the misconception that
Ulster's attachment to the Union was the result of personal prejudice
against Catholics of the South, instead of being, as it was, a
deliberate and reasoned conviction as to the best government for
Ireland.

This distinction was clearly brought out in the same debate by Sir John
Lonsdale, who, when Carson became a member of the Cabinet, had been
elected leader of the Ulster Party in the House of Commons; and an
emphatic pronouncement, which went to the root of the controversy, was
made in reply to the Nationalists by the Prime Minister. In the
north-eastern portion of Ireland, he said:

"You have a population as hostile to Irish rule as the rest of
Ireland is to British rule, yea, and as ready to rebel against it
as the rest of Ireland is against British rule--as alien in blood,
in religious faith, in traditions, in outlook--as alien from the
rest of Ireland in this respect as the inhabitants of Fife or
Aberdeen. To place them under National rule against their will
would be as glaring an outrage on the principles of liberty and
self-government as the denial of self-government would be for the
rest of Ireland."

The Government were, therefore, prepared, said Mr. Lloyd George, to
bring in Home Rule immediately for that part of Ireland that wanted it,
but not for the Northern part which did not want it. Mr. Redmond made a
fine display of indignation at this refusal to coerce Ulster; and, in
imitation of the Unionists in 1914, marched out of the House at the head
of his party. Next day he issued a manifesto to men of Irish blood in
the United States and in the Dominions, calling on them to use all means
in their power to exert pressure on the British Government. It was clear
that this sort of thing could not be tolerated in the middle of a war in
which Great Britain was fighting for her life, and at a crisis in it
when her fortunes were far from prosperous. Accordingly, on the 16th of
March Mr. Bonar Law warned the Nationalists that their conduct might
make it necessary to appeal to the country on the ground that they were
obstructing the prosecution of the war. But he also announced that the
Cabinet intended to make one more attempt to arrive at a settlement of
the apparently insoluble problem of Irish government.

Two months passed before it was made known how this attempt was to be
made. On the 16th of May the Prime Minister addressed a letter in
du