In a statement published in the Freeman's Journal Mr. Redmond
gave his views on the progress of the Home Rule Bill :— " The Union as we have known it is dead. . . There are only two eventualities, and both of them are impossible, which could possibly prevent the Home Rule Bill actually becoming a statute in a few weeks' time. The first is that the present Session of Parliament should come to an abrupt end before one month from this date—an utterly unthinkable proposition; and the other is that the House of Commons should suddenly go' mad and pass a resolution to the effect that the Bill should not be presented for the Royal Assent. In the absence of these two absurd contingencies, the Bill must automatically become law...
Mr. Redmond explained that the idea that the King should be
asked to withhold his assent was now admitted by all to be "absolutely absurd and impossible." He himself earnestly
hoped for conciliation; if the Ulster Protestants could be satisfied, every Nationalist would rejoice. But in any case " the
assembling of an Irish Parliament is as certain as the rising of to-morrow's sun."
