I hope and expect it will." At the same time reports were circulating in Dublin--did they come from Downing Street ?--that the Government were preparing to take strong measures against the Ulster Unionist Council, and to arrest the leaders.

In allusion to these reports the Dublin Correspondent of _The Times_ telegraphed on the 18th of March: "Any man or Government that increases the danger by blundering or hasty action will accept a terrible responsibility." What passed at the interviews which Sir Arthur Paget had with Ministers on the 18th and 19th has never been disclosed.

But it is clear, from the events which followed, either that an entirely new plan on a much larger scale was now inaugurated, or that a development now took place which Churchill and Seely, and perhaps other Ministers also, had contemplated from the beginning and had concealed behind the pretended insignificance of precautions to guard depots.

It is noteworthy, at all events, that the measures contemplated happened to be the stationing of troops in considerable strength in important strategical positions round Ulster, simultaneously with the despatch of a powerful fleet to within a few hours of Belfast.
The orders issued by the War Office, at any rate, indicated something on a far bigger scale than the original pretext could justify.

Paget's fear of precipitating a crisis was brushed aside, and General Friend, who was acting for him in Dublin during his absence, was instructed by telegram to send to the four Ulster towns more than double the number of men that Paget had deemed would be sufficient to protect the Government stores.
But still more significant was another order given to Friend on the 18th.