The friends of proportional representation have, as we were told
at the meeting of the society on Wednesday, adopted at last the Hare scheme in its entirety as the plan on which they would like to see constituencies elect more than two Members. That is, to our minds, the coup de grace to the scheme. Mr. Hare's plan is very ingenious, and would carry out perfectly the idea he has at heart ; but certainly it is, of all others, the plan which would be least understood by the public at large, and which would lead to the greatest amount of dis- satisfaction and distrust on the part of the public. When an influential constituency had returned a Member elected almost entirely by second and third votes, the Member so elected would be regarded as we regard an alternative of which we say " bad's the best." Probably such a Member would be called the " Hobson's choice" of the constituency. The "Hobson's choice" would hardly be an influential Member of Parliament.
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