ing himself with the arrangement.[21] Captain Frederick Guest, M.P.,
one of the junior whips, arrived in Belfast on the 25th to give
assistance on the spot; but no suitable hall with an auspicious _genius
loci_ could apparently be found, for eventually a marquee was imported
from Scotland and erected on the Celtic football ground, in the
Nationalist quarter of the city.

The question of maintaining order on the day of the meeting was at the
same time engaging the attention both of the Government in Dublin and
the Unionist Council in Belfast. The former decided to strengthen the
garrison of Belfast by five battalions of infantry and two squadrons of
cavalry, while at the Old Town Hall anxious consultations were held as
to the best means of securing that the soldiers should have nothing to
do. The Unionist leaders had not yet gained the full influence they were
able to exercise later, nor were their followers as disciplined as they
afterwards became. The Orange Lodges were the only section of the
population in any sense under discipline; and this section was a much
smaller proportion of the Unionist rank and file than English Liberals
supposed, who were in the habit of speaking as if "Orangemen" were a
correct cognomen of the whole Protestant population of Ulster. It was,
however, only through the Lodges and the Unionist Clubs that the
Standing Committee could hope to exert influence in keeping the peace.
That Committee, accordingly, passed a Resolution on the 5th of February,
moved by Colonel Wallace, the most influential of the Belfast
Orangemen, which "strongly urged all Unionists," in view of the Ulster
Hall victory, "to abstain from any interference with the meeting at the
Celtic football ground, and to do everything in their power to avoid any
action that might lead to any disturbance."

The Resolution was circulated to all the Orange Lodges and Unionist
Clubs in Belfast and the neighbouring districts--for it was expected
that some 30,000 or 40,000 people might come into the city from outside
on the day of the meeting--with urgent injunctions to the officers to
bring it to the notice of all members; it was also extensively placarded
on all the hoardings of Belfast. Of even greater importance perhaps, in
the interests of peace, was the decision that Carson and Londonderry
should themselves remain in Belfast on the 8th. This, as _The Times_
Correspondent in Belfast had the insight to observe, was "the strongest
guara