d to rule where religions only or classes only are
represented. The questions then arise--What is the correct basis of
representation? How should the people be induced to vote? And the answer
is clearly that the people should be induced to vote on questions of
general public policy, on the leading questions of the day which decide
the party lines, and that, therefore, _the policies of the two main
parties should form the primary basis of proportional representation_.
But the Hare system, by taking individual candidates as the basis of
representation, induces the elector to vote on any basis or on sectional
lines. It promotes dissension instead of repressing it, and instead of
encouraging all sections to express their opinion as to what is best for
the general well-being, it encourages them to express their opinion as
to what they imagine to be best for themselves. Public opinion expressed
on these lines would be worse than useless. But Professor Nanson thinks
that the electors would still have regard for the main parties, even
though they grouped themselves into small sections. He declares that
"any party amounting to anything like a quota would not only have two
candidates of its own--one Liberal and one Conservative--but would also
be wooed by candidates of both leading parties." We may well question
whether factions would trouble themselves about the main parties; but,
granting the assumption, the small parties might just as well be single
electorates as far as the main parties are concerned. The Liberal
candidates might be successful in all of them, and the Conservatives be
unrepresented. The peculiar feature is that the defeated Conservatives
are expected to transfer their votes to the Liberals to make up the
quotas for the small parties!

The third claim is that electors should have perfect freedom to vote
exactly as they please, and yet Professor Nanson, in condemning Mr.
Hare's original scheme, has denied that they are free to vote as
faddists; but he still holds that they are free to vote on any basis if
only they form one-sixth to one-twelfth of an electorate. Thus the
amount of freedom is variable and a matter of opinion. Now, we
altogether deny that electors should be given the opportunity to
subordinate the national interests to factious interests. Just as the
faddist argument is fatal to Mr. Hare's original scheme, so the
splitting up into factions is fatal to Professor Nanson's present
scheme. Where is th