d. He was senior Major when I resigned my
commission. He became colonel a few years later and then retired to his
place near Belfast, where he has practised political Protestanism
ever since. I have never met any one more sincere than Malcolmson. He
believes in civil and religious liberty. He is prepared at any moment
to do battle for his faith. I do not know that he really deserves much
credit for this, because he is the sort of man who would do battle for
the love of it, even if there were no faith to be fought for. Still the
fact remains that he has a faith, rather a rare possession.

When he had me cornered near the window of the smoking room, he told
me that the hour of battle had almost come. Ulster was drilled, more
or less armed, and absolutely united. Rather than endure Home Rule
Malcolmson and, I think, a hundred thousand other men were going to lay
down their lives. It took Malcolmson more than an hour to tell me that
because he kept wandering from the main point in order to abuse the
Government and the Irish Party. Of the two he seemed to dislike the
Government more.

Irish politics are of all subjects the most wearisome to me; but I must
admit that Malcolmson interested me before he stopped talking. I began
to wish to hear what Gorman had to say about the matter. I could not
imagine that he and his friends contemplated a siege of Belfast, to rank
in history alongside of the famous attempt to starve Derry.

There was no difficulty about getting hold of Gorman. In times of
furious political excitement he is sure to be found at the post of duty,
that is to say, in the smoking room of the House of Commons. I wrote to
him and invited him to dine with me in my rooms. It would have been much
more convenient to give him dinner at one of my clubs. But I was
afraid to do that. I belonged to two clubs in London and unfortunately
Malcolmson is a member of both of them. I do not know what would have
happened if he had found himself in the same room with Gorman. The
threatened civil war might have begun prematurely, and Malcolmson is
such a determined warrior that a table fork might easily have become a
lethal weapon in his hands. I did not want to have Gorman killed before
I heard his opinion about the Ulster situation and I disliked the
thought of having to explain the circumstances of his death to the club
committee afterwards. There is always an uncertainty about the view
which a club committee will take of any unu