from the electoral system which sometimes deprives the minority in Wales
of all representation in the House of Commons. When in 1906 the fortunes
of the Welsh Conservatives reached their lowest ebb, the latter numbered
36 per cent. of the voters, whilst in former elections the minority
sometimes exceeded 40 per cent. Had Welsh Conservatives, during the last
two decades, been adequately represented in the House of Commons, would
not our conception of Wales from the political point of view have been
considerably modified, would not the process of political unification
have been made more complete?

The non-representation of minorities in Belgium accentuated the racial
religious and language differences between Flanders and Wallony.
Flanders was represented by Catholics only; the French-speaking
districts by Liberals and Socialists. With proportional representation
members of all three parties are returned in both areas, and this result
has brought in its train a great national advantage, the political
consolidation of Belgium. Another example of the disintegrating effects
of the disfranchisement of minorities is to be seen in the American
Civil War. A committee of the United States Senate unanimously reported
in 1869 that this war might have been averted had the minorities in the
North and South been duly represented in Congress. In the words of the
report the absence of minority representation "in the States of the
South when rebellion was plotted, and when open steps were taken to
break the Union was unfortunate, for it would have held the Union men of
those States together and have given them voice in the electoral
colleges.... Dispersed, unorganized, unrepresented, without due voice
and power, they could interpose no effectual resistance to secession and
to civil war."

_Defective representation in municipal bodies_.]