Ever since the Bill was passed, continued Sir Edward Carson,
there was not a single body in Ireland which had considered it without condemning it, and he had been inundated with demands from Nationalist bodies all over Ireland beseeching him to demand increased grants from the Government, and saying, " For heaven's sake get them before Home Rule." As for the talk of conferences and compromise, be would say for himself that if ever the time came when the people of Ulster thought it better to com- promise, he must stand aside. The position of the King under the Parliament Act, if for the third time the two Houses disagreed as to the passage of the Bill, would be extremely difficult and delicate, and any Minister advising him to sign it without being certain that he had behind him the opinion of an overwhelming majority of the electorate would incur a grave if not a desperate responsibility. Every monarch stood on sure ground so long as he acted on the maxim " The will of the people must prevail," but no monarch stood on sure ground who said that the will of a Coalition Government must prevail.
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