But, Canadian-born, he came from a country in which the Irish factions and theological enmities had always had their counterpart; his father, a Presbyterian Minister, came of Ulster stock.

All the blood in him instinctively responded to the tap of the Orange drum.

As far back as January 27, 1911, he had urged armed resistance to Home Rule.
This was a line which Mr.Balfour did not see his way to take, and probably here rather than elsewhere lay the reason for the choice of Mr.
Bonar Law.

The most active section of the Tory party--probably a minority, for in such cases minorities decide--regarded the passing of the Parliament Act as an outrage on the Constitution, which should be resisted by any means, constitutional or unconstitutional.

But no possibility existed of mobilizing a force in Great Britain to fight for the veto of the House of Lords, nor again did the resistance to a new Franchise Act, or even to Welsh Disestablishment, promise to be desperate.