_The Limited Vote_.]

The first of these experiments was known as the Limited Vote--a method
of voting which involves the creation of constituencies returning
several members but limits the elector in the number of his votes; the
elector is only permitted to vote for a number of candidates which is
less than the number of members to be elected, whilst he may not give
more than one vote to any one candidate. The Limited Vote was first
proposed by Mr. Mackworth Praed in Committee on the Reform Bill of 1831,
and the proposal was renewed by him in the following year in the Bill
which became the great Reform Act of 1832. Up to that time the
constituencies of England returned two members apiece, with the
exception of the City of London, which returned four, and of five
boroughs each returning one member. The Reform Bill provided that a
third member should be added to the representation of each of seven
counties, and that certain other counties should be divided into two or
more constituencies, each returning two members. Mr. Praed proposed to
drop this subdivision of counties, although permitting the additional
members to be given, and proposed that in constituencies returning
three or four members an elector should not be allowed to vote for more
than two candidates. The arguments advanced by Mr. Praed are worth
quoting. "He was of opinion," said he, "that it was an error in the
original construction of the Representative Assembly of this country to
allow any person to have more than one vote, for, by the present system,
it was frequently the case that the same persons, constituting perhaps a
bare majority of the electors, returned both members.... In the present
case, if large counties were not divided each freeholder would have four
votes. He wished to restrict them to two, and he thought that this
object might be attained even without the division of counties by