THE POPULATION OF ULSTER.
[To inc EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR.") Stn,—In your issue of June 4th you make a comparison between the population of Ulster and other places. It would be interesting to compare it with that of Alsace-Lorraine. According to my edition of Chambers's Encyclopaedia the popu- lation of the latter was in 1885 1,564,354. This included the portion of Lorraine which remained French after the 1870 war, so that we may assume approximately that the population of Alsace-Lorraine stolen from France in 1870 was about equal to that of Ulster, which now has a Parliament of its own. We know how this theft was denounced, and its verification. made an integral part of the Peace Treaty. Yet to-day we have people professing Liberal principles who would reconcile Ireland by forcing Ulster into a union with the South, a union which, whether rightly or wrongly, they would regard as worse
than German domination. It would be very convenient, no doubt, to tell the Ulster people that they were obstinate and narrow-minded, and that the union would be ultimately for their benefit, but surely the fundamental principle of demo-. cratic liberty is that people should be allowed to deal with their own affairs according to their own convictions, and not accord- ing to those of well-wishing outsiders. Otherwise a benevolent despotism should be adopted as the ideal of those who wish to
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