That was the general tone, but it would be difficult to convey the impression of experience and authority which his manner left:  and Redmond supported him.  It was plain that the two men would understand each other.  In the upshot their view prevailed; Redmond, Mr. Barrie and Lord Midleton were instructed to suggest names, and after an interval they came back with a list of nine.  Lord Midleton was for the Southern Unionists; Mr. Barrie, Lord Londonderry and Sir Alexander McDowell for the Northern; Redmond, Mr. Devlin and Bishop O’Donnell represented the parliamentary Nationalists, and to them were added Mr. W.M.  Murphy and Mr. George Russell.

This left eleven of us unemployed, and some days later we were formed into three sub-committees, the first dealing with the question of Electoral Reform and the composition of an Irish Parliament; the second with Land Purchase, and the third with a possible Territorial Force and the Police.  But the marrow of the business rested with the original sub-committee of nine.

They, however, could not get rapidly to work; other affairs pulled them in different directions.  Redmond was forced to go to Westminster, where the Franchise Bill was coming on; moreover, the Irish party felt that it must raise the question of Irish administration.

As our leader, he was obliged to speak on both matters.  His reply to the Ulster amendment proposing to extend redistribution to Ireland was that this departed from the compromise reached at the Speaker’s Conference, and moreover ignored the existence of the Convention.  He spoke with studied brevity and avoidance of party spirit:  but the debate became a wrangle.  Mr. Barrie brought back into it some of the Convention’s friendlier atmosphere; but his argument was that in the interests of the Convention this concession should be made.

The second debate, on October 23rd, was inevitably contentious:  it deplored the policy being pursued by the Irish Executive and the Irish military authorities “at a time when the highest interests of Ireland and the Empire demand the creation of an atmosphere favourable to the Convention.”  Redmond had an easy task in convicting the Government’s action of incoherence and of blundering provocation—­but to do this was of no advantage to his main purpose, which he served as best he could by a side-wind, eulogizing the temper of the Convention and specially the “sincere desire for a reasonable settlement” shown by the Ulster delegates.

Still, at the best, it was impossible for him not to feel that the reaction of a debate which could not be kept in the tone on which he started it must be unfavourable to the meetings of the Nine which were about to take place.  He was to go in to negotiate a settlement for his country while the voices of faction were yelping at his heels all over Ireland, and all the forces of reconciliation which he had brought into play were neutralized and sterilized.