hem a total
majority of 152, instead of the 72 to which they were entitled.

Recent elections for the United States Congress are shown by Professor
Commons to present striking inequalities. At the election for the 51st
Congress, 1888, the Republicans polled 5,348,379, and the Democrats
5,502,581. But the Republican minority actually secured 164 seats
against 161, a majority of 3, and were enabled to carry the McKinley
tariff law. For the 52nd Congress, 1890, the Republicans, with 4,217,266
votes, only elected 88, while the Democrats, with 4,974,450 votes,
elected 235, and the Populists, with 354,217 votes, elected 9
Congressmen. The Democratic majority should have been only 2, instead of
138. Compared with the 51st Congress, their proportion of the popular
vote increased only 1 per cent., but their proportion of the
representatives increased 21 per cent. It required 47,923 votes to elect
a Republican, 44,276 to elect a Populist, and only 21,078 to elect a
Democrat.

To come nearer home, did not Mr. Reid return to power at the 1898
election in New South Wales although the Opposition polled a majority of
15,000 against him? The last election in Victoria illustrates nothing so
much as the chaotic state of parties, brought about by newspaper
influence in promoting false lines of division. No less than 30 seats,
representing 81,857 votes, were contested only by candidates who
professed to be Ministerialists of various shades. Of 52 seats contested
by Ministerial and Opposition candidates, each party secured 26; but the
Ministerialists paid 59,255 votes for their seats as against 44,327 cast
for the Opposition. 13 seats were uncontested, 9 Ministerial and 4
Opposition, giving a total of 65 members to the Ministerial party and 30
members to the Opposition.

The arbitrary and haphazard character of these results is obvious. It
would be entirely removed by the reform. Every election would reflect
the true feeling of the country; the right of the majority to rule would
be rendered certain, and the right of the minority to a fair hearing
would be assured. Taking the country as a whole, the Ministerialists
would pay almost exactly the same number of votes for each seat as the
Opposition. In each separate electorate the accuracy would not be so
great, but the rectification of even this slight and unavoidable
inequality would, instead of being arbitrary, be subject to the laws of
chance.

+Ineffective Votes.+--Under the present