52 Negotiations on the Bill [ l 9°3 



the 30 and 40 per cent, limit of reductions ; but he will not insist upon 

 an augmentation of the bonus, though in reality the twelve millions 

 will not prove enough. He is to send me a memorandum, however, 

 this afternoon from the House of Commons, for he is not himself 

 well enough up in the Land Bill to put it down on paper without con- 

 sultation. He will also be happy to see George here either to-morrow 

 or Saturday. 



" 1st May. — Redmond's memorandum has come. In sending it he 

 says, after asking for Kilbride's release from gaol : 



" ' Yesterday the matter was raised at the meeting of the Irish 

 party, and I feel sure that some very decisive action must be taken if 

 his imprisonment continues much longer, and I cannot conceive why his 

 continued imprisonment should be apparently deliberately placed in our 

 path by the Government. I hope you will be able to send me good news 

 on this point, and should our friend desire to see me I can keep any 

 appointment you may make for to-morrow or Saturday.' ' 



The memorandum itself is long and technical, and though interest- 

 ing at the moment, I omit it here. It concludes : " I confine myself to 

 the points I consider vital to the success of the Bill. If there was a 

 certainty of satisfaction on these particulars (even though it should not 

 be considered advisable to make a declaration publicly on the second 

 reading debate), it would make it possible for us to avoid a contentious 

 attitude towards the Bill, and allay a growing apprehension in Ireland 

 (30th April, 1903)." 



" To-day I went to see George. Dermot (Lord Mayo) was in the 

 house with him, so I was shown upstairs to the drawing-room, and 

 there we talked. He told me there had been a new Cabinet Council, at 

 which his enemies. Chamberlain and the rest, had raged, and he had 

 been obliged to give a promise that he would give no pledges whatever to 

 the Irish Party before the Second Reading, nor hold any communication 

 with them, so I was to consider what he told me as casual talk, and if I 

 repeated it to Redmond it must be merely my impression of his views 



— no message." 



a 



N.B. This is almost identical with old Gladstone's reservation when 

 I asked him for a message of sympathy with Arabi in 1882. Never- 

 theless George gave me pencil and paper, and I wrote notes at his dicta- 

 tion, though he made me also many explanations, which I did not write. 

 The long and the short of the thing is that he will concede a number of 

 points in Committee, though he can make no pledge to do so on the 

 second reading. We were more than an hour over this. 



" On my return home I sent at once for Redmond, who came to 

 Chapel Street in the course of the afternoon, and I read over my notes 

 to him, and told him all I could remember of George's talk. On the 



