y. Germany
was the personal note which Sir Roger Casement brought in, and which
left it with his failure. It was accidental and extraneous both to the
Sinn Fein Volunteers and the Citizen Army, though both were willing to
make use of it.

Anyone who has taken the trouble to peruse the literature which fed the
movement will recognize these diverse elements under various forms which
appear in different places, but they are perfectly distinct.

The most immediate cause was the undoubted intention of the authorities
to disarm them--a threat which had been overhanging them for some time,
and which, in view of the well-known leniency of the Government with
regard both to Sir Edward Carson and John Redmond in the same matter,
struck them as particularly unjust, the more so perhaps because both
Sinn Feiners and Larkinites thought that the Nationalists and the
Orangemen would be only too glad to combine with the Government against
them if need be.

Thus, if we take the issue of the _Workers' Republic_ of April 22, 1916,
we find an account, quoted from the _Liverpool Courier_, of how
Connolly, the Commandant of the Citizens' Army, stopped the police raid,
in search of papers, on the shop of the Workers' Co-operative Society at
31, Eden Quay, having been informed of their intention.

"Connolly," says the account, "arrived on the scene just as one of the
police got in behind the counter. Inquiring if the police had any search
warrant, they answered that they had not. On hearing this, Mr. Connolly,
turning to the policeman behind the counter as he had lifted up a
bundle of papers, covered him with an automatic pistol, and quietly
said: 'Then drop those papers, or I'll drop you.' He dropped the papers.
Then he was ordered out from behind the counter, and he cleared. His
fellow-burglar tried to be insolent, and was quickly told that as they
had no search warrant they were doing an illegal act, and the first one
who ventured to touch a paper would be shot like a dog. After some
parley, they slunk away, vowing vengeance."

The story runs on for a column or more, and ends with further
discomfiture for the police. Then one reads:--

"In an hour from the first issue of the summons Liberty Hall was
garrisoned by a hundred and fifty determined armed men, and more were
trooping in every few minutes. It was splendid to see the enthusiasm of
the men, and when in the course of the evening all the Women's Ambulance
Corps trooped in, closel