Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/159

 candidature and success of the men whose access to the House it is most desirable to promote; and so far also as it affects the electoral power and influence of those voters who desire to act honestly. They proceed from the same vice in the electoral system which deprives it of the salutary influences of honour and conscience. They are mainly caused by the bond which the law creates, and by which every constituency is inseparably connected together. The success of the candidate is forced to depend, not upon the votes of a competent and adequate number of his fellow-countrymen, but upon the votes of the electors who are placed within a small geographical limit. What is the necessary consequence? It is, that a certain number of votes, within that limit and no other, are made absolutely indispensable. The electors of the district or borough are first nominally or really divided into two parties, by the process of crushing all the minor differences and distinctions of thought and opinion. The hopes of each candidate depend upon the triumph of the party to which he belongs. They may, probably, from their connexions or reputation, reckon upon many votes being freely given to them. We will suppose the voters to be in number 2000, and of these, the class which has had no voice in bringing either candidate to the borough, having no sympathy with either, and, therefore wholly indifferent, and taking no part in the election to be 400. One candidate may, from the result of his canvass, expect 600, and another about 500 of the votes which are given spontaneously. There remain the residuum of 500, to be worked upon by appealing to their cupidity, their hopes, or their fears. Are not the causes of bribery, of intimidation, and of every other evil influence, plainly developed? We have given to the votes of a comparatively few of the electoral body, and these the very worst and the very poorest,—the worst who are not always the poorest, and the poorest who are far from being the worst,—a highly artificial value. It is a value to which no market