THE NUMBER OF ANTI-HOME-RULERS IN IRELAND.
[To Tax &mos 51 Tax " 8PECTATOli,"] Sta,—I do not recollect that the number of Unionists in Ireland has been stated, on any trustworthy authority, at two millions. I think the best estimate is oue and a half millions, which may be got at in this way. At the General Election of 1885, official returns show that, in the seventy-nine contested elections, 295,269 electors voted for the "Nationalists," and returned sixty-five Members, while 145,085 Unionist votes were ex- pended, but succeeded in returning only fourteen Members. The very large proportion of 145,361 remained nnpolled. Considering the terrorism exercised by the National League in the South and West, in consequence of which it is well known to those who know the facts that multitudes of Unionist farmers and shopkeepers were deterred from voting, it is certainly a low estimate that one-fifth of the electors who did not vote in these constituencies were Unionists. This gives an addition of 29,074 or a total of 174,157, exactly 30 per cent, of the total number of 585,715. Assuming the same proportion in the twenty-three constituencies where there was no contest—some of which were Unionist constituencies in Ulster, others Home-rule constituencies in the other three provinces—and also that the distribution of political opinion is the same among the non-electors as among the electors, this gives exactly one and a half million Unionists out of five millions. This is probably below the mark. The elections of 1886 were a little more favourable for our side.—I am. Sir, &o,
Previous page
