CHAPTER XXIV

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