[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Will you allow me to supplement Mr. Compton's hypo- thetical case of the working of the Negative Vote by another :— Against. Candidates. For.
1,164 ...... . ..... Jones .... .......... ......- 1,150 1,236 Brown 1,280 2 Robinson 54
In this case, would not Robinson be returned ?
Jones and Brown might be representatives of the two great political parties, the return of either of whom would be an honour to the constituency ; Robinson a local nobody. This would, indeed, be the representation of minorities with a vengeance!
The radical defect of all schemes for the representation of minorities, seems to me a failure to show that minorities are not sufficiently represented under our present rough-and-ready system. Take any " minority " cause,—Local Option, "Fair-
trade," Disestablishment, Anti-vaccination, or (pace the Editor of the Spectator) Anti-vivisection ; can we say that any of these are not represented in the House of Commons, somewhere about in the proportion in which they are supported by the electors throughout the country ?—I am, &c.,
Regent's Park, November 24a. ALFRED W. BENNETT.
[As we said in commenting on the previous letter, we have no, belief at all that electors who are explicit supporters of a definite party would dream of giving up their vote for a man whom they wished to see in Parliament, in order to use it exclusively for the defeat of his antagonist. No doubt minorities are over- represented now. In that we heartily agree. That is no reason. why in adopting a measure the tendency of which must be to. take that representation away, we should not look carefully to. see that they shall be, not over-represented, but fairly repre- sented in future.—En. Spectator.]
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