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language and actions. On Aug. 26 he was arrested, but released on bail. On the 3oth the mob in Sackville Street furiously at- tacked the Dublin Metropolitan police, who quickly quelled the riot. On the 3ist Larkin reached the balcony of a hotel in Sack- ville Street in disguise, delivered a violent harangue to the mob, and this produced another riot. Delegates of the English trade unions were called in to assist at arriving at a settlement; but on Sept. 13 the employers, in view of the fact that " Larkinism " in- cluded in its programme a repudiation of the obligation to keep inconvenient agreements, refused to resume negotiations and de- cided on a sympathetic lock-out. This threw out of work several thousand men who refused to sign a pledge not to join or to assist the Transport Workers' Union. On the 2ist there was another serious conflict with the police, and the unemployed next day were estimated to number 13,000. The strike spread sporadically to England, owing to the refusal of English workers to handle "tainted goods"; but Larkin's violent attitude during a propaganda tour in England alienated the still predominantly sober elements in the British movement, and the strike collapsed early in 1914. There was nothing Nationalist about it; at the Board of Trade inquiry Larkin had exposed the failure of the Nationalist members to assist the cause of the workers, and he denounced Redmond and Carson as " in league with capitalism "; the arch strike-breaker, William Martin Murphy, on whom the hatred of the proletariat was concentrated, was owner and inspirer of the Nationalist Independent. The strike failed, but its consequences were momentous. Liberty Hall became definitely the centre of that spirit which was to be known later as Bolshevist. More- over, during the late autumn, Larkin had begun drilling and organizing that " Citizen Army " a body distinct from the Irish Volunteers which was to play the leading part in the Easter rebellion. 1

The situation in Ireland was now very alarming, and compe- tent judges, such as Sir Henry Blake and Earl Grey, pointed out the imminent danger of civil war were the Government policy persisted in. Liberal statesmen began to talk of compromise, Sir Edward Grey, for instance, affirming at Berwick (Oct. 17) and again at Alnwick (Dec. 17) that " Home Rule within Home Rule " for Ulster was quite consistent with the maintenance of the essential unity of Ireland. On Dec. 6 Mr. Asquith, at Manchester, said that he saw nothing with which he would quarrel in principle in the bases of settlement laid down by Sir Edward Carson at Sheffield four days earlier, namely, " that it must not humiliate Ulstermen, that they must not be treated differently to other parts of the United Kingdom, and that there must be no measure establishing a basis for the ultimate separation of Ireland from Great Britain." On Nov. 14, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, however, Mr. Redmond had violently attacked the claim of a small minority in Ireland to dictate to the rest. It would be worth paying a large price, he said, to obtain a settlement by consent, but the door of the Empire must not be slammed in the face of Ireland by the fear of fanatics or by the bludgeons of bullies.

The opinion of the Protestant North against Home Rule was hardened if that were possible by the continued activities of the United Irish League and the Hibernians during 1913. Boycotting was again in operation as a political weapon, the most notable instance being the boycott proclaimed (Nov. 29) against 29 Sligo mer- chants who had signed a pronouncement criticizing the financial provisions of the Home Rule bill and declaring that it would be fatal to the commercial interests of Ireland. Point was given to the boycotting resolution by the state- ment that it was a " united protest against the conduct of a number of local Protestant merchants." 2 On the other hand, at a great demonstration to celebrate the 2 2 5th anni-

1 See James Connolly, Labour in Ireland (1917), for the Liberty Hall view of the strike, and Arnold Wright, Disturbed Dublin, The story of the Great Strike (1914), for the other point of view.

2 Sligo Champion, Nov. 29 1913. The Times, Dec. I.

Attempts to Compro- mise the Ulster Question.

The Boy- cott as a Political Weapon.

versary of the relief of Derry, held on Dec. 18, Dr. D'Arcy, Protestant Bishop of Down and later (1920) Primate of All Ireland, while affirming that Protestants bore " no ill-will to any dwellers in this land " and were " patriotic Irishmen," reaffirmed the Covenant as " the inevitable outcome of the heart and mind of Ulster." 3

In the face of this dangerous situation the Irish Government appeared to regard itself as impotent. It would not be true to say that the arming of Ulster had been connived at: for more than one considerable seizure of arms was The Arms made. 4 It was not, however, until Dec. that a proc- tioa. 3 ""' lamation was issued prohibiting the importation of arms altogether; and from the first, in view of the appeal of the Arms Act, its legality was disputed. 5 At the opening of 1914 serious efforts were made to arrive at a compromise; but the conference of the Liberal and Nationalist Tempo- lenders with Sir Edward Carson and Mr. Bonar Delusion Law only resulted to use Mr. Asquith's words of Ulster in " bringing out the difficulties." In these cir- Suggested. cumstances the Prime Minister on the second reading of the bill (March 9), proposed a " middle course," i.e. the provisional exclusion of Ulster for six years by county option, the excluded counties to come automatically under the Dublin Government at the end of that time unless the Imperial Parlia- ment decided otherwise. This proposal Mr. Redmond sup- ported, but as " the ultimate limit of concession." Mr. O'Brien, on the other hand, protested against this plan for " chopping an ancient nation into a thing of shreds and patches," and he was supported by Mr. Tim Healy. More fatal, however, was the attitude of Sir Edward Carson. He would, he said, never consent to sacrifice the loyal people of the South and West, and the men of Ulster did not want " sentence of death with a stay of execution for six years." In the debate on Mr. Bonar Law's motion of censure on the Government (March 19) the tension reached breaking point. Mr. Redmond had earlier declared that if Ulster did not accept the compromise proposed, the bill must pass as it stood and be imposed on Ulster with all the forces of the Crown, and on Dec. 4 Sir Edward Grey, Minister for Foreign Affairs, had declared that a " fanatical outburst " in Ulster would have to be suppressed by force. The leader of the Opposition now declared that the attitude of the army would be for the army to decide, since while " in case of mere disorder it ought to and would obey, if it were a question of civil war soldiers were citizens like the rest of us." Sir Edward Carson, for his part, accused the Government of wanting an outbreak in Ulster as a pretext for putting the Ulstermen down. At the close of his speech he left the debate and, with eight of the Unionist leaders, started at once for Belfast to concert measure of resistance.

So early as March 14, the Government had taken certain military precautions in case of " serious disorder " break- ing out in Ulster, the general commanding in Ire- land, Sir Arthur Paget, being instructed to convey a force of cavalry, infantry and artillery northward, ostensibly to protect military stores from possible depredations by the Volunteers. This movement was to be supported by a British squadron stationed at Lamlash, in Arran. Whatever truth there may have been in the belief that the Government intended to crush the resistance of Ulster by force and this was strenuously denied the result was to show that in any such policy they would not have the support of the army. 6 The troops were received in

1 Irish Times, Dec. 19 1913.

4 At Belfast, in June, 1,000 rifles, shipped as "electrical plant" were seized, and in Dublin some consigned to Lord Farnham.

6 Doubt was thrown on the validity of the proclamation by the decision of the court of first instance in the case of Hunter v. Cole- man, an action brought by a firm of Belfast gunsmiths at Belfast Assizes against a Collector of Customs at the port for detaining arms consigned to plaintiffs at Hamburg on Dec. 18 1913. This decision was later reversed.

6 In Feb. Lord Roberts had said in the House of Lords that any such attempt would wreck the British army.

Military Measures Ayalast Ulster.