f course, was nothing more than Babberly had proclaimed a dozen
times in far more eloquent language. Nor was the fact that McNeice
printed the last sentence in italics particularly startling. Babberly
had emphasized the same statement with all the violence possible. But,
so tense was the public mind at this time, everybody was vaguely
anxious and excited. We felt that McNeice attached more meaning to the
words than Babberly did.

A member of the Cabinet happened to be speaking two days later at a
large public meeting in Croydon. He was supposed to be explaining the
advantages of the new Insurance Act to the mistresses and servants of
the smaller middle-class households. There were, I believe, very few
people with sufficient faith in his power of apology to go to hear
him; but, of course, there were plenty of newspaper reporters. The
Cabinet Minister addressed them, and, ignoring for the time the
grievances of the British house-and-parlourmaid, he announced that the
Government was going to stand no nonsense from Ulster.

"The leaders," he said, "of the unfortunate dupes who are to assemble
next week in Belfast, must understand once for all that in a
democratically governed country the will of the majority must prevail,
and His Majesty's Government is fully determined to see that it does
prevail, at any cost."

This, again, was nothing more than the usual thing. Only the last
three words conveyed anything in the nature of a threat, and many
papers did not report the last three words. Babberly, I think, was
quite justified in supposing that the Cabinet Minister was saying no
more than, according to the rules of the game, he was bound to say;
that he was, in fact, giving a garden-party of his own to keep up his
position in the county. At all events Babberly replied to the
Government's pronouncement with a defiance of the boldest possible
kind. _The Loyalist_, in a special number, published in the middle of
the week, patted Babberly on the back, and said that the men of Ulster
would, if necessary, assert their right of public meeting with rifles
in their hands.

This was not going much further than Babberly himself had often gone
in earlier stages of the controversy. It is true that he had always
spoken of "arms" which is a vague word and might mean nothing worse
than the familiar paving stones. _The Loyalist_ specified the kind of
arms, mentioned rifles, which are very lethal weapons. Still, viewed
from a reasonable st