Representation Society, 24 April 1907.]

[Footnote 11: Eighty Club, 25 July 1910.]

[Footnote 12: Before the Union.]

[Footnote 13: _Report on Municipal Representation Bill (H. L.)_, 1907
(132).]




CHAPTER IV

THE REPRESENTATION OF MINORITIES


The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority that
succeeds by force or fraud in carrying elections. To break off that
point is to avert the danger. The common system of representation
perpetuates the danger. Unequal electorates afford no security to
majorities. Equal electorates give none to minorities. Thirty-five years
ago it was pointed out that the remedy is proportional representation.
It is profoundly democratic, for it increases the influence of thousands
who would otherwise have no voice in the Government; and it brings men
more near an equality by so contriving that no vote shall be wasted, and
that every voter shall contribute to bring into Parliament a member of
his own opinion."--LORD ACTON

The disfranchisement of minorities, noted in the two previous chapters