[ 20 ] 
and admittedly put forward that because Ulster is opposed 
to Home Rule, Ireland as a whole is not to get Home Rule. 
It is a claim to a veto, an absolute veto I” 
The purpose of the amendment was explained 
beyond the possibility of misconception by the very 
able Irish correspondent of The Times as “a shrewd 
and perfectly legitimate piece of tactics.” 
In its editorials the J7zs4 Times, by far the most 
widely circulating and most influential organ of 
Unionism in Ireland, was equally candid in its 
appreciation of the amendment. It had declared the 
amendment of Mr, Agar-Robartes for the exclusion 
of four Ulster counties as “a trap to induce Ulster 
Unionists to desert their brethren south of the 
Boyne.” Of Sir Edward Carson’s amendment for 
the exclusion of all Ulster, it wrote :— 
“We have the strongest objection to the segregation of 
Ulster from the rest of Unionist Ireland. A strictly 
Southern Parliament would be hopeless from the begin- 
ning, and the lot of the Southern Unionists, deserted by 
their brethren in Ulster, would be intolerable. The Irish 
Unionist members contemplate no such desertion. The 
amendment is legitimate tactics on their part, they assume 
doubtless that the Government will reject it, but if the 
Government rejects this formal amendment then it must 
accept in the sight of all men the responsibility of civil war.” 
The amendment was, as its authors expected and 
desired, rejected by a big majority. The Home Rule 
Bill was passed for a United Ireland, the threats of 
civil war in Ulster grew fiercer and fiercer, and the 
mustering and arming of Ulster volunteers progressed 
apace. It is idle to inquire if the Ulster threat of 
civil war was really intended to be carried into effect, 
or if it was, like the Ulster exclusion proposals, what 
the [risk Times would call “perfectly legitimate 
tactics ” for the defeat of Home Rule. The same 
threats had been uttered by the same party when