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1911.] those high hopes to be realised, but it may not be unreasonable to hope that if the system of a just proportional representation in the Chamber of the political parties in the country be loyally applied, France will be freed from the tyranny of the Freemasons and Jews who, though constituting nothing more than a minority of French citizens, have held the land so long in their grip.

The electoral reform Bill for the introduction of the R.P. now before the French Chamber is due to the initiative and energetic action of M. Charles Benoist. During many months previous to the general elections of 1910 that convinced partisan of the great advantages to be derived from the proportional representation in the Chamber of the political minorities in the country, as well as of the majority, supported by numerous deputies of various shades of political opinion, carried on an active campaign throughout the whole of France in favour of the reform. The success of their preaching was so considerable that even the Government could not afford to disregard it. In his great electioneering address M. Briand, then Prime Minister, was constrained to treat the R. P. as one of the main questions on which Universal Suffrage had to pronounce. His attitude was, however, far from being a frank and loyal acceptance of the projected reform. He declared he accepted the R. P., but the outlines he gave of the Bill on the subject he said he would present to the Chamber, indicated clearly the object he had in view was not to substitute a fair method of consulting the country for the corrupt small district voting, but to disarm the partisans of the proportional representation by adopting the name of their system while perverting it to the advantage of the Government majority. As a matter of fact, M. Briand tried to cajole the electors by proclaiming he accepted the R. P., entailing the adoption of the Scrutin de Liste (voting by departments), and by pretending he wished to improve on the method of applying it practised in Belgium since 1900. Without explaining all the details of his plan, he contended it would be necessary to arrange the electoral districts by joining certain portions of one department to parts of others, &c., — that is to say, to manipulate the constituencies with the ill-disguised aim of favouring the Government supporters. That was, however, of little consequence compared to the other stipulations he made for his support of the R. P.,, and which tended towards the yet more complete exclusion from Parliament of the representatives of the political minorities in the country.

For the absolutely proportional representation of the electors it is evidently necessary to add together the votes polled by all the lists, and to divide the grand total by the number of deputies allotted to the electoral district. If a department constituting an electoral district has the right to, say, five seats in the