Proportional Representation. 27 



in the representation to which, according to the principles 

 of representative government, it was entitled. I might go on 

 further, but I have shown these great faults in the present 

 system. There are yet two or three faults to which I must ask 

 your attention. If you divide up your electing body in this 

 way into divisions, each containing an equal quota — say a 

 thousand — and give to the majority in each thousand the right 

 to elect a member, you can only present to that constituency 

 one choice. The choice is a candidate belonging to party X 

 or to party Y. If there are other candidates, they have no 

 chance of being chosen, and the candidates have to adjust their 

 expressions of opinion, so as to secure support. After speaking 

 of the difficulty of finding a good representative under this 

 system, the lecturer said : — At present we have got a method 

 which gives us no security in the first place that the legislative 

 assembly will reflect the balance of opinion of the electorate. 

 It may even cut the other way. It may, and probably will, if it 

 gives any representation of the minority, give that representa- 

 tion in a very insufficient form. It fails altogether to give all 

 the shades of opinion which are to be found within the two 

 political parties, and which are still more to be found in the case 

 of the people at large. It constitutes an assembly such as has 

 been described with truth as a very bad school for sincerity. 

 Cannot we get into it a faithful copy not only of the party 

 on one side and the party on the other, but also of the 

 intermediate parties ? That is the question which we have 

 been asking, and it is the answer to that question which some 

 of us believe has been discovered when we use the words " Pro- 

 portional Representation." We are desirous of bringing into 

 the electoral assembly a representation, in due and exact pro- 

 portion as far as human institutions will permit, of all the poli- 

 tical elements which exist among the persons who elect to that 

 assembly, and by the very act of putting them there the people 

 will give life and hope to others who have hitherto held back 

 and not taken part in political life in the constituencies, and will 

 give them the means of maintaining their hope and their energy 

 in the future, 



