s they have
confidence and trust in me, that I advise them to go and do their duty
to the country, and we will take care of politics hereafter." He
concluded by moving a resolution, which was unanimously carried by the
Council, urging "all Loyalists who owe allegiance to our cause" to join
the Army at once if qualified for military service.

From beginning to end of this splendidly patriotic oration no allusion
was made to the Nationalist attitude to the war. Few people in Ulster
had any belief that the spots on the leopard were going to disappear,
even when the Home Rule Bill had been placed on the Statute-book. The
"difficulty" and the "opportunity" would continue in their old
relations. People in Belfast, as elsewhere, did justice to the patriotic
tone of Mr. Redmond's speech in the House of Commons on the 3rd of
August, which made so deep an impression in England; but they believed
him mistaken in attributing to "the democracy of Ireland" a complete
change of sentiment towards England, and their scepticism was more than
justified by subsequent events.

But they also scrutinised more carefully than Englishmen the precise
words used by the Nationalist leader. Englishmen, both in the House of
Commons and in the country, were carried off their feet in an ecstasy of
joy and wonder at Mr. Redmond's confident offer of loyal help from
Ireland to the Empire in the mighty world conflict. Ireland was to be
"the one bright spot." Ulstermen, on the other hand, did not fail to
observe that the offer was limited to service at home. "I say to the
Government," said Mr. Redmond, "that they may to-morrow withdraw every
one of their troops from Ireland. I say that the coast of Ireland will
be defended from foreign invasion by her armed sons, and for this
purpose armed Nationalist Catholics in the South will be only too glad
to join arms with the armed Protestant Ulstermen in the North."

These sentences were rapturously applauded in the House of Commons. When
they were read in Ulster the shrewd men of the North asked what danger
threatened the "coast of Ireland"; and whether, supposing there were a
danger, the British Navy would not be a surer defence than the "armed
sons" of Ireland whether from South or North. It was not on the coast
of Ireland but the coast of Flanders that men were needed, and it was
thither that the "armed Protestant Ulstermen" were preparing to go in
thousands. They would not be behind the Catholics of the Sout