Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/116

 killen, Kinsale, New Ross, and Youghal, with about 2000 electors between them, and a population under 40,000, which haye together the same amount of representation as the four greatest constituencies in Ireland—Cork County, Dublin City, Down, and Mayo, with their 40,000 registered voters and 1,200,000 of population". It is idle to speak of such a state of things as a mere anomaly of historical growth, and to dismiss it as of no importance. It is offensive to the common understanding, and to uphold it as tolerable, and as something which it is not worth while to disturb or correct, is essentially demoralizing to the public conscience. It is to treat all government as a game of chance, having no stable ground or sound foundation on which to rest, but ever dependent on the chapter of accidents. It saps the foundation of effort for political or social improvement, by depriving it of all logical hope of success through constitutional action. The late explanation of an eminent speaker, that "the nation has outgrown the state", has doubtless much truth; but it cannot be wise, even if it were long possible, thus to ignore the national growth. The only safe course is to render the political weight of every local constituency dependent upon and variable according to the number of the registered electors within it who go to the poll. We thus adopt a rule of mathematical precision, which is self-correcting, and yields to no party exigencies. It is found by dividing the number of votes given in the three kingdoms, at the general election, by the number of members required to constitute the House, the quotient forming a quota of votes entitling every candidate for whom that number shall be given to be returned as a member. Different methods of supplying the numbers which are then wanting, from the candidates standing next on the voting papers, are pointed out later, and a method of selection when the quotas cease, has been embodied in Clause XXV.