and Sir Edward
Carson did in fact take place at this time. The truth, however, was that
the Government were not their own masters, and, as Mr. Bonar Law bluntly
declared at Bristol on the 15th of January, 1914, they were compelled by
the Nationalists, on whom they depended for existence, to refuse any
genuine concession. In the same speech Mr. Bonar Law replied to the
allegation that Ulster was crying out before she was hurt, by saying
that the American colonies had done the same thing--they had revolted on
a question of principle while suffering was still distant, and for a
cause that in itself was trivial in comparison with that of Ulster.[58]

Most of the leaders on both sides were speaking on various platforms in
January. On the 17th Carson, at an inspection of the East Belfast
U.V.F., said he had lately visited Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, and that the
dying statesman, clear-sighted and valiant as ever, had said to him at
parting, "I would fight it out." In the same spirit Mr. Austen
Chamberlain, in a speech at Skipton a fortnight later, ridiculed any
concession that fell short of the exclusion of Ulster from the Irish
Parliament, and asserted that what the policy of the Government amounted
to was that England was to conquer a province and hold it down at the
expense of her friends for the benefit of her enemies.[59]

Public attention was, however, not allowed to concentrate wholly on
Ireland. The Radicals, instigated by Sir John Brunner, President of the
National Liberal Federation, were doing their best to prevent the
strengthening of the Navy, the time being opportune for parsimony in Mr.
Lloyd George's opinion because our relations with Germany were "far more
friendly than for years past."[60] The militant women suffragists were
carrying on a lively campaign of arson and assault all over the country.
Labour unrest was in a condition of ferment. Land agitation was exciting
the "single-taxers" and other fanatics; and the Tariff question had not
ceased to be a cause of division in the Unionist Party. But, while these
matters were sharing with the Irish problem the attention of the Press
and the public, "conversations" were being held behind the scenes with a
view to averting what everyone now agreed would be a dangerous crisis if
Ulster proved implacable.

When Parliament met on the 10th of February, 1914, Mr. Asquith referred
to these conversations; but while he congratulated everyone concerned on
the fact that the