The Cork Independents must have what they considered a full and adequate number; and for Sinn Fein he asked "a generous representation." Then he added: "So anxious am I that no wreckers, mere wreckers, should go on that body--I do not believe any men would go on as wreckers, but any men who would be regarded by their opponents as going on it as wreckers--that on the question of personalities, I would be very glad, if there are protagonists on one side or the other who during the last twenty or thirty years or more have been engaged in the struggle and who--there have been faults on both sides--have done things and said things which have left bitter memories, I should be very glad that such men should be left off.

If there were any feeling that I am such a man myself, I would be only too willing and happy to stand down" (he was interrupted by cries of "No, No") "if by doing so I could promote harmony." In this there was a genuine expression of the desire which governed his whole conduct in the Convention, to get away from the old lines with their old traditional antagonisms, and refer the solution not to Irish politicians but to Ireland as a whole.

What followed in his speech gave positive development to the self-denying ordinance which he had proposed for the party machines.

He asked for a nominated element--first, to make sure that men obviously suitable, who none the less might not happen to be elected, should find a place: and secondly, to increase still further the Unionist representation.
He added once more a plea for quick action; dilatoriness had had much to do, he said, with the Government's late failures in Ireland.

But, if prompt steps were taken on the path outlined, he would, in spite of all that had come and gone, face the new venture with good heart.