Chapter 24

THE ULSTER PARLIAMENT

ON the 25th of November, 1918, the Parliament elected in December 1910 was at last dissolved, a few days after the Armistice with Germany. The new House of Commons was very different from the old. Seventy-two Sinn Fein members were returned from Ireland, sweeping away all but half a dozen of the old Nationalist party; but, in accordance with their fixed policy, the Sinn Fein members never presented themselves at Westminster to take the oath and their seats. That quarter of the House of Commons which for thirty years had been packed with the most fierce and disciplined of the political parties was therefore now given over to mild supporters of the Coalition Government, the only remnant of so-called "constitutional Nationalism" being Mr. T.P. O'Connor, Mr. Devlin, Captain Redmond, and two or three less prominent companions, who survived like monuments of a bygone age.

Ulster Unionists, on the other hand, were greatly strengthened by the recent Redistribution Act. Sir Edward Carson was elected member for the great working-class constituency of the Duncairn Division of Belfast, instead of for Dublin University, which he had so long represented, and twenty-two ardent supporters accompanied him from Ulster to Westminster. In the reconstruction of the Government which followed the election, Carson was pressed to return to office, but declined. Colonel James Craig, whose war services in connection with the Ulster Division were rewarded by a baronetcy, became Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions, and the Marquis of Londonderry accepted office as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Air Ministry.

Although the termination of hostilities by the Armistice was not in the legal sense the "end of the war," it brought it within sight. No one in January 1919 dreamt that the process of making peace and ratifying the necessary treaties would drag on for a seemingly interminable length of time, and it was realised, with grave misgiving in Ulster, that the Home Rule Act of 1914 would necessarily come into force as soon as peace was finally declared, while as yet nothing had been done to redeem the promise of an Amending Bill given by Mr. Asquith, and reiterated by Mr. Lloyd George. The compact between the latter and the Unionist Party, on which the Coalition had swept the country, had made it clear that fresh Irish legislation was to be expected, and the general lines on which it would be based were laid down; but there was also an intimation that a settlement must wait till the condition of Ireland should warrant it.[104]

The state of Ireland was certainly not such as to make it appear probable that any sane Government would take the risk of handing over control of the country immediately to the Sinn Feiners, whom the recent elections had proved to be in an overwhelming majority in the three southern provinces. By the law, not of England alone, but of every civilised State, that party was tainted through and through with high treason. It had attempted to "succour the King's enemies" in every way in its power. The Government had in its possession evidence of two conspiracies, in which, during the late frightful war, these Irishmen had been in league with the Germans to bring defeat and disaster upon England and her Allies, and the second of these plots was only made possible by the misconceived clemency of the Government in releasing from custody the ring-leaders in the first.

And these Sinn Fein rebels left the Government no excuse for any illusion as to their being either chastened or contrite in spirit. Contemptuously ignoring their election as members of the Imperial Parliament, where they never put in an appearance because it would require them to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown, they openly held a Congress in Dublin in January 1919 where a Declaration of Independence was read, and a demand made for the evacuation of Ireland by the forces of the Crown. A "Ministry" was also appointed, which purported to make itself responsible for administration in Ireland. Outrages of a daring character became more and more frequent, and gave evidence of being the work of efficient organisation.

President Wilson's coinage of the unfortunate and ambiguous expression "self-determination" made it a catch-penny cry in relation to Ireland; but, in reply to Mr. Devlin's demand for a recognition of that "principle," Mr. Lloyd George pointed out that it had been tried in the Convention, with the result that both Nationalists and Unionists had been divided among themselves, and he said he despaired of any settlement in Ireland until Irishmen could agree. Nevertheless, in October 1919 he appointed a Cabinet Committee, with Mr. Walter Long as Chairman, to make recommendations for dealing with the question of Irish Government.

But murders of soldiers and police had now become so scandalously frequent that in November a Proclamation was issued suppressing Sinn Fein and kindred organisations. It did nothing to improve the state of the country, which grew worse than ever in the last few weeks of the year. On the 19th of December a carefully planned attempt on the life of the Lord-Lieutenant, Lord French, proved how complete was the impunity relied upon by the organised assassins who, calling themselves an Irish Republican Army, terrorised the country.

It was in such conditions that, just before the close of the parliamentary session, the Prime Minister disclosed the intentions of the Government. He laid down three "basic facts," which he said governed the situation: (1) Three-fourths of the Irish people were bitterly hostile, and were at heart rebels against the Crown and Government. (2) Ulster was a complete contrast, which would make it an outrage to place her people under the rest of Ireland.[105] (3) No separation from the Empire could be tolerated, and any attempt to force it would be fought as the United States had fought against secession. On these considerations he based the proposals which were to be embodied in legislation in the next session. Sir Edward Carson, who in the light of past experience was too wary to take all Mr. Lloyd George's declarations at their face value, said at once that he could give no support to the policy outlined by the Prime Minister until he was convinced that the latter intended to go through with it to the end.

The Bill to give effect to these proposals (which became the Government of Ireland Act, 1920) was formally introduced on the 25th of February, 1920, and Carson then went over to Belfast to consult with the Unionist Council as to the action to be taken by the Ulster members.

The measure was a long and complicated one of seventy clauses and six schedules. Its effect, stated briefly, was to set up two Parliaments in Ireland, one for the six Protestant counties of Ulster and the other for the rest of Ireland. In principle it was the "clean cut" which had been several times proposed, except that, instead of retaining Ulster in legislative union with Great Britain, she was to be endowed with local institutions of her own in every respect similar to, and commensurate with, those given to the Parliament in Dublin. In addition, a Council of Ireland was created, composed of an equal number of members from each of the two legislatures. This Council was given powers in regard to private bill legislation, and matters of minor importance affecting both parts of the island which the two Parliaments might mutually agree to commit to its administration. Power was given to the two Parliaments to establish by identical Acts at any time a Parliament for all Ireland to supersede the Council, and to form a single autonomous constitution for the whole of Ireland.

The Council of Ireland occupied a prominent place in the debates on the Bill. It was held up as a symbol of the "unity of Ireland," and the authors of the measure were able to point to it as supplying machinery by which "partition" could be terminated as soon as Irishmen agreed among themselves in wishing to have a single national Government. It was not a feature of the Bill that found favour in Ulster; but, as it could do no harm and provided an argument against those who denounced "partition," the Ulster members did not think it worth while to oppose it.

But when Carson met the Ulster Unionist Council on the 6th of March the most difficult point he had to deal with was the same that had given so much trouble in the negotiations of 1916. The Bill defined the area subject to the "Parliament of Northern Ireland" as the six counties which the Ulster Council had agreed four years earlier to accept as the area to be excluded from the Home Rule Act. The question now to be decided was whether this same area should still be accepted, or an amendment moved for including in Northern Ireland the other three counties of the Province of Ulster. The same harrowing experience which the Council had undergone in 1916 was repeated in an aggravated form.[106] To separate themselves from fellow loyalists in Monaghan, Cavan, and Donegal was hateful to every delegate from the other six counties, and it was heartrending to be compelled to resist another moving appeal by so valued a friend as Lord Farnham. But the inexorable index of statistics demonstrated that, although Unionists were in a majority when geographical Ulster was considered as a unit, yet the distribution of population made it certain that a separate Parliament for the whole Province would have a precarious existence, while its administration of purely Nationalist districts would mean unending conflict.

It was, therefore, decided that no proposal for extending the area should be made by the Ulster members. Carson made it clear in the debates on the Bill that Ulster had not moved from her old position of desiring nothing except the Union; that he was still convinced there was "no alternative to the Union unless separation"; but that, while he would take no responsibility for a Bill which Ulster did not want, he and his colleagues would not actively oppose its progress to the Statute-book.

It did not, however, receive the Royal Assent until two days before Christmas, and during all these months the condition of Ireland was one of increasing anarchy. The Act provided that, if the people of Southern Ireland refused to work the new Constitution, the administration should be carried on by a system similar to Crown Colony government. Carson gave an assurance that in Ulster they would do their best to make the Act a success, and immediate steps were taken in Belfast to make good this undertaking.

To the people of Ulster the Act of 1920, though it involved the sacrifice of much that they had ardently hoped to preserve, came as a relief to their worst fears. It was represented as a final settlement, and finality was what they chiefly desired, if they could get it without being forced to submit to a Dublin Parliament. The disloyal conduct of Nationalist Ireland during the war, and the treason and terrorism organised by Sinn Fein after the war, had widened the already broad gulf between North and South. The determination never to submit to an all-Ireland Parliament was more firmly fixed than ever. The Act of 1920, which repealed Mr. Asquith's Act of 1914, gave Ulster what she had prepared to fight for, if necessary, before the war. It was the fulfilment of the Craigavon resolution--to take over the government "of those districts which they could control."[107] The Parliament of Northern Ireland established by the Act was in fact the legalisation of the Ulster Provisional Government of 1913. It placed Ulster in a position of equality with the South, both politically and economically. The two Legislatures in Ireland possessed the same powers, and were subject to an equal reservation of authority to the Imperial Parliament.

But with the passing of the Act the long and consummate leadership of Sir Edward Carson came to an end. If he had not succeeded in bringing the Ulster people into a Promised Land, he had at least conducted an orderly retreat to a position of safety. The almost miraculous skill with which he had directed all the operations of a protracted and harassing campaign, avoiding traps and pitfalls at every step, foreseeing and providing against countless crises, frustrating with unfailing adroitness the manoeuvres both of implacable enemies and treacherous "friends," was fully appreciated by his grateful followers, who had for years past regarded him with an intensity of personal devotion seldom given even to the greatest of political leaders. But he felt that the task of opening a new chapter in the history of Ulster, and of inaugurating the new institutions now established, was work for younger hands. Hard as he was pressed to accept the position of first Prime Minister of Ulster, he firmly persisted in his refusal; and on his recommendation the man who had been his able and faithful lieutenant throughout the long Ulster Movement was unanimously chosen to succeed him in the leadership.

Sir James Craig did not hesitate to respond to the call, although to do so he had to resign an important post in the British Government, that of Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty, with excellent prospects of further promotion. As soon as the elections in "Northern Ireland," conducted under the system of Proportional Representation, as provided by the Act of 1920, were complete, Sir James, whose followers numbered forty as against a Nationalist and Sinn Fein minority of twelve, was sent for by the Viceroy and commissioned to form a Ministry. He immediately set himself to his new and exceedingly difficult duties with characteristic thoroughness. The whole apparatus of government administration had to be built up from the foundation. Departments, for which there was no existing office accommodation or personnel, had to be called into existence and efficiently organised, and all this preliminary work had to be undertaken at a time when the territory subject to the new Government was beset by open and concealed enemies working havoc with bombs and revolvers, with which the Government had not yet legal power to cope.

But Sir James Craig pressed on with the work, undismayed by the difficulties, and resolved that the Parliament in Belfast should be opened at the earliest possible date. The Marquis of Londonderry gave a fresh proof of his Ulster patriotism by resigning his office in the Imperial Government and accepting the portfolio of Education in Sir James Craig's Cabinet, and with it the leadership of the Ulster Senate; in which the Duke of Abercorn also, to the great satisfaction of the Ulster people, consented to take a seat. Mr. Dawson Bates, the indefatigable Secretary of the Ulster Unionist Council during the whole of the Ulster Movement, was appointed Minister for Home Affairs, and Mr. E.M. Archdale became Minister for Agriculture. The first act of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland was to choose Major Hugh O'Neill as their Speaker, while the important position of Chairman of Committees was entrusted to Mr. Thomas Moles, one of the ablest recruits of the Ulster Parliamentary Party, whom the General Election of 1918 had sent to Westminster as one of the members for Belfast, and who had given ample evidence of his capacity both in the Imperial Parliament and on the Secretarial Staff of the Irish Convention of 1917.

Meantime, in the South the Act of 1920 was treated with absolute contempt; no step was taken to hold elections or to form an Administration, although it must be remembered that the flouted Act conferred a larger measure of Home Rule than had ever been offered by previous Bills. Thus by one of those curious ironies that have continually marked the history of Ireland, the only part of the island where Home Rule operated was the part that had never desired it, while the provinces that had demanded Home Rule for generations refused to use it when it was granted them.

In Ulster the new order of things was accepted with acquiescence rather than with enthusiasm. But the warmer emotion was immediately called forth when it became known that His Majesty the King had decided to open the Ulster Parliament in person on the 22nd of June, 1921, especially as it was fully realised that, owing to the anarchical condition of the country, the King's presence in Belfast would be a characteristic disregard of personal danger in the discharge of public duty. And when, on the eve of the royal visit, it was intimated that the Queen had been graciously pleased to accede to Sir James Craig's request that she should accompany the King to Belfast, the enthusiasm of the loyal people of the North rose to fever heat.

At any time, and under any circumstances, the reigning Sovereign and his Consort would have been received by a population so noted for its sentiment of loyalty to the Throne as that of Ulster with demonstrations of devotion exceeding the ordinary. But the present occasion was felt to have a very special significance. The opening of Parliament by the King in State is one of the most ancient and splendid of ceremonial pageants illustrating the history of British institutions. It was felt in Ulster that the association of this time-honoured ceremonial with the baptism, so to speak, of the latest offspring of the Mother of Parliaments stamped the Royal Seal upon the achievement of Ulster, and gave it a dignity, prestige, and promise of permanence which might otherwise have been lacking. No city in the United Kingdom had witnessed so many extraordinary displays of popular enthusiasm in the last ten years as Belfast, some of which had left on the minds of observers a firm belief that such intensity of emotion in a great concourse of people could not be exceeded. The scene in the streets when the King and Queen drove from the quay, on the arrival of the royal yacht, to the City Hall, was held by general consent to equal, since it could not surpass, any of those great demonstrations of the past in popular fervour. At any rate, persons of long experience in attendance on the Royal Family gave it as their opinion in the evening that they had never before seen so impressive a display of public devotion to the person of the Sovereign.

Two buildings in Belfast inseparably associated with Ulster's stand for union, the City Hall and the Ulster Hall, were the scenes of the chief events of the King's visit. The former, described by one of the English correspondents as "easily the most magnificent municipal building in the three Kingdoms,"[108] was placed at the disposal of the Ulster Government by the Corporation for temporary use as a Parliament House. The Council Chamber, a fine hall of dignified proportions with a dais and canopied chair at the upper end, made an appropriate frame for the ceremony of opening Parliament, and the arrangements both of the Chamber itself and of the approaches and entrances to it made it a simple matter to model the procedure as closely as possible on that followed at Westminster.

Among the many distinguished people who assembled in the Ulster Capital for the occasion, there was one notable absentee. Lord Carson of Duncairn--for this was the title that Sir Edward Carson had assumed on being appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary a few weeks previously--was detained in London by judicial duty in the House of Lords; and possibly reasons of delicacy not difficult to understand restrained him from making arrangements for absence. But the marked ovation given to Lady Carson wherever she was recognised in the streets of Belfast showed that the great leader was not absent from the popular mind at this moment of vindication of his statesmanship.

Such an event as that which brought His Majesty to Belfast was naturally an occasion for bestowing marks of distinction for public service. Sir James Craig wisely made it also an occasion for letting bygones be bygones by recommending Lord Pirrie for a step in the Peerage. Among those who received honours were several whose names have appeared in the preceding chapters of this book. Mr. William Robert Young, for thirty years one of the most indefatigable workers for the Unionist cause in Ulster, and Colonel Wallace, one of the most influential of Carson's local lieutenants, were made Privy Councillors, as was also Colonel Percival-Maxwell, who raised and commanded a battalion of the Ulster Division in the war. Colonel F.H. Crawford and Colonel Spender were awarded the C.B.E. for services to the nation during the war; but Ulstermen did not forget services of another sort to the Ulster cause before the Germans came on the scene.[109] A knighthood was given to Mr. Dawson Bates, who had exchanged the Secretaryship of the Ulster Unionist Council for the portfolio of a Cabinet Minister.

These honours were bestowed by the King in person at an investiture held in the Ulster Hall in the afternoon. There must have been many present whose minds went back to some of the most stirring events of Ulster's domestic history which had been transacted in the same building within recent years. Did Sir Hamar Greenwood, the Chief Secretary, as he stood in attendance on the Sovereign in the resplendent uniform of a Privy Councillor, look in curiosity round the walls which he and Mr. Churchill had been prohibited from entering on a memorable occasion when they had to content themselves with an imported tent in a football field instead? Did Colonel Wallace's thoughts wander back to the scene of wild enthusiasm in that hall on the evening before the Covenant, when he presented the ancient Boyne flag to the Ulster leader? Did those who spontaneously started the National Anthem in the presence of the King without warrant from the prearranged programme, and made the Queen smile at the emphasis with which they "confounded politics" and "frustrated knavish tricks," remember the fervour with which on many a past occasion the same strains testified to Ulster's loyalty in the midst of perplexity and apprehension? If these memories crowded in, they must have added to the sense of relief arising from the conviction that the ceremony they were now witnessing was the realisation of the policy propounded by Carson, when he declared that Ulster must always be ruled either by the Imperial Parliament or by a Government of her own.

But the moment of all others on that memorable day that must have been suggestive of such reflections was when the King formally opened the first Parliament of Northern Ireland in the same building that had witnessed the signing of the Ulster Covenant. Without the earlier event the later could not have been. If 1921 could have been fully foreseen in 1912 it might have appeared to many Covenanters as the disappointment of a cherished ideal. But those who lived to listen to the King's Speech in the City Hall realised that it was the dissipation of foreboding. However regarded, it was, as King George himself pronounced, "a profoundly moving occasion in Irish history."

The Speech from the Throne in which these words occurred made a deep impression all over the world, and nowhere more than in Ulster itself. No people more ardently shared the touchingly expressed desire of the King that his coming to Ireland might "prove to be the first step towards an end of strife amongst her people, whatever their race or creed." So, too, when His Majesty told the Ulster Parliament that he "felt assured they would do their utmost to make it an instrument of happiness and good government for all parts of the community which they represented," the Ulster people believed that the King's confidence in them would not prove to have been misplaced.

Happily, no prophetic vision of those things that were shortly to come to pass broke in to disturb the sense of satisfaction with the haven that had been reached. The future, with its treachery, its alarms, its fresh causes of uncertainty and of conflict, was mercifully hidden from the eyes of the Ulster people when they acclaimed the inauguration of their Parliament by their King. They accepted responsibility for the efficient working of institutions thus placed in their keeping by the highest constitutional Authority in the British Empire, although they had never asked for them, and still believed that the system they had been driven to abandon was better than the new; and they opened this fresh chapter in their history in firm faith that what had received so striking a token of the Sovereign's sympathy and approval would never be taken from them except with their own consent.

FOOTNOTES:

[104] See Letter from Mr. Lloyd George to Mr. Bonar Law, published in the Press on November 18th, 1918.

[105] Precisely twenty-four months later this outrage was committed by Mr. Lloyd George himself, with the concurrence of Mr. Austen Chamberlain.

[106] _Ante_, p. 248.

[107] See _ante_, p. 51.

[108] _The Morning Post_, June 23rd, 1921.

[109] See _ante_, Chapter XVIII.

APPENDIX A

NATIONALIST LETTER TO PRESIDENT WILSON

To THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

SIR,

When, a century and a half ago, the American Colonies dared to assert the ancient principle that the subject should not be taxed without the consent of his representatives, England strove to crush them. To-day England threatens to crush the people of Ireland if they do not accept a tax, not in money but in blood, against the protest of their representatives.

During the American Revolution the champions of your liberties appealed to the Irish Parliament against British aggression, and asked for a sympathetic judgment on their action. What the verdict was, history records.

To-day it is our turn to appeal to the people of America. We seek no more fitting prelude to that appeal than the terms in which your forefathers greeted ours:

"We are desirous of possessing the good opinion of the virtuous and humane. We are peculiarly desirous of furnishing you with the true state of our motives and objects, the better to enable you to judge of our conduct with accuracy, and determine the merits of the controversy with impartiality and precision."

If the Irish race had been conscriptable by England in the war against the United Colonies is it certain that your Republic would to-day flourish in the enjoyment of its noble Constitution?

Since then the Irish Parliament has been destroyed, by methods described by the greatest of British statesmen as those of "black-guardism and baseness." Ireland, deprived of its protection and overborne by more than six to one in the British Lower House, and by more than a hundred to one in the Upper House, is summoned by England to submit to a hitherto-unheard-of decree against her liberties.

In the fourth year of a war ostensibly begun for the defence of small nations, a law conscribing the manhood of Ireland has been passed, in defiance of the wishes of our people. The British Parliament, which enacted it, had long outrun its course, being in the eighth year of an existence constitutionally limited to five. To warrant the coercive statute, no recourse was had to the electorate of Britain, much less to that of Ireland. Yet the measure was forced through within a week, despite the votes of Irish representatives, and under a system of closure never applied to the debates which established conscription for Great Britain on a milder basis.

To repel the calumnies invented to becloud our action, we venture to address the successors of the belligerents who once appealed to Ireland. The feelings which inspire America deeply concern our race; so, in the forefront of our remonstrance, we feel bound to set forth that this Conscription Act involves for Irishmen questions far larger than any affecting mere internal politics. They raise a sovereign principle between a nation that has never abandoned her independent rights, and an adjacent nation that has persistently sought to strangle them.

Were Ireland to surrender that principle, she must submit to a usurped power, condone the fraudulent prostration of her Parliament in 1800, and abandon all claim to distinct nationality. Deep-seated and far-reaching are the problems remorselessly aroused by the unthinking and violent courses taken at Westminster.

Thus the sudden and unlooked-for departure of British politicians from their past military procedure towards this island provokes acutely the fundamental issue of Self-determination. That issue will decide whether our whole economic, social, and political life must lie at the uncontrolled disposition of another race whose title to legislate for us rests on force and fraud alone.

Ireland is a nation more ancient than England, and is one of the oldest in Christendom. Its geographical boundaries are clearly defined. It cherishes its own traditions, history, language, music, and culture. It throbs with a national consciousness sharpened not only by religious persecution, but by the violation of its territorial, juristic, and legislative rights. The authority of which its invaders boasted rests solely on an alleged Papal Bull. The symbols of attempted conquest are roofless castles, ruined abbeys, and confiscated cathedrals.

The title of King of Ireland was first conferred on the English monarch by a statute of the Parliament held in Ireland in 1542, when only four of our counties lay under English sway. That title originated in no English enactment. Neither did the Irish Parliament so originate. Every military aid granted by that Parliament to English kings was purely voluntary. Even when the Penal Code denied representation to the majority of the Irish population, military service was never enforced against them.

For generations England claimed control over both legislative and judicial functions in Ireland, but in 1783 these pretensions were altogether renounced, and the sovereignty of the Irish Legislature was solemnly recognised. A memorable British statute declared it--

"Established and ascertained for ever, and shall at no time hereafter be questioned or questionable."

For this, the spirit evoked by the successful revolt of the United States of America is to be thanked, and Ireland won no mean return for the sympathy invited by your Congress. Yet scarcely had George III signified his Royal Assent to that "scrap of paper," when his Ministers began to debauch the Irish Parliament. No Catholic had, for over a century, been allowed to sit within its walls; and only a handful of the population enjoyed the franchise. In 1800, by shameless bribery, a majority of corrupt Colonists was procured to embrace the London subjugation and vote away the existence of their Legislature for pensions, pelf, and titles.

The authors of the Act of Union, however, sought to soften its shackles by limiting the future jurisdiction of the British Parliament. Imposed on "a reluctant and protesting nation," it was tempered by articles guaranteeing Ireland against the coarser and more obvious forms of injustice. To guard against undue taxation, "exemptions and abatements" were stipulated for; but the "predominant partner" has long since dishonoured that part of the contract, and the weaker side has no power to enforce it. No military burdens were provided for, although Britain framed the terms of the treaty to her own liking. That an obligation to yield enforced service was thereby undertaken has never hitherto been asserted. We therefore cannot neglect to support this protest by citing a main proviso of the Treaty of Union. Before the destruction of the Irish Parliament no standing army or navy was raised, nor was any contribution made, except by way of gift, to the British Army or Navy. No Irish law for the levying of drafts existed; and such a proposal was deemed unconstitutional. Hence the 8th Article of the Treaty provides that--

"All laws in force at the time of the Union shall remain as now by law established, subject only to such alterations and regulations from time to time as circumstances may appear to the Parliament of the United Kingdom to require."

Where there was no law establishing military service for Ireland, what "alteration or regulation" respecting such a law can legally bind? Can an enactment such as Conscription, affecting the legal and moral rights of an entire people, be described as an "alteration" or "regulation" springing from a pre-existing law? Is the Treaty to be construed as Britain pleases, and always to the prejudice of the weaker side?

British military statecraft has hitherto rigidly held by a separate tradition for Ireland. The Territorial military system, created in 1907 for Great Britain, was not set up in Ireland. The Irish Militia was then actually disbanded, and the War Office insisted that no Territorial force to replace it should be embodied. Stranger still, the Volunteer Acts (Naval or Military) from 1804 to 1900 (some twenty in all) were never extended to Ireland. In 1880, when a Conservative House of Commons agreed to tolerate volunteering, the measure was thrown out by the House of Lords on the plea that Irishmen must not be allowed to learn the use of arms.

For, despite the Bill of Rights, the privilege of free citizens to bear arms in self-defence has been refused to us. The Constitution of America affirms that right as appertaining to the common people, but the men of Ireland are forbidden to bear arms in their own defence. Where, then, lies the basis of the claim that they can be forced to take them up for the defence of others?

It will suffice to present such considerations in outline without disinterring the details of the past misgovernment of our country. Mr. Gladstone avowed that these were marked by "every horror and every shame that could disgrace the relations between a strong country and a weak one." After an orgy of Martial Law the Scottish General, Abercromby, Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, wrote: "Every crime, every cruelty that could be committed by Cossacks or Calmucks has been transacted here.... The abuses of all kinds I found can scarcely be believed or enumerated." Lord Holland recalls that many people "were sold at so much a head to the Prussians."

We shall, therefore, pass by the story of the destruction of our manufactures, of artificial famines, of the fomentation of uprisings, of a hundred Coercion Acts, culminating in the perpetual "Act of Repression" obtained by forgery, which graced Queen Victoria's Jubilee Year in 1887. In our island the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, the repression of free speech, gibbetings, shootings, and bayonetings, are commonplace events. The effects of forced emigration and famine American generosity has softened; and we do not seek a verdict on the general merits of a system which enjoys the commendation of no foreigner except Albert, Prince Consort, who declared that the Irish "were no more worthy of sympathy than the Poles."

It is known to you how our population shrank to its present fallen state. Grants of money for emigration, "especially of families," were provided even by the Land Act of 1881. Previous Poor Law Acts had stimulated this "remedy." So late as 1891 a "Congested District" Board was empowered to "aid emigration," although millions of Irishmen had in the nineteenth century been evicted from their homes or driven abroad.

Seventy years ago our population stood at 8,000,000, and, in the normal ratio of increase, it should to-day amount to 16,000,000. Instead, it has dwindled to 4,500,000; and it is from this residuum that our manhood between the ages of eighteen and fifty-one is to be delivered up in such measure as the strategists of the English War Cabinet may demand.

To-day, as in the days of George Washington, nearly half the American forces have been furnished from the descendants of our banished race. If England could not, during your Revolution, regard that enrolment with satisfaction, might she not set something now to Ireland's credit from the racial composition of your Army or Navy? No other small nation has been so bereft by law of her children, but in vain for Ireland has the bread of exile been thrown upon the waters.

Yet, while Self-determination is refused, we are required by law to bleed to "make the world safe for democracy "--in every country except our own. Surely this cannot be the meaning of America's message to mankind glowing from the pen of her illustrious President?

In the 750 years during which the stranger sway has blighted Ireland her people have never had occasion to welcome an unselfish or generous deed at the hands of their rulers. Every so-called "concession" was but the loosening of a fetter. Every benefit sprang from a manipulation of our own money by a foreign Treasury denying us an honest audit of accounts. None was yielded as an act of grace. All were the offspring of constraint, tumult, or political necessity. Reason and arguments fell on deaf ears. To England the Union has brought enhanced wealth, population, power, and importance; to Ireland increased taxation, stunted industries, swollen emigration, and callous officialism.

Possessing in this land neither moral nor intellectual pre-eminence, nor any prestige derived from past merit or present esteem, the British Executive claims to restrain our liberties, control our fortunes, and exercise over our people the power of life and death. To obstruct the recent Home Rule Bill it allowed its favourites to defy its Parliament without punishment, to import arms from suspect regions with impunity, to threaten "to break every law" to effectuate their designs to infect the Army with mutiny and set up a rival Executive backed by military array to enforce the rule of a caste against the vast majority of the people. The highest offices of State became the guerdon of the organisers of rebellion, boastful of aid from Germany. To-day they are pillars of the Constitution, and the chief instrument of law. The only laurels lacking to the leaders of the Mutineers are those transplanted from the field of battle!

Are we to fight to maintain a system so repugnant, and must Irishmen be content to remain slaves themselves after freedom for distant lands has been purchased by their blood?

Heretofore in every clime, whenever the weak called for a defender, wherever the flag of liberty was unfurled, that blood freely flowed. Profiting by Irish sympathy with righteous causes Britain, at the outbreak of war, attracted to her armies tens of thousands of our youth ere even the Western Hemisphere had awakened to the wail of "small nations."

Irishmen, in their chivalrous eagerness, laid themselves open to the reproach from some of their brethren of forgetting the woes of their own land, which had suffered from its rulers, at one time or another, almost every inhumanity for which Germany is impeached. It was hard to bear the taunt that the army they were joining was that which held Ireland in subjection; but fresh bitterness has been added to such reproaches by what has since taken place.

Nevertheless, in the face of persistent discouragements, Irish chivalry remained ardent and aflame in the first years of the war. Tens of thousands of the children of the Gael have perished in the conflict. Their bones bleach upon the soil of Flanders or moulder beneath the waves of Suvla Bay. The slopes of Gallipoli, the sands of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Judasa afford them sepulture. Mons and Ypres provide their monuments. Wherever the battle-line extends from the English Channel to the Persian Gulf their ghostly voices whisper a response to the roll-call of the guardian-spirits of Liberty. What is their reward?

The spot on earth they loved best, and the land to which they owed their first duty, and which they hoped their sacrifices might help to freedom, lies unredeemed under an age-long thraldom. So, too, would it for ever lie, were every man and every youth within the shores of Ireland to immolate himself in England's service, unless the clamour of a dominant caste be rebuked and stilled.

Yet proof after proof accumulates that British Cabinets continue to be towards our country as conscienceless as ever. They deceive frankly nations throughout the world as to their Irish policy, while withholding from us even the Act of Home Rule which in 1914 was placed on the Statute-book. The recent "Convention," which they composed to initiate reform, was brought to confusion by a letter from the Prime Minister diminishing his original engagements.

Such insincere manoeuvres have left an indelible sense of wrong rankling in the hearts of Ireland.

Capitulations are observed with French Canadians, with the Maltese, with the Hindoos, with the Mohammedan Arabs, or the African Boers; but never has the word of England, in any capital case, been kept towards the "sister" island.

The Parliaments of Australia and of South Africa--both of which (unlike our ancient Legislature) were founded by British enactments--refused to adopt conscription. This was well known when the law against Ireland was resolved on. For opposing the application of that law to Irishmen, and while this appeal to you, sir, was being penned, members of our Conference have been arrested and deported without trial. It was even sought to poison the wells of American sympathy by levelling against them and others an allegation which its authors have failed to submit to the investigation of any tribunal.

To overlay malpractice by imputing to its victims perverse or criminal conduct is the stale but never-failing device of tyranny.

A claim has also been put forward by the British Foreign Office to prevent you, Mr. President, as the head of a great allied Republic, from acquiring first-hand information of the reasons why Ireland has rejected, and will resist, conscription except in so far as the Military Governor of Ireland, Field-Marshal Lord French, may be pleased to allow you to peruse his version of our opinions.

America's present conflict with Germany obstructs no argument that we advance. "Liberty and ordered peace" we, too, strive for; and confidently do we look to you, sir, and to America--whose freedom Irishmen risked something to establish--to lend ear and weight to the prayer that another unprovoked wrong against the defenceless may not stain this sorry century.

We know that America entered the war because her rights as a neutral, in respect of ocean navigation, were interfered with, and only then. Yet America in her strength had a guarantee that in victory she would not be cheated of that for which she joined in the struggle. Ireland, having no such strength, has no such guarantee; and experience has taught us that justice (much less gratitude) is not to be wrung from a hostile Government. What Ireland is to give, a free Ireland must determine.

We are sadly aware, from recent proclamations and deportations, of the efforts of British authorities to inflame prejudice against our country. We therefore crave allowance briefly to notice the insinuation that the Irish coasts, with native connivance, could be made a base for the destruction of American shipping.

An official statement asserts that:

"An important feature in every plan was the establishment of submarine bases in Ireland to menace the shipping of all nations."

On this it is enough to say that every creek, inlet, or estuary that indents our shores, and every harbour, mole, or jetty is watchfully patrolled by British authority. Moreover, Irish vessels, with their cargoes, crews, and passengers, have suffered in this war proportionately to those of Britain.

Another State Paper palliates the deportations by blazoning the descent of a solitary invader upon a remote island on the 12th of April, heralded by mysterious warnings from the Admiralty to the Irish Command. No discussion is permitted of the tryst of this British soldier with the local coast-guards, of his speedy bent towards a police barrack, and his subsequent confidences with the London authorities.

Only one instance exists in history of a project to profane our coasts by making them a base to launch attacks on international shipping. That plot was framed, not by native wickedness, but by an English Viceroy, and the proofs are piled up under his hand in British State Papers.

For huge bribes were proffered by Lord Falkland, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, to both the Royal Secretary and the Prince of Wales, to obtain consent for the use of Irish harbours to convenience Turkish and Algerine pirates in raiding sea-going commerce. The plot is old, but the plea of "increasing his Majesty's revenues" by which it was commended is everlasting. Nor will age lessen its significance for the citizens of that Republic which, amidst the tremors and greed of European diplomacy, extirpated the traffic of Algerine corsairs ninety years ago. British experts cherish Lord Falkland's fame as the sire of their most knightly cavalier, and in their eyes its lustre shines undimmed, though his Excellency, foiled of marine booty, enriched himself by seizing the lands of his untried prisoners in Dublin Castle.

Moving are other retrospects evoked by the present outbreak of malignity against our nation. The slanders of the hour recall those let loose to cloak previous deportations in days of panic less ignoble. Then it was the Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Oliver Plunkett, who was dragged to London and arraigned for high treason. Poignant memories quicken at every incident which accompanied his degradation before the Lord Chief Justice of England. A troop of witnesses was suborned to swear that his Grace "endeavoured and compassed the King's death," sought to "levy war in Ireland and introduce a foreign Power," and conspired "to take a view of all the several ports and places in Ireland where it would be convenient to land from France." An open trial, indeed, was not denied him; but with hasty rites he was branded a base and false traitor and doomed to be hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn. That desperate felon, after prolonged investigation by the Holy See, has lately been declared a martyr worthy of universal veneration.

The fathers of the American Revolution were likewise pursued in turn by the venom of Governments. Could they have been snatched from their homes and haled to London, what fate would have befallen them? There your noblest patriots might also have perished amidst scenes of shame, and their effigies would now bedeck a British chamber of horrors. Nor would death itself have shielded their reputations from hatchments of dishonour. For the greatest of Englishmen reviled even the sacred name of Joan of Arc, the stainless Maid of France, to belittle a fallen foe and spice a ribald stage-play.

It is hardly thirty years since every Irish leader was made the victim of a special Statute of Proscription, and was cited to answer vague charges before London judges. During 1888 and 1889 a malignant and unprecedented inquisition was maintained to vilify them, backed by all the resources of British power. No war then raged to breed alarms, yet no weapon that perjury or forgery could fashion was left unemployed to destroy the characters of more than eighty National representatives--some of whom survive to join in this Address. That plot came to an end amidst the confusion of their persecutors, but fresh accusations may be daily contrived and buttressed by the chicanery of State.

In every generation the Irish nation is challenged to plead to a new indictment, and to the present summons answer is made before no narrow forum but to the tribunal of the world. So answering, we commit our cause, as did America, to "the virtuous and humane," and also more humbly to the providence of God.

Well assured are we that you, Mr. President, whose exhortations have inspired the Small Nations of the world with fortitude to defend to the last their liberties against oppressors, will not be found among those who would condemn Ireland for a determination which is irrevocable to continue steadfastly in the course mapped out for her, no matter what the odds, by an unexampled unity of National judgment and National right.

Given at the Mansion House, Dublin, this 11th day of June, 1918.

LAURENCE O'NEILL, Lord Mayor of Dublin, Chairman of a Conference of representative Irishmen whose names stand hereunder. JOSEPH DEVLIN, JOHN DILLON, MICHAEL JOHNSON, WILLIAM O'BRIEN (Lab.), T.M. HEALY, WILLIAM O'BRIEN, THOMAS KELLY, and JOHN MACNEILL: {Acting in the place E. DE VALERA and A. GRIFFITH, deported 18th of May, 1918, to separate prisons in England, without trial or accusation--communication with whom has been cut off.}

APPENDIX B

UNIONIST LETTER TO PRESIDENT WILSON

CITY HALL, BELFAST, _August 1st_, 1918.

To THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

SIR,

A manifesto signed by the leader of the Irish Nationalist Party and certain other Irish gentlemen has been widely circulated in the United Kingdom, in the form of a letter purporting to have been addressed to your Excellency.[110]

Its purpose appears to be to offer an explanation of, and an excuse for, the conduct of the Nationalist Party in obstructing the extension to Ireland of compulsory military service, which the rest of the United Kingdom has felt compelled to adopt as the necessary means of defeating the German design to dominate the world. At a time when all the free democracies of the world have, with whatever reluctance, accepted the burden of conscription as the only alternative to the destruction of free institutions and of international justice, it is easily intelligible that those who maintain Ireland's right to solitary and privileged exemption from the same obligation should betray their consciousness that an apologia is required to enable them to escape condemnation at the bar of civilised, and especially of American, opinion. But, inasmuch as the document referred to would give to anyone not intimately familiar with British domestic affairs the impression that it represents the unanimous opinion of Irishmen, it is important that your Excellency and the American people should be assured that this is very far from being the case.

There is in Ireland a minority, whom we claim to represent, comprising one-fourth to one-third of the total population of the island, located mainly, but not exclusively, in the province of Ulster, who dissent emphatically from the views of Mr. Dillon and his associates. This minority, through their representatives in Parliament, have maintained throughout the present war that the same obligations should in all respects be borne by Ireland as by Great Britain, and it has caused them as Irishmen a keen sense of shame that their country has not submitted to this equality of sacrifice.

Your Excellency does not need to be informed that this question has become entangled in the ancient controversy concerning the constitutional status of Ireland in the United Kingdom. This is, indeed, sufficiently clear from the terms of the Nationalist manifesto addressed to you, every paragraph of which is coloured by allusion to bygone history and threadbare political disputes.

It is not our intention to traverse the same ground. There is in the manifesto almost no assertion with regard to past events which is not either a distortion or a misinterpretation of historical fact. But we consider that this is not the moment for discussing the faults and follies of the past, still less for rehearsing ancient grievances, whether well or ill founded, in language of extravagant rhetoric. At a time when the very existence of civilisation hangs in the balance, all smaller issues, whatever their merits or however they may affect our internal political problems, should in our judgment have remained in abeyance, while the parties interested in their solution should have joined in whole-hearted co-operation against the common enemy.

There is, however, one matter to which reference must be made, in order to make clear the position of the Irish minority whom we represent. The Nationalist Party have based their claim to American sympathy on the historic appeal addressed to Irishmen by the British colonists who fought for independence in America a hundred and fifty years ago. By no Irishmen was that appeal received with a more lively sympathy than by the Protestants of Ulster, the ancestors of those for whom we speak to-day--a fact that was not surprising in view of the circumstance that more than one-sixth part of the entire colonial population in America at the time of the Declaration of Independence consisted of emigrants from Ulster.

The Ulstermen of to-day, forming as they do the chief industrial community in Ireland, are as devoted adherents to the cause of democratic freedom as were their forefathers in the eighteenth century. But the experience of a century of social and economic progress under the legislative Union with Great Britain has convinced them that under no other system of government could more complete liberty be enjoyed by the Irish people. This, however, is not the occasion for a reasoned defence of "Unionist" policy. Our sole purpose in referring to the matter is to show, whatever be the merits of the dispute, that a very substantial volume of Irish opinion is warmly attached to the existing Constitution of the United Kingdom, and regards as wholly unwarranted the theory that our political status affords any sort of parallel to that of the "small nations" oppressed by alien rule, for whose emancipation the Allied democracies are fighting in this war.

The Irish representation in the Imperial Parliament throws a significant sidelight on this prevalent fiction. Whereas England is only represented by one member for every 75,000 of population, and Scotland by one for every 65,000, Ireland has a member for every 42,000 of her people. With a population below that of Scotland, Ireland has 31 more members in the House of Commons, and 89 more than she could claim on a basis of representation strictly proportionate to population in the United Kingdom.

Speaking in Dublin on the 1st of July, 1915, the late Mr. John Redmond gave the following description of the present condition of Ireland, which offers a striking contrast to the extravagant declamation that represents that country as downtrodden by a harsh and unsympathetic system of government:

"To-day," he said, "the people, broadly speaking, own the soil. To-day the labourers live in decent habitations. To-day there is absolute freedom in local government and local taxation of the country. To-day we have the widest parliamentary and municipal franchise. The congested districts, the scene of some of the most awful horrors of the old famine days, have been transformed. The farms have been enlarged, decent dwellings have been provided, and a new spirit of hope and independence is to-day among the people. In towns legislation has been passed facilitating the housing of the working classes--a piece of legislation far in advance of anything obtained for the town tenants of England. We have a system of old-age pensions in Ireland whereby every old man and woman over seventy is safe from the workhouse and free to spend their last days in comparative comfort."

Such are the conditions which, in the eyes of Nationalist politicians, constitute a tyranny so intolerable as to justify Ireland in repudiating her fair share in the burden of war against the enemies of civilisation.

The appeal which the Nationalists make to the principle of "self-determination" strikes Ulster Protestants as singularly inappropriate. Mr. Dillon and his co-signatories have been careful not to inform your Excellency that it was their own opposition that prevented the question of Irish Government being settled in accordance with that principle in 1916. The British Government were prepared at that time to bring the Home Rule Act of 1914 into immediate operation, if the Nationalists had consented to exclude from its scope the distinctively Protestant population of the North, who desired to adhere to the Union. This compromise was rejected by the Nationalist leaders, whose policy was thus shown to be one of "self-determination" for themselves, combined with coercive domination over us.

It is because the British Government, while prepared to concede the principle of self-determination impartially to both divisions in Ireland, has declined to drive us forcibly into such subjection that the Nationalist Party conceive themselves entitled to resist the law of conscription. And the method by which this resistance has been made effective is, in our view, not less deplorable than the spirit that dictated it. The most active opponents of conscription in Ireland are men who have been twice detected during the war in treasonable traffic with the enemy, and their most powerful support has been that of ecclesiastics, who have not scrupled to employ weapons of spiritual terrorism which have elsewhere in the civilised world fallen out of political use since the Middle Ages.

The claim of these men, in league with Germany on the one hand, and with the forces of clericalism on the other, to resist a law passed by Parliament as necessary for national defence is, moreover, inconsistent with any political status short of independent sovereignty--status which could only be attained by Ireland by an act of secession from the United Kingdom, such as the American Union averted only by resort to civil war. In every Federal or other Constitution embracing subordinate legislatures the raising and control of military forces are matters reserved for the supreme legislative authority alone, and they are so reserved for the Imperial Parliament of the United Kingdom in the Home Rule Act of 1914, the "withholding" of which during the war is complained of by the Nationalists who have addressed your Excellency. The contention of these gentlemen that until the internal government of Ireland is changed in accordance with their demands, Ireland is justified in resisting the law of Conscription, is one that finds support in no intelligible theory of political science.

To us as Irishmen--convinced as we are of the righteousness of the cause for which we are fighting, and resolved that no sacrifice can be too great to "make the world safe for democracy"--it is a matter of poignant regret that the conduct of the Nationalist leaders in refusing to lay aside matters of domestic dispute, in order to put forth the whole strength of the country against Germany should have cast a stain on the good name of Ireland. We have done everything in our power to dissociate ourselves from their action, and we disclaim responsibility for it at the bar of posterity and history.

EDWARD CARSON. JAMES JOHNSTON, Lord Mayor of Belfast. H.M. POLLOCK, President Belfast Chamber of Commerce. R.N. ANDERSON, Mayor of Londonderry, and President Londonderry Chamber of Commerce. JOHN M. ANDREWS, Chairman Ulster Unionist Labour Association. JAMES A. TURKINGTON, Vice-Chairman Ulster Unionist Labour Association, and Secretary Power-loom and Allied Trades Friendly Society, and ex-Secretary Power-loom Tenters' Trade Union of Ireland. THOMPSON DONALD, Hon. Secretary Ulster Unionist Labour Association, and ex-District Secretary Shipwrights' Association. HENRY FLEMING, Hon. Secretary Ulster Unionist Labour Association, Member of Boilermakers' Iron and Steel Shipbuilders' Society.

FOOTNOTES:

[110] See Appendix A.

INDEX

Abercorn, James, 2nd Duke of, at the Belfast Convention, 33; President of the Ulster Unionist Council, 35; illness, 47, 85, 108; signs the Covenant, 122; death, 144 Abercorn, James, 3rd Duke of, 257, 282 Abercorn, Mary, Duchess of, President of the Women's Unionist Council, 37 Adair, Gen. Sir Wm., at Larne, 217 Afghan Campaign, 161 Africa, South, War, 18 Agar-Robartes, Hon. Thomas, amendment on the Home Rule Bill, 92, 94-97, 132 Agnew, Capt. Andrew, viii, 193, 202, 210, 213, 214, 220 Albert Hall, meetings at, 14, 21, 34, 71 Alexander, Dr., Bishop of Derry, at the Albert Hall, 14 Allen, C.E., 156 Allen, W.J., 35 Althorp, Lord, 138 Altrincham, election, 155 Amending Bill, 221, 223, 227; postponed, 228, 230; _see_ Home Rule America, War of Independence, 273 Amery, L.C.S., at Belfast, 81; on the Curragh Incident, 182 Amiens, threatened capture of, 266 Anderson, R.N., Mayor of Londonderry, letter to President Wilson, 273, 296-299 Andrews, John M., letter to President Wilson, 296-299 Andrews, Thomas, 33, 35, 48 Anglo-German relations, 167, 201 _Annual Register_, viii, 18 note, 21, 54 note, 76, 78 note, 138, 154 note, 155 note, 157 note, 166 note, 167 note, 169 note, 170 note, 201 note, 222 note, 223 note, 238, 271 note, 272 note Archdale, E.M., 35; Chairman of the Standing Committee, 35; Minister for Agriculture, 282 Armagh, military depot, 175, 176 Armaghdale, Lord, 263; signs the Covenant, 122: _see_ Lonsdale Armistice, the, 275 Army, British, sympathy with Ulster Loyalists, 187-189 Arran, Isle of, 175 Asquith, Rt. Hon. H.H., on the opposition of Ulster to Home Rule, 1, 2; at the Albert Hall, 21; Hull, 24; Reading, 24; Bury St. Edmunds, 25; opinion of Sir E. Carson's speech, 133; at Ladybank, 154; Manchester, 166; policy on the Ulster Question, 167-170; on the Curragh Incident, 180, 182; Secretary of State for War, 184; promises an Amending Bill, 221; on the landing of arms, 221; at the Buckingham Palace Conference, 227; on the postponement of the Amending Bill, 228, 230; defence of Home Rule Bill, 235; in Dublin, 244; on the settlement of the Irish question, 245; on the national danger, 266 _Attentive_, H.M.S., 178 Austrian rifles, 198

Baird, J.D., at Belfast, 81 Balfour, Rt. Hon. A.J., at Belfast, 13, 81; on election tactics, 25; on exclusion of Ulster, 95; resigns leadership of the Unionist Party, 60; how regarded in Ulster, 61; message from, 115; the "peccant paragraphs," 181 Balfour, Lord, of Burleigh, signs the British Covenant, 170 Ballycastle, 193 Ballykinler, training camp, 237 Ballymacarret, 225 Ballymena, meeting at, 108 Ballymoney, meeting at, 158 Ballyroney, meeting at, 108 _Balmerino_, s.s., 208, 209 Balmoral, Belfast, meeting at, 79-86, 101 Bangor, 214, 219 Barrie, H.T., 257 Bates, Richard Dawson, Secretary of the Ulster Unionist Council, 35, 121; organises demonstration, 111; on board a tender, 214; Minister for Home Affairs, 282; knighthood, 284 Bedford, Duke of, Chairman of the British League for the support of Ulster, 147 Belfast, 46; Convention of 1892, 32-34, 109; meetings at, 52, 78, 157; services on Ulster Day, 117; City Hall, 119, 283; Covenant signed, 119-122; drill hall, opened, 148; riots, 151; review of the Ulster Volunteer Force at, 163; Customs Authorities, stratagem against, 217; reception of the King and Queen, 283 Belfast Lough, 46, 175, 211, 212 _Belfast Newsletter_, 102 note, 111 Benn, Sir John, 53 Beresford, Lord Charles, at Belfast, 81, 109; at the Ulster Club, 125; Liverpool, 127; member of a Committee of the Provisional Government, 145 Berwick, 149, 154 Birrell, Rt. Hon. Augustine, Chief Secretary for Ireland, on the character of Sinn Feinism, 4; at Ilfracombe, 54; on the Home Rule Bill, 96; the right to fight, 138; member of a sub-committee on Ulster, 175; conduct in the Irish rebellion, 243; character of his administration, 245 Blenheim, meeting at, 97 Boyne, the, 2; battle of, 115; celebration, 224 Bradford, 172, 174, 175 Bristol, 150, 166; Channel, 208 _Britannic_, H.M.S., 224 British Covenant, signing the, 170 British League for the support of Ulster and the Union, formation, 147 Browne, Robert, Managing Director of the Antrim Iron Ore Company, 193 Brunner, Sir John, President of the National Liberal Federation, 167 Buckingham Palace Conference, 227 Budden, Captain, 196 Budget, 19; "The People's," 20 "Budget League," formed, 20 Bull, Sir William, 195 Bury St. Edmunds, 25 Butcher, Sir J.G., at Belfast, 81

Cambridge, H.R.H. Duke of, 187 Cambridgeshire, election, 155 Campbell, James, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, 57, 95, 109 Canterbury, Dean of, signs the British Covenant, 170 Carlyle, Thomas, 137 Carrickfergus, military depot, 175, 176 Carson, Lady, at Belfast, 236, 284 Carson, Rt. Hon. Sir Edward, viii; accepts leadership, 39-41; political views, 41; at the Ulster Hall, 42, 108; at the Ulster Unionist Council meetings, 42, 246-248; relations with Lord Londonderry, 44, 53; on the Parliament Bill, 44; at the Craigavon meeting, 48-51, 210; character of his speaking, 48; at the Conference at Belfast, 52; at Dublin, 54; Portrush, 55; refuses leadership of Unionist Party, 60; meetings in Lancashire, 65; popularity, 66, 110, 148; at Belfast, 73, 157, 224-226, 257, 278; criticism of W. Churchill's speech, 74; on fiscal autonomy for Ireland, 77; at the Balmoral meeting, 81, 84; ovation, 85; attacks on, 87; on the Home Rule Bill, 90, 96; at the Londonderry House Conference, 94; on the resistance of Ulster, 98, 100; character of his leadership, 102; reads the Ulster Covenant, 105; tour of the Province, 110, 114; opinion of the Covenant, 111; presentation to, 115; speech on the Covenant, 116; at the service in the Ulster Hall, 118; at the City Hall, 120-124; signs the Covenant, 121; at Liverpool, 127; on the exclusion of Ulster, 133, 168; death of his wife, 148; at opening of drill hall, 148; in Scotland and England, 149; at Durham, 153; Chairman of the Central Authority, 156; Indemnity Guarantee Fund, 156; inspection of the Ulster Volunteer Force, 162, 164, 167, 223, 226; on the time limit for exclusion, 171; leaves the House of Commons, 173; on the plot against Ulster, 176; signs statement on the Curragh Incident, 186; interview with Major F.H. Crawford, 199, 210; congratulations from Lord Roberts, 220; at Ipswich, 222; at the Buckingham Palace Conference, 227; on the patriotism of Ulster, 231-233; tribute to B. Law, 236; second marriage, 236; tribute to Lord Londonderry, 241; appointed Attorney-General, 242; resignation, 242; on the Irish rebellion, 246; appointed First Lord of the Admiralty, 252; resignation, 263; re-elected leader of the Ulster Party, 263; member of the Irish Unionist Alliance, 265; on the Military Service Bill, 270; letter to President Wilson, 273, 296-299; M.P. for Duncairn, 275; declines office, 275; on the Government of Ireland Act, 279; conclusion of his leadership, 280; Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, 284; unable to be present at the opening of the Ulster Parliament, 284 Casement, Sir Roger, 7, 158; in league with Germany, 243 Cassel, Felix, at Belfast, 81 Castlereagh, Viscount, 109, 230; at Belfast, 81; signs the Covenant, 121 Cavan, 248, 279 Cave, Rt. Hon. George, 188; at Belfast, 81; letter to _The Times_, 152 Cecil, Lord Hugh, at Belfast, 81, 109; at the Balmoral meeting, 86; on the resistance of Ulster, 96 Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. Austen, candidate for the leadership of the Unionist Party, 60; message from, 115; at Skipton, 167; on the policy of the Government, 168 Chamberlain, Rt. Hon. Joseph, at Belfast, 13; views on Home Rule, 16, 128; tariff policy, 18; his advice to Sir E. Carson, 167 Chambers, James, signs the Covenant, 121 Chichester, Capt. the Hon. A.C., Commander in the Ulster Volunteer Force, 163 Childers, Mr. Erskine, on fiscal autonomy for Ireland, 76 China Expeditionary Force, 161 Chubb, Sir George Hayter, signs the British Covenant, 170 Churchill, Mrs., at Belfast, 73 Churchill, Lord Randolph, at Belfast, 13, 81; at the Ulster Hall meeting, 30, 40, 62; saying of, 31, 42; reception at Larne, 74; views on Home Rule, 128; _Life of,_ 138 Churchill, Rt. Hon. Winston S., at Manchester, 19; _Life of Lord Randolph Churchill_, 30, 138; at Dundee, 54, 154; views on Home Rule, 62; projected visit to Belfast, 62-69; letter to Lord Londonderry, 69; change of plan, 69; reception at Belfast, 73; departure from, 74; on Home Rule, 95; letters on the Ulster menace, 99; on the resistance of Ulster, 138, 141; the policy of exclusion, 152; at Bradford, 172, 174, 175 City Hall, Belfast, 119, 283 Clark, Sir George, 156 Clogher, Bishop of, signs the Covenant, 122 _Clydevalley, s.s.,_ 211-213, 220; renamed, 214 Coleraine, meeting at, 108, 114 Comber, 82 Copeland Island, 212, 214, 220 _Correspondence relating to Recent Events in the Irish Command_, 185 Covenant, British, signing the, 170 Covenant, Ulster, draft, 104; terms, 105-107; series of demonstrations, 108-110; meeting in the Ulster Hall, 114; signing the, 120-124; anniversary, 158, 165, 236 Cowser, Richard, 210, 214 Craig, Charles, 96, 147; serves in the war, 234; taken prisoner, 234 Craig, James, member of the Ulster Unionist Council, 35; meeting at Craigavon, 46; gift for organisation, 46; member of the Commission of Five, 53; on the resistance of Ulster, 96; draft of the Covenant, 103; organises the demonstration, 111; presentation of a silver key and pen to Sir E. Carson, 115; Indemnity Guarantee Fund, 156; at the reviews of the U.V.F., 162, 164, 223; at Bangor, 217; at the Buckingham Palace Conference, 228; appointed Q.M.G. of the Ulster Division, 234; Treasurer of the Household, 253; resignation, 263; baronetcy, 275; Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions, 275; Secretary to the Admiralty, 281; resignation, 281; Prime Minister of the Northern Parliament, 281 Craig, John, 103 Craig, Mrs., presents colours to the U.V.F., 223 Craigavon, meeting at, 45-51, 80, 105, 149, 210 Crawford, Colonel F.H., viii; signs the Covenant, 123, 191; Commander in the U.V.F., 163; characteristics, 190; career, 191; Secretary of the Reform Club, 191; advertises for rifles, 191; Director of Ordnance, 192; method of procuring arms, 192-200; schooner, 192; agreement with B.S., 197-200; interview with Sir E. Carson, 199, 210; voyage in s.s. _Fanny_, 202-210; conveys arms from Hamburg, 203-213; attack of malaria, 207; declines to obey unsigned orders, 209; at Belfast, 210; purchases s.s. _Clydevalley_, 211, 212; lands the arms, 214; at Rosslare, 220; awarded the O.B.E., 284 Crewe, election, 98, 99 Crewe, Marq. of, 18, 23, 175; on the Amending Bill, 223 Cromwell, Oliver, 136 Crozier, Dr., Archbp. of Armagh, member of Provisional Government, 145 Crumlin, meeting at, 108 Curragh Incident, 174-189, 221 Curzon, Marq., on the Parliament Bill, 44; the Home Rule Bill, 134; the loyalty of Ulster, 141

_Daily Express, The_, 225 _Daily Mail, The_, 225 _Daily News, The_, 114, 166 _Daily Telegraph, The_, 111, 225 D'Arcy, Dr., Primate of All Ireland, 118; signs the Covenant, 121 Darlington, 149 Davis, Jefferson, 137 Democracy, axiom of, 15 Derbyshire, election, 222 Derry, relief of, 13, 85; meeting at, 108; election, 144; riots, 151 Desborough, Lord, signs the British Covenant, 170 Devlin, Joseph, 6, 127, 172, 174, 275; with Mr. W. Churchill in Belfast, 63, 68; the Irish Convention, 261; on the Military Service Bill, 269; letter to President Wilson, 273, 287-295; demands self-determination, 277 Devonshire, 8th Duke of, views on Home Rule, 128, 134; on the resistance of Ulster, 136, 138; _Life of_, 136 note, 139 note Dicey, Prof., signs the British Covenant, 170 Dickson, Scott, at Belfast, 81; at the Balmoral meeting, 86 "Die Hards" party, 44 Dillon, John, 6, 174; at the Buckingham Palace Conference, 227; on the Irish Rebellion, 244; letter to Pres. Wilson, 273, 287-293 Donaghadee, 214, 219 Donald, Thompson, letter to Pres. Wilson, 296-299 Donegal, 248, 279 _Doreen_, s.s., 207, 210; at Lundy, 208 Dorset Regiment, transferred to Holywood, 177, 178 Dromore, meeting at, 108 Dublin, insurrection, 4, 243; Unionist demonstration at, 54; Nationalist Convention, meeting, 92; Congress in, 276 Dufferin and Ava, Dow. Marchioness of, 113 Duke, Rt. Hon. H.E., Chief Secretary for Ireland, 253 Duncairn, election, 275 Dundalk, 178 Dundee, 54, 154 Dunleath, Lord, 156 Durham, Sir E. Carson at, 153

East Fife, 25 Edinburgh, 24, 101; Ulstermen sign the Covenant, 123; meeting at, 149; Philosophical Institution, lecture at the, 274 Edward VII, King, death, 23 Election, General, of 1886, 16; of 1895, 34; of Jan. 1910, 21, 22, 42; of Dec. 1910, 26; of 1918, 4 Elections, result of, 99, 155, 222 Emmet, Robert, 7, 46, 142 Enniskillen, meeting at, 108, 114; military depot, 175, 176 Erne, Earl of, member of the Ulster Unionist Council, 35; at the Craigavon meeting, 47; signs the Covenant, 122 Ewart, G.H., President of the Belfast Chamber of Commerce, 157 Ewart, Sir William, member of the Ulster Unionist Council, 35; signs the Covenant, 121 _Fanny_, s.s., voyage, viii, 202-213; alterations in her appearance, 206; rechristened, 207; transference of the cargo, 213 Farnham, Lord, at the Ulster Unionist Council meeting, 248, 279; Irish Unionist Alliance, 265 Ferguson, John, & Co., 196 Fiennes, Mr., at Belfast, 73 Finance Bill, rejected, 19 Finlay, Sir Robert, at Belfast, 81; at the Balmoral meeting, 86 Fishguard, 213 Flavin, Mr., on the Military Service Bill, 269 Fleming, Henry, letter to Pres. Wilson, 296-299 Flood, Henry, patriotism, 7 Foyle, the, 87, 214 _Freemason's Journal, The_, 72, 287 French, F.M., Viscount, member of the Army Council, 176; resignation, 184; Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 272; attempt on his life, 277 Frewen, Miss, marriage, 236; _see_ Carson Friend, General, 177

Gambetta, Léon, 9 George V, King, Conference at Buckingham Palace, 228; opens the Ulster Parliament, 282, 286; reception in Belfast, 283 George, Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Budget, 19; at Edinburgh, 24; on the exclusion of Ulster, 152; Anglo-German relations, 167, 201; opinion of Sir E. Carson's speech, 168; plot against Ulster, 174; at Ipswich, 222; the Buckingham Palace Conference, 227; Secretary of State for War, 245; negotiations for the settlement of the Irish question, 245, 247, 250; Prime Minister, 252; on Home Rule, 254; alternative proposals, 255; statement on the war, 266, 268; Military Service Bill, 268; letter to B. Law, 276 note; basic facts on the Irish Question, 277; Government of Ireland Act, 278 German rifles, 198 Gibson, T.H., Sec. of Ulster Unionist Council, 35; resignation, 35 Gilmour, Captain, at Belfast, 81 Gladstone, Rt. Hon. W.E., 138; on the character of the Nationalists, 5; conversion to Home Rule, 7, 12, 30; Home Rule Bills, 13, 16, 17; personality, 17 Glasgow, 22, 78; meeting at, 149 Goschen, Viscount, views on Home Rule, 16, 128 Goudy, Prof., signs the British Covenant, 170 Gough, General Sir Hugh, commanding the 3rd Cavalry Brigade, 180; at the War Office, 181; return to the Curragh, 181; driven back by the Germans, 270 Government of Ireland Act, 51, 278 Graham, John Washington, 194 Grattan, Henry, patriotism, 7 Greenwood, Sir Hamar, at Belfast, 73; Chief Secretary for Ireland, 285 Grey, Earl, on the Home Rule Bill, 134 Grey, Sir Edward, on the Home Rule Bill, 95; at Berwick, 154 Griffith, Arthur, arrested, 271; deported, 295 Griffith-Boscawen, Sir Arthur, at Belfast, 81 Grimsby, election, 222 Guest, Capt. Frederick, at Belfast, 72 Guinness, Walter, supports exclusion of Ulster, 95 Gun-barrel Proof Act, 196

Haldane, Viscount, 130, 185 Halifax, Lord, 136, 141 Hall, Frank, 121 Halsbury, Earl of, 151 Hamburg, Col. Crawford at, 198 Hamilton, Lord Claud, at Belfast, 81; Provisional Government, 145 Hamilton, George C., M.P. for Altrincham, 155 Hamilton, Gustavus, Governor of Enniskillen, 48 Hamilton, Marq. of, interest in the Ulster Movement, 109; signs the Covenant, 122 Hammersmith Armoury, 195; seizure of arms at, 196 Hanna, J., 257 Harding, Canon, 158 Harland and Wolff, Messrs., 191 Harrison, Frederic, on the Ulster Question, 169 Hartington, Marq. of, views on Home Rule, 16 Health Insurance Act, 222 Healy, T.M., 18, 22; on the Military Service Bill, 270; letter to Pres. Wilson, 273, 287-295 Henry, Denis, member of the Ulster Unionist Council, 35 Hickman, Colonel Thomas, member of Provisional Government, 145; career, 160; letter from Lord Roberts, 161, 195 Hills, J.W., at Belfast, 81 Holland, Bernard, _Life of the Eighth Duke of Devonshire_, 136 note, 139 note Holywood, 46, 177, 178 Home Rule, 23-29; a separatist movement, 7; memorial against, 155 Home Rule Bill, 13, 16, 17, 90-97, 131, 133, 149; political meetings, 97; under the "guillotine," 131; in the House of Lords, 134; rejected, 135; time limit for exclusion, 171; passed, 222, 224; receives the Royal Assent, 235 Home Rule Bill, Amending Bill, 221, 223, 227, 228, 230 Hull, Mr. Asquith at, 24

Ilfracombe, 54 Indemnity Guarantee Fund, subscriptions, 156, 163 Ipswich, election, 222 Ireland, two nations, 2, 84; rebellions, 6; animosity of rival creeds, 9; condition, 17, 19, 298; insurrection, 27; fiscal autonomy, 76-78; financial clauses of the Home Rule Bill, 91; prohibition of the importation of arms, 166; Easter Rebellion, 243; exemption from conscription, 268; German plot in, 271; agitation against conscription, 272; anarchy, 279 Ireland, Council of, 278 Ireland, Government of, Act, 2, 278-280 Ireland, Northern, Parliament, 280-282 Irish Convention, 255-262; members, 255, 257; Report, 264, 266 _Irish News, The_, 114 Irish Republican Army, system of terrorism, 277 Irish Republican Brotherhood, 243 Irish Unionist Alliance, 30, 265; co-operation with the Ulster Unionist Council, 37 Islandmagee, 218 Italian Vetteli rifles, 197, 198, 201

James II, King, 139, 141 Johnston, James, Lord Mayor of Belfast, letter to Pres. Wilson, 273, 296-299

Kelly, Sam, 209 Kelly, Thomas, letter to Pres. Wilson, 287-295 Kennedy, Sir Robert, member of Provisional Government, 143 Kettle, Prof. T.M., on fiscal autonomy for Ireland, 76 Kiel, 204 Kingstown, cruisers at, 178 Kipling, Rudyard, "Ulster 1912," 79, 129; signs the British Covenant, 170 Kitchener, F.M. Earl, 230, 238 Kossuth, 136

Labour Party, 22, 26 Ladybank, Mr. Asquith at, 154 Lamlash, battleships at, 175 Lane-Fox, George, at Belfast, 81 Langeland, 204 Lansdowne, Marq. of, scheme of reform for the House of Lords, 24; on the Parliament Bill, 44; message from, 115; on the Ulster Question, 169; the Amending Bill, 223; at the Buckingham Palace Conference, 227 Larne, 74, 81, 212, 214 Law, Rt. Hon. A. Bonar, leader of Unionist Party, 28, 60; on Home Rule, 28, 131; at the Albert Hall, 71; on fiscal autonomy for Ireland, 78; at the Balmoral meeting, 80-86; reception at Larne, 81; his speech, 84; indictment against the Government, 90, 172, 174, 235; on the resistance of Ulster, 91, 95, 98; messages from, 115, 149; at Wallsend, 154; Bristol, 166; on the exclusion of Ulster, 169, 171; demands inquiry into the Curragh Incident, 185; on the Amending Bill, 222; at the Buckingham Palace Conference, 227; at Belfast, 236; tribute to, 236; at the Ulster Hall, 237; warning to the Nationalists, 255; on the Military Service Bill, 269, 271 Lecky, W.E.H., _History of England in the Eighteenth Century_, 274 note Leeds, meeting at, 149 Leo XIII, Pope, 8 Leslie, Shane, _Henry Edward Manning_, 8 note Liberal Party, policy, 16; victory in 1906, 18; majority, 19, 22; tactics, 20; number of votes, 22, 26; defeated in 1895, 34 Liddell, R.M., 156 Lincoln, Abraham, 40; saying of, 15 Linlithgow, election, 155 Lisburn, meeting at, 108, 114 Liverpool, 127 _Liverpool Daily Courier, The_, extract from, 165 _Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury,_ 159 note Llandudno, 212 Lloyd, Mr. George, at Belfast, 81 Logue, Cardinal, 10 London School of Economics, conference at, 76 Londonderry House, conference at, 92, 94, 147 Londonderry, Marchioness of, member of the Ulster Women's Unionist Council, 37; on the Covenant, 112; presents colours to the U.V.F., 223; work in the war, 240 Londonderry, 6th Marq. of, viii; on Home Rule, 28; Ulster Unionist Council, 35; popularity, 43; character, 44; relations with Sir E. Carson, 44, 53; on the Parliament Bill, 44; Conference at Belfast, 52; at the Ulster Hall meeting, 62, 106, 108; the Ulster Unionist Council meetings, 65, 67; reply to W. Churchill, 69; at Belfast, 73; at the Balmoral meeting, 84; signs the Covenant, 121; at the Ulster Club, 125; Liverpool, 127; on the House of Lords, 134; President of the Ulster Unionist Council, 145; Indemnity Guarantee Fund, 156; at the reviews of the U.V.F., 164, 223; on the Curragh Incident, 186; on the Amending Bill, 223; at Enniskillen, 227; despondency, 240; death, 241; tribute to, 241 Londonderry, 7th Marq. of, viii; member of the Irish Convention, 257, 263; Under-Secretary of State in the Air Ministry, 275; resignation, 281; Minister of Education, 281 Long, Rt. Hon. Walter, 147; founder of the Union Defence League, 37; leader of the Irish Unionists, 38; at the Ulster Hall, 42; candidate for the leadership of the Unionist Party, 60; at Belfast, 81, 224; at the Balmoral meeting, 84, 86; the Londonderry House conference, 92; message from, 115; on the policy of the Government, 170; signs the British Covenant, 170; chairman of a Cabinet Committee on the Irish Question, 277 Lonsdale, Sir John B., member of the Ulster Unionist Council, 35; Hon. Sec. of the Irish Unionist Party, 39; signs Covenant, 122; Indemnity Guarantee Fund, 156; leader of the Ulster Party, 254; at Belfast, 257; raised to the peerage, 263; _see_ Armaghdale Lords, House of, rejection of the Home Rule Bill, 17, 135; of the Finance Bill, 19, 21; forced to accept the Parliament Bill, 27; position under the Parliament Act, 134; debates on the Home Rule Bill, 134 Loreburn, Lord, letters to _The Times_, 152, 165 Lough Laxford, 203, 206, 207 Lough, Thomas, on fiscal autonomy for Ireland, 76 Lovat, Lord, signs the British Covenant, 170 Lowther, Rt. Hon. James, at the Buckingham Palace Conference, 227 Loyal Orange Institution, 31 Lundy, 208 Lyons, W.H.H., 35

Macdonnell, Lord, on fiscal autonomy for Ireland, 76 Mackinder, H.J., at Belfast, 81 Macnaghten, Sir Charles, member Provisional Government, 145 Macnaghten, Lord, Lord of Appeal, 140, 145; signs the Covenant, 122 MacNeill, John, letter to Pres. Wilson, 287-295 Mahan, Admiral, 130 Maine, Sir H., _Popular Government_, extract from, 14 Malcolm, Sir Ian, at Belfast, 81 Manchester, 77, 166; election, 99 _Manchester Guardian, The_, 166 Manning, Cardinal, on Home Rule, 8 Mary, H.M., Queen, at the opening of the Ulster Parliament, 282; reception in Belfast, 283 Massereene, Lady, presents colours to the Ulster Volunteer Force, 223 Massingham, Mr., 166 Masterman, Rt. Hon. C.F.G., 170, 222 Mazzini, 136 McCalmont, Col. James, Ulster Unionist Council, 35; Commander of a U.V.F regiment, 163 McCammon, Mr., 121 McDowell, Sir Alexander, criticism of the Ulster Covenant, 104 McMordie, Mr., Lord Mayor of Belfast, at the service in the Ulster Hall, 118; receives Sir E. Carson, 120; at the Ulster Club, 125 Meath election petition in 1892, 10 Melbourne, Lord, 136 Mersey, the, 127 Midleton, Earl of, at the Irish Convention, 260; supports Home Rule, 262; secedes from the Irish Unionist Alliance, 265 Midlothian, election, 99 Military Service Act, ii., 268-272 Milner, Viscount, signs the British Covenant, 170; on the Amending Bill, 223 Moles, Thomas, viii; Chairman of Committee in the Northern Parliament, 282 Molyneux, patriotism, 7 Monaghan, 248, 279 Montgomery, B.W.D., Secretary of the Ulster Club, 103 Montgomery, Dr., 118 Montgomery, Major-Gen., member of Provisional Government, 145 Moore, William, Ulster Unionist Council, 35; on the amendment to the Home Rule Bill, 96; exclusion of Ulster, 168 Morley, Viscount, _Life of Gladstone_, 17; on the resistance of Ulster, 154; helps Colonel Seely to draft the "peccant paragraphs," 181, 183 _Morning Post, The_, 79, 225, 229, 283 note _Motu Proprio_, Vatican decree, 11 Mount Stewart, 82, 225 _Mountjoy_, the, 87, 214 _Mountjoy II_, s.s., cargo landed at Larne, 214, 218 Moyle, the, 193 Musgrave Channel, 211, 217 Musgrave, Henry, 156

_Nation, The_, 158 National Insurance Bill, 53 Nationalist Party, in the House of Commons, 22, 26; attitude on the war, 267; opposition to conscription, 269-273 Nationalists, the, compared with the Ulster Unionists, 2; disloyalty, 4-6; policy, 6, 78, 141, 142; ancestry, 8; demand dissolution of the Union, 14; attitude on the war, 231, 233, 252; members of the Irish Convention, 256-262; letter to Pres. Wilson, 273, 287-295; demand "self-determination," 291, 298 Nationality, root of, 2; plea of 14, 15 Navy, reduction of, 167, 201 _Nec Temere_, Vatican decree, 11 Neild, Herbert, at Belfast, 81 Newcastle, 149, 153; training camp, 237 Newman, Cardinal, 5 Newry, 177 Newtownards, 225; meeting at, 108, 114 _Nineteenth Century, The_, 183 note, 239 note Nonconformists, 9; opposition to Home Rule, 155 Northcliffe, Viscount, 225 Norwich, Ulster members at, 150

O'Brien, William, 22; on the Military Service Bill, 270; letter to Pres. Wilson, 273, 287-295 _Observer, The_, 84, 115 note, 225 O'Connell, Daniel, 7 O'Connor, T.P., 127, 174, 275; on Home Rule, 253 Omagh, military depot, 175, 176 Omash, Miss, viii O'Neill, Capt. Hon. Arthur, 230; killed in the war, 241, 253 O'Neill, Major Hugh, serves in the war, 242; Speaker of the Northern Parliament, 282 O'Neill, Hugh, Earl of Tyrone, 7 O'Neill, Laurence, Lord Mayor of Dublin, letter to Pres. Wilson, 273, 287-295 O'Neill, Hon. R.T., member of the Ulster Unionist Council, 35 Ormsby-Gore, Capt. the Hon. W.G.A., at Belfast, 81 O'Shea, divorce, 17

Paget, Sir Arthur, Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, letter from Colonel Seely, 175; in London, 176; interviews with Ministers, 177; instructions from the War Office, 178, 180; conference with his officers, 179, 185; on the employment of troops in Ulster, 186 Parliament, assembled, 23, 131, 167; dissolved, 23, 275; adjourned, 99 Parliament Act, 23, 27, 43-45, 53, 91 _Parliamentary Debates_, viii, 29 _note,_ 142, 179 note, 181 note, 185 note Parnell, Charles, saying of, 6; leader of the Nationalist Party, 6; downfall, 17 _Pathfinder_, H.M.S., 178 _Patriotic_, R.M.S., 128 Peel, Sir Robert, 138 Peel, W., at Belfast, 81 "People's Budget," 20; rejection, 42 Percival-Maxwell, Col., Privy Councillor, 284 Phoenix Park murders, 243 Pirrie, Lord, unpopularity in Belfast, 63; peerage conferred, 284 Pitt, Rt. Hon. William, 15 Plunkett, Sir Horace, Chairman of the Irish Convention, 257, 261; letter to Lloyd George, 264 Pollock, Sir Ernest, at Belfast, 81 Pollock, H.M., member of the Irish Convention, 257, 262 Portadown, meeting at, 108, 114 Portland, Duke of, signs the British Covenant, 170 Portrush, 55, 193 Presbyterian Church, General Assembly of the, 155 Presbyterians, political views, 12 Preston, George, subscription to the Indemnity Guarantee Fund, 156 Prisoners, release of, 256 Protestants, Irish, distrust of Roman Catholics, 9; dislike of clerical influence, 10

Ramsay, Sir W., signs the British Covenant, 170 Ranfurly, Earl of, organises the Ulster Loyalist Union, 30, 37; member of the Unionist Council, 35 Raphoe, Bishop of, member of the Irish Convention, 258, 260-262 Rawlinson, J.F.P., at Belfast, 81 Reade, R.H., 35 Reading, Mr. Asquith at, 24; election, 155 Redistribution Act, 275 Redmond, Capt., 275 Redmond, John, 174; on the national movement, 7; policy, 22; on Home Rule, 27, 54; with Mr. W. Churchill in Belfast, 63, 68; opinion of Sir E. Carson's speech, 133; protests against Amending Bill, 222; at Buckingham Palace Conference, 227; conditional offer of help in the war, 231, 233; tribute to, 239; patriotism, 239; refuses office, 242; at Dublin, 249; on the exclusion of Ulster, 250; manifesto, 254; at the Irish Convention, 260-262; death, 262; on the condition of Ireland, 298 Redmond, Major W., his speech in the House, 253; killed in the war, 253 Reform Club, Belfast, 122, 124, 191 Reid, Whitelaw, 274 Renan, E., on the root of nationality, 2 _Reynolds's Newspaper_, 89 Richardson, Gen. Sir George, Commander-in-Chief of the U.V.F., 161, 197; career, 161; characteristics, 162; at Belfast, 162, 217; reviews the U.V.F., 163-165 Rifles, seized by Government, 161, 195; purchase of, 198; packing, 201; landed in Ulster, 219 Roberts, F.M. Earl, 130, 188; letter to Col. Hickman, 161, 195; signs British Covenant, 170; congratulations to Sir E. Carson, 220; on the result of coercing Ulster, 224 Robertson, Rt. Hon. J.M., Secretary to the Board of Trade, on fiscal autonomy for Ireland, 76; at Newcastle, 153 Rochdale, Unionist Association at, 99 Roe, Owen, 7 Roman Catholics, Irish, disloyalty 9; character of the priest, 10; methods of enforcing obedience, 10-12 Rosebery, Earl of, 15, 18; at Glasgow, 22; on the characteristics of the Ulster race, 101 Rosslare, 220 Royal Irish Rifles, the 5th, 57 Russia, collapse of, 268 Russian rifles, 198

S.B., the Hebrew dealer in firearms, 197; agreement with Major F.H. Crawford, 197-200; honesty, 204 St. Aldwyn, Viscount, on the King's Prerogative, 151 Salisbury, Marq. of, at Belfast, 13, 81; message from, 109; views on Home Rule, 128 Salvidge, Mr., Alderman of Liverpool, 127, 128; signs the British Covenant, 170 Samuel, Mr. Herbert, at Belfast, 54 Sanderson, Colonel, Chairman of the Ulster Parliamentary Party, 35, 38 _Saturday Review, The_, extract from, 70 Sclater, Edward, Secretary of the Unionist Clubs, 53 Scotland, the Covenant, 103 _Scotsman, The_, 101, 225, 274 note Seely, Col. Sec. of State for War, letter to Sir A. Paget, 175; statement to Gen. Gough, 181; adds paragraphs, 181, 183; on the Curragh Incident, 182; resignation, 183, 184 Seymour, Adm. Sir E., signs British Covenant, 170 Sharman-Crawford, Col., member of the Ulster Unionist Council, 35; of the Commission of Five, 53 Shaw, Lord, _Letters to Isabel_, 18 note Shiel Park, meeting at, 128 Shipyards, observance of Ulster Day, 117 Shortt, Rt. Hon. E., Chief Secretary for Ireland, 272 Simon, Sir John, 175 Sinclair, Rt. Hon. Thomas, at the Ulster Convention, 33; member of the Ulster Unionist Council, 35, 67; on Home Rule, 38; member of a Commission, 63; on the Covenant, 104, 109; signs it, 121 Sinn Fein party, refuse to join the Convention, 255; in league with Germany, 271, 276; arrests, 271; members of Parliament, 276, 276; treason of, 276; congress in Dublin, 276; outrages, 277 Sinn Feinism, spirit of, 4 Skipton, 167 Smiley, Kerr, 156 Smith, Rt. Hon. F.E. (Lord Birkenhead), on the policy of Ulster, 97, 98; on the Covenant, 109; at the Ulster Club, 125; at Liverpool, 127; at the inspection of the U.V.F., 162; "galloper" to Gen. Sir G. Richardson, 163 Smith, Mr. Harold, 109 Solemn League and Covenant, 104; _see_ Ulster Somme, battle of the, 234 _Spectator, The_, 225 Spender, Col. W. Bliss, U.V.F., 197, 203, 207, 215; awarded the O.B.E., 284 _Standard, The_, 70, 118, 225 _Star, The_, extract from, 89 Stronge, Sir James, member of the Ulster Unionist Council, 35 Stuart-Wortley, Mr., at Belfast, 81 Submarine warfare, 253 Suffragists' campaign, 167 Swift, patriotism, 7

Tariff Reform policy, 18, 19; controversy, 59, 155, 167 Templetown, Lord, founds the Unionist Clubs, 30, 31 Thiepval, battle at, 234 _Times, The_, 32, 64, 69, 71, 77, 79, 82, 84, 99, 110, 115, 124, 126, 139, 140, 153, 172, 182, 187, 225; letters in, 152, 165 Tirah Expedition, 161 Tone, Wolfe, 7, 46, 142 Tramp steamer, diverts suspicion, 217 Turkington, James A., letter to Pres. Wilson, 296-299 Tuskar Light, 210, 211 Tyrone, contingent of Orangemen, 57

Ulster, use of the term, vii; opposition to Home Rule, 1, 2, 30; loyalty, 2-4, 33, 63, 139-143, 251; ancestry, 8; political views, 12; landlords and tenants, 12; mottoes, 13, 33; reluctant acceptance of a separate constitution, 14; organisations, 30-38; policy, 33, 51, 75, 77, 92, 93-100, 133, 136-143; military drilling, 57; characteristics of the people, 101; time limit for exclusion, 171; plot against, 174; emigrants in America, 274, 297; result of the Government of Ireland Act, 280 Ulster, British League for the support of, formed, 147 Ulster Club, Belfast, 125 Ulster, Convention of 1892, 80, 109 Ulster Covenant, draft, 104; terms, 105-107; series of demonstrations, 108-110; meeting in the Ulster Hall, 114; signing the, 120-124; anniversary, 158, 165, 236 Ulster Day, 165, 236; religious observance, 107, 117 Ulster Division, 1st Brigade, training, 237; recruiting, 238 Ulster Hall, 283; meetings, 30, 38, 40, 42, 62, 106, 108, 114, 237; service, 118, 158 Ulster Loyalist Anti-Repeal Union, 37 Ulster Loyalist and Patriotic Union, 30 Ulster Movement, vii, 1 Ulster Parliament, appointment of Ministers, 281-2; opened, 282-6 Ulster Provisional Government, 53, 145, 156, 163; judiciary, 146; constitution, 226 Ulster Unionist Clubs, founded, 30-1 Ulster Unionist Council, vii, 35; meetings, 27, 42, 52, 62, 65-67, 106, 145, 156, 210, 226, 236, 246-249, 279; members, 35, 36; co-operation with the Irish Unionist Alliance, 37; resolution adopted, 68-71; character, 75; scheme for the Provisional Government, 145; statement on the Curragh Incident, 186 Ulster Unionist Members of Parliament, 38; tour in Scotland and England, 149 Ulster Unionists, letter to Pres. Wilson, 273, 296-299 Ulster Volunteer Force, 58, 113, 137, 160; Indemnity Guarantee Fund, 156, 163; growth, 158, 160; parades, 162, 163-165, 167, 223, 226; strength, 168; arming the, 192-200, 223; organisation, 215; despatch-riders' corps, 215; trial mobilisation, 216; presentation of colours, 223; volunteer for service in the war, 229; organisation and training of the Division, 234 Ulster Women's Unionist Association, work of the, 166 Ulster Women's Unionist Council, formed, 37; meeting, 113 "Ulster 1912," Rudyard Kipling's, 79, 129 "Ulster's Reward," William Watson's, 129 Union Defence League, in London, 37 Unionist Associations of Ireland, joint committee, 37 Unionist Party, administration, 18, 20; defeated, 18; number of votes, 22, 26, 99; dissensions on Tariff Reform, 69; members at Belfast, 81 Unionists, Southern manifesto, 265; Committee formed, 265; result of the Government Act, 282

Valera, E. De, M.P. for East Clare, 256; arrested, 277; deported, 295 Vatican decrees, 11 Vickers & Co., Messrs., 194 Victoria, Queen, 136

Wallace, Col. R.H., member of the Ulster Unionist Council, 35; member of a Commission, 53; Grand Master of the Belfast Lodges, 57; popularity, 57; career, 57; applies for leave to drill, 58; at the Ulster Unionist Council meeting, 67, 72; presentation of a banner to Sir E. Carson, 115; Command in the U.V.F., 163, 164; Privy Councillor, 284 Wallsend, 154 Walter, Mr. John, 225 War, the Great, 27, 228, 266 War Office, treatment of Gen. Gough, 181 Ward, Lieut.-Col. John, on the Curragh Incident, 182; "The Army and Ireland," 183 note, 238 Warden, F.W., 72 note Washington, George, 273, 291 Watson, Sir William, "Ulster's Reward," 129 Waziri Expedition, 161 _Westminster Gazette_, 114; cartoon, 87 Whig Revolution of 1688, 31 White Paper, 175 note, 176 note, 177 note, 178 note, 179 note, 180 note, 181 note, 185, 187 note, 188 William III, King, banner, 115 Willoughby de Broke, Lord, 109 Wilson, President, letter from the Nationalists, 273, 287-295; from the Unionists, 273, 296-299; phrase of "self-determination," 277 Wimborne, Lord, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, resignation, 272 Wolff, G., 35 Wolseley, Viscount, 187 Women's Unionist Council, Ulster, formed, 37; meeting, 113 Workman and Clark, Messrs., 214 Workman, Frank, 157 Wynyard, Lord Londonderry's death at, 241

Yarmouth, 207 York, 149 York, Archbp. of, on the Home Rule Bill, 134 _Yorkshire Post, The_, 149, 163 Young, Rt. Hon. John, member of the Ulster Unionist Council, 35; at the meeting, 67; takes part in the campaign, 109; signs the Covenant, 122 Young, W.R., organises the Ulster Loyalist and Patriotic Union, 30, 37; signs the Covenant, 122; Privy Councillor, 284

Zhob Valley Field Force, expedition, 161