and (2) that the 230 legislative seats should be
distributed among thirty-three electoral districts, and should be
filled by deputies chosen according to the principle of (p. 594)
proportional representation. The introduction of this measure became
the signal for the appearance of a multitude of projects dealing with
the subject, most of which discarded proportional representation but
imposed still fewer restrictions upon the franchise. In the upper
house the Government's proposal, modified somewhat to meet the demands
of the agrarian interests, was passed by a vote of 93 to 50; but in
the lower chamber the substance of it was rejected by the narrow
margin of 116 to 108.

In view of the continued support of the upper house and the meagerness
of the opposition majority in the lower, the Government, at the
opening of the Riksdag of 1905, submitted afresh its suffrage bill
without material modification. Again there was a deluge of
counter-proposals, the most important of which was that introduced
March 18 by Karl Staaff, in behalf of the Liberals, to the effect that
every citizen in good standing of the age of twenty-four should be
entitled to one vote, and that the Chamber should consist of 165 rural
and 65 urban members, chosen in single-member constituencies. May 3
and 4 the Government's bill was carried in the upper house by a vote
of 93 to 50, but lost in the lower by a vote of 114 to 109. Upon
Staaff's project the lower house was almost equally divided.

*658. The Proposal of the Staaff Government, 1906.*--Upon the
resignation of the Lundeberg cabinet, October 28, 1905, following the
Norwegian separation, a Liberal ministry was made up by Staaff, and
when, January 15, 1906, the Riksdag reassembled in regular session the
new Government was ready to push to a conclusion the electoral
controversy. February 24 Premier Staaff introduced an elaborate
measure comprising an amplification of that which had been brought
forward by him a year earlier. By stipulating that at the age of
twenty-four every man of good character should have one vote the
scheme proposed enormously to enlarge the quota of enfranchised
citizens, and by apportioning representatives among the town and
country districts in the ratio of 65 to 165 it promised to reduce
materially the existing over-representation of the towns. It excluded
from the franchise bankrupts, persons under guardianship, and
defaulters in respect to military service; it