Then they began to consider what coercion meant, and saw
at once that, if coercion was to be used, they must lose no time, for the military situation was rapidly drifting in a way unfavourable to them. To give the policy of coercion a chance they must at once seize and hold in strength all the important strategic positions in Ulster, even if it took twenty-five to thirtythousand men to do so. When they were warned that such sudden action would, in the circumstances, probably provoke the Ulstermen to race them for the possession of the strategic points, they apparently decided that they must risk that. Therefore they not only made military preparations, but took legal precautions also for maiming what they called the Ulster conspiracy. If necessary its chiefs were to be seized under warrants, we presume for treason or treason-felony. If the Government plan, inspired, as we believe it was, by a mixture of panic and of a Machiavellian idea of putting the Ulster- men to the proof, had been carried out, there must have been bloodshed. The only thing that saved us from such mur- derous blundering was that the military instrument failed in their hands. The sword would not leave the scabbard.
