n who assisted at its
consecration."[18]

The southern Unionists of Ireland thoroughly appreciated the difficulty
that had confronted their friends in the North, and approved the way it
had been met. This was natural enough, since, as the Dublin
Correspondent of _The Times_ pointed out--

"They understand Ulster's position better than it can be understood
in England. They realise that the provocation has been extreme.
There has been a deliberate conspiracy to persuade the English
people, first, that Ulster is weakening in its opposition to Home
Rule; and, next, that its declared refusal to accept Home Rule in
any form is mere bluff. It became necessary for Ulster to defeat
this conspiracy, and the Ulster Council's Resolution has defeated
it."[19]

A few days later a still more valuable token of sympathy and support
from across the Channel gave fresh encouragement to Ulster. On the 26th
of January Mr. Bonar Law made his first public speech as leader of the
Unionist Party, when he addressed an audience of ten thousand people in
the Albert Hall in London. In the course of a masterly analysis of the
dangers inseparable from Home Rule, he once more drew attention to "the
dishonesty with which the Government hid Home Rule before the election,
and now propose to carry it after the election"; but the passage which
gave the greatest satisfaction in Ulster was that in which, speaking for
the whole Unionist Party--which meant at least half, and probably more
than half, the British nation--Mr. Bonar Law, in reference to the recent
occurrence in Belfast, said:

"We hear a great deal about the intolerance of Ulster. It is easy
to be tolerant for other people. We who represent the Unionist
Party in England and Scotland have supported, and we mean to
support to the end, the loyal minority. We support them not because
we are intolerant, but because their claims are just."

Meanwhile, Mr. Churchill's friends were seeking a building in Belfast
where the baffled Minister could hold his meeting on the 8th of
February, and in the course of the search the director of the Belfast
Opera-house was offered a knighthood as well as a large sum of money for
the use of his theatre,[20] a fact that possibly explains the statement
made by the London Correspondent of _The Freeman's Journal_ on the 28th
of January, that the Government's Chief Whip and Patronage Secretary was
busy