comprising a mass of miscellaneous
memoranda bristling with cross-references. The Chairman was restricted
to providing a bald narrative of the proceedings without any of the
usual critical estimate of the general results attained; but he made up
for this by setting forth his personal opinions in a letter to the Prime
Minister, which, without the sanction of the Convention, he prefixed to
the Report. As it was no easy matter to gain any clear idea from the
Report as to what the Convention had done, its proceedings while in
session having been screened from publicity by drastic censorship of the
Press, many people contented themselves with reading Sir Horace
Plunkett's unauthorised letter to Mr. Lloyd George; and, as it was in
some important respects gravely misleading, it is not surprising that
the truth in regard to the Convention was never properly understood, and
the Ulster Unionist Council had solid justification for its resolution
censuring the Chairman's conduct as "unprecedented and unconstitutional."

In this personal letter, as was to be expected of a partisan of the
Nationalists, Sir Horace Plunkett laid stress on the fact that Lord
Midleton had "accepted self-government for Ireland "--by which was
meant, of course, not self-government such as Ireland always enjoyed
through her representation, and indeed over-representation, in the
Imperial Parliament, but through separate institutions. But if it had
not been for this support of separate institutions by the Southern
Unionists there would not have been even a colourable pretext for the
assertion of Sir Horace Plunkett that "a larger measure of agreement has
been reached upon the principles and details of Irish self-government
than has ever yet been attained." The really surprising thing was how
little agreement was displayed even among the Nationalists themselves,
who on several important issues were nearly equally divided.

It was soon seen how little the policy of Lord Midleton was approved by
those whom he was supposed to represent. Although it was exceedingly
difficult to obtain accurate information about what was going on in the
Convention, enough became known in Dublin to cause serious misgiving to
Southern Unionists. The Council of the Irish Unionist Alliance, who had
nominated Lord Midleton as a delegate, asked him to confer with them on
the subject; but he refused. On the 4th of March, 1918, a "Call to
Unionists," a manifesto signed by twenty-four influ