nd, secondly, the good conduct of the crowd. Belfast had one
of the lowest of its Saturday records for drunkenness and
disorderliness yesterday. I was in the Reform Club between one and
three o'clock. Again and again I went out on the balcony and
watched the streets. I saw the procession of thousands upon
thousands come down Royal Avenue. But this was not the only line of
march, for all Belfast was now converging upon the City Hall, the
arrangements in which must have been elaborate. It was a procession
a description of which would have been familiar to the Belfast
public, but the like of which is only seen in Ulster."

The tribute here paid to the conduct of the Belfast crowd was well
merited. But in this respect the day of the Covenant was not so
exceptional as it would have been before the beginning of the Ulster
Movement. Before that period neither Belfast nor any part of Ulster
could have been truthfully described as remarkable for its sobriety. But
by the universal testimony of those qualified to judge in such
matters--police, clergy of all denominations, and workers for social
welfare--the political movement had a sobering and steadying influence
on the people, which became more and more noticeable as the movement
developed, and especially as the volunteers grew in numbers and
discipline. The "man in the street" gained a sense of responsibility
from the feeling that he formed one of a great company whom it was his
wish not to discredit, and he found occupation for mind and body which
diminished the temptations of idle hours.

From the Reform Club Carson, Londonderry, Beresford, and F.E. Smith went
to the Ulster Club, just across the street, where they dined as the
guests of Lord Mayor McMordie before leaving for Liverpool; and it was
outside that dingy building that the enthusiasm of the people reached a
climax. None who witnessed it can ever forget the scene, which the
English newspaper correspondents required all their superlatives to
describe for London readers next day. Those superlatives need not be
served up again here. One or two bald facts will perhaps give to anyone
possessing any faculty of visualisation as clear an idea as they could
get from any number of dithyrambic pages. The distance from the Ulster
Club to the quay where the Liverpool steamer is berthed is ordinarily
less than a ten minutes' walk. The wagonette in which the Ulster leader
and his friend