“Anything which would mean burying the hatchet, anything which would mean the consent of these Ulstermen to shake hands frankly with their fellow-countrymen across the hateful memories of the past, would be welcomed with universal joy in Ireland, and would be gladly purchased by very large sacrifices indeed.  If the right honourable and learned gentleman (Sir Edward Carson) would say to me, ’We are both Irishmen; we both love our country; we both hate—­and I am sure this is absolutely true of both of us—­we both hate all the old sectarian animosities, all the old wrongs, all the old memories which have kept Irishmen apart; let us come together and see what we can do for the welfare of our common country, so that we can hand down to those who come after us an Ireland more free, more peaceful, more tolerant, an Ireland less cursed by racial and religious differences’; if an appeal like that were made to me, I say without the smallest hesitation that there are no lengths that Nationalist Ireland would not be willing to go to assuage the fears, allay the anxieties, and remove the prejudices of their Ulster fellow-countrymen.

“But, alas! that is not the position.  Even the permanent exclusion of Ulster is not put forward as the price of reconciliation; it is simply put forward as the one and sole condition upon which they will give up their avowed intention of levying war upon their fellow-countrymen.”

He dealt with the federal proposal, and once more avowed his desire for that solution.  “I have been all my political life preaching in favour of federalism.”  But he could not consent that the exclusion of Ulster should be prolonged indefinitely pending a settlement on federal lines, nor consent to any “watering down of the powers in the present Home Rule Bill.”

What remained then, if Ulster would not accept the offer?  Nothing but “to proceed calmly with the Bill.”  Threats of civil war he discounted.  Disturbances there would probably be; but when the first Home Rule Bill was defeated, there were weeks of the most terrible riots in Belfast.  The House could not afford to be deterred from any course by threats of violence; and he was confident that the Bill would pass into law and profoundly confident it would never be revoked.

He gave his reasons for that confidence in a passage almost autobiographical in character—­if only because it made the House realize how completely this man’s whole adult life had been devoted to this one long service, and how far the labours of our party had achieved their purpose.

“In a sense I may say I have lived my whole life within these walls.  I came in here little more than a boy, and I have grown old in the House of Commons, and in the long space of years which have passed since then I have witnessed the most extraordinary transformation of the whole public life of this country, and I have witnessed an almost miraculous change in the position and the prospects of the Irish National