Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/76

 The severance, it is to te observed, is only for the time. The partnership may begin and end with the election. The objections to concurrence with the majority of the constituency which are strong at one election may have no existence at the next. The very circumstance that every elector is free, will tend to procure respect for his opinions from every other elector, and will therefore be a motive for attempting the selection of a representative who shall command the general respect.

The election of a representative by a combination of minorities supposes a community of sentiment in those who combine, or, in other words, unanimity of choice in such a constituency. In order to render this arrangement possible, it is necessary to prescribe what shall be the extent or numbers of the new constituency which is thus to be created, and to ascertain in what manner its members can be enabled to coalesce.

An electoral body, formed of the detached members of various constituencies, ought to correspond in magnitude with the average of such other constituencies; and this is obtained by taking as the basis the number of votes polled at each general election.

It is proposed that a registrar of voters be appointed for each of the three kingdoms, who may not only superintend the business of local registration, but be charged with the duty of collecting and computing the number and quotient of voters, and—where votes from more than one constituency are contributed towards the election of the same candidate—the arrangement of the votes according to the names of the candidates indicated in the voting papers. At the conclusion of the poll in the several constituencies, a telegraphic despatch from every returning officer might communicate to the general registrar of the kingdom the number of voters that had polled; and these numbers being added together and the aggregate number divided by the number of