law, and the deportation of any person
whose presence is not desired becomes----At this point I had him deported
to the nursery, for I desired to be alone. All the same I feel that there
is a good deal in what he says, and I shall think it over to-night.

_Tuesday._--Martial law proclaimed. I have decided to be The Strong Man of
England. Force may be no remedy, but it is much esteemed by the Unionist
Party, and I don't see why WINSTON should be the only popular member of the
Cabinet.

_Wednesday._--Excellent. CARSON has been safely smuggled out of the
country. He travelled from Belfast to Liverpool in a packing-case labelled
"Oranges," and was then embarked in a whaler for Greenland. The ship, I
understand, has no wireless installation and will not stop at any port on
the way. As he had to leave Belfast rather hurriedly, without packing, I
have lent him a spare suit of WEDGWOOD BENN'S clothes. The authorities have
orders to deal with the other leading members of the Ulster Provisional
Government in the same way.

_Thursday._--The Ulster leaders have been safely deported. Unfortunately,
there was no ship immediately available for them, and at the present moment
they are in a pantechnicon labelled "Theatrical Troupe" (a tip from BOTHA)
touring the Cromwell Road. They go up and down twice in a day, I am told,
stopping nowhere on the way. Without their leaders the Ulstermen are
weakening, and they may be expected to accept the Home Rule Act peaceably
in the course of a few days. Martial law is certainly an extraordinary
solvent of the most difficult situation, and I can only wonder that I never
thought of it before.

_Saturday._--However hard one tries one can never please everybody. In a
fierce speech at Bootle last night, BONAR denounced me as (among other
things) a Tyrant, a Dictator, and an Autocrat! (The other things were not
so polite.) By an exhibition of the strong hand I have practically stifled
the Ulster Revolution, and this is all the thanks I get from the Unionist
Party. I have sent him a note, asking him to drop in in a friendly way and
chat about it. We haven't had one of our little conversations for a long
time.

_Monday._--BONAR refused my invitation indignantly, and actually made
another speech on the same lines at Pudsey. Even the Liberal papers
confessed that it was enthusiastically received; in fact, P.W.W. in _The
Daily News_ went so far as to say that a staunch Radical in the gallery
"paled sudde