1890-91. J NOTE ON ELECTORAL REPRESENTATION. 323 



sentatives of the people in Parliament should be left free to act accord- 

 ing to the dictates of their own judgment, after full examination, and full 

 consideration of every subject. It is not possible for an electorate to 

 determine in advance, the varied demands for legislation or the conclu- 

 sions which should be reached on the many questions which will arise.* 

 The greater is the necessity, therefore, that they should select men of the 

 proper calibre to represent them, men whose ability and reputation is 

 well established. The representative on his part will owe his constitu- 

 ents the exercise of his best judgment and the maintenance of perfect 

 rectitude in all matters. 



This point has an important bearing on any new scheme of representa- 

 tion. While the electorate has the right, and should whenever necessary, 

 exercise the right to discuss public questions, it is obviously infinitely 

 more important for the constituencies to obtain as members, intelligent 

 independent men, known to be generally sound on vital questions, in 

 preference to those who are willing, in order to obtain a seat, to pledge 

 their opinion on any given question. 



Legislation is not so simple that it may be undertaken by any one. It 

 is not a matter of indifference who undertakes it, or what character of 

 legislation is obtained. We should have as legislators the wisest, the 

 most clear-headed, the best informed, the most just and honest members 

 of the community. The average elector may or may not be well 

 grounded in matters of legislation, or in forming correct opinions on 

 all subjects ; but he can, without any doubt or difficulty, exercise his 

 judgment as to who he can trust, and it becomes him to choose some 

 trustworthy man as his proxy to represent him and deliberate with 

 other trustwoi|:hy men ; and having done so, he can leave the decision 

 on all legislative questions with confidence to the Parliament which they 

 would constitute. 



A Parliament so constituted would be a miniature copy of the aggregate 



* It would be absurd to throw on the people at large the actual work of legislation, — since 

 the people only form general aims and wishes, for which it is the business of the legislative 

 expert to supply appropriate particular rules fit to be enacted, — but that these general aims and 

 wishes should be regarded as paramount by a representative legislature. And certainly it would 

 be difficult for the citizens at large to perform effectively the complicated discussion that is 

 often required to mould a legislative scheme into the most acceptable form. Nor would it be 

 practicable for the constituents to direct the action of the representative in every detail during 

 such discussions ; since it would sometimes happen that compromises and modifications were 

 suggested at the last moment, rendering any previously expressed wishes of the constituents 

 irrelevant to the issue finally put to the vote ; while to give time for a reference to the con- 

 stituencies in all cases would involve intolerable delay. — Sidgwick, Elements of Polities London, 

 iSgi, p. 52g. 



