This page has been validated.

6

bers, only 1-4th, and so on, we see that the fewer and larger the Districts, i.e. the greater the number of Members which, on an average, each District returns, the fairer the result: till we come to the other extreme, where the whole Kingdom is formed into one District returning 660 Members, in which case only 1-661th of the whole body of Electors would be left unrepresented. A general Election, with so gigantic a District, would of course be impracticable: and probably Districts, returning 6 Members each, would be about as large as could be conveniently dealt with: but very small Districts should be, as far as possible, avoided.

I find, in the Standard for October 10, 1884, a very good instance of the injustice done by sub-dividing large electoral Districts. "The Birmingham Conservatives are, a Correspondent telegraphs, keenly discussing the Government Redistribution Scheme. The clause which apportions 6 Members to Birmingham gives much dissatisfaction in Conservative circles. It is contended that, if the borough is to be divided into three electoral Districts, each District to have 2 Members; the Liberals could so manipulate the voters as to be