leader of the whole
Unionist Party each grasped the other's hand in view of the assembled
multitude, as though formally ratifying a compact made thus publicly on
the eve of battle. It was the consummation of the purpose of this
assembly of the Unionist hosts on Ulster soil, and gave assurance of
unity of aim and undivided command in the coming struggle.

Of the other speeches delivered, many of them of a high quality,
especially, perhaps, those of Lord Hugh Cecil, Sir Robert Finlay, and
Mr. Scott Dickson, it is enough to say that they all conveyed the same
message of encouragement to Ulster, the same promise of undeviating
support. One detail, however, deserves mention, because it shows the
direction in which men's thoughts were then moving. Mr. Walter Long,
whose great services to the cause of the Union procured him a welcome
second in warmth to that of no other leader, after thanking Londonderry
and Carson "for the great lead they have given us in recent difficult
weeks "--an allusion to the Churchill incident that was not lost on the
audience--added with a blunt directness characteristic of the speaker:
"If they are going to put Lord Londonderry and Sir Edward Carson into
the dock, they will have to find one large enough to hold the whole
Unionist Party."

The Balmoral demonstration was recognised on all sides as one of the
chief landmarks in the Ulster Movement. The Craigavon policy was not
only reaffirmed with greater emphasis than before by the people of
Ulster themselves, but it received the deliberate endorsement of the
Unionist Party in England and Scotland. Moreover, as Mr. Long's speech
explicitly promised, and Mr. Bonar Law's speech unmistakably implied,
British support was not to be dependent on Ulster's opposition to Home
Rule being kept within strictly legal limits. Indeed, it had become
increasingly evident that opposition so limited must be impotent, since,
as Mr. Bonar Law pointed out, Ministers and their majority in the House
of Commons were in Mr. Redmond's pocket, and had no choice but to "toe
the line," while the "boom" which they had erected by the Parliament Act
cut off Ulster from access to the British constituencies, unless that
boom could be burst as the boom across the Foyle was broken by the
_Mountjoy_ in 1689. The Unionist leader had warned the Ulstermen that
in these circumstances they must expect nothing from Parliament, but
must trust in themselves. They did not mistake his meaning, an