316 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTIIUTE. [VoL. TI. 



NOTE ON ELECTORAL REPRESENTATION AND THE 

 RECTIFICATION OF PARLIAMENT. 



There are in Canada few men past middle age, who have not long felt 

 the unsatisfactory condition of much which appertains to public life in 

 the Dominion. There are not a few who have from year to year hoped 

 that the unfortunate features in that which we call " politics " would in 

 some way disappear. Recent revelations have, however, rudely dispelled 

 such hope, and have confirmed the fears of those who foresaw that as 

 the tendency of the evils was progressive, we could not reasonably look 

 for an improvement. 



Thoughtful persons, having the welfare of the country at heart, are thus 

 impelled to give serious attention to the subject, with a view of consider- 

 ing the possibility of securing some beneficial change. The examination 

 naturally takes the direction of an enquiry into the origin of the evils 

 with which we are confronted, and the causes which persistently keep 

 them associated with government, which, therefore tends to become 

 mis-government. 



The objects of government may be thus defined : To maintain peace 

 and security, to increase prosperity and wealth, to advance moral and 

 intellectual development, and generally to promote the good and the 

 good-will of the people. 



With us the universal belief is, that the representative system is best 

 calculated to attain these ends. In other countries the representative 

 system has long been a constitutional reality, and from time to time 

 modifications have been made in the system to render it more workable 

 and more beneficial ; but, notwithstanding the various changes which 

 have been made, it cannot be held that its full and complete development 

 has yet been attained. In Canada we are familiar with many of tlie 

 defects of popular government. In the neighboring republic the defects 

 in its adaptation are still more marked, and the political condition 

 is consequently far from satisfactory. In Great Britain, the cradle of 

 modern representative government, where the system should have 

 attained the highest perfection, similar evils have 'been developed. 



That the political evils which everywhere attract attention are attribut- 

 able to imperfect methods of carrying out the representative system may 

 justly be inferred. The fundamental principle of representative or 



