of the question is to accept the present Bill
and to endeavour to work it loyally."

For the rest he minimised the temporary partition of Ireland and laid
stress on the ultimate union to be effected by the Council of Ireland;
magnified the financial advantages--seven millions is the sum he
reckons Southern Ireland will ultimately have to play with--and hinted
that they might be further stretched "if peace were offered to us by
any body which was qualified to speak for Irish opinion."

For a time little encouragement came from the Irish Peers. Lord
DUNRAVEN moved the rejection of the Bill, on the ground that there
could never be permanent peace in Ireland until moderate opinion was
behind the law, and that moderate opinion would not be satisfied
without full financial control. Lord WILLOUGHBY DE BROKE spoke as an
unrepentant Unionist, and Lord CLANWILLIAM bluntly declared that the
Irish were one of those peoples who were unfit to govern themselves
and who had got to be governed.

[Illustration: "The balance step without advancing." LORD HALDANE.]

The Duke of ABERCORN, as an Ulsterman, supported the Bill, and Lord
HALDANE gave an elegant exhibition of the military exercise known as
"the balance step without advancing." It was not the Bill he
would have drafted, and the Government must pass it on their own
responsibility. Still he thought it should be given a chance.

In the Commons Sir ARCHIBALD WILLIAMSON gave an account of the
remarkable transmigrations of the Egyptian G.H.Q., which within a few
weeks was located at the Savoy Hotel, the Abbassiah Barracks and the
Eden Hotel. "Each move was made from motives of economy." Sir ALFRED
MOND is understood to be most anxious to know how this game is played.
He can manage the first moves all right, but never achieves a winning
position.

_Wednesday, November 24th._--Those who were fortunate enough to hear
Viscount GREY'S speech on the Government of Ireland Bill speak of
it as on a par with that which he delivered as the spokesman of the
nation on August 3rd, 1914. To me it did not appear quite so plain and
coherent; but who can be plain and coherent about the Irish Question?
Lord GREY thinks, for example, that if the Government made a more
liberal offer to Nationalist Ireland the pressure of moderate opinion
would put an end to murders and outrages. But how would that moderate
opinion be able to overcome the terrorism of the secret societies,
which, as Lord BRYCE told t