it up as the one thing needful to cure all the ills to which the body politic is heir, but simply to present, in a convenient form, the best information, foreign and domestic, upon a subject which has already occupied the attention of the British Parliament, the Danish Rigsraad, the Swiss Council, and the Congress and many of the Legislatures and State Conventions of the United States, and is daily rising into general interest and importance. SALEM DUTCHER. TABLE OF CONTENTS. DEFECTS OF THE PRESENT ELECTORAL SYSTEM-THE NON-REPRESENTA- TION OF MINORITIES-UNFAIR APPORTIONMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES TO VOTERS-THE CRUSHING OUT OF ALL BUT TWO GREAT PARTIES- THE PURPOSE OF MINORITY REPRESENTATION ITS HISTORY PROGRESS-DEBATES ON THE SUBJECT-IN PARLIAMENT CONGRESS THE CUMULATIVE VOTE-ITS HISTORY-PRACTICAL OPERATION-ADOP- TION IN ENGLAND, PENNSYLVANIA, WEST VIRGINIA, NEW YORK, AND MINORITY OR PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION. CHAPTER I. DEFECTS OF THE PRESENT ELECTORAL SYSTEM-THE NON-REPRESENTATION OF MINORITIES UNFAIR APPORTIONMENT OF REPRESENTATIVES TO VOTERS-THE CRUSHING OUT OF ALL BUT TWO GREAT PARTIES-THE BALANCE OF POWER VOTE-EXCLUSION OF ABLE MEN FROM PUBLIC LIFE. THE propriety of giving every party in the body politic a representation in the law-making body proportionate to its popular strength, has of late years attracted considerable attention. The idea is by no means a new one, and indeed it lies at the foundation of popular government that the representative body should be the constituent body in miniature; but in practice the principle has been much neglected. It is the exception rather than the rule for the law-making to be a correct portraiture of the popular body; and perhaps the annals of representative government might be searched in vain for such a legislature as that described by Mirabeau in his famous speech before the Constituent Assembly on the 30th of January, 1789, as "being to the nation what a chart is for the physical configuration of its soil, presenting a reduced picture of the people, their opinions, aspirations, and wishes, and bearing the relative proportion to the original precisely as a map brings before us mountains and dales, rivers and lakes, forests and plains, cities and towns." The occasion of this failure is to be found in the inadequacy of the means by which representation is secured. The various interests in a body politic can only obtain the representation to which they may be severally entitled when the method of election permits them to obtain it; and such is not the case now. The main idea of the current electoral system is, that a country is to be laid off into certain geographical districts, each containing as nearly as possible the same number of electors, and that the person or persons receiving the highest number of votes in that district shall thereby be entitled to represent the same. Theoretically, this seems fair, but in practice injustice very often results. If we suppose 20,000 electors in a district entitled to elect one representative, the vote may, and frequently does, stand about thus: for A. 11,000; for B. 9,000. A. is, therefore, elected, and is said to represent the district, when in truth he represents only those who voted for him, and those who voted against him are not represented at all. Where there are many districts, the aggregate of these unrepresented minorities is enormous, amounting, in fact, on a rule which seems well established, to two-fifths of the entire vote cast. Given 5,000,000 votes cast, and under the present district system of election, 2,000,000 voters will not have a single representative in the law-making body! Another result of the present system may be seen if we suppose that the district is entitled to elect five representatives. The Democrats, say, cast 12,000 votes for their candidates, and the Republicans 8,000 for theirs; the result is that the five Democratic candidates are elected, and the Democrats monopolize the representation of the district. In a constituency of 20,000 voters entitled to five representatives, there should be one representative to every 4,000 voters. At this rate, there would be three Democratic and two Republican representatives, which would correctly portray the district in the law-making body. The non-representation of minorities and the over-representation of majorities are thus two well-defined incidents of the present electoral system; but there are others. It may be that in the case of the election last supposed the 12,000 who vote the Democratic ticket are not all Democrats, nor the 8,000 who vote the Republican ticket all Republicans. There may be those who prefer a ticket of their own, but knowing that they cannot render it successful under |