Irish question; Ulster (Northern Ireland and Ireland) -- Politics and government
Soon after breakfast a visitor to Sir Edward Carson found a motor
brougham standing at his door, and on being admitted was told that "Lord
Roberts is with Sir Edward." The great little Field-Marshal, on learning
the news, had lost not a moment in coming to offer his congratulations
to the Ulster leader. "Magnificent!" he exclaimed, on entering the room
and holding out his hand, "magnificent! nothing could have been better
done; it was a piece of organisation that any army in Europe might be
proud of."
But it was not to be expected that the Government and its supporters
would relish the news. The Radical Press, of course, rang all the
changes of angry vituperation, especially those papers which had been
prominent in ridiculing "Ulster bluff" and "King Carson's wooden guns";
and they now speculated as to whether Carson could be "convicted of
complicity" in what Mr. Asquith in the House of Commons described as
"this grave and unprecedented outrage." Carson soon set that question at
rest by quietly rising in his place in the House and saying that he took
full responsibility for everything that had been done. The Prime
Minister, amid the frenzied cheers of his followers, assured the House
that "His Majesty's Government will take, without delay, appropriate
steps to vindicate the authority of the law." For a short time there was
some curiosity as to what the appropriate steps would be. None, however,
of any sort were taken; the Government contented itself with sending a
few destroyers to patrol for a short time the coasts of Antrim and Down,
where they were saluted by the Ulster Signalling Stations, and their
officers hospitably entertained on shore by loyalist residents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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