THE EVE OF THE COVENANT
There was one Liberal statesman, formerly the favourite lieutenant of
Gladstone and the closest political ally of Asquith, who was under no
illusion as to the character of the men with whom Asquith was now
provoking a conflict. Speaking in Edinburgh on the 1st of November,
1911, that is, shortly after the Craigavon meeting, Lord Rosebery told
his Scottish audience that "he loved Highlanders and he loved
Lowlanders, but when he came to the branch of their race which had been
grafted on to the Ulster stem he took off his hat with reverence and
awe. They were without exception the toughest, the most dominant, the
most irresistible race that existed in the universe."[28]
The kinship of this tough people with the Lowlanders of Scotland, in
character as in blood, was never more signally demonstrated than when
they decided, in one of the most intense crises of their history, to
emulate the example of their Scottish forefathers in binding themselves
together by a solemn League and Covenant to resist what they deemed to
be a tyrannical encroachment on their liberties and rights.
The most impressive moment at the Balmoral meeting at Easter 1912 was
when the vast assemblage, with uncovered heads, raised their hands and
repeated after Sir Edward Carson words abjuring Home Rule. The incident
suggested to some of the local Unionist leaders that the spirit of
enthusiastic solidarity and determination thus manifested should not be
allowed to evaporate, and the people so animated to disperse to the four
corners of Ulster without any bond of mutual obligation. The idea of an
oath of fidelity to the cause and to each other was mooted, and
appeared to be favoured by many. The leader was consulted. He gave deep,
anxious, and prolonged consideration to the proposal, calculating all
the consequences which, in various possible eventualities, might follow
its adoption. He was not only profoundly conscious of the moral
responsibility which he personally, and his colleagues, would be
undertaking by the contemplated measure; he realised the numerous
practical difficulties there might be in honouring the bond, and he
would have nothing to do with a device which, under the guise of a
solemn covenant, would be nothing more than a verbal manifesto. If the
people were to be invited to sign anything of the sort, it must be a
reality, and he, as leader, must first see his way to make it a reality,
whatever might happen.
For, although Carson never shrank from responsibility, he never assumed
it with levity, or without full consideration of all that it might
involve. Many a time, especially before he had fully tested for himself
the temper of the Ulster people, he expressed to his intimates his
wonder whether the bulk of his followers sufficiently appreciated the
seriousness of the course they had set out upon. Sometimes in private he
seemed to be hypersensitive as to whether in any particular he was
misleading those who trusted him; he was scrupulously anxious that they
should not be carried away by unreflecting enthusiasm, or by personal
devotion to himself. About the only criticism of his leadership that was
ever made directly to himself by one of the rank and file in Ulster was
that it erred on the side of patience and caution; and this criticism
elicited the sharpest reproof he was ever heard to administer to any of
his followers.[29] His expressions of regard, almost amounting to
affection, for the men and women who thronged round him for a touch of
his hand wherever he appeared in the streets might have been ignorantly
set down as the arts of a demagogue had they ever been spoken in public,
but were capable of no such misconstruction when reserved, as they
invariably were, for the ears of his closest associates. The truth is
that no popular leader was ever less of a demagogue than Sir Edward
Carson. He had no "arts" at all--unless indeed complete simplicity is
the highest of all "arts" in one whom great masses of men implicitly
trust. He never sought to gain or augment the confidence of his
followers by concealing facts, minimising difficulties, or overcolouring
expectations.
It is not surprising, then, that the decision to invite the Ulster
people to bind themselves together by some form of written bond or oath
was one which Carson did not come to hastily. While the matter was still
only being talked about by a few intimate friends, and had not been in
any way formally proposed, Captain James Craig happened to be occupying
himself one day at the Constitutional Club in London with pencil and
paper, making experimental drafts that might do for the proposed
purpose, when he was joined by Mr. B.W.D. Montgomery, Secretary of the
Ulster Club in Belfast, who asked what he was doing. "Trying to draft an
oath for our people at home," replied Craig, "and it's no easy matter to
get at what will suit." "You couldn't do better," said Montgomery, "than
take the old Scotch Covenant. It is a fine old document, full of grand
phrases, and thoroughly characteristic of the Ulster tone of mind at
this day." Thereupon the two men went to the library, where, with the
help of the club librarian, they found a History of Scotland containing
the full text of the celebrated bond of the Covenanters (first drawn up,
by a curious coincidence of names, by John Craig, in 1581), a verbatim
copy of which was made from the book.
The first idea was to adapt this famous manifesto of militant
Protestantism by making only such abbreviations and alterations as would
render it suitable for the purpose in view. But when it was ultimately
decided to go forward with the proposal, and the task of preparing the
document was entrusted to the Special Commission,[30] it was at once
realised that, however strongly the fine old Jacobean language and the
historical associations of the Solemn League and Covenant might appeal
to the imagination of a few, it was far too involved and long-winded,
no matter how drastically revised, to serve as an actual working
agreement between men of to-day, or as a rallying-point for a modern
democratic community. What was needed was something quite short and
easily intelligible, setting forth in as few words as possible a purpose
which the least learned could grasp at a glance, and which all who so
desired could sign with full comprehension of what they were doing.
Mr. Thomas Sinclair, one of the Special Commission, was himself a
draughtsman of exceptional skill, and in a matter of this kind his
advice was always invaluable, and it was under his hand that the Ulster
Covenant, after frequent amendment, took what was, with one important
exception, its final shape. The last revision cut down the draft by more
than one-half; but the portion discarded from the Covenant itself, in
the interest of brevity, was retained as a Resolution of the Ulster
Unionist Council which accompanied the Covenant and served as a sort of
declaratory preamble to it[31]. The exception referred to was an
amendment made to meet an objection raised by prominent representatives
of the Presbyterian Church. The Special Commission, realising that the
proposed Covenant ought not to be promulgated without the consent and
approval of the Protestant Churches, submitted the agreed draft to the
authorities of the Church of Ireland and of the Presbyterian, Methodist,
and Congregational Churches. The Moderator, and other leaders of the
Presbyterians, including Mr. (afterwards Sir Alexander) McDowell, a man
endowed with much of the wisdom of the serpent, while supporting without
demur the policy of the Covenant, took exception to its terms in a
single particular. They pointed out that the obligation to be accepted
by the signatories would be, as the text then stood, of unlimited
duration. They objected to undertaking such a responsibility without the
possibility of modifying it to meet the changes which time and
circumstance might bring about; and they insisted that, before they
could advise their congregations to contract so solemn an engagement,
the text of the Covenant must be amended by the introduction of words
limiting its validity to the crisis which then confronted them.
This was accordingly done. Words were introduced which declared the
pledge to be binding "throughout this our time of threatened calamity,"
and its purpose to be the defeat of "the present conspiracy." The
language was as precise, and was as carefully chosen, as the language of
a legal deed; but in an unhappy crisis which arose in 1916, in
circumstances which no one in the world could have foreseen in 1912,
there were some in Ulster who were not only tempted to strain the
interpretation which the Covenant as a whole could legitimately bear,
but who failed to appreciate the significance of the amendments that had
been made in its text at the instance of the Presbyterian Church.[32]
When these amendments had been incorporated in the Covenant by the
Special Commission, a meeting of the Standing Committee was convened at
Craigavon on the 19th of September to adopt it for recommendation to the
Council. The Committee, standing in a group outside the door leading
from the arcade at Craigavon to the tennis-lawn, listened while Sir
Edward Carson read the Covenant aloud from a stone step which now bears
an inscription recording the event. Those present showed by their
demeanour that they realised the historic character of the transaction
in which they were taking part, and the weight of responsibility they
were about to assume. But no voice expressed dissent or hesitation. The
Covenant was adopted unanimously and without amendment. Its terms were
as follows:
"ULSTER'S SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT
"Being convinced in our consciences that Home Rule would be
disastrous to the material well-being of Ulster as well as of the
whole of Ireland, subversive of our civil and religious freedom,
destructive of our citizenship, and perilous to the unity of the
Empire, we, whose names are underwritten, men of Ulster, loyal
subjects of His Gracious Majesty King George V, humbly relying on
the God whom our fathers in days of stress and trial confidently
trusted, do hereby pledge ourselves in solemn Covenant throughout
this our time of threatened calamity to stand by one another in
defending for ourselves and our children our cherished position of
equal citizenship in the United Kingdom, and in using all means
which may be found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to
set up a Home Rule Parliament in Ireland. And in the event of such
a Parliament being forced upon us we further solemnly and mutually
pledge ourselves to refuse to recognise its authority. In sure
confidence that God will defend the right we hereto subscribe our
names. And further, we individually declare that we have not
already signed this Covenant. God save the King."
On Monday, the 23rd of September, the Ulster Unionist Council, the body
representing the whole loyalist community on an elective and thoroughly
democratic basis, held its annual meeting in the Ulster Hall, the chief
business being the ratification of the Covenant prior to its being
presented for general signature throughout the province on Ulster Day.
Upwards of five hundred delegates attended the meeting, and unanimously
approved the terms of the document recommended for their acceptance by
their Standing Committee. They then adopted, on the motion of Lord
Londonderry, the Resolution which, as already mentioned, had originally
formed part of the draft of the Covenant itself. This Resolution, as
well as the Covenant, was the subject of extensive comment in the
English and Scottish Press. Some opponents of Ulster directed against it
the flippant ridicule which appeared to be their only weapon against a
movement the gravity of which was admitted by Ministers of the Crown;
but, on the whole, the British Press acknowledged the important
enunciation of political principle which it contained. It placed on
record that:
"Inasmuch as we, the duly elected delegates and members of the
Ulster Unionist Council, representing all parts of Ulster, are
firmly persuaded that by no law can the right to govern those whom
we represent be bartered away without their consent; that although
the present Government, the services and sacrifices of our race
having been forgotten, may drive us forth from a Constitution which
we have ever loyally upheld, they may not deliver us bound into the
hands of our enemies; and that it is incompetent for any authority,
party, or people to appoint as our rulers a Government dominated by
men disloyal to the Empire and to whom our faith and traditions are
hateful; and inasmuch as we reverently believe that, as in times
past it was given our fathers to save themselves from a like
calamity, so now it may be ordered that our deliverance shall be by
our own hands, to which end it is needful that we be knit together
as one man, each strengthening the other, and none holding back or
counting the cost--therefore we, Loyalists of Ulster, ratify and
confirm the steps so far taken by the Special Commission this day
submitted and explained to us, and we reappoint the Commission to
carry on its work on our behalf as in the past.
"We enter into the Solemn Covenant appended hereto, and, knowing
the greatness of the issues depending on our faithfulness, we
promise each to the others that, to the uttermost of the strength
and means given us, and not regarding any selfish or private
interest, our substance or our lives, we will make good the said
Covenant; and we now bind ourselves in the steadfast determination
that, whatever may befall, no such domination shall be thrust upon
us, and in the hope that by the blessing of God our Union with
Great Britain, upon which are fixed our affections and trust, may
yet be maintained, and that for ourselves and for our children, for
this Province and for the whole of Ireland, peace, prosperity, and
civil and religious liberty may be secured under the Parliament of
the United Kingdom and of the King whose faithful subjects we are
and will continue all our days."
It had been known for some weeks that it was the intention of the Ulster
Loyalists to dedicate the 28th of September as "Ulster Day," by holding
special religious services, after which they were to "pledge themselves
to a solemn Covenant," the terms of which were not yet published or,
indeed, finally settled. This announcement, which appeared in the Press
on the 17th of August, was hailed in England as an effective reply to
the recent "turgid homily" of Mr. Churchill, but there was really no
connection between them in the intentions of Ulstermen, who had been too
much occupied with their own affairs to pay much attention to the attack
upon them in the Dundee letters. The Ulster Day celebration was to be
preceded by a series of demonstrations in many of the chief centres of
Ulster, at which the purpose of the Covenant was to be explained to the
people by the leader and his colleagues, and a number of English Peers
and Members of Parliament arranged to show their sympathy with the
policy embodied in the Covenant by taking part in the meetings.
It would not be true to say that the enthusiasm displayed at this great
series of meetings in September eclipsed all that had gone before, for
it would not be possible for human beings greatly to exceed in that
emotion what had been seen at Craigavon and Balmoral; but they exhibited
an equally grave sense of responsibility, and they proved that the same
exaltation of mind, the same determined spirit, that had been displayed
by Loyalists collected in the populous capital of their province,
equally animated the country towns and rural districts.
The campaign opened at Enniskillen on the 18th of September, where the
leader was escorted by two squadrons of mounted and well-equipped yeomen
from the station to Portora Gate, at which point 40,000 members of
Unionist Clubs drawn from the surrounding agricultural districts marched
past him in military order. During the following nine days
demonstrations were held at Lisburn, Derry, Coleraine, Ballymena,
Dromore, Portadown, Crumlin, Newtownards, and Ballyroney, culminating
with a meeting in the Ulster Hall--loyalist headquarters--on the eve of
the signing of the Covenant on Ulster Day. At six of these meetings,
including, of course, the last, Sir Edward Carson was the principal
speaker, while all the Ulster Unionist Members of Parliament took part
in their several constituencies. Lord Londonderry was naturally
prominent among the speakers, and presided as usual, when the Duke of
Abercorn was prevented by illness from being present, in the Ulster
Hall. Mr. F.E. Smith, who had closely identified himself with the
Ulster Movement, delighting with his fresh and vigorous eloquence the
meetings at Balmoral and Blenheim, as well as the Orange Lodges whom he
had addressed on the 12th of July, crossed the Channel to lend a helping
hand, and spoke at five meetings on the tour. Others who took part--in
addition to local men like Mr. Thomas Sinclair and Mr. John Young, whose
high character always made their appearance on political platforms of
value to the cause they supported--were Lord Charles Beresford, Lord
Salisbury, Mr. James Campbell, Lord Hugh Cecil, Lord Willoughby de
Broke, and Mr. Harold Smith; while the Marquis of Hamilton and Lord
Castlereagh, by the part which they took in the programme, showed their
desire to carry on the traditions which identified the two leading
Ulster families with loyalist principles.
A single resolution, identical in the simplicity of its terms, was
carried without a dissenting voice at every one of these meetings: "We
hereby reaffirm the resolve of the great Ulster Convention of 1892: 'We
will not have Home Rule.'" These words became so familiar that the
laconic phrase "We won't have it," was on everybody's lips as the Alpha
and Omega of Ulster's attitude, and was sometimes heard with unexpected
abruptness in no very precise context. A ticket-collector, when clipping
the tickets of the party who were starting from Belfast in a saloon for
Enniskillen, made no remark and no sign of recognition till he reached
Carson, when he said almost in a whisper and without a glimmer of a
smile, as he took a clip out of the leader's ticket: "Tell the
station-master at Clones, Sir Edward, that we won't have it." He
doubtless knew that the political views of that misguided official were
of the wrong colour. A conversation overheard in the crowd at
Enniskillen before the speaking began was a curious example of the habit
so characteristic of Ulster--and indeed of other parts of Ireland
also--of thinking of
"Old, unhappy, far-off things, and battles long ago"
as if they had occurred last week, and were a factor to be taken into
account in the conduct of to-day. The demonstration was in the open air,
and the sunshine was gleaming on the grass of a hill close at hand. "It
'ud be a quare thing," said a peasant to his neighbour in the crowd, "if
the rebels would come out and hould a meetin' agin us on yon hill."
"What matter if they would," was the reply, "wouldn't we let on that we
won't have it? an' if that wouldn't do them, isn't there hundreds o'
King James's men at the bottom o' the lough, an' there's plenty o' room
yet." It was not spoken in jest, but in grim conviction that the issue
of 1689 was the issue of 1912, and that another Newtown Butler might
have to be fought.
This series of meetings in preparation for the Covenant brought Carson
much more closely in touch with the Loyalists in outlying districts than
he had been hitherto, and when it was over their wild devotion to him
personally equalled what it was in Belfast itself. The appeal made to
the hearts of men as quick as any living to detect and resent humbug or
boastfulness, by the simplicity, uncompromising directness, and courage
of his character was irresistible. He never spoke better than during
this tour of the Province. The Special Correspondent of _The Times_, who
sent to his paper vivid descriptive articles on each meeting, said in
his account of the meeting at Coleraine that "Sir Edward Carson was
vigorous, fresh, and picturesque. His command over the feelings of his
Ulster audiences is unquestionable, and never a phrase passes his lips
which does not tell." And when the proceedings of the meeting were over,
the same observer "was at the station to witness the 'send-off' of the
leaders, and for ten minutes before the train for Belfast came in the
tumult of the cheers, the thanks, and the farewells never faltered for
an instant."[33] Two days later another English commentator declared
that "The Ulster campaign has been conducted up to the present with a
combination of wisdom, ability, and restraint which has delighted all
the Unionists of the province, and exasperated their Radical and
Nationalist enemies. From its opening at Enniskillen not a speech has
been delivered unworthy of a great movement in defence of civil and
religious liberty."[34]
It was characteristic of Sir Edward Carson that neither at these
meetings nor at any time did he use his unmatched power of persuasion to
induce his followers to come forward and sign the Covenant. On the
contrary, he rather warned them only to do so after mature reflection
and with full comprehension of the responsibility which signature would
entail. He told the Unionist Council a few days before the memorable
28th of September: "How often have I thought over this Covenant--how
many hours have I spent, before it was published that we would have one,
in counting the cost that may result! How many times have I thought of
what it may mean to all that we care about up here! Does any man believe
that I lightly took this matter in hand without considering with my
colleagues all that it may mean either in the distant or the not too
distant future? No, it is the gravest matter in all the grave matters in
the various offices I have held that I have ever had to consider." And
he went on to advise the delegates, "responsible men from every district
in Ulster, that it is your duty, when you go back to your various
districts, to warn your people who trust you that, in entering into this
solemn obligation, they are entering into a matter which, whatever may
happen in the future, is the most serious matter that has ever
confronted them in the course of their lives."[35]
A political campaign such as that of September 1912 could not be a
success, however spontaneous the enthusiasm of the people, however
effective the oratory, unless the arrangements were based on good
organisation. It was by general consent a triumph of organisation, the
credit for which was very largely due to Mr. Richard Dawson Bates, the
Secretary of the Ulster Unionist Council. Sir Edward Carson himself very
wisely paid little attention to detail; happily there was no need for
him to do so, for he had beside him in Captain James Craig and Mr. Bates
two men with real genius for organisation, and indefatigable in
relieving "the chief" of all unnecessary work and worry. Mr. Bates had
all the threads of a complex network of organisation in his hands; he
kept in close touch with leading Unionists in every district; he always
knew what was going on in out-of-the-way corners, and where to turn for
the right man for any particular piece of work. Anyone whose duty it has
been to manage even a single political demonstration on a large scale
knows what numerous details have to be carefully foreseen and provided
for. In Ulster a succession of both outdoor and indoor demonstrations,
seldom if ever equalled in this country in magnitude and complexity of
arrangement, besides an amazing quantity of other miscellaneous work
inseparable from the conduct of a political movement in which crisis
followed crisis with bewildering rapidity, were managed year after year
from Mr. Bates's office in the Old Town Hall with a quiet,
unostentatious efficiency which only those could appreciate who saw the
machine at work and knew the master mechanic behind it. Of this
efficiency the September demonstrations in 1912 were a conspicuous
illustration.
Nor did the Loyalist women of Ulster lag an inch behind the men either
in organisation or in zeal for the Unionist cause, and their keenness at
every town visited in this September tour was exuberantly displayed.
Women had not yet been enfranchised, of course, and the Ulster women had
shown but little interest in the suffragette agitation which was raging
at this time in England; but they had organised themselves in defence of
the Union very effectively on parallel lines to the men, and if the
latter had needed any stimulus to their enthusiasm they would certainly
have got it from their mothers, sisters, and wives. The Marchioness of
Londonderry threw herself whole-heartedly into the movement. Having
always ably seconded her husband's many political and social activities,
she made no exception in regard to his devotion to Ulster. Lord
Londonderry, she was fond of saying, was an Ulsterman born and bred, and
she was an Ulsterwoman "by adoption and grace." Her energy was
inexhaustible, and her enthusiasm contagious; she used her influence and
her wonderful social gifts unsparingly in the Unionist cause.
A meeting of the Ulster Women's Unionist Council, of which the Dowager
Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, widow of the great diplomat, was
president, was held on the 17th of September, the day before the
demonstration at Enniskillen, when a resolution proposed by Lady
Londonderry declaring the determination of Ulster women to stand by
their men in the policy to be embodied in the Covenant, was carried with
immense enthusiasm and without dissent. No women were so vehement in
their support of the Loyalist cause as the factory workers, who were
very numerous in Belfast. Indeed, their zeal, and their manner of
displaying it, seemed sometimes to illustrate a well-known line of
Kipling's, considered by some to be anything but complimentary to the
female sex. Anyhow, there was no divergence of opinion or sympathy
between the two sexes in Ulster on the question of Union or Home Rule;
and the women who everywhere attended the meetings in large numbers were
no idle sightseers--though they were certainly hero-worshippers of the
Ulster leader--but a genuine political force to be taken into account.
It was during the September campaign that the "wooden guns" and "dummy
rifles" appeared, which excited so much derision in the English Radical
Press, whose editors little dreamed that the day was not far distant
when Mr. Asquith's Government would be glad enough to borrow those same
dummy rifles for training the new levies of Kitchener's Army to fight
the Germans. So far as the Ulstermen were concerned the ridicule of
their quasi-military display and equipment never had any sting in it.
They were conscious of the strength given to their cause by the
discipline and military organisation of the volunteers, even if the
weapons with which they drilled should never be replaced by the real
thing; and many of them had an instinctive belief that their leaders
would see to it that they were effectively armed all in good time. And
so with grim earnestness they recruited the various battalions of
volunteers, gave up their evenings to drilling, provided cyclist corps,
signalling corps, ambulances and nurses; they were proud to receive
their leader with guards of honour at the station, and bodyguards while
he drove through their town or district to the meetings where he spoke.
Few of them probably ever so much as heard of the gibes of _The Irish
News_, _The Daily News_, or _The Westminster Gazette_ at the "royal
progresses" of "King Carson"; but they would have been in no way upset
by them if they had, for they were far too much in earnest themselves to
pay heed to the cheap sneers of others. At each one of the September
meetings there was a military setting to the business of the day. At
Enniskillen Carson was conducted by a cavalry escort to the ground where
he was to address the people; at Coleraine, Portadown, and other places
volunteers lined the route and marched in column to and from the
meeting. They were, it is true, but "half-baked" levies, with more zeal
than knowledge of military duties. But competent critics--and there were
many such amongst the visitors--praised their bearing and physique and
the creditable measure of discipline they had already acquired. And it
must be remembered that in September 1912 the Ulster Volunteer Force was
still in its infancy. In the following two years its improvement in
efficiency was very marked; and within three years of the time when its
battalions paraded before Sir Edward Carson, with dummy rifles, and
marched before him to his meetings in Lisburn, Newtownards, Enniskillen,
and Belfast on the eve of the Covenant, those same men had gloriously
fought against the flower of the Prussian Army, and many of them had
fallen in the battle of the Somme.
The final meeting in the Ulster Hall on Friday the 27th of September was
an impressive climax to the tour. Many English journalists and other
visitors were present, and some of them admitted that, in spite of all
they had heard of what an Ulster Hall meeting was like, they were
astonished by the soul-stirring fervour they witnessed, and especially
by the wonderful spectacle presented at the overflow meeting in the
street outside, which was packed as far as the eye could reach in either
direction with upturned faces, eager to catch the words addressed to
them from a platform erected for the speakers outside an upper window of
the building.[36]
Messages of sympathy and approval at this supreme moment were read from
Mr. Bonar Law and Lord Lansdowne, Mr. Long, Mr. Balfour, and Mr. Austen
Chamberlain. Then, after brief speeches by four local Belfast men, one
of whom was a representative of Labour, and while the audience were
waiting eagerly for the speech of their leader, there occurred what _The
Times_ next day described as "two entirely delightful, and, as far as
the crowd was concerned, two entirely unexpected episodes." The first
was the presentation to Sir Edward Carson of a faded yellow silk banner
by Colonel Wallace, Grand Master of the Belfast Orangemen, who explained
that it was the identical banner that had been carried before King
William III at the battle of the Boyne, and was now lent by its owner, a
lineal descendant of the original standard-bearer, to be carried before
Carson to the signing of the Covenant; the second was the presentation
to the leader of a silver key, symbolic of Ulster as "the key of the
situation," and a silver pen wherewith to sign the Covenant on the
morrow, by Captain James Craig. "The two incidents," continued the
Correspondent of _The Times_, "were followed by the audience with
breathless excitement, and made a remarkably effective prelude to Sir
Edward Carson's speech. Premeditated, no doubt, that incident of the
banner--yet entirely graceful, entirely fitting to the spirit of the
occasion--a plan carried through with the sense of ceremony which
Ulstermen seem to have always at their command in moments of emotion."
And if ever there was a "moment of emotion" for the Loyalists of
Ulster--those descendants of the Plantation men who had been
deliberately sent to Ireland with a commission from the first sovereign
of a united Britain to uphold British interests, British honour, and the
Reformed Faith across the narrow sea--Loyalists who were conscious that
throughout the generations they had honestly striven to be faithful to
their mission--if ever in their long and stormy history they experienced
a "moment of emotion," it was assuredly on this evening before the
signing of their Covenant.
The speeches delivered by their leader and others were merely a vent for
that emotion. There was nothing that could be said about their cause
that they did not know already; but all felt that the heart of the
matter was touched--the whole situation, so far as they were concerned,
summed up in a single sentence of Carson's speech: "We will take
deliberately a step forward, not in defiance but in defence; and the
Covenant which we will most willingly sign to-morrow will be a great
step forward, in no spirit of aggression, in no spirit of ascendancy,
but with a full knowledge that, if necessary, you and I--you trusting
me, and I trusting you--will follow out everything that this Covenant
means to the very end, whatever the consequences." Every man and woman
who heard these words was filled with an exalted sense of the solemnity
of the occasion. The mental atmosphere was not that of a political
meeting, but of a religious service--and, in fact, the proceedings had
been opened by prayer, as had become the invariable custom on such
occasions in Ulster. It was felt to be a time of individual preparation
for the _Sacramentum_ of the following day, which Protestant Ulster had
set apart as a day of self-dedication to a cause for which they were
willing to make any sacrifice.
FOOTNOTES:
[28] _The Scotsman_, November 2nd, 1911.
[29] See Sir B. Carson's speech in _Belfast Newsletter_, September 24th,
1912.
[30] See _ante_, p. 53.
[31] See p. 106.
[32] See p. 248.
[33] _The Times_, September 23rd, 1912.
[34] _The Daily Telegraph_, September 25th, 1912.
[35] _Belfast Newsletter_, September 24th, 1912.
[36] The article which appeared on the following Sunday in _The
Observer_, showed how profoundly a distinguished London editor and
writer had been moved by what he saw in Belfast.