ULSTER AND THE UNION.
LTo TH2 EDITOR OF THE "EPICOTATOR."1 Stit,—I am sorry to see that Mr. Gun's letter in your issue of January 13th does not fully correct two errors which weakened your article of the 6th on the question of Ulster. First, the Nationalists do not hold a majority of the Ulster seats, even though the present distribution unfairly favours them ; the Unionists hold 17 out of 33. Secondly, Mr. Gun is not sufficiently emphatic) in correcting your statement that the Nationalist vote preponderates in the province as a whole. The total population in 1911 was 1,578,572 (more than one- third of Ireland): of these, 690,134 were Roman Catholics, who were Urns in a minority of nearly 200,000. Now, by a comparison of the votes given at the last elections with the religious composition of the several constituencies (recorded by the census) it can easily be shown in the most conclusive way that Protestant Home Rulers are practically a negligible quantity in Ulster; and, on the other band, the recent by-election in North Tyrone proves the existence of Catholic Unionists. Hence the majority of 200,000 may be taken confidently as a Unionist majority, which, expressed in terms of votes, would be at least 30,000 for the whole province. And, if votes could be weighed!
Mr. Gun speaks of West Donegal as never challenged by a Unionist. East Belfast, thrice as large as the average Nationalist constituency, has never been challenged even by a "Liberal," much less by a Nationalist. If Belfast were represented according to the average Irish scale she would have nine members instead of four ; and of the nine certainly seven and probably eight would be Unionists.-1 am, Sir, &o., A CONNACHT UNIONIST.
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