For that Act made it possible for the first time for the Liberal Home
Rule Party to repeal the Act of Union without an appeal to the country.
It enacted that any Bill which in three successive sessions was passed
without substantial alteration through the House of Commons might be
presented for the Royal Assent without the consent of the Lords; and an
amendment to exclude a Home Rule Bill from its operation had been
successfully resisted by the Government. It also reduced the maximum
legal duration of a Parliament from seven to five years; but the
existing Parliament was still in its first session, and there was
therefore ample time, under the provisions of the new Constitution, to
pass a Home Rule Bill before the next General Election, as the coalition
of parties in favour of Home Rule constituted a substantial majority in
the House of Commons.

The question, therefore, which the Ulster people had now to decide was
no longer simply how they could bring about the rejection of a Home Rule
Bill by propaganda in the British constituencies, as they had hitherto
done with unfailing success, although that object was still kept in
view, but what course they should adopt if a Home Rule Act should be
placed on the Statute-book without those constituencies being consulted.
Was the day at last approaching when Lord Randolph Churchill's
exhortation must be obeyed? Or were they to be compelled, because the
Cabinet had coerced the Sovereign and tricked the people by straining
the royal prerogative in a manner described by Mr. Balfour as "a gross
violation of constitutional liberty," to submit with resignation to the
government of their country by the "rebel party "--the party controlled
by clerical influence, and boasting of the identity of its aims with
those of Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmet? This was the real problem in the
minds of those who flocked to Craigavon on Saturday, the 23rd of