[ 21 ] 
the Irish Church Bill was passing through Parliament, 
the Orangemen then declared themselves prepared 
“to kick the Queen’s crown into the Boyne,” and “to 
line the last ditch” in defiance of the Imperial Par- 
liament. The Bill passed and nothing happened. 
The recent Orange threats of rebellion against the 
Home Rule Act were not taken seriously in England 
or Ireland. “Ulsteria,” as it was wittily nick-named 
by Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, was believed to 
be a noisy disease but not dangerous, Anyhow, all 
danger (if there ever was any) of an Ulster loyalist 
rebellion has been now happily dispersed. 
But there was a sudden change in public opinion 
when the commanding officers in the Curragh refused 
to take part in the suppression of an Ulster rebellion, 
“Conditional ” mutiny in the Army was rightly 
regarded as a far more formidable danger to the 
Empire than conditional rebellion in Ulster, 
It was then for the first time that the suggestion of 
the exclusion of Ulster or of some portion of Ulster 
which was “legitimate tactics” on the part of the 
Irish Unionists was accepted as practical politics by 
the Government. The King sought a compromise on 
those lines in the famous Buckingham Palace Confer- 
ence and failed. That failure can be easily under- 
stood. Neither side wanted the exclusion. Each 
side was afraid it would be accepted by the other : 
complete Home Rule, or no Home Rule, was then, 
and always has been, the issue between them. 
The War intervened, and after a regrettable delay 
the Home Rule Bill was passed into law. While 
Nationalists were irritated at the long delay, Unionists 
were furious at the enactment of Home Rule. It will 
be remembered that Mr. Bonar Law denounced it as 
a treacherous betrayal, and declared that a pledge 
was to Mr. Asquith what a treaty was to the Germans, 
“a scrap of paper,” to be torn up at pleasure. 
There can be little doubt that Mr. Bonar Law,