d in such a way as to show that he has
fulfilled the obligation imposed upon him by law. The candidates of
the various parties are presented in lists, and the task of the
elector is merely to indicate his approval of one list for each of the
votes to which he is entitled. This he does by pencilling white spots
contained in the black squares at the head of the lists or against the
names of individual candidates. He may pencil only the spot at the (p. 544)
head of a list, thereby approving the order in which the candidates
have been arranged by the party managers; or, by marking spaces
opposite names of candidates, he may indicate his preference for a
different order.

[Footnote 763: Another interesting proposal in 1893
was that at the discretion of the crown a
legislative measure might be submitted to direct
popular vote. By reason of the fear that such a
scheme would vest in the crown an excess of power
the experiment was not tried.]

*598. How Seats Are Allotted.*--The process of the apportionment of
seats may be illustrated by a hypothetical case. Let it be assumed
that within a given arrondissement four lists of parliamentary
candidates have been presented and that at the polls an aggregate vote
of 33,000 is distributed as follows: Catholics, 16,000; Liberals,
9,000; Socialists, 4,500; and Christian Democrats, 3,500. Let it be
assumed, further, that the arrondissement is entitled to eight seats.
The total number of votes for each list is divided successively by the
numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, etc., and the results are arrayed thus:

_Christian_
_Catholic_ _Liberal_ _Socialist_ _Democrat_
_List_[764] _List_ _List_ _List_

Divided by 1 16,000 9,000 4,500 3,500
Divided by 2 8,000 4,500 2,250 1,750
Divided by 3 5,333 3,000 1,500 1,166
Divided by 4 4,000 2,250 1,125 875
Divided by 5 3,200 1,800 900 700

[Footnote 764: In point of fact, the lists as
published and as placed before the voter are
indicated merely by number.]

The eight highest numbers (eight being the number of seats to be
filled) are then arranged in order of magnitude as follows:

16,000