Government’s action—­and this sentence will run like a refrain through the rest of this book—­contributed largely to strengthen the extremists and to weaken Redmond’s hold on the people.  During eleven months the Ulster Volunteers had been drilling, had been importing arms, and no step was taken to interfere.  Within ten days after the Irish Volunteer Force began to be enrolled, a proclamation (issued on December 4, 1913) prohibited the importation of military arms and ammunition into Ireland.  A system of search was instituted.  But the Ulstermen were already well supplied.  Redmond was blamed for not forcing the withdrawal of the proclamation.  He controlled the House of Commons, it was said.  This was the line of argument constantly taken by dissentient Nationalists; and it was true that he could at any moment put the Government out.  Critics did not stop to ask for whose advantage that would be.  Government by issuing this proclamation had effected no good:  they had embarrassed their chief ally, and they had laid the foundation for an imposing structure of incidents which grew with pernicious rapidity into a monumental proof that law, even under a Liberal administration, has one aspect for Protestant Ulster and quite another for the rest of Ireland.

But in England at the beginning of the fateful year 1914 the Irish Volunteers had not yet become recognized as a factor in the main political situation.  An attitude of mind had been studiously fostered which found crude expression soon after the House met.  One of the Liberal party was arguing that Ulster had made Home Rule an absolute necessity, because Nationalists would have “fourfold justification if they resisted in the way you have taught them to resist the Government of this country in maintaining the old system.”  “They have not the pluck,” interjected Captain Craig, the most prominent of the Ulster members.  The present Lord Chancellor, Mr. F.E.  Smith, was voluble in declarations that Nationalists would “neither fight for Home Rule nor pay for Home Rule.”  These taunts did not ease Redmond’s position, especially as it became plain that Ulster’s threat of violence had succeeded.

Mr. Asquith, referring to the “conversations” between leaders which had taken place during the winter, said that since no definite agreement had been reached the Government had decided to reopen the matter in the House.  This meant, as Redmond pointed out with some asperity, that the Prime Minister had accepted responsibility for taking the initiative in making proposals to meet objections whose reasonableness he did not admit.  The Opposition, he thought, should have been left to put forward some plan.

Yet Redmond’s attitude, and the attitude of the House, was considerably affected by an unusual speech which had been delivered by the Ulster leader.