requirements of a representative chamber. Large changes have again and
again been made in consequence of such recognition since the day when
Burke alleged that its virtue lay in its being "the express image of the
nation." At the close of the eighteenth century, when these words were
spoken, it could be alleged with apparent truth that 306 members were
virtually returned by the influence of 160 persons.[7] The
consciousness that such a House could not be the express image of the
nation produced the Reform Bill of 1832, and a further recognition that
a still larger number of the governed must be associated with the
Government, produced the further changes of 1867 and of 1884, embodied
in measures significantly called Acts for the Representation of the
People. These changes, by conferring the franchise upon an ever-widening
circle of citizens, have, from one point of view, rendered the House of
Commons more fully representative of the nation at large. But even
whilst the process of extending the franchise was still in operation, it
was recognized that such extensions were not in themselves sufficient to
create a House of Commons that could claim to be a true expression of
the national will. The test of a true system of representation, laid
down by Mill in _Representative Government_, has never been successfully
challenged. It still remains the last word upon the subject, and, until
the House of Commons satisfies that test with reasonable approximation,
it will always be open to the charge that it is not fully
representative, and that in consequence its decisions lack the necessary
authority. "In a really equal democracy," runs the oft-quoted phrase,
"any and every section would be represented, not disproportionately, but
proportionately. A majority of the electors would always have a majority
of the representatives; but a minority of electors would always have a
minority of the representatives. Man for man, they would be as fully
represented as the majority." [8]