d. The real fact was that
his own patriotic attitude at the outbreak of war undermined his
leadership in Ireland. The "separatism" which had always been, as Ulster
never ceased to believe, the true underlying, though not always the
acknowledged, motive power of Irish Nationalism, was beginning again to
assert itself, and to find expression in "handbills" and "wretched
rags." It was discovering other leaders and spokesmen than Mr. Redmond
and his party, whom it was destined before long to sweep utterly away.

FOOTNOTES:

[90] _Morning Post_, May 19th, 1913.

[91] _The Annual Register_, 1914, p. 259.

[92] "The Army and Ireland," _Nineteenth Century and After_, January
1921, by Lieut.-Colonel John Ward, C.B., C.M.G., M.P.

CHAPTER XXI

NEGOTIATIONS FOR SETTLEMENT

The position in which Ulster was now placed was, from the political
point of view, a very anxious one. Had the war not broken out when it
did, there was a very prevalent belief that the Government could not
have avoided a general election either before, or immediately after, the
placing of Home Rule on the Statute-book; and as to the result of such
an election no Unionist had any misgiving. Even if the Government had
remained content to disregard the electorate, it would have been
impossible for them to subject Ulster to a Dublin Parliament. The
organisation there was powerful enough to prevent it, by force if
necessary, and the Curragh Incident had proved that the Army could not
be employed against the Loyalists.

But the whole outlook had now changed. The war had put off all thought
of a General Election till an indefinite future; the Ulster Volunteers,
and every other wheel in the very effective machinery prepared for
resistance to Home Rule, were now diverted to a wholly different
purpose; and at the same time the hated Bill had become an Act, and the
only alleviation was the promise, for what it might be worth, of an
Amending Bill the scope of which remained undefined. While, therefore,
the Ulster leaders and people threw themselves with all their energy
into the patriotic work to which the war gave the call, the situation so
created at home caused them much uneasiness.

No one felt it more than Lord Londonderry. Indeed, as the autumn of 1914
wore on, the despondency he fell into was so marked that his friends
could not avoid disquietude on his personal account in addition to all
the other grounds for anxiety. He and Lady Londonderry, it