"X." AND ULSTER.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTAT011.1
SIR,—I was rather speaking of the under-representation of the Ulster Unionists relative to the rest of Ireland than to the under-representation of the Irish Unionists generally, and I do not think the two members for Trinity College can be regarded as representing Ulster. However, the seventeen Unionist members for Ulster represent a population of nearly 950,000, while the sixteen Nationalists represent a population of little over 630,000. Throwing in the University seats for the sake of argument, we should have thirty-five seats to distribute between the Ulster Unionists and the Ulster Nationalists in proportion to the population, i.e., of nearly three to two. This gives twenty-one Unionist seats to fourteen Nationalists, or two in excess of the present number, while a third, if not a fourth, would have to be added on a general redistribution, seeing that Ulster is under-represented rela- tively to the rest of Ireland. University representation, however, is really outside of the population principle, and applying that principle to the 101 local seats in Ireland twenty-three would, I think, belong to the Ulster Unionists.
Mr. Cooke Taylor also controverts my statement that Belfast has a larger population than Dublin by including in "Dublin " places at a distance of six or seven miles. Whether this would be balanced by including Ballymacarret and some other places in Belfast I need not say. Belfast returns four members of Parliament. So does Dublin ; and the population of Belfast is larger than that of Dublin by more than 100,000. But, says Mr. Taylor, the population of Dublin will be larger than that of Belfast if you include the places which he names. Be it so; but he names almost the whole of the southern division of Dublin County, so that Dublin, in his enlarged sense, at present returns five members to Belfast's four, the under-representation of Belfast thus reappearing in a new form. And in Belfast itself the Unionist Eastern Division has more than twice the population of the Nationalist West. Mr. Taylor is, of course, correct in amending the word majority in my letter. It should have been " minority," and for " three to one " read " one to three."
P.S.—By the men of the Plantation I did not mean the Irish Unionists generally, but only those who reside in the English or Scotch Plantations in Ulster, having been placed there by Queen Elizabeth and King James.
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