ple of indirect election is under a cloud everywhere, most of all
in the United States. Australia rejected it in 1900, and the South
Africans, while giving it partial recognition in the Senate, made the
expedient provisional.

_The Lower House_.--The Lower House might very well be elected on the
same franchise and from the same constituencies as at present, subject
to any small redistributional modifications necessitated by changes of
population. This is certainly a matter which Ireland should have full
power to settle for itself subsequently.

Lord Courtney's proposals for Proportional Representation[179] merit
close consideration and possess great attractions, especially in view of
their very favourable reception from Nationalists in Ireland. My own
feeling is that such novel proposals may overload a Bill which, however
simply it be framed, will provoke very long and very warm discussion. If
the system were to be regarded by the present minority as a real
safeguard for their interests, its establishment, on tactical grounds
alone, would be worth any expenditure of time and trouble; but, if they
accept the assumption that existing parties in Ireland are going to be
stereotyped under Home Rule, and then point to the paucity of Unionists
in all parts of Ireland but the north-east of Ulster, they can
demonstrate that no _practicable_ enlargement of constituencies could
seriously influence the results of an election. My own view, already
expressed, is that, provided we give Ireland sufficient freedom, wholly
new parties must, within a short time, inevitably be formed in Ireland,
and the old barriers of race and religion be broken down, and,
therefore, that all expedients devised on the contrary hypothesis will
eventually prove to be needless and might even prove unpopular and
inconvenient. On the other hand, merits are claimed, with a great show
of reason, for Proportional Representation, which are altogether
independent of the protection of minorities from oppression. It is
claimed that the system brings forward moderate men of all shades of
opinion, checks party animus, and steadies the policy of the State. But
I think that a free Ireland should be the judge of these merits. At
present the bulk of the people do not understand the subject, and need
much education before they can appreciate the issue.

Meanwhile, the conventional party system, based on conventional
constituencies, will, to say the least, do no more harm