And we drifted about for the best way of raising the question of the presence of the Irish members, and the Government were for a while in a state of absolute and painful uncertainty.

Then came one of those desultory conversations on points of order, in which so large a body as the House of Commons cannot shine--one man suggesting one method, one man another; half-a-dozen different methods proposed in as many minutes by half-a-dozen different members.
[Sidenote: 103 v.

80.] At last Mr.Redmond seemed to hit off the situation by a proposal to omit a couple of sub-sections in the ninth clause.

But Mr.Redmond had scarcely spoken when the House found itself in an extraordinary and most embarrassing dilemma.

The object of Mr.Redmond was plain enough; what he desired to do was to retain the Irish members in the Imperial Parliament in their present, that is to say, in their full, strength--103 they are now, 103 he wanted them to remain.