in Ulster affairs, although he
made many excellent speeches on Home Rule both in Parliament and on
English platforms, and was Colonel of a regiment of U.V.F., gave proof
at once, on succeeding to the peerage in 1915, that he was desirous of
doing everything in his power to fill his father's place in the Ulster
Movement. He displayed the same readiness to subordinate personal
convenience, and other claims on his time and energy, to the cause so
closely associated historically with his family. But it was his work in
the Convention that first convinced Ulstermen of his capacity as well as
his zeal. Several of Lord Londonderry's speeches, and especially one in
which he made an impromptu reply to Mr. Redmond, impressed the
Convention with his debating power and his general ability; and it gave
the greatest satisfaction in Ulster when it was realised that the son of
the leader whose loss they mourned so deeply was as able as he was
willing to carry on the hereditary tradition of service to the loyalist
cause.

In another respect, too, the Convention had an indirect influence on the
position in Ulster. When it appeared likely, in January 1918, that a
deadlock would be reached in the Convention, the Prime Minister himself
intervened. A letter to the Chairman was drafted and discussed in the
Cabinet; but the policy which appeared to commend itself to his
colleagues was one that Sir Edward Carson was unable to support, and he
accordingly resigned office on the 21st, and was accompanied into
retirement by Colonel Craig, the other Ulster member of the Ministry.
Sir John Lonsdale, who for many years had been the very efficient
Honorary Secretary and "Whip" of the Ulster Parliamentary Party, and its
leader while Carson was in office, had been raised to the peerage at the
New Year, with the title of Lord Armaghdale, so that the Ulster
leadership was vacant for Carson to resume when he left the Government,
and he was formally re-elected to the position on the 28th of January.
It was fortunate for Ulster that the old helmsman was again free to
take his place at the wheel, for there was still some rough weather
ahead.

The official Report of the Convention which was issued on the 10th of
April was one of the most extraordinary documents ever published in a
Government Blue Book.[97] It consisted for the most part of a confused
bundle of separate Notes and Reports by a number of different groups and
individuals, and numerous appendices