Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/221

 therefore, although as to the first votes the state of the poll appears as it is above set out by the returning officer, yet on the ultimate declaration of the poll it is not impossible (although improbable) that Colonel Sykes and the other successful candidates, whoever they may be, had as many as 4,388 votes each. It would occupy a large space to describe all the possible results of the free manifestation of thought and sentiment which would be the consequence of the liberation and conscientious employment of the electoral forces which are now latent, and wasted or mischievously exercised.

It will be observed that the latter part of Clause XXII. which prescribes the ultimate method to be employed by the returning officers in computing the local majorities, is designed farther to indicate and develop the especial preferences of local and special constituencies. In giving to every constituency its proper share or material weight in the actual composition of the representative body, it has been necessary to equalize the force of every vote by appropriating it to one candidate only. When the representive body is completed there is no longer any reason for refusing to any elector the full manifestation of the confidence he has expressed in the representatives of his choice, or for withholding from any member the moral influence which will naturally flow from the multiplied number, as well as the character of his constituents and supporters. The operation of this final method of computation may be further illustrated thus:—Suppose Norwich to return three members, and that there are six candidates, A to F, whose votes, counting not only those at the head, but also the second, third, and all successive votes given for any of them on the Norwich voting papers (so long as the name of a non-candidate for that city does not intervene), stand as follows:—