On Thursday, too, Mr. J. S. Mill's proposal for personal
repre- sentation, generally known as Mr. Hare's plan, was slightly dis- cussed. The purpose of this scheme is to provide means for any elector who does not like any one of the local candidates, to give his vote instead for any one of the various 658 candidates for a place in Parliament who most nearly represents his personal views. Each elector wishing to vote out of his own locality would give a list of the candidates he preferred, in the order of his preference, and if those first on the list were returned without needing his vote, his vote would then be passed on to his second favourite, and so forth. This plan, if worked in the way in which it is intended, would be one of the most perfect conceivable systems of real representation; but like most elaborate systems, it is probably liable to more serious abuses than rougher ones. Lord Cranborne suggested with great force that it would render bribery even more easy than it is at present, as an election agent might buy up votes in all parts of the country, and at each distances as to leave no track. The scheme, too, would fall more easily than the present plan jute the hands of a general party election agent.
Previous page
