Their right to remain as citizens of the Imperial Parlia-
ment and under its control was a written right, and in accordance with the principle laid down by Lincoln in his first inaugural, which justified even the use of force against the tyranny of a majority. They had deliberately signed the Covenant, not one of the signatories to which had ever gone back on it, but the Government had forgotten all about it, though it had been signed by great lawyers like the late Lord Macnaghten. When he was asked what Ulster was going to do, he replied that Ulster was going to stand by the Covenant, and that since the day it was signed they had never stopped, day or night, making such possible preparations as would enable them firmly, determinedly, and with success to carry.it out. They had abstained from heroics in the House, though every safeguard proposed was rejected and every argument unanswered—twenty-two clauses being wholly undiscussed and nine hundred and eighty-eight amendments closured without discussion.
Previous page
