  Behind them lay the definite repudiation of his policy in election after election—­for Kilkenny City followed the example of Clare and replaced Pat O’Brien by a Sinn Feiner.  He was repudiated in the eye of the world, and repudiated with every circumstance of contumely.  Plainly in the Convention he could no longer claim to speak for Ireland; that limited gravely his power to serve.

I think, however, that deep in his heart a resentment, all the more rankling because he gave it no voice, prompted him to be on his guard against lending the least colour of justification to any plea that in the Convention he had sought to pledge Ireland without due mandate or had committed anyone but himself.  All that was personal in his resources—­his labour, his experience, his judgment, his eloquence—­all this he put unreservedly at the Convention’s service:  but he abstained, and I think not only out of policy but as the result of silent anger, from making the least use of that authority which he still possessed and which he might easily have augmented.  If in the result he took too little upon him, lest anyone should ever say he had taken too much, and if because he left too much to others Ireland was the loser, Ireland must bear not the loss only but the blame.

Many even of those who most agreed with his action had, under the influence and events of these years and of public comments on these events, lost confidence in him.  Some weeks after the Convention assembled, a very able priest said to me that he regarded Redmond as “a worn-out man.”  The genuineness of his regret was proved by the delight with which he heard what I could tell him.  Never in my life did I find so much cause for admiration of Redmond as in the early stages—­which were in many ways the most important—­of our meetings.  Never at any time did I know him exert so successfully his charm of public manner.  At the second day’s meeting, when the new Chairman took up his place and function, there were several small points to be settled, each capable of creating friction; and it has to be admitted that in the technical aspect of his duty Sir Horace Plunkett did not shine:  business quickly became involved.  Fortunately he was of a temper to welcome help, and it was quickly to hand.  Archbishop Crozier showed himself to be accomplished, resourceful, and most tactful on all points of procedure:  and Redmond then for the first time did with extraordinary skill what he had to do at many stages later.  By a series of questions to the Chair he suggested rather than recommended a way of clearing the involved issue; and all this was done with a precision of phrase which was none the less exact because it was easy, and with a dignity which was none the less impressive because it had no pretence to effect.  His mastery both of the form and substance of procedure was conspicuous.  One of the ablest among the Southern Unionists said to me in these days:  “He is superb:  he does not seem able to put a word wrong.”