ies, and resolved that the Parliament in Belfast should be
opened at the earliest possible date. The Marquis of Londonderry gave a
fresh proof of his Ulster patriotism by resigning his office in the
Imperial Government and accepting the portfolio of Education in Sir
James Craig's Cabinet, and with it the leadership of the Ulster Senate;
in which the Duke of Abercorn also, to the great satisfaction of the
Ulster people, consented to take a seat. Mr. Dawson Bates, the
indefatigable Secretary of the Ulster Unionist Council during the whole
of the Ulster Movement, was appointed Minister for Home Affairs, and Mr.
E.M. Archdale became Minister for Agriculture. The first act of the
House of Commons of Northern Ireland was to choose Major Hugh O'Neill as
their Speaker, while the important position of Chairman of Committees
was entrusted to Mr. Thomas Moles, one of the ablest recruits of the
Ulster Parliamentary Party, whom the General Election of 1918 had sent
to Westminster as one of the members for Belfast, and who had given
ample evidence of his capacity both in the Imperial Parliament and on
the Secretarial Staff of the Irish Convention of 1917.

Meantime, in the South the Act of 1920 was treated with absolute
contempt; no step was taken to hold elections or to form an
Administration, although it must be remembered that the flouted Act
conferred a larger measure of Home Rule than had ever been offered by
previous Bills. Thus by one of those curious ironies that have
continually marked the history of Ireland, the only part of the island
where Home Rule operated was the part that had never desired it, while
the provinces that had demanded Home Rule for generations refused to use
it when it was granted them.

In Ulster the new order of things was accepted with acquiescence rather
than with enthusiasm. But the warmer emotion was immediately called
forth when it became known that His Majesty the King had decided to open
the Ulster Parliament in person on the 22nd of June, 1921, especially as
it was fully realised that, owing to the anarchical condition of the
country, the King's presence in Belfast would be a characteristic
disregard of personal danger in the discharge of public duty. And when,
on the eve of the royal visit, it was intimated that the Queen had been
graciously pleased to accede to Sir James Craig's request that she
should accompany the King to Belfast, the enthusiasm of the loyal people
of the North rose to feve