Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/17

 the maintenance of local distinctions, or with the identification of particular representatives with particular groups of voters. In the present edition, the eighth chapter, which treats of the duties of the returning officers, has been considerably expanded, in order that it may be better seen that none of the legal subdivisions of the constituency are effaced, nor any of the visible landmarks of the electoral field swept away; and that, on the contrary, as the surge of our national life rolls deeper and wider, such legal subdivisions will be multiplied, and many new landmarks added to the old. It will be seen that the identification of particular representatives with particular groups of voters is promoted and secured to an extent and with a completeness hitherto unknown.

A London merchant, on the register in Devonshire, may vote for a candidate for the City, and a Scotch merchant in London may vote for a candidate for Glasgow,—how is that consistent with the integrity of localities? It is true that any elector, however humble in rank, or feeble in influence, may pass by the candidates for his own constituency, and propose, instead of them, any other candidate he might prefer, but this is nothing more than his ancient common-law right. Every elector may now propose and vote for whom he pleases. This method enables him, however, to do much more,—and it is to this additional power that some of our politicians object, and against which they raise the cry that “localities are in danger.” It enables the elector to put his vote in writing, and makes it possible that the vote, although without effect in his own constituency, may help the return in some other place of the candidate for whom it is given. Yet it does this without any control over or interference with the voters of such other constituency. There may not be enough voters in it to make up the quota, or not enough given for that candidate, and the distant vote may therefore serve to complete it—not impeding but assisting everywhere the majority,