If the law could not prevail, if the veto of violence was to replace the veto of privilege, then, said the orator, "let us go forward and put these grave matters to a proof." When Mr.Churchill next appeared in the House of Commons, a great outburst of cheering showed what a volume of feeling had found expression in his speech.

Redmond came to the St.Patrick's Day banquet under the impression of that scene, and he spoke with a confidence which gives to his words a tragic irony to-day.

He cited "the superb speech of Mr.Churchill" as evidence that "what is our last word is also the last word of the Government." "If the Opposition have spoken their last word," he said, "the Bill will now proceed upon its natural course.

It will proceed rapidly and irresistibly, and in a few short weeks become the law of the land." The weeks have lengthened into years, and so much has happened in them that I keep no clear memory of that evening, though I was present.

But it represented the temper of the time, among Home Rulers, and more particularly among Irish Nationalists, who generally held the opinion that the military preparations in Ulster were, as Mr.Devlin called them, "a hollow masquerade." We saw the other side of the picture on Thursday, March 19th, when a Vote of Censure was moved.