Page:The Irish Cause and "The Irish Convention".djvu/10

 term Convention he means the assembling of a large body of men. Well, Sir, that will involve you at once in almost insuperable difficulties as to the selection or election of the members. However you manage it the cry is quite sure to arise from one side or the other that it is a packed Convention, a term of not very fragrant memory in Ireland. For instance, the hon. Member for Waterford has just thrown out the suggestion that you should call in the County Councils, Corporations, District Councils and so on. Well, sir, if there is one fact notorious in Ireland it is that these bodies were elected five years ago and have long exhausted their mandate, and do not in the least degree represent the present state of public opinion in Ireland.

The selection of this Convention would in point of fact give you as much trouble as a general election, without satisfying anybody. Then even if you had this big Convention assembled, you would have no end of hot-headed partisans rushing in with their own particular plans and fads, and you would find it impossible within any reasonable time to reach what you require, which is a prompt, succinct, consistent and practicable agreement. This morning's Times wisely warned you that the analogy from the case of the more phlegmatic people of South Africa on which the Prime Minister dwelt is a wholly illusory one—not much wiser than the English bull which has suggested General Smuts as the principal personage in a purely Irish assembly. From my experience of Irish affairs, which is at all events one of considerable length, you will I believe find that the only possibility of a prompt agreement is among a small number of men, and that its success must depend not upon the personality of the men, but upon their agreement being of such a character as to commend 10