Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/245



In the above electoral law it has not been thought necessary thus far to depart from the form originally adopted to show in what way proportional representation might be established, or to borrow the more succinct phraseology in which rules of a like or analogous purport have been expressed in subsequent adaptations of the principle. With a view, however, to the practical introduction of the system, it is of great importance to show how much the form of an electoral law for that object may be simplified as well as abridged. The labours of other minds in England and in America, bringing to the task their varied experience in the work of legislation, have succeeded in framing in fewer words rules which effect substantially the same object. One example is given in the four simple rules which suffice for expressing what was to be done, on the nomination of overseers of Harvard University. The Proportional Representation Bill of the last session embodied every essential condition in the three following clauses:—