created by her opposition, and this
disposition showed itself in the debates on the Bill; but, speaking
generally, the warning of _The Star_ was disregarded by its political
adherents, and its neglect contributed not a little to the embitterment
of the controversy.

FOOTNOTES:

[22] _Annual Register_, 1912, p. 3.

[23] _The Times_, February 3rd, 1912.

[24] Ibid.

[25] _Annual Register_, 1912, p. 7.

[26] Ibid., p. 126.

CHAPTER VIII

THE EXCLUSION OF ULSTER

Within forty-eight hours of the Balmoral meeting the Prime Minister
moved for leave to introduce the third Home Rule Bill in the House of
Commons. Carson immediately stated the Ulster case in a powerful speech
which left no room for doubt that, while every clause in the Bill would
be contested, it was the setting up of an executive administration
responsible to a Parliament in Dublin--that is to say, the central
principle of the measure--that would be most strenuously opposed.

There is no occasion here to explain in detail the proposals contained
in Mr. Asquith's Home Rule Bill. They form part of the general history
of the period, and are accessible to all who care to examine them. Our
concern is with the endeavour of Ulster to prevent, if possible, the
passage of the Bill to the Statute-book, and, if that should prove
impracticable, to prevent its enforcement "in those districts of which
they had control." But one or two points that were made in the course of
the debates which occupied Parliament for the rest of the year 1912
claim a moment's notice in their bearing on the subject in hand.

Mr. Bonar Law lost no time in fully redeeming the promises he made at
Balmoral. Challenged to repeat in Parliament the charges he had made
against the Government in Ulster, he not only repeated them with
emphasis, but by closely-knit reasoning justified them with chapter and
verse. As to Balmoral, "it really was not like a political
demonstration; it was the expression of the soul of a people." He
declared that "the gulf between the two peoples in Ireland was really
far wider than the gulf between Ireland and Great Britain." He then
dealt specifically with the threatened resistance of Ulster. "These
people in Ulster," he said, "are under no illusion. They know they
cannot fight the British Army. The people of Ulster know that, if the
soldiers receive orders to shoot, it will be their duty to obey. They
will have no ill-will against them for obeying. But