Convention, consisting of 11,879 delegates representing
the Unionists of every creed, class, and party throughout Ulster,
appointed at public meetings held in every electoral division of
the Province, hereby solemnly resolves and declares: 'That we
express the devoted loyalty of Ulster Unionists to the Crown and
Constitution of the United Kingdom; that we avow our fixed resolve
to retain unchanged our present position as an integral portion of
the United Kingdom, and protest in the most unequivocal manner
against the passage of any measure that would rob us of our
inheritance in the Imperial Parliament, under the protection of
which our capital has been invested and our homes and rights
safeguarded; that we record our determination to have nothing to do
with a Parliament certain to be controlled by men responsible for
the crime and outrages of the Land League, the dishonesty of the
Plan of Campaign, and the cruelties of boycotting, many of whom
have shown themselves the ready instruments of clerical domination;
that we declare to the people of Great Britain our conviction that
the attempt to set up such a Parliament in Ireland will inevitably
result in disorder, violence, and bloodshed, such as have not been
experienced in this century, and announce our resolve to take no
part in the election or proceedings of such a Parliament, the
authority of which, should it ever be constituted, we shall be
forced to repudiate; that we protest against this great question,
which involves our lives, property, and civil rights, being treated
as a mere side-issue in the impending electoral struggle; that we
appeal to those of our fellow countrymen who have hitherto been in
favour of a separate Parliament to abandon a demand which
hopelessly divides Irishmen, and to unite with us under the
Imperial Legislature in developing the resources and furthering the
best interests of our common country.'"

There can be no doubt that the Ulster Convention of 1892, and the
numerous less imposing demonstrations which followed on both sides of
the Channel and took their tone from it, of which the most notable was
the great meeting at the Albert Hall in London on the 22nd of April,
1893, had much effect in impressing and instructing public opinion, and
thus preparing the way for the smashing defeat of the Libe