SIR EDWARD CARSON AND ULSTER. B EFORE we leave the subject
of the Irish crisis we must say a few words, which are somewhat over- due in these columns, about Sir Edward. Carson. Close observers of the situation during the past few months must have noticed that no responsible member of the present Government ever abuses Sir Edward Carson or seriously denounces him as a. traitor or an enemy of his country. Not only have the Cabinet refused to arrest him or to prosecute him for treason or incitement to treason, but they have not even treated him to the vituperative epithets which generally pass between political opponents when blood is high. What is the explanation of this strange circumstance ? It is, we believe, nay, we are certain, to be found in the fact that they know that, in spite of his apparent or technical lawlessness, Sir Edward Carson is really the best friend of law and order in Ireland. Instead of his organisation. and drilling and even arming of the Covenanters having served to bring disaster nearer in Ulster, they have staved it off. Sir Edward Carson's organisation has without question tended to steady and control the Ulster Protestant's hatred. of Home Rule and his determination never to be placed. under the rule of a Dublin Parliament. But for Sir Edward Carson the rifles in Ulster would have gone off of themselves months ago. The Covenant and the military organisation have meant discipline where discipline was most needed, and where we have never had it before. But for that discipline the fires of death would have been lighted already in Ulster, and a movement for driving out the Roman Catholics and Nationalists as traitors within the garrison would have taken place. Unquestionably Sir Edward. Carson's "You must not move till I give the word" has saved the situation, and. the Government know it in their hearts. They, of course, will not say so openly, but they are grateful to him and. respect him for what he has done. At the same time the Government know also that Sir Edward Carson is not holding the Ulster people back in order to defeat their essential determination. He neither could nor would stultify Protestant Ulster if the need to resist a Dublin Parliament arose. He will prevent, as he has prevented, riot and anarchy, but he will not prevent civil war if in the belief of himself and his supporters the time has come to declare it, and if moral justification has been given for that declaration. In. that case the Government will find that what has helped them, and is helping them now, will be anything but a help. They will find that they have to deal not with mere riotous mobs, but with an army of a hundred thousand armed and drilled men. There is the situation. For the moment, however, Sir Edward Carson is order's best friend. We shall have some- thing more to say on a future occasion as to the form that the civil war—which may God in His mercy avert—will take if it comes. Here we only want to put on record what Sir Edward Carson has done and is doing in Ulster, and to point out that the Government know this quite as well as we do.
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