“We are not going to abate one jot or tittle of our opposition to Home Rule, and when you come back from serving your country you will be just as determined as you will find us at home.”

This was the answer to Redmond’s proposal of fraternization.  Clearly Sir Edward Carson had made up his mind that he could not prevent the passage of the Bill, and he decided upon the strongest course, which was to advocate unlimited support to the war.  Any other course would have been ruinous to his cause, which depended always upon a profession of the extremest loyalty.  Yet only a strong man, confident in his leadership, could have taken this line at a moment when Ulstermen were about to feel that all their preparations were wasted and that the game had been won against them by a paralysing chance.

Before the House reassembled there was a meeting at the Carlton Club; a report communicated to the Press attributed these words to Sir Edward Carson—­they are typical of the tone of the time: 

“We asked for no terms and we got none.  We did not object to go under the War Office.  We did not make speeches calculated to humbug or deceive while we meant to do nothing.”

On September 15th Government announced its intentions.  Both Bills were to be placed on the Statute Book, but their operation deferred till the end of twelve months, or, if the war were not then over, till the end of the war.  During the suspensory period Government would introduce an Amending Bill.  Mr. Asquith made a flattering reference to Sir Edward Carson’s action in appealing to his organization for recruits, and admitted that “it might be said that the Ulstermen had been put at a disadvantage by the loyal and patriotic action which they had undertaken.”—­This meant that their preparations for resistance to Mr. Asquith’s Government were disorganized.—­He proceeded to promise that they should never have need of such preparations; they should get all the preparations aimed at without having to use them.

“I say, speaking again on behalf of the Government, that in our view, under the conditions which now exist—­we must all recognize the atmosphere which this great patriotic spirit has created in the country—­the employment of force, any kind of force, for what you call the coercion of Ulster, is an absolutely unthinkable thing.  So far as I am concerned, and so far as my colleagues are concerned—­I speak for them, for I know their unanimous feeling—­that is a thing we would never countenance or consent to.”

This utterance has dominated the situation from that day to this.  Ulster had organized to rebel, sooner than come under an Irish Parliament; and had refrained from rebellion because the Great War was in progress.  For this reason Ulster should never be coerced, no matter what might happen.  Sir Edward Carson’s line of action had secured an enormous concession:  he might have gone back to his people and said, “We have won.”  But he was strong enough to represent it as a new outrage, which they for the sake of loyalty must in the hour of common danger submit to endure.  By this course, risky for himself, he vastly improved their position in all future negotiation.—­After a violent speech from Mr. Bonar Law the Tory party walked out of the House in a body.