opposed to us. Our quarrel is with the Government." When the feelings of
masses of men are deeply stirred in political conflict such exhortations
are never superfluous; and there never was a leader who could give them
with better grace than Sir Edward Carson, who himself combined to an
extraordinary degree strength of conviction with entire freedom from
bitterness towards individual opponents.[49]

In this same speech he showed that there was no slackening of
determination to pursue to the end the policy of the Covenant. There had
been rumours that the Government were making secret inquiries with a
view to taking legal proceedings, and in allusion to them Carson moved
his audience to one of the most wonderful demonstrations of personal
devotion that even he ever evoked, by saying: "If they want to test the
legality of anything we are doing, let them not attack humble men--I am
responsible for everything, and they know where to find me."

The Bill was running its course for the second time through Parliament,
a course that was now farcically perfunctory, and Carson returned to
London to repeat in the House of Commons on the 10th of June his defiant
acceptance of responsibility for the Ulster preparations. He was back in
Belfast for the 12th of July celebrations, when 150,000 Orangemen
assembled at Craigavon to hear another speech from their leader full of
confident challenge, and to receive another message of encouragement
from Mr. Bonar Law, who assured them that "whatever steps they might
feel compelled to take, whether they were constitutional, or whether in
the long run they were unconstitutional, they had the whole of the
Unionist Party under his leadership behind them."

The leader of the Unionist Party had good reason to know that his
message to Ulster was endorsed by his followers. That had been