142 



The Review of Reviews. 



The Suffragettes' excuse : The Burning of Bristol before the Reform Act 



vvliich Ulster will go which' I 

 shall not be ready to sup- 

 port." This is the way the 

 leaders of the Opposition 

 are sowing the wind. Behold 

 the first sheaves of the 

 harvest of whirlwind in the 

 Belfast Terror: Mr. Birrell, 

 as responsible Minister, de- 

 clared in the House of Com- 

 mons that there is no dispute 

 about the facts. He said : 

 " Since July ytli outrages 

 have been committed in Bel- 

 fast shipyards and streets 

 of a terrible character. He 

 had before him mformation 



becoming criminals. We may sympathise 



with the sisterhood of the importunate 



widow, but common-sense tells us that they 



are putting back, the clock for their cause. 



It is evident that very 



Unionist Leaders serious Steps will have to 



o „ . t. . be taken bv those who are 

 Belfast Terrorism. ." 



responsible for the govern- 

 ment of this country, if the prevailing 

 epidemic of lawlessness is not to result in 

 something terrible. On the twelfth of last 

 month Mr. F. E. Smith told the people of 

 Belfast that " the crisis has called into exist- 

 ence one ot those supreme issues of con- 

 science amid which the ordinary landmarks 

 of permissible resistance to technical law 

 are submerged. We shall not shrink from 

 the consequences of this view, not though 

 the whole fabric of the commonwealth be 

 convulsed." At Blenheim on the twenty- 

 seventh, Mr. Bonar Law stated that the 

 people of Ulster would be justified in 

 resisting Home Rule" by all means in their 

 power, including force," and added, " If the 

 attcm[)t be made under present conditions, 

 I can imagine no length of resistance to 



with reference to eight or nine outrages 

 upon innocent and harmless workmen who 

 were unable to help themselves. These 

 men were working quietly in shipyards and 

 solitary places when they were set upon 

 aiad horribly assaulted. Two thousand 

 Roman Catholic workmen and a consider- 

 able number of Protestant workmen felt 

 that their lives would not be safe if they 

 continued to attend the yards." The 

 Unionist workmen are using every means 

 to compel the workmen who differ from 

 them politically to join their Unionist clubs, 

 preparatory to more serious measures of 

 revolt. 



Mr. Asquith endeavoured 

 to convey to Mr. Bonar 

 Law some sense of the re- 

 sponsibility of his utter- 

 ances by asking him to consider their effect 

 if the present Opposition Oecame the 

 (jovernment and endeavoured to coerce, not 

 a minority of the people of Ireland, but 

 the overwhelming majority. Mr. Asquith 

 declared that the whole force of rlu' law 

 was being exerteil to put an end to the 



Mr. Asquith's 

 Responsibility. 



