1800.] 4 Contribution to the Theory of Reprefentation, €&c. 
alfo be colle&ted by the three oldeft citizens 
prefent. 
XVII. The primary affemblies fhall 
Nominate one choofer for every hundred 
active citizens, abfent or prefent ?—fo that 
up to 150 aétive citizens one choofer fhall 
be named—two choofers from that number 
up to 250, and fo forth. 
If information be fo far diffufed in a com- 
munity, that one man ina bundred is a com- 
petent judge of the qualities defirable in a 
fenator, then fhould there be one choofer for 
100 voters; which may have been right in 
France. But in Great Britain, where edu- 
cation has long been more general, it is pro- 
bable that three or four men in 100 are com- 
petent to the office of choofer. With the 
{pread of civilization the proportion of choofers 
fhould increafe, until at length, perhaps, gra- 
dation gives place to direct reprefentation. | 
XVIII. Each primary aflembly fhall nc- 
minate its quota of choofers from among 
‘the citizens of the hundred. 
Why from among the citizens of the hun- 
dred ? Is merit in a ftate of equal diffufion ? 
XIX. Tobe eligible as a choofer it 
thall be requifite, over and above the qua- 
lifications of an active citizen, to pay a 
yearly tax equivalent to the amount of ten 
days’ labour. 
Is not any qualification of property im- 
proper ? The men likely to obtain a hundred, 
or even thirty votes, will in general be cha- 
ritable houfekeepers, or public inftructors, or 
mafters of journeymen, or for fome other 
reafon, eminent enough to belong to the 
educated and independent claffes, who have 
‘an intereft in the fecurity of property. If 
fo, itis at beft ufelefs. But it may operate 
to exclude here and there men of popular in- 
fluence, perfons whom it is always defirable 
in a free country to notice, and fingularly 
unreafonable to deprive of interference in 
eledtions. 
XX. The choofers fhall be voted for 
by the primary affemblies in one poll. 
Double the number required fhall always 
be put in nomination, 
Why any reftriction on the number to be 
put in nomination? No doubt in order to 
prevent that indolent acquiefcence in arrogated 
power, which has converted the reprefenta- 
tion of fo many Britifh counties into a patri- 
mony. And why double the number and no 
more? Left, by fubdividing the competition, 
a real minority of the choofers fhould confer 
a relative majority of votes on their candi- 
date. ° 
XXI. There fhall be but one interme- 
diate body of choofers between the pri- 
mary and national aflembly. 
All ufelefs complication is to be avoided. 
Whatever purpofes of ariftocratic felection 
<ould be anfwered by the interpofition of two 
Or more intermediate bodies, may alfo be 
MONTHLY MAG, NO. LIII. 
957 
more fimply obtained by caufing the-choofers 
to bear a fmaller proportion to the number of 
voters. 
XXII. All the chsofers named by the 
primary aflemblies of each fhire fhall meet, 
without diftinStion of rank or condition, 
to elect the reprefentatives for the national 
affembly. 
XXIII. This affembly of all the choofers 
for each fhire thall meet in the fhire-houte. 
XXIV. As foon as the affembly of 
choofers be formed, it fhall eleét its fore- 
man, fecretary, and three {crutineers, in 
the mode prefcribed by the 15th and 16th 
articles. 
XXV. The delegates to the national af- 
fembly fhall be chofen by perfonal poll and 
abfolute pluratity of votes., 
. If the firit poll beftow not an abfolute 
plurality, there fhall be a fecond. 
If the fecond poll beftow it not, there 
fhall be a third, between thofe two citizens 
only whom the fcrutineers fhall declare 
to have obtained the moft votes. 
Finally, if, after athird, the votes be 
equally divided, the older candidate fhall 
be preferred. 
i.e. No one delegate hall be nominated by 
lefs than a majority of the whole number of 
perfons voting. 
As the French mode of voting has in prac 
tice been found inconvenient, it has not been 
thought worth while to tranflate the direc- 
tions and regulations relative thereto, which 
are annexed to the original decree. 
Ele@tion by ballot has been propofed as 
a remedy for certain of the inconveniences 
experienced ; but rejeéted as, 1, facilitating 
collufion ; 2, removing the ufeful controul 
of public opinion 5 and 3, tending to intro- 
duce an immoral treachery. All polls fhould 
be printed. 
XXVI. The number of reprefentatives 
in the national aflembly fhall be equal to 
the number cf fhires multiplied by nine. 
XXVII. The number of reprefentatives 
fhall be diftributed among the feveral fhires, 
in the three proportions of the territory, 
the population and the taxation. 
Is not the fingle bafis of population alle 
fufficient ? Mere foil, like the difpeopled 
warrens about Caftie Rifing, cannot require 
reprefentation : and taxation being ever mot 
produdtive in places the moft populous, this 
bafis only complicates the mode of attributing 
reprefentatives without affecting materially 
the quota. 
XXVIII. The fii ft trithe of the whole 
reprefentative bedy forming the national 
affembly fhall be a:tached to the land, and 
each fhire fhall name three reprefentatives 
of this clafs. 
XXIX. The feeond trithe fhall be at- 
tached to.the population, The whole po- 
6G pulation 
