ervation of authority to the Imperial Parliament.

But with the passing of the Act the long and consummate leadership of
Sir Edward Carson came to an end. If he had not succeeded in bringing
the Ulster people into a Promised Land, he had at least conducted an
orderly retreat to a position of safety. The almost miraculous skill
with which he had directed all the operations of a protracted and
harassing campaign, avoiding traps and pitfalls at every step,
foreseeing and providing against countless crises, frustrating with
unfailing adroitness the manoeuvres both of implacable enemies and
treacherous "friends," was fully appreciated by his grateful followers,
who had for years past regarded him with an intensity of personal
devotion seldom given even to the greatest of political leaders. But he
felt that the task of opening a new chapter in the history of Ulster,
and of inaugurating the new institutions now established, was work for
younger hands. Hard as he was pressed to accept the position of first
Prime Minister of Ulster, he firmly persisted in his refusal; and on his
recommendation the man who had been his able and faithful lieutenant
throughout the long Ulster Movement was unanimously chosen to succeed
him in the leadership.

Sir James Craig did not hesitate to respond to the call, although to do
so he had to resign an important post in the British Government, that of
Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty, with excellent prospects of
further promotion. As soon as the elections in "Northern Ireland,"
conducted under the system of Proportional Representation, as provided
by the Act of 1920, were complete, Sir James, whose followers numbered
forty as against a Nationalist and Sinn Fein minority of twelve, was
sent for by the Viceroy and commissioned to form a Ministry. He
immediately set himself to his new and exceedingly difficult duties with
characteristic thoroughness. The whole apparatus of government
administration had to be built up from the foundation. Departments, for
which there was no existing office accommodation or personnel, had to
be called into existence and efficiently organised, and all this
preliminary work had to be undertaken at a time when the territory
subject to the new Government was beset by open and concealed enemies
working havoc with bombs and revolvers, with which the Government had
not yet legal power to cope.

But Sir James Craig pressed on with the work, undismayed by the
difficult