Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/53



The position which majorities and minorities of the people should respectively occupy in representative government has, within a few years past, been frequently considered. The title or claim of majorities to be exclusively regarded and obeyed must have its foundation either in agreement or in force. The power of acting by a majority, so far as it depends on an agreement, Mr. Burke observes, “must be grounded on two assumptions, first, that of an incorporation produced by unanimity; and, secondly, an unanimous agreement that the act of a mere majority (say of one) shall pass, with them and with others, as the act of the whole.” He adds: “If men dissolve their ancient incorporation, in order to regenerate their community, in that state of things each man has a right, if he pleases, to remain an individual. Any number of individuals, who can agree upon it, have an undoubted right to form themselves into a state apart and wholly independent. If any of these is forced into the fellowship of another, this is conquest, and not compact. On every principle which supposes society to be in virtue of a free covenant, this compulsive incorporation must be null and void.” M. Guizot, treating of the same subject, points