as the occasion required, when important meetings of the delegates took
place. Distinguished political visitors from England could always be
invited over without thought for their entertainment, since a welcome at
Mount Stewart was never wanting. His financial support of the political
movement was equally open-handed.

But, helpful as were his hospitality and his subscriptions, it was the
countenance and support of a man who had held high Cabinet office, and
especially the great position of Viceroy of Ireland, that made Lord
Londonderry's full participation an asset of incalculable value to the
cause he espoused. Moreover, while he was always ready to cross the
Channel, even if for a few hours only, when wanted for any conference or
public meeting, never pleading his innumerable social and political
engagements in London or the North of England as an excuse for absence,
his natural modesty of character made it easy for him to act under the
leadership of another. Indeed, he underrated his own abilities; but
there are probably not many men of his prominence and antecedents who,
if similarly placed, would have been able to give, without a trace of
_amour-propre,_ to a leader who had in former years been his own
official subordinate, the consistently loyal backing that Lord
Londonderry gave to Sir Edward Carson.

But, although there never was the slightest friction between the two
men, a difference of opinion between them on an important point showed
itself within a few months of Carson's acceptance of the leadership. In
July 1911 the excitement over the Parliament Bill reached its climax.
When the Government announced that the King had given his assent to the
creation of whatever number of peerages might be required for carrying
the measure through the Upper House, the party known as "Die Hards" were
for rejecting it and taking the consequences; while against this policy