ore than that, for in another chapter
of Mill's book we find that his conception of a representative assembly
elected by the Hare system is a purely deliberative body. He expressly
declares it to be radically unfit for legislation, which he proposes to
hand over to a commission appointed by the Crown. The value of his
testimony is very much discounted by this fact.

+Sir John Lubbock.+[1]--We have asserted that the proportional principle
should be applied to two parties only--the majority and the minority,
and that every section can then be represented. Mill and Hare thought
that no limit should be set except the size of the assembly. All the
recent advocates of the system take up an intermediate position.
Appreciating the serious objections against allowing independent
representation to a large number of small sections, Sir John Lubbock,
president of the English Proportional Representation Society, proposes
to constitute electorates returning only three to five members each,
thus confining representation to only three to five sections in each
electorate, and sacrificing to a great extent accurate proportional
representation. In his book on "Representation," he writes:--"I have
assumed that Parliament should be 'a mirror of the nation;' if the
object were to secure unity of action rather than freedom of discussion,
to form an executive body such as a Government, a Board of Directors, or
a Vestry, the case would be quite different. It is, however, I presume,
our wish that Parliament should be a deliberative assembly in which all
parties should be fairly represented." But to make Parliament a
deliberative body is to destroy its power to secure unity of action at
all, and to render it useless as a working machine.

+Miss Spence.+--An active campaign has for some time been carried on for
the adoption of the Hare system in Australia. Miss C.H. Spence, of South
Australia, was the pioneer reformer, and has laboured in the cause by
pen and voice for no less than forty years. Great credit is undoubtedly
due to Miss Spence for the clear and simple manner in which she has
expounded the system, and for the good work she has done in exposing the
defects of the present methods. Not only has she lectured in all parts
of Australia, but she has made visits to England, where she met Mr. Hare
and Sir John Lubbock, and also to America. But we may admire Miss
Spence's courage and devotion to principle without agreeing with her
conclusions.