BY E. L. PIESSE, B.SC, LL.B. :^7 



1913. 



bers to 5 ; and on tlio other hand that a gain of only 700 

 votes in a constituency in which the Labour majority was 

 small would have given the Liberal party 10 seats and 

 the Labour party only 9 — that is, a party having only 

 47 per cent, of the voters would have had a majority of 

 the seats. 



Remark as to the Conclusions of this Paper. 



78. In discussing the various methods of proportional 

 representation noticed in this paper, with the exception 

 of the method of the uniform quota, I have considered the 

 result that may be expected to occur in a single district. 

 But in estimating the probability that an election through- 

 out the country will give proportional or disproportional 

 representation, it must be remembered that under- or over- 

 representation in some districts is likely to be balanced 

 by over- or under-representation in others, unless the sys- 

 tem used has been deliberately constructed (as was the 

 D'Hondt) with the object of favouring one party (the 

 larger party in that case) ; and consequently that the 

 result of an election in many districts is more likely to 

 be in proportion to the strengths of the parties than an 

 election in one district. (^^^) This qualification, however, does 

 not apply to the argument against the single-member sys- 

 tem, in which the country has been considered as a whole. 



(=») But see '§73, note (■«•), by Mr. L. F. Gibliii. 



