3 AUGUST 1912, Page 3

Last Saturday a great Unionist demonstration was held at Blenheim.

Speeches were made by Mr. Bonar Law, Sir Edward Carson, and Mr. F. E. Smith, and it was estimated that between ten and fifteen thousand persons were gathered in the courtyard of the palace. Mr. Bonar Law, whose speech was received with extraordinary enthusiasm, reminded his audience how the Government had promised to reform the Lords, but bad not done so. They had thus created a Single Chamber system, and under that system were governing as a "revolutionary committee which has seized by fraud upon despotic power." That being so, the Opposition were justified in declaring that they" would not be restrained by the bonds which would influence them in an ordinary political struggle." Mr. Bonar Law, referring to the Government's attempt to compel Irish Unionists to submit to a Dublin Parliament, made the following grave declaration

"I say now, with a full sense of the responsibility which attaches to my position, that if the attempt be made under pre- sent conditions I can imagine no length of resistance to which *Ulster will go in which I shall not be ready to support them, and in which they will not be supported by the overwhelming majority of the British people."

The audience cheered this statement for some minutes.