" X." AND ULSTER.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In your issue of August 24th " X." states that " Belfast has a larger population than Dublin." This is legally true, but misleading. Belfast City, under the provisions of the Belfast Act, stretches for miles into
the country, while Dublin is arbitrarily supposed to end a mile from the Post Office. The City of Dublin is officially restricted to an area of 7,910 acres, while to Belfast is allotted 14,937. If you included in Dublin the urban districts of Rathmines, Pembroke, Blackrock, Dnnleery, and Dalkey, so that it had approximately the same area (14,273 acres) as Belfast, you would find that the population of the former was slightly larger (401,493 opposed to 386,947). " X." also states that the Irish Unionists are under-represented. He must have overlooked the fact that Trinity College (a Unionist stronghold) has two members, while the National University (a Nationalist stronghold) has none. " X." further says that " the men of the Plantation" (by which, I suppose, he means the Irish Unionists) " would be in a permanent majority of three to one in an Irish Parliament." I'll do him the justice of suggesting that "majority" is a misprint for "minority."
—I am, Sir, &c., C. R. COOKE-TAYLOR. 136 Lordship Lane, Dulwich.
L" %." must speak for himself, but we understood him to mean in a permanent majority in the Plantation area.—ED. Spectator.]
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