o go to the country with
the plan as it stood, than to agree to changes that would entangle them in
new embarrassments, and discredit their confidence in their own handiwork.
Ingenious negotiators perceived that their toil had been fruitless. Every
man now knew the precise situation that he had to face, in respect alike
of the Irish bill and liberal unity.

On the day following this decisive scene (May 29), under the direction of
the radical leader an invitation to a conference was issued to those
members "who being in favour of some sort of autonomy for Ireland,
disapproved of the government bills in their present shape." The form of
the invitation is remarkable in view of its ultimate effect on Irish
autonomy. The meeting was held on May 31, in the same committee room
upstairs that four years later became associated with the most cruel of
all phases of the Irish controversy. Mr. Chamberlain presided, and some
fifty-five gentlemen attended. Not all of them had hitherto been
understood to be in favour either of some sort, or of any sort, of
autonomy for Ireland. The question was whether they should content
themselves with abstention from the division, or should go into the lobby
against the government. If they abstained, the bill would pass, and an
extension of the party schism would be averted. The point was carried, as
all great parliamentary issues are, by considerations apart from the nice
and exact balance of argument on the merits. In anxious and distracting
moments like this, when so many arguments tell in one way and so many tell
in another, a casting vote often belongs to the moral weight of some
particular person. The chairman opened in a neutral sense. It seems to
have been mainly the moral weight of Mr. Bright that sent down the scale.
He was not present, but he sent a letter. He hoped that every man would
use his own mind, but for his part he must vote against the bill. This
letter was afterwards described as the death-warrant of the bill and of
the administration. The course of the men who had been summoned because
they were favourable to some sort of home rule was decided by the
illustrious statesman who opposed every sort of home rule. Their boat was
driven straight upon the rocks of coercion by the influence of the great
orator who had never in all his career been more eloquent than when he was
denouncing the mischief and futility of Irish coercion, and protesting
that force is no remedy.

One of the b