milar scenes were
witnessed at Norwich and Bristol, and the tour left no doubt in the
minds of those who followed it, and who studied the comments of the
Press upon it, that not only was the whole Unionist Party in Great
Britain solidly behind the Ulstermen in their resolve to resist being
subjected to a Parliament in Dublin, but that the general drift of
opinion detached from party was increasingly on the same side.

FOOTNOTES:

[48] See _ante_, p. 53.

[49] But he could be moved to stern indignation by the treachery of
former friends, as he showed in December 1921.

CHAPTER XIV

LORD LOREBURN'S LETTER

Whatever might be the state of public opinion in England, it was
realised that the Government, if they chose, were in a position to
disregard it; and in Ulster the tension was becoming almost unbearable.
The leaders were apprehensive lest outbreaks of violence should occur,
which they knew would gravely prejudice the movement; and there is no
doubt that it was only the discipline which the rank and file had now
gained, and the extraordinary restraining influence which Carson
exercised, that prevented serious rioting in many places. Incidents like
the attack by Nationalist roughs in Belfast on a carriage conveying
crippled children to a holiday outing on the 31st of May because it was
decorated with Union Jacks might at any moment lead to trouble. There
was some disorder in Belfast in the early hours of the 12th of July; and
an outbreak occurred in August in Derry, always a storm centre, when a
procession was attacked, and a Protestant was shot while watching it
from his own upper window. The incident started rioting, which continued
for several days, and a battalion of troops had to be called in to
restore order.

Meantime, throughout the summer, while the Government were complacently
carrying their Bill through Parliament for the second time, the Press
was packed with suggestions for averting the crisis which everybody
except the Cabinet recognised as impending.

It began to be whispered in the clubs and lobbies that the King might
exercise the prerogative of veto, and even men like Lord St. Aldwyn and
the veteran Earl of Halsbury, both of them ex-Cabinet Ministers,
encouraged the idea; but there was no widespread acceptance of the
notion that even in so exceptional a case His Majesty would reject the
advice of his responsible Ministers. But in a letter to _The Times_ on
the 4th of September, Mr. Geo