ars of age, but, like
the great soldier who recommended him to Ulster, he was an active little
man both in body and mind, with no symptom of approaching old age.

General Richardson was not long in making himself popular, not only with
the force under his command, but with all classes in Ulster. There were
unavoidable difficulties in handling troops whose officers had no
statutory powers of discipline, who had inherited no military
traditions, and who formed part of a population conspicuously
independent in character. But Sir George Richardson was as full of tact
as of good humour, and he soon found that the keenness of the officers
and men, to whom dismissal from the U.V.F. would have been the severest
of punishments, more than counterbalanced the difficulties referred to.

When the new G.O.C. went to Belfast in July, 1913, he found his command
between fifty and sixty thousand strong, with recruits joining every
day. In September a number of parades were held in different localities,
at which the General was accompanied by Sir Edward Carson, Mr. F.E.
Smith, Captain James Craig, and other Members of Parliament. The local
battalions were in many cases commanded by retired or half-pay officers
of the regular army. At all these inspections Carson addressed the men,
many of whom were now seeing their Commander-in-Chief for the first
time, and pointed out that the U.V.F., being now under a single command,
was no longer a mere collection of unrelated units, but an army. At an
inspection at Antrim on the 21st of September, he made a disclosure
which startled the country not a little next day when it appeared in the
headlines of English newspapers. "I tell the Government," he said, "that
we have pledges and promises from some of the greatest generals in the
army, who have given their word that, when the time comes, if it is
necessary, they will come over and help us to keep the old flag flying."
These promises were entirely spontaneous and unsolicited. More than one
of those who made them did fine service to the Empire in the impending
time of trial which none of them foresaw in 1913.

Of the men inspected on that day, numbering about 5,000, it was said by
the Special Correspondent of _The Yorkshire Post_, who was present--

"As far as I could detect in a very careful observation, there were
not half a dozen of them unqualified by physique or age to play a
manly part. They reminded me more than anything else--e