Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/149

 the school board by the cumulative process. In the former case the Tories, at the general election of 1874, managed to return their candidate, simply because no human ingenuity could, with the secrecy of the ballot-box to contend against, so evenly apportion the two votes of each Liberal elector among the three Liberal candidates as to keep the Conservative at the bottom of the poll. With an open vote, it was quite possible, though unnecessarily difficult; but under the ballot it was a preposterous game of blind man's buff",—the veriest ne plus ultra of legislative folly. The minority succeeded with a vengeance.

In the other case three school-board elections have taken place. On the first occasion the Radical ("Secularist") minority put up too many candidates, and returned none; next election they carried two, who found themselves powerless to influence the decisions of the ultra-orthodox majority. These two stood again, but as acquiescing in the ecclesiastico-educational policy favored by the mass of the electors, and lost their seats, as they deserved to do. An intelligent and active minority with a just cause was thus effaced. It would be very unsafe to found any argument on such slender data; but it is quite possible that the ultimate effect of minority representation, at all events in its present shape, may be found to have the very opposite effect of what Mr. Courtney anticipates. Its tendency appears to be to confirm majorities in erroneous opinions, while hopelessly discouraging right-thinking minorities from further propaganda. When once we have obtained something like true electoral majorities, it will be time enough to provide for the representation of minorities.