Then snatch a hint from Haldane's little fake, Who glanced with eye alert and beady at His speech in proof, and, for appearance' sake Added the word "_immediate_." To persons with short memories it may be needful to recall the fact that, when challenged in the House of Lords, Lord Haldane had said on March 23:-- "No orders were issued, no orders are likely to be issued, and no orders will be issued for the coercion of Ulster." [Illustration: THE ULSTER KING-AT-ARMS] But when his speech was printed in the weekly record, it was found that the word "immediate" had been added before "coercion," thus showing that self-protection is often the most dangerous and damaging policy. [Sidenote: _Ulster and the "Plot"_] _Punch_ had applauded the spirit of Ulster, but he did not approve of the uncompromising policy of her leader. In "The Fight for the Banner," Mr. John Redmond and Sir Edward Carson are shown pulling the flag of "Peace for Ireland" asunder, while John Bull remarks: "This tires me. Why can't you carry it between you? Neither of you can carry it alone." By way of contrast, one may note the cartoon "After Ten Years," with France and Britannia clasping hands in celebration of the solidity and endurance of the _Entente_. "For the third time in the course of three successive Sessions the Home Rule Bill passes the second reading stage." So _Punch_ wrote of the "business done" in Parliament on April 6. But the arbitrament of the vote did not allay the suspicions of the Opposition. April and May were given over to acrimonious discussions of the alleged "Plot" by the Government to overawe Ulster by armed occupation. _Punch_ admired the imperturbability of Mr. Asquith, who is shown combining in his own person the _rôles_ of prisoner, judge and jury. Mr. Austen Chamberlain demanded a judicial inquiry into the "Plot," but was beaten by eighty votes in a House of 608 members. Simultaneously _Punch_ depicted Sir Edward Carson as the Ulster King-at-Arms, armed and defiant, and declared through the mouth of John Bull that "he was not going to have Civil War to please either Radical Extremists or Tory Die-Hards." Simultaneously, too, _Punch_ printed a most eulogistic notice of Mr. Norman Angell's _Foundations of International Policy_, in which the reviewer declared that if he were a politician he would "move for a further supplementary Naval Estimate to expend the price of a _Dreadnought_ in distributing this fighting pacificist's book to all journalists, attachés, clergymen, bazaar-openers, club oracles, professors, headmasters, and other obvious people in both Germany and Britain." Mr. Lloyd George's last Budget topped two hundred millions, but showed a small surplus. _Punch_ portrayed the income-tax payer as an old cow complaining that "it isn't milking, it's murder." The enhancement of the death duties _Punch_ regarded as a raising of the fares to Styx, which would cost the Plutocratic Shades more.