S i2 ENGLISH POLITICAL HISTORY 



creation of ten or twelve such English bodies, all subordinate to the Imperial Parlia- 

 ment. The obvious comment on this suggestion was that Unionist and Protestant 

 Ulster was as much entitled to stand alone in Ireland as Lancashire in England; Mr. 

 Churchill's speculation was effectively criticised by Mr. Balfour at Haddington on 

 October 9th, the scheme being described as " the application of decimal fractions to the 

 United Kingdom." What Unionist Ulster demanded was to remain under the Imperial 

 Parliament and not be at the mercy of a National Executive and Parliament in Dublin. 



The text of the Solemn Covenant, promulgated by the Ulster Unionist Council,, was 

 as follows: 



Being convinced .in our consciences that Home Rule would be disastrous to the material 

 well-being of Ulster as well as of the whole of Ireland, subversive of our civil and religious 

 freedom, destructive of our citizenship, and perilous to the unity of the Empire, we, whose 

 names are underwritten, men of Ulster, loyal subjects of His Gracious Majesty King George 

 V, humbly relying on the God Whom our fathers in days of stress and trial confidently 

 trusted, hereby pledge ourselves in Solemn Covenant throughout this our time of threatened 

 calamity to stand by one another in defending, for ourselves and our children, our cherished 

 position of equal citizenship in the United Kingdom, and in using all means which, may be 

 found necessary to defeat the present conspiracy to set up a Home Rule Parliament in Ire- 

 land; and, in the event of such a Parliament being forced upon us, we further solemnly and 

 mutually pledge ourselves to refuse to recognise its authority. In sure confidence that God 

 will defend the right, we hereto subscribe our names, and, further, we individually declare 

 that we have .not already signed this Covenant. 



Sir Edward Carson signed first, on September 2&th, at the head of a great gathering 

 in Belfast. And when, just afterwards, he crossed with Mr. F. E. Smith to Liverpool, 

 he had a remarkable ovation, violent speeches being made by sympathisers with the 

 cause of Ulster, 1 in favour of supporting her resistance by force of arms. It was an- 

 nounced later that the total signatures to the Covenent were: Ulster, men 218,206, 

 women 228,991; Outside Ulster, men 19,162, women 5,055. 



Parliament met again for the autumn session on October 7th, and the political 

 conflict was once more transferred to the House of Commons. The effect of the Ulster 

 demonstrations on the Government, up to this point, was not specially 

 session" terrifying; and Mr. Asquith, speaking at Ladybank on October 5th, dealt 

 somewhat scornfully with Sir Edward Carson's movement and the Unionist 

 attitude towards it. The Government, he intimated, were ready to consider any pro- 

 posals for safeguarding Ulster, but Ulster had nothing to suggest she simply would 

 not allow Ireland to have what the other four-fifths of Ireland demanded. It was 

 impossible for the Government to give -way. to intimidation, prompted by the spirit of 

 Orange ascendancy; they meant to go on with their Bill. On October xoth he intro- 

 duced in the House of Commons a series of resolutions for completing the various stages 

 of discussion on it by Christmas under the closure. Including the time already occupied, 

 fifty days (to which two were added a few days later) were, on this scheme, to be devoted 

 to debate.: An Opposition amendment, proposed by Mr. Bonar Law, was defeated by 

 323 to 232. The operation of the guillotine, combined with the " Kangaroo " system by 

 which the Chairman of Committees was left to choose which among the various amend- 

 ments proposed should be discussed in the time available, made the resumption of the 

 Committee stage simply a question of whether the Government could maintain their 

 majorities; any effective debate was obviously impossible, and Mr. Bonar Law bluntly 

 declared that the Government might just as well have moved that the Bill should be 

 passed without further delay. On the other hand it was equally true that, without 



1 It must be remembered, of course, that "Ulster," as ah Irish political unit, does not 

 mean the whole province, but only the N.E. portion, comprising the five counties of 

 Antrim, Armagh, Down, Londonderry and Tyrone, with the cities of Belfast and London- 

 derry. Asa geographical unit Ulster has a population (1911) of 1,581,696, but the N.E. 

 portion by itself has 1,188,695. Out of the latter total, those of 16 years old and over were 

 387,241 males and 438,774 females. As the census classification showed that 33.1 per cent 

 of the population in this N.E. area was Roman Catholic, the number of adult male Prot- 

 estants in Ulster who might be-expected to sign the Covenant was not much in excess of 

 those who actually did so. 



