IRISH OVER-REPRESENTATION.
(TO :PM EDITOR OF TLIE "SPECTATOR.")
quite fail to follow the argument for redistriLutica which you support in the Spectator of August 17th. . If, how. ever, it holds water, Ireland has been shamefully treated in this connection since the Union. At the Union Ireland had a population of 5,299,000, England and Wales 8,892,536, Scot- land 1,608,420. On the basis of population, then, Ireland out of 658 Members should have had some 220 ; Castlereagh gave her 100. In 1832 Ireland had 7,767,401 out of a total impala- tion of 24,000,000, or almost one-third, yet out of a House of 658 Members she had 105, or less than one-sixth. It is safe to say that no Free-trade legislation could have ever passed the Legislature had the theory obtained of one vote one value, and it is this legislation which has ruined Ireland.—I am, Sir,
[Until two wrongs make a right, the under-representation of Ireland seventy years ago, can be no argument for the over. representation of Ireland now. Is one wrong in the past to be a perpetual ground for another wrong in the pres ent and future P—En. Spectator.]
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