Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/59

 If it were not a low and unbecoming view of political parties to liken them to enemies in a hostile camp, a case might be imagined of the division of the electors generally into two classes: one satisfied with the condition of things, apprehensive of the consequences of change, and ready to oppose all experiments the utility of which is not manifest; and the other uneasy in their position, imagining that social alterations might be made which would ameliorate their condition, and who are not deterred by the apprehension of consequences which they do not see or admit. Supposing there were a contest between these classes, a struggle, not of arms, but of the peaceable forces which are brought to bear in the operation of representative institutions, and the proportion in which these classes is found in every locality be, for the purpose of argument, taken as two to three, the majority of every constituency would, of course, elect a representative of the more numerous class. If five constituencies be taken as the entire number, there would be in the representative assembly five members for the party of progress and none for the party of preservation; whilst, in justice, the majority and minority ought to stand in the constituted assembly in the same proportion as in their constituents, that is, three against two. It is clear, as a matter of strategy, that by the defeat in every constituency of the detached minorities, the less numerous class have no means of meeting their adversaries in the representative council, but are previously cut off in detail.

“Le but du gouvernement représentatif est de mettre publiquement en présence et aux prises les grands intérêts, les opinions diverses, qui se partagent la société et s'en disputent l'empire, dans la juste confiance que, de leurs débats, sortiront la connaissance et l'adoption des lois et des mesures qui conviennent le mieux aux pays en général. Ce but n'est atteint que par le triomphe de la vraie majorité, la minorité constamment présente et entendue. Si la majorité est déplacée par artifice il y a mensonge. Si la minorité est