quence a
deterioration of the tone of politicians is likely to recur. Mr.
E.L. Godkin, an American writer, whose judgments are entitled to
respect, has expressed much the same opinion; "the delegate
theory," he says, "has been gaining ground in England, and in
America has almost completely succeeded in asserting its sway, so
that we have seen many cases in which members of Congress have
openly declared their dissent from the measures for which they
voted in obedience to their constituents."

It is one of the greatest merits of the proposed reform that this vexed
question of representation or delegation would be definitely settled.
For, although the area of independent action is enlarged, definite
limits are set to it.

+Possible Objections.+--We may now reply to some objections which have
been or might be urged. At the outset we would point out that the
critics nearly always base their objections on the conditions which have
prevailed in the past or do exist in the present chaotic state of
parties; and seldom appreciate the fact that they would lose force if a
better condition could be brought about. Let us take the Melbourne
_Argus_ report of Professor Nanson's objections:--

Professor Nanson pointed out that the scheme depended for its
efficacy on the existence of party government, which the Professor
was glad to say was being pushed more and more into the background.
He took a practical illustration from the defeat of the O'Loghlen
Government in 1883. In that case, after the election the Government
came back with a following of one-tenth. The other combined party
had nine-tenths, and of these a little more than half were Liberals
and a little less than half were Conservatives. He pointed out that
under Mr. Ashworth's system the Liberals would have got the whole
of the Opposition seats and the Conservatives none, whereas under
any intelligent modification of the Hare system the parties would
have been returned in the proportion of five Liberals, four
Conservatives, and one O'Loghlenite. The system contained the evils
of the _scrutin de liste_ doubled by being applied to two parties,
the evils of the Limited Vote, which had been condemned by all
leading statesmen, and it played into the hands of these who were
best able to organize.

Take the latter statements first. The evil of the Block Vot