should be used for his return and which set free for others, several methods are proposed into which we shall not here enter. He would of course retain the votes of all those who would not otherwise be represented, and for the remainder drawing lots, in default of better, would be an unobjectionable expedient. The voting papers would be conveyed to a central office, where the votes would be counted, — the number of first, second, third, and other votes given for each candidate ascertained, and the quota would be allotted to every one who could make it up, until the number of the House was complete, first votes being preferred to second, second to third, and so forth. The voting papers and all the elements of the calculation would be placed in public repositories, accessible to all whom they concerned, and if any one who had obtained the quota was not duly returned, it would be in his power easily to prove it." pp. 139–141. To any plan for so radical a change as is here proposed in that department of practical politics which is at the foundation of all representative government, the objection is sure to be brought forward, "that it is impracticable, very fine it may be as a theory, but of no use as a working scheme, in short, visionary." Commonly, the more feasible and clearly useful the plan proposed, the more loudly is this objection urged, and the more obstinately insisted on by the great body of those conservatives, self-styled, to whom all change is sacrilege. In the case before us, the objection may not be altogether unfounded. The plan of Mr. Hare, unless it is intended to work as a special instrument in the hands of the upper classes for the protection of their interests against the class-legislation of the operatives, would seem to presuppose among the latter class a wider acquaintance with the comparative merits and abilities of the public men of the country than Mr. Mill would probably give them credit for. Even if that condition were likely to be fulfilled, it is quite possible that the adoption of such a system of election, simple as it seems in print, would, in the elections of a country of thirty millions of inhabitants, end by involving the whole canvass in a confusion perfectly inextricable. But it is also possible, on the other hand, that the confusion would be only the temporary result of the want of familiarity, on the part of voters and inspectors, with a scheme so novel, and that, after a few trials, the practical good sense of a people long trained in the exercise of political rights would remove the difficulties which a first trial had discovered, and with due modification of the system on the one hand, and a growing familiarity with its details on the other, would end by making it work as smoothly as the present system of imperfect representation. Mr. Mill declares, in the strongest terms, his belief in "the perfect feasibility of the scheme, and its transcendent advantages." If the former should be demonstrated by a few trials, there could, it should seem, be little doubt of the latter. The advance on the present system would be so obvious and so important, that it seems to us well worth while to make the trial. Our own country possesses peculiar advantages for such a trial, inasmuch as the system could be tested first, on a small scale, in the election of State legislatures, where it would involve no very considerable complication. If found to work well in such a trial, it would, among such a voting population as our own, require but a few years to make it equally applicable to the election. of members of Congress. If such a system, once established, should do no more than to help in making the interest of voters in elections a more active, intelligent, and conscientious interest, such an object would be worth undergoing much trouble to attain. At present a voter has two or three candidates presented for his support by the managers of the several parties, each of whom has, very probably, been nominated from very questionable qualifications, which may generally be summed up in the one word availability. Outside this list of candidates, with all of whom, in many cases, he may reasonably be dissatisfied, he has no influence whatever. His vote, if cast for any other than one of these, is a scattering vote, and of none effect. His only way of action lies in choosing the least of two evils or of three, and voting, under protest and with infinite discontent, for the least objectionable. What system could be invented which would tend more directly to produce apathy and disgust among all honest voters? But if the voter can, by looking outside his own district, outside the little list of unworthy or unsatisfactory candidates to which he has heretofore been confined, be allowed to find other candidates of whom he can approve and for whom he can conscientiously give his vote, he will do a service to his country, as well as save his own self-respect, by ignoring the local nominations of his own district, and voting for the man whom he can honestly support. In practice, it would generally, we apprehend, be found that the support would not often wander very far from home; and that a member would seldom owe his election to widely separated districts, or find himself expected to represent the interests of varying geographical portions of the country. Even if this should often happen, the evil would be more than counterbalanced by the directness and genuineness, so to speak, with which the members would represent their constituencies. Besides the privilege which this system would confer upon all voters, of voting according to their preferences, Mr. Mill argues very forcibly, that its adoption would, by emancipating the electors from the control of the party managers, force parties into making their nominations on other and higher grounds than that of availability. 66 -- Majorities would be compelled to look out for members of a much higher calibre. When the individuals composing the majority would no longer be reduced to Hobson's choice, of either voting for the persons brought forward or not voting at all, when the nominee of the leaders would have to encounter the opposition, not solely of the candidate of the minority, but of all the men of established reputation in the country who were willing to serve, it would be impossible any longer to foist upon the electors the first person who presents himself with the catchwords of the party in his mouth, and three or four thousand pounds in his pocket. The majority would insist on having a candidate worthy of their choice, or they would carry their votes somewhere else, and the minority would prevail. The slavery of the majority to the least estimable portion of their numbers would be at an end; the very best and most capable of the local notabilities would be put forward by preference, if possible, such as were known in some advantageous way beyond the locality, that their local strength might have a chance of being fortified by stray votes from elsewhere. Constituencies would become competitors for the best candidates, and would vie with one another in selecting from among the men of local knowledge and connections those who were most distinguished in every other respect.". p. 145. We cannot lay too much stress on the influence which a system of complete representation, once made practicable and operative, would exert in curing the great and fatal apathy into which the mass of voters have most naturally fallen, in regard to the qualifications of office-holders. Mr. Mill has some remarks on national content, as opposed to that active spirit which continually seeks to improve on the existing condition of affairs; and he alludes to the people of the United States as among those happy in possessing the latter temperament. In some respects he is perhaps right; but if by content he means acquiescence by the vast majority of even the most intelligent citizens in the political arrangements which are made for them by small knots of interested political managers (men for the most part corrupt, selfish, and vulgar beyond comparison), - complete acquiescence in the line of policy which such men, assembled in primary meetings, in State and city committees, and in bar-rooms, mark out for the people to follow, - complete acquiescence in, and ready support of, the candidates whom such men put in nomination for State and city governments, for Congress, and for the Presidency; — if that is the national content which Mr. Mill implies, let no one ever accuse the Americans of any lack of that most peaceful and accommodating attribute. The goodnatured and unquestioning subserviency of every constituency in the land to the active and interested will of the party managers is too notorious to be denied. It is indicated by the character of the primary meetings of voters in the city, where it is rare that fifty voters can be assembled, unless they have their private ends to serve,- by the character of the men who are commonly nominated at those meetings, and in general by the acknowledged readiness of nine men out of every ten to vote for the nominees of the party without further inquiry, and without interest except for the success of the party ticket, - by the closeness and strictness with which party lines are retained and party watchwords made effective, long after the party has ceased to have any principle of action higher than the advancement of its leaders. It is strongly aided by the influence of the political press, by that anomaly through which a single man of no more than average moral and intellectual standing, oftentimes of less,-speaking through the leading columns of a party newspaper, exerts a power wholly independent of his personal character or attainments, — a power which belongs not to himself, but to the organ, and which, speaking face to face with any single man of his readers, he would be utterly impotent to exert. The position of the leading editor of a journal of established name and large circulation, in a country where the expression of opinion is as free as it is in the United States, is one of the most magnificent positions, in respect to the opportunity for usefulness, in which a man can be placed; but it is also one of the most responsible,.- a fact which is too often forgotten by all parties. Various causes conspire to make the influence of the press greater in this country than in Europe; and at present, in taking account of that influence, we are forced to express our belief that the evil influence very largely preponderates over the good. The very possession of a power so enormous tends naturally to corruption and falsehood in the use of it; especially when, as in our own country, the laxity of public judgment is such as to make the power practically irresponsible. The editors of newspapers enjoy, if not from each other, at least from the community, an exemption from personal criticism quite unknown in any other calling. A cheating tradesman, an unfaithful mechanic, a lawyer who betrays the cause placed in his hands, these feel at once both the professional odium and the social disgrace which come of their dishonesty. But a journal may come forth from its press every morning reeking with calumny and venom, with every argument directed to the support of palpable wickedness, every criticism to the abuse of good men and their acts, and the tolerant public, even if it contemn the journal, has no special indignation for the man from whose bad heart all the malignity springs. We do not say that the political press is more venal in this than in other countries, (though it is unquestionably meaner and more vulgar,) but only that in proportion to the strength and spread of its influence is the importance, first of recognizing its true character, and next of reforming it, if such a thing be possible. Whatever should tend in the smallest degree to lessen the power which such newspapers exert over the political opinions and the votes of the community, whatever shall encourage the people to |