A PARLIAMENT FOR ULSTER.
[To THE EDITOR or ma "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—It is now plain that Mr. Redmond will accept a subor- dinate and tributary Parliament provided that the minority are handed over to the tender mercies of the majority, and that there is ample provision to reward the hungry expectants of place and pension. The coming Home Rule Bill is, it seems, to be on the lines of the last, which provided three hundred members for the Dublin Parliament. Now each of these gentlemen must be paid at least three hundred a year, besides which, places must be found for the leaders, which will bring the total to e100,000 a year. Then all the present injustices will continue. Galway, Newry, Waterford, and Kilkenny will go on returning four members with a total of electors less than that of one division of Belfast. Ulster will be hopelessly outvoted in College Green, and will be powerless to help us in the South and West. She would pay the piper while Dublin would call the tune, while any overt resistance would be overborne, as Mr. Redmond contemplates, with the strong hand. Under these conditions, that 'Ulster should demand local self-government is at least arguable. With her own Parliament in Belfast, civil and religious liberty would prevail at least in one province of Ireland, and, strong and well-armed, she would constitute a standing menace to oppressors in the South and West. Surely Ulster has as much right to local self- government as Wales, and it is not easy to see how the demand of the Ulster members could be resisted. But that demand must be made timely. It would be an appeal to the Nonconformist supporters of the Government, and should be made before they are committed to Mr. Redmond's pro- gramme. If the demand is refused, Ulster will be altogether in the right to refuse to allow her representatives to attend in Dublin, with consequent refusal of taxes or obedience to the Dublin Parliament.—I am, Sir,
AN OLD CROMWELLIA.N.
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