"
The peroration which followed made an irresistible appeal to a people
always mindful of the glories of the relief of Derry. Mr. Bonar Law
warned them that the Ministerial majority in the House of Commons, "now
cemented by L400 a year," could not be broken up, but would have their
own way. He therefore said to them:
"With all solemnity--you must trust in yourselves. Once again you
hold the pass--the pass for the Empire. You are a besieged city.
The timid have left you; your Lundys have betrayed you; but you
have closed your gates. The Government have erected by their
Parliament Act a boom against you to shut you off from the help of
the British people. You will burst that boom. That help will come,
and when the crisis is over men will say to you in words not unlike
those used by Pitt--you have saved yourselves by your exertions and
you will save the Empire by your example."
The overwhelming ovation with which Sir Edward Carson was received upon
taking the president's chair at the chief platform, in the absence
through illness of the Duke of Abercorn, proved that he had already won
the confidence and the affection of the Ulster people to a degree that
seemed to leave little room for growth, although every subsequent
appearance he made among them in the years that lay ahead seemed to add
intensity to their demonstrations of personal devotion.
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