STRENGTH OF IRISH PARTIES.
rTo THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The figures given by Mr. J. J. Murphy, in your issue of December 12th, are by themselves misleading. The statistics of the Irish elections require to be very carefully dealt with if we are to estimate even approximately the relative strength of Irish parties. I divide the Irish constituencies into four classes (omitting Dublin University), and class Liberals and Conserva- tives together under the head of Unionists. The following is my estimate of the voting strength of Unionists and Nationalists :—
Nationalistz.
Cues 1 Constituencies returning
(20) Nationalists unopposed )
CLAf3S 2 Contested between1 (69) Nationalists & Unionists CLASS 3 Contested between two }
(10) Unionists
CLASS 4 Returning Unionists un-
(2) opposed Total for all Ireland 393,935 ... 148,180 Of the total, Ulster has—Nationalists, 104,777 ; Unionists, 112,882. And the other three provinces have—Nationalists, 289,158; Unionists, 35,298. The Nationalists thus form 72i per cent. of the electorate ; and their proportion of the repre- sentatives is 73, while they have 85.—I am, Sir, &c., 82,000 291,435 17,000 3,500 :.. Unionists.
10,500 76,180 51,000 10,500
A DUBLIN LIBERAL.
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