a little handful of cranks, calling themselves "Protestant Home Rulers,"
who met on the 24th of October at the village of Ballymoney "to protest
against the lawless policy of Carsonism." The principal stickler for
propriety of conduct in public life on this occasion was Sir Roger
Casement.

While the unity and steadfastness--which enemies called obstinacy--of
the Ulster people were being thus made manifest, the public in England
were hearing a good deal about the growth of the Ulster Volunteer Force
in numbers and efficiency. As will be seen later, the anniversary of the
Covenant was celebrated with great military display at the very time
when the newspapers across the Channel were busy discussing Lord
Loreburn's letter, and at a parade service in the Ulster Hall, Canon
Harding, after pronouncing the Benediction, called on the congregation
to raise their right hands and pledge themselves thereby "to follow
wherever Sir Edward Carson shall lead us."

The events of September 1913--the setting up of the Provisional
Government, the wonderful and instantaneous response to the appeal for
an Indemnity Guarantee Fund, the rapid formation of an effective
volunteer army--were given the fullest publicity in the English Press.
Every newspaper of importance had its special correspondent in Belfast,
whose telegrams filled columns every day, adorned with all the varieties
of sensational headline type. The Radicals were becoming restive. The
idea that Carson was "not to be taken too seriously," had apparently
missed fire. It was the Ministerial affectation of contempt that no one
was taking seriously; in fact, to borrow an expression from current
slang, the "King Carson" stunt was a "wash-out."

_The Nation_ suggested that, instead of being laughed at, the Ulster