1 OCTOBER 1904, Page 29

[To THI EDITOR OP TER " SPECTATOR."1 SIR,—You will be

as glad to hear as I am to write it that you are quite under a misapprehension in assuming, as you do in your article on "Redistribution" in last week's Spectator, that the "protest by Mr. Moore will no doubt be echoed by the rest of the Irish Unionists, and Mr. Balfour will thus be given an excellent excuse for saying that he cannot take up a matter which would produce great resentment among the Irish loyalists."

You will be aware, no doubt, by this time that the Belfast News Letter had an article on the day following Mr. Moore's speech repudiating the position which he had taken therein upon this question, while it has evidently escaped your recollection that at a meeting in Dublin of the Irish Unionist Alliance on May 3rd last a unanimous resolution was passed by that most representa- tive body of Irish Unionists strongly advocating a reduction of the Irish representation, which was published in the Times and other papers, while copies of it were forwarded to every member of the Cabinet.

I have, too, received within the last few days a letter from perhaps the most eminent Unionist in Ireland, and certainly the most disinterested, expressing his strongest condemnation of Mr. Moore's speech, and his expectation that the Irish Unionist Alliance would take advantage of this opportunity to reaffirm their position, and invite prominent English Members who recog- nise the importance of reducing the Irish representation to visit Ireland during the Recess for the purpose of addressing Unionist meetings in Dublin and Belfast, and impressing upon their hearers that, apart from the injustice to the rest of the United Kingdom in permitting this gross over-representation to continue, the union of Ireland with Great Britain could never be regarded as secure so long as it remains.

I cannot understand how a man of Mr. Moore's intelligence can hold the view that it would be injurious to the interests of the Ulster Protestants to pass a measure which might have the effect of reducing the number of the Unionist Members, for, even mourning that their number would be reduced, which is by no means certain, it is highly probable that the proportion which they will bear to the total number of the Irish representatives will be somewhat greater than at present, and it is absolutely certain that it will not be less ; while a reduction in the number of Irish Nationalists must lessen the chances of the passing of a Home-rule Bill, which ex hypothesi would be injurious to the

interests of the Ulster Protestants. '

—I am, Sir, &c., SEXAGENARIAN.

[We are glad to publish our correspondent's most welcome letter, and regret that we were led into regarding Mr. Moore's attitude as typical of that of other Irish Unionists.

—ED. Spectator.]