and confidence. Owing to failing health
he had been unable to take an active part in the exciting events of the
past two years, but the messages of encouragement and support which were
read from him at Craigavon, Balmoral, and other meetings for organising
resistance, were always received with an enthusiasm which showed, and
was intended to show, that the great part he had played in former years,
and especially his inspiring leadership as Chairman of the Ulster
Convention in 1893, had never been forgotten.

His death inflicted also, indirectly, another blow which at this
particular moment was galling to loyalists out of all proportion to its
intrinsic importance. The removal to the House of Lords of the Marquis
of Hamilton, the member for Derry city, created a vacancy which was
filled at the ensuing by-election by a Liberal Home Ruler. To lose a
seat anywhere in the north-eastern counties at such a critical time in
the movement was bad enough, but the unfading halo of the historic siege
rested on Derry as on a sanctuary of Protestantism and loyalty, so that
the capture of the "Maiden City" by the enemy wounded loyalist sentiment
far more deeply than the loss of any other constituency. The two parties
had been for some time very nearly evenly balanced there, and every
electioneering art and device, including that of bringing to the poll
voters who had long rested in the cemetery, was practised in Derry with
unfailing zeal and zest by party managers. For some time past trade,
especially ship-building, had been in a state of depression in Derry,
with the result that a good many of the better class of artisans, who
were uniformly Unionist, had gone to Belfast and elsewhere to find work,
leaving the political fortunes of the city at the mercy of the casual
labourer who drifted in from the wilds of Donegal, and who at this
election managed to place the Home Rule candidate in a majority of
fifty-seven.

It was a matter of course that the late Duke's place as President of the
Ulster Unionist Council should be taken by Lord Londonderry, and it
happened that the annual meeting at which he was formally elected was
held on the same day that witnessed the rejection of the Home Rule Bill
by the House of Lords.

It was also at this annual meeting (31st January, 1913) that the special
Commission who had been charged to prepare a scheme for the Provisional
Government, presented their draft Report. The work had been done with
great t