; secondly, that no
coercion should be applied to any single county in Ireland to force
their submission.

The latter of these ideals was cast up to him by many in Ireland, first
in private grumblings, afterwards with public iteration. He saw and
admitted, what these critics urged, that the one aspiration made the
other impossible of fulfilment, for the moment. Would it be so, he
asked, after an interval in which Ulstermen and other Irishmen,
Nationalist and Unionist, would be found fighting and dying side by side
on the battlefield on the Continent, and at home, as he hoped and
believed, drilling shoulder to shoulder for the defence of the shores of
their own country?

On that hint he renewed his appeal to the Ulster Volunteers for
co-operation and regretted that he had got no response from them. More
than that, he urged that his appeal to Government had got no response.
"If they had done something to arm, equip and drill a certain number at
any rate of the National Volunteers the recruiting probably would have
been faster than it had been." Alluding to the taunts at Ireland's
shirking which had been bandied about in interruptions during the
debate, he recalled the stories which already had come back from France
of Irish valour; of the Munster Fusiliers who stood by their guns all
day and in the end dragged them back to their lines themselves; the
story told by wounded French soldiers who had seen the Irish Guards
charge three German regiments with the bayonet, singing a strange song
that the Frenchmen had never heard before--"something about God saving
Ireland."

"I saw these men," said Redmond, "marching through London on their way
to the station; they marched here past this building singing 'God save
Ireland!'"

But he could not rest his claim, and had no intention of resting it,
merely on the prowess of the Irish regulars already in the army.

"Speaking personally for myself, I do not think it is an exaggeration to
say that on hundreds of platforms in this country during the last few
years I have publicly promised, not only for myself, but in the name of
my country, that when the rights of Ireland were admitted by the
democracy of England, Ireland would become the strongest arm in the
defence of the Empire. The test has come sooner than I, or anyone,
expected. I tell the Prime Minister that this test will be honourably
met. I say for myself that I would feel myself personally dishonoured
if I did not say to