He indicated that an attempt would be made to renew negotiations for a settlement which would enable the Home Rule Act to be brought into operation at once; and that Mr. Lloyd George had consented to undertake the task of reconciling parties.  But he begged that there should be no debate upon this proposal or upon Irish affairs at all.  Redmond, in accepting, said that the request for acceptance without discussion was putting the goodwill of Nationalists to a very severe test.—­A discussion would at once have produced this criticism:  that Ireland would say to-morrow, “The Parliamentary party brought to Ireland a post-dated order for Home Rule, liable to an indefinite series of postponements:  Sinn Fein by a week’s rebellion secures that Home Rule shall be brought into force at once.”

In truth, the rapid growth of Sinn Fein from May 1916 onwards is due largely to this reasoning; but also to resentment against the Government’s dealing with the rebellion, and against the Irish party’s silence in Parliament in spite of the numerous actions of the military power which called for vigorous criticism.

Irish Nationalist members realized the unpopularity of their silence and submitted to it, for the negotiations appeared to offer a real chance.  We held that Mr. Lloyd George could not afford to fail, and had power enough to carry through a settlement.  We did not know, and could not, that the Minister of Munitions had been called off from his regular work within five weeks before the beginning of the offensive on the Somme, for which an unprecedented outlay of material had been undertaken.

The negotiations proceeded, and were conducted on the principle of discussion through a go-between.  The parties never met:  Mr. Lloyd George submitted proposals to each side separately.  Redmond and his colleagues insisted on protecting themselves by securing a written document, so that, as it was hoped, there could be no understanding and the terms come to would be final.

Those of us who hoped for a completely new approach to the problem were doomed to disappointment.  The affair was taken up where the Buckingham Palace Conference left it.  The terms to be arranged were terms of exclusion for Ulster; and the two questions of defining the area and the period met the negotiators on the threshold.

It has been shown above that Redmond regarded as vital the distinction between temporary and permanent exclusion.  His purpose was to stamp the whole of this proposed agreement with a provisional and transient character.  It was to be simply a war measure, subject to re-arrangement at the close of hostilities; and it was to be adapted to a community still agitated by rebellion.

An Irish Parliament with an Executive responsible to it was to be set up at once.  But no elections were to be held.  The existing members for the existing constituencies were to be the provisional Parliament till the war ended.