The reply of Ulster to the passing of the Bill was a series of reviews of the U.V.F. during the Whitsuntide recess.  Carson, Londonderry, Craig, and most of the other Ulster members attended these parades, which excited intense enthusiasm through the country, more especially as the arms brought by the Mountjoy were now seen for the first time in the hands of the Volunteers.  Several battalions were presented with Colours which had been provided by Lady Londonderry, Lady Massereene, Mrs. Craig, and other local ladies, and the ceremony included the dedication of these Colours by the Bishop of Down and the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church.  Many visitors from England witnessed these displays, and among them were several deputations of Liberal and Labour working men, who reported on their return that what they had seen had converted them to sympathy with Ulster.[89]

After the recess the promised Amending Bill was introduced in the House of Lords on the 23rd of June by the Marquis of Crewe, who explained that it embodied Mr. Asquith’s proposals of the 9th of March, and that he invited amendments.  Lord Lansdowne at once declared that these proposals, which had been rejected as inadequate three months ago, were doubly insufficient now.  But the invitation to amend the Bill was accepted, Lord Londonderry asking the pertinent question whether the Government would tell Mr. Redmond that they would insist on acceptance of any amendments made in response to Lord Crewe’s invitation—­a question to which no answer was forthcoming.  Lord Milner, in the course of the debate, said the Bill would have to be entirely remodelled, and he laid stress on the point that if Ulster were coerced to join the rest of Ireland it would make a united Ireland for ever impossible, and that the employment of the Army and Navy for the purpose of coercion would give a shock to the Empire which it would not long survive; to which Lord Roberts added that such a policy would mean the utter destruction of the Army, as he had warned the Prime Minister before the incident at the Curragh.

On the 8th of July the Bill was amended by substituting the permanent exclusion of the whole province of Ulster—­which Mr. Balfour had named “the clean cut”—­for the proposed county option with a time limit; and several other alterations of minor importance were also made.  The Bill as amended passed the third reading on the 14th, when Lord Lansdowne predicted that, whatever might be the fate of the measure and of the Home Rule Bill which it modified, the one thing certain was that the idea of coercing Ulster was dead.

In Ulster itself, meanwhile, the people were bent on making Lord Lansdowne’s certainty doubly sure.  Carson went over for the Boyne celebration on the 12th of July.  The frequency of his visits did nothing to damp the ardour with which his arrival was always hailed by his followers.  The same wonderful scenes, whether at Larne or at the Belfast docks, were repeated time after time without appearing to grow stale by repetition.  They gave colour to the Radical jeer at “King Carson,” for no royal personage could have been given a more regal reception than was accorded to “Sir Edward” (as everybody affectionately called him in Belfast) half a dozen times within a few months.