Bonar Law to-day is a shallow and an idle affectation, or a token
of levity and of ignorance. Enlightened Liberalism may smile at the
beliefs and the passions of the Ulster Protestants, but it was
those same beliefs and passions, in the forefathers of the men who
will gather in Belfast to-day, which saved Ireland for the British
Crown, and freed the cause of civil and religious liberty in these
islands from its last dangerous foes.... It is useless to argue
that they are mistaken. They have reasons, never answered yet, for
believing that they are not mistaken.... Their temper is an
ultimate fact which British statesmen and British citizens have to
face. These men cannot be persuaded to submit to Home Rule. Are
Englishmen and Scotchmen prepared to fasten it upon them by
military force? That is the real Ulster question."
Other great English newspapers wrote in similar strain, and the support
thus given was of the greatest possible encouragement to the Ulster
people, who were thereby assured that their standpoint was not
misunderstood and that the justice of their "loyalist" claims was
appreciated across the Channel.
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