23 



of the furnace, producing no useful eflfect. Now, these gases are 

 can-ied away in pipes to the hoiler, and it is found that one 

 furnace will give sufficient gas to heat the boilers necessary for 

 driving all the machinery connected with it. 



The lecture was illustrated by a series of interesting experi- 

 ments, and the debate which followed elicited fm-ther information 

 on the topic so ably dealt with by Dr. Monckman. 



DISCUSSION : 

 PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION. 



Introduced by B. MOORE. Fehruanj 16th, 1886. 



Mr. Moore, after describing in detail the system of Proportional 

 Representation as advocated by Sir John Lubbock, said, I object 

 to this new system of voting, first, because of want of clearness. 

 The average voter in this country requires a method of voting 

 which is very simple and soon done. It this is not the case, you 

 defeat the object of Proportional Eepresentation at the outset, 

 because a very large number of persons would either spoil theii' 

 papers or they would not pay that due regard to preferences, 

 which is the very first object sought. Besides that, I do not 

 think that the average voter is in a position so to analyse the 

 difference between two candidates as to enable him to determine 

 which ought to be number one and which ought to be number 

 two. 



Another evil of this kind of rej)resentatiou would be that it 

 would destroy the responsibility of members to any given con- 

 stituency, and also distinct and definite representation. To whom 

 for instance would a member be responsible, except to himself, 

 who was sent to Parliament with 5000 votes fi'om 600 con- 

 stituencies. How could he know when he was representing the 

 views of the great majority of his constituents, or, on the other 

 hand, what control would they have iu any respect over his 

 action in Parliament ? 



The great object sought to be attained by the advocacy of this 

 theory is the due representation of minorities, and I hold that 

 you obtain this sufficiently near by the present system. If one 

 constituency where there is a large Conservative minority returns 

 a Liberal, another constituency with a large Liberal minority 

 returns a Conservative. If the county of Yorkshire returns a 

 large majority of Liberals, the county of Essex returns a large 

 majority of Conservatives, and thus the views of the Conservative 

 electors are uo doubt represented by the Conservative members 



