o the federal spirit in promoting combinations of
States, that Congress, in 1842, made the single-membered electorate
obligatory on all the States.

In France it was adopted at the election for the Chamber of Deputies in
1885. The result as regards parties was about as good as with the single
electorate system. The Republicans and Conservative-Monarchists, whose
numbers entitled them to 311 and 257 seats respectively, actually
secured 366 and 202. But it was abandoned after a trial at this one
election.

The Block Vote was adopted in Australia for the election of ten
delegates from each colony to the Federal Convention. This was a work in
which all parties might fairly have joined together; and in most
colonies the people did select the best men, regardless of party. In
Victoria, however, the newspapers took on the _role_ of the "machine,"
and the ten candidates nominated by the _Age_ were elected. Many of the
supporters of the defeated candidates voted for some on the successful
list who just defeated their own favourites. Had this been foreseen they
would have thrown away these votes by giving them to those sure to be
elected or to those least likely to be elected. The injustice of forcing
each elector to vote for the whole ten is thus brought home. We are now
threatened with the adoption of the Block Vote for the Federal Senate,
and in some of the States for the House of Representatives as well; and
it is in the hope of preventing this wrong that the present book is
written.

So far we have been considering the Block Vote as applied to the
election of a legislature with two or more parties; we now propose to
consider it as applied to one party only. It is a matter of common
knowledge that the Block Vote, when used for such an election as that of
the committee of a club, works very well, and results in the return of
the candidates most in general favour with all sections. The reason is,
of course, that all sections work together, and members vote for the
best men, regardless of sectional lines. We will go further and say that
the Block Vote is by far the best method for such purposes, and is
superior even to Preferential Voting. In the first place it is free from
the defect that a small section can ensure the rejection of a general
favourite; and in the second place it rests on at least as secure a
theoretical basis. To fix our ideas, suppose there are ten candidates
for five members of a committee. Laplace assumed