THE IRISH DISSENTERS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Your correspondent, " W. F. B.," must surely have been misinformed as to the political opinions of those who, for con- venience' sake I suppose, he calls the Irish Dissenters. Nearly three-fourths of these Dissenters are Presbyterians ; and having some knowledge of Ulster, I do not fear contradiction from any- body competent to give an opinion on the matter, when I say that the great majority of them, like their brethren in Scotland, are staunch Liberals. Their newspapers are Liberal in tone, and their clergy, with a few insignificent exceptions, are Liberal also. In the general election of 1874 the county of Derry, in which there are a great many Presbyterians, returned two Liberals, the two Conservative candidates getting about half the number of
votes that were recorded for Professor Smyth and Mr. Law. W. F. B." would leave your readers to infer that the two Dublin. newspapers he mentions represent the opinions of the Irish Protestants who do not belong to the Disestablished Church ; he- might just as well hint to somebody who had never seen the• Standard that it is the mouthpiece of the English Nonconformists..
Previous page
