ing on the thing that really mattered in any
situation. His strength in counsel lay in the rare combination of these
qualities of the trained lawyer with the gift of intuition, which women
claim as their distinguishing characteristic; and it often extorted from
Nationalists the melancholy admission that if Carson had been on their
side their cause would have triumphed long ago.
His advice now was that the Agar-Robartes amendment should be supported;
and, although some of those present required a good deal of persuasion,
it was ultimately decided unanimously that this course should be
followed. The wisdom of the decision was never afterwards questioned,
and, indeed, was abundantly confirmed by subsequent events.
Mr. Agar-Robartes moved his amendment the same afternoon, summarising
his argument in the dictum, denied by Mr. William Redmond, that "Orange
bitters will not mix with Irish whisky." The debate, which lasted three
days, was the most important that took place in committee on the Bill,
for in the course of it the whole Ulster question was exhaustively
discussed. Sir Edward Grey and Mr. Churchill had thrown out hints in the
second reading debate that the Government might do something to meet the
Ulster case. The Prime Minister was now pressed to say what these hints
meant. Had the Government any policy in regard to Ulster? Had they
considered how they could deal with the threatened resistance? Mr. Bonar
Law told the Government that they must know that, if they employed
troops to coerce the Ulster Loyalists, Ministers who gave the order
"would run a greater risk of being lynched in London than the Loyalists
of Ulster would run of being shot in Belfast." Every argument in favour
of Home Rule was, he said, equally cogent against subjecting Ulster to
Home Rule contrary to her own desire. If the South of Ireland objected
to being governed from Westminster, the North of Ireland quite as
strongly objected to being ruled from Dublin. If England, as was
alleged, was incapable of governing Ireland according to Irish ideas,
the Nationalists were fully as incapable of governing the northern
counties according to Ulster ideas. If Ireland, with only one-fifteenth
of the population of the United Kingdom, had a right to choose its own
form of government, by what equity could the same right be denied to
Ulster, with one-fourth of the population of Ireland?
As had been anticipated at Londonderry House, Mr. Asquith and some of
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