of representative Irishmen in Ireland, to submit to the British Government a Constitution for the future government of Ireland within the Empire."
I shall be glad to learn as soon as may be convenient to you the names of the gentlemen to whom invitations should now be sent.
Yours very truly,
William O'Brien, ESQ., M.P.,
House of Commons, S.W.
Mallow,
Dear Mr. Lloyd George—To my deep disappointment, the details of how "The Irish Convention" is to be composed confirm the apprehensions which I endeavoured to express in the House of Commons. The rejoicing excited by the courageous Amnesty for the Insurrection of last year cannot be allowed to blind the country to the danger.
1. While the Government have nominally adopted the principle of allowing the future Constitution of Ireland to be settled by agreement among Irishmen themselves, they have done so under conditions which render that principle a nullity. There can be little or no hope that a Convention constituted as the Government have directed can arrive at any decision except some hateful bargain for the partition of the country under a plausible disguise. To attribute the
18
