THE HOME RULE BILL OF 1912 The year 1912, in which the straight fight on Home Rule was to begin, opened stormily.

Mr.Churchill was announced to speak under the auspices of the Ulster Liberal Association in the Ulster Hall at Belfast.

It was the hall in which his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, had used the famous phrase "Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right." Belfast was determined that the son should not unsay what the father had said in this consecrated building; it would be, as an Ulster member put it in the House of Commons, "a profanation." On this first round, Ulster won; Mr.Churchill spoke at Belfast, but not in the Ulster Hall.

There were angry demonstrations against him; his person had to be strongly protected and he went away from the meeting by back streets.

It was noticeable that no such precautions were needed for Redmond, who attended the meeting and walked quite unmolested through the crowd.