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Lord Curzon in the House of Lords on the same

day said that no one could deny that the Government's offer was " a great act of renunciation which might be called an act of sacrifice." It was difficult to believe that any body of responsible men would reject the particular form and quality of independence which was proposed. Lord Salisbury spoke of the " profound dissatisfaction felt by loyal subjects " at the negotiations, and the Lord Chancellor, who confessed that he was not optimistic, stated that, in the event of the failure, we should find ourselves " committed to hostilities upon a scale never heretofore under- taken by this country against Ireland." It would be impossible, he said, to allow the secession of a constituent part of these islands from the British constitution.

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