reat Britain. The Ulster menace was in his
eyes nothing but "melodramatic stuff," and he sneeringly suggested that
the Unionist leaders would be "unspeakably shocked and frightened" if
anything came of their "foolish and wicked words." The letter was
lengthy, and contained some telling phrases such as Mr. Churchill has
always been skilful in coining; but the "turgid homily--a mixture of
sophistry, insult, and menace," as _The Times_ not unfairly described
it, was less effective than the terse and simple rejoinder in which Mr.
Bonar Law pointed out that Mr. Churchill's onslaught wounded his
father's memory more deeply than it touched his living opponents, since
Lord Randolph's "incitement" of Ulster was at a time when Ulster could
not be cast out from the Union without the consent of the British
electors.

Mr. Churchill's epistles to Scottish Liberals started a correspondence
which reverberated through the Press for weeks, breaking the monotony of
the holiday season; but they entirely failed in their purpose, which was
to break the sympathy for Ulster in England and Scotland. In March the
Unionists had won a seat at a by-election in South Manchester; the
victory at Crewe in July, which so cheered the gathering at Blenheim,
was followed by still more striking victories in North-west Manchester
in August, and in Midlothian--Gladstone's old constituency--in
September; and perhaps a not less significant indication of the trend of
opinion so far as the Unionist party was concerned, was given by the
local Unionist Association at Rochdale, which promptly repudiated its
selected candidate who had ventured to protest against the Blenheim
speech of the Unionist leader. In an analysis of electoral statistics
published by _The Times_ on the 24th of August it was shown that, in
thirty-eight contests since the General Election in December 1910, the
Unionists had gained an advantage of more than 32,000 votes over
Liberals. And shortly afterwards, at a dinner in London to three newly
elected Unionists, Mr. Bonar Law pointed out that the results of
by-elections, if realised in the same proportion all over the country,
would have given a substantial Unionist majority in the House of
Commons.

The Ulster people had, therefore, much to encourage them at a time when
they were preparing the most significant forward step in the movement,
and the most solemn pronouncement of their unfaltering resolution never
to submit to the Dublin Parliamen