sneering at the proposal for a bonus,
hinting that no Government would find money for this purpose. Mr
Davitt, who was an earnest disciple of Henry George's ideal of Land
Nationalisation, naturally enough found nothing to like in the
proposals for land purchase, which would set up a race of
peasant-proprietors who would never consent to surrender their
ownership to the State and would consequently make the application of
the principles of Land Nationalisation for ever impossible in Ireland.
Besides, Michael Davitt had cause for personal hatred of landlordism,
which exiled his parents after eviction, and incidentally meant the
loss of an arm to himself, and a violence of language which would be
excusable in him would not be justifiable or allowable in the cases of
men who had not suffered similarly, such as Messrs Dillon and Sexton.
Yet the fault was not theirs if the Land Conference did not end in
wreckage and such a glorious chance of national reconciliation and
appeasement was not lost to Ireland.

In the meantime Sir Antony MacDonnell, greatly daring and, I would
likewise say, greatly patriotic, accepted the offer of the Irish
Under-Secretaryship in a spirit of self-abnegation beyond praise. Mr
Redmond and Mr O'Brien had, at his request, met him, early in
February, 1903, to discuss the provisions of the contemplated Purchase
Bill. It may be remarked that Messrs Dillon and Davitt were invited to
meet Sir Antony on the same occasion, but they declined. They
apparently desired the position of greater freedom and less
responsibility, from which they could deliver their attacks upon their
friends. They received little support from the country in their
guerrilla warfare on the Land Conference findings. The Standing
Committee of the Catholic Hierarchy left no room for doubt as to their
views. They declared the holding of the Land Conference "to be an
event of the best augury for the future welfare of both classes"
(landlords and tenants), and they expressed the hope that its
unanimity would result in legislation which would settle the Land
Question once for all "and give the Irish people of every class a fair
opportunity to live and serve their native land." The Irish Party and
the National Directory of the United Irish League, the two bodies
invested with sovereign authority to declare the national policy,
unanimously, at specially convened meetings, approved the findings of
the Land Conference and accepted them as the ba