The Convention failed to reach unanimity.  It presented various reports, and the Government, glad of so easy a way out, simply did nothing.  The Convention served the Ministerial purpose, and there was an end of it.  The proceedings were, however, notable for one tragic incident.  Mr Redmond sought to rally the majority of the Convention in support of a compromise which, whilst falling short of Dominion Home Rule, avoided partition and would have been acceptable to Southern Unionist opinion.  Mr Devlin and the Catholic Bishops opposed Mr Redmond’s motion and the Irish leader, feeling himself deserted at the most critical moment, did not move, and withdrew from the Convention to his death, adding another to the long list of tragic figures in Irish history.

The only practical outcome of the Convention was the acceptance of Dominion Home Rule by a minority, which included Mr Devlin.  As if to make matters as impracticable as possible for the Parliamentarians, Mr Lloyd George introduced a Bill to conscript Ireland at the very time the Convention proposals were before Parliament.  A more callous indifference to Irish psychology could scarcely be imagined.  A series of Sinn Fein victories at the polls had decided the fate of Partition once and for all.  But the war exigencies of the Government were so great, the military situation on the Continent was so hazardous, they seemed determined to risk even civil war in their resolve to get Irishmen to serve.  They must have fighting men at any cost.  The menace was very real, and the whole of Nationalist Ireland came together as one man to resist it.  The representatives of the Irish Party, of Labour, of Sinn Fein and of the All-for-Irelanders met in Conference at the Mansion House, Dublin, to concert measures of Irish defence.  The Mansion House Conference, at its first meeting, on 18th April, issued the following declaration:—­

“Taking our stand on Ireland’s separate and distinct nationhood, and affirming the principle of liberty, that the Governments of nations derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, we deny the right of the British Government or any external authority to impose compulsory military service in Ireland against the clearly expressed will of the Irish people.  The passing of the Conscription Bill by the British House of Commons must be regarded as a declaration of war on the Irish nation.  The alternative to accepting it as such is to surrender our liberties and to acknowledge ourselves slaves.  It is in direct violation of the rights of small nationalities to self-determination, which even the Prime Minister of England—­now preparing to employ naked militarism and force his Act upon Ireland—­himself announced as an essential condition for peace at the Peace Congress.  The attempt to enforce it is an unwarrantable aggression, which we call upon all Irishmen to resist by the most effective means at their disposal.”

The Irish Catholic Bishops on the same day received a deputation from the Mansion House Conference, and, having heard them, issued a manifesto, in the course of which they said: