s were drawn by human muscles took three minutes short of
an hour to traverse it. It was estimated that into that short space of
street some 70,000 to 100,000 people had managed to jam themselves.
Movement was almost out of the question, yet everyone within reach
tried to press near enough to grasp hands with the occupants of the
carriage. When at last the shed was reached the people could not bear to
let Carson disappear through the gates. _The Times_ Correspondent heard
them shout, "Don't leave us," "You mustn't leave us," and, he added, "It
was seriously meant; it was only when someone pointed out that Sir
Edward Carson had work to do in England for Ulster, that the crowd
finally gave way and made an opening for their hero."[39] There had been
speeches from the balcony of the Reform Club in the afternoon; speeches
from the window of the Ulster Club in the evening; speeches outside the
dock gates; speeches from the deck of the steamer before departure;
speeches by Carson, by Londonderry, by F.E. Smith, by Lord Charles
Beresford--and the purport of one and all of them could be summed up in
the familiar phrase, "We won't have it." But this simple theme,
elaborated through all the modulations of varied oratory, was one of
which the Belfast populace was no more capable of becoming weary than is
the music lover of tiring of a recurrent _leitmotif_ in a Wagner opera.

At last the ship moved off, and speech was no longer possible. It was
replaced by song, "Rule Britannia"; then, as the space to the shore
widened, "Auld Lang Syne"; and finally, when the figures lining the quay
were growing invisible in the darkness, those on board heard thousands
of Loyalists fervently singing "God save the King."

FOOTNOTES:

[37] _The Standard_, September 30th, 1912.

[38] Dr. D'Arcy, now (1922) Primate of All Ireland.

[39] _The Times_, September 30th, 1912.

CHAPTER XI

PASSING THE BILL

No part of Great Britain displayed a more constant and whole-hearted
sympathy with the attitude of Ulster than the city of Liverpool. There
was much in common between Belfast and the great commercial port on the
Mersey. Both were the home of a robust Protestantism, which perhaps was
reinforced by the presence in both of a quarter where Irish Nationalists
predominated. Just as West Belfast gave a seat in Parliament to the most
forceful of the younger Nationalist generation, Mr. Devlin, the Scotland
Division of Liverpool had for a generation