er into the Solemn Covenant appended hereto, and, knowing
the greatness of the issues depending on our faithfulness, we
promise each to the others that, to the uttermost of the strength
and means given us, and not regarding any selfish or private
interest, our substance or our lives, we will make good the said
Covenant; and we now bind ourselves in the steadfast determination
that, whatever may befall, no such domination shall be thrust upon
us, and in the hope that by the blessing of God our Union with
Great Britain, upon which are fixed our affections and trust, may
yet be maintained, and that for ourselves and for our children, for
this Province and for the whole of Ireland, peace, prosperity, and
civil and religious liberty may be secured under the Parliament of
the United Kingdom and of the King whose faithful subjects we are
and will continue all our days."

It had been known for some weeks that it was the intention of the Ulster
Loyalists to dedicate the 28th of September as "Ulster Day," by holding
special religious services, after which they were to "pledge themselves
to a solemn Covenant," the terms of which were not yet published or,
indeed, finally settled. This announcement, which appeared in the Press
on the 17th of August, was hailed in England as an effective reply to
the recent "turgid homily" of Mr. Churchill, but there was really no
connection between them in the intentions of Ulstermen, who had been too
much occupied with their own affairs to pay much attention to the attack
upon them in the Dundee letters. The Ulster Day celebration was to be
preceded by a series of demonstrations in many of the chief centres of
Ulster, at which the purpose of the Covenant was to be explained to the
people by the leader and his colleagues, and a number of English Peers
and Members of Parliament arranged to show their sympathy with the
policy embodied in the Covenant by taking part in the meetings.

It would not be true to say that the enthusiasm displayed at this great
series of meetings in September eclipsed all that had gone before, for
it would not be possible for human beings greatly to exceed in that
emotion what had been seen at Craigavon and Balmoral; but they exhibited
an equally grave sense of responsibility, and they proved that the same
exaltation of mind, the same determined spirit, that had been displayed
by Loyalists collected in the popu