1914II Unfortunate Laxity 



impressed Wilhelm, and the gun-running followed 

 in due season.^ 



The affair was by no means universally approved, ubter dis 

 even in Ulster. A leading Presbyterian clergyman ''PP^°'"'^ 

 of Londonderry said to me that 



the government should at the beginning have stopped Carson's 

 play with fire; prompt action might have made Sir Edward a 

 martyr, but matters would have been no worse. To tolerate 

 gun-running w^as a fatal mistake. Gun-running in Belfast means 

 gun-running in Dublin. 



"The essence of the case," said a Belfast editor, 



is an effort to save the British nobiHty and the Conservative 

 party. Sir Edward Carson would like to be arrested. It would 

 take the whole thing off his shoulders. 



Still another Ulster Liberal observed that 



the government should have crushed out lawlessness and 

 prevented the drilling of troops, no matter on which side. They 

 have allowed violent speeches, gun-running on both sides, and 

 parades with arms. 



British Liberals (notably John A. Hobson) de- Political 

 manded Carson's indictment for treason. From this ^^j^'" 

 fate he was saved (it is said) by the mediation of 

 John Redmond. Strangely enough, however, through 

 the intricacies of coalition politics. Sir Edward soon 

 went into the Cabinet as Minister of Justice, while 

 Sir Frederick E. Smith, his lieutenant, vociferous, 

 ubiquitous, and imponderable, eager "to shed any 

 blood but his own," was made a peer.- 



In 1916 Sir Roger Casement, an impracticable 

 idealist, tied himself up with the Germans in the 



^ See Chapter XLii, pages 482-483. 



2 As Lord Birkenhead; his superior later became "Lord Carson of Duncairn." 



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