The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-11 00:00:00

The Metropolitan Elections.

A special meeting of the National Association for
the Promotion of Social Science was held in Adam-
street, Adelphi, last evening, to hear Mr. Thomas
Hare read a paper " On such an organisation of the
metropolitan elections as would call into exercise
the greatest amount of the knowledge and judg-
ment of the constituencies, and as far as possible
discourage all corrupt and pernicious influences."
The chair was taken by Lord Stanley, M.P. The
company was limited, and comprised nearlyas many
ladies as gentlemen. Mr. Hare, in the paper read
by him on this occasion, stated that even when the
metropolitan seats in Parliament are contested, little
more than half the constituencies can be induced to
vote. His object was to establish a mode of voting
which would make the exercise of the franchise a far
more interesting duty, as well as a more valuable
right, than it was now felt to be. London, West-
minster, Southwark, Marylebone, Finsbury, Lam-
beth, the Tower Hamlets, and Greenwich returned
18 members. With these he would include the
members for Middlesex and East Surrey, and so
make the number of " metropolitan" members 22.
To enable the ten metropolitan constituencies to
select representatives his first step would be to invite
all who believed themselves, or whose friends be-
lieved, that they possessed qualities which would
render their services useful in Parliament to become
candidates. This would be done by such a law as
the following :-Ist. A candidate for the metropo-
litan constituencies, or any of them, on paying a
sum of £5O to the Chamberlain of London (to be
applied in the payment of the expenses of the elec-
tion) should be liable to no further charge ; and a
list of the candidates being made, such payment
should be published day by day. This limit of the
necessary charge would not affect any expenses
which the candidates might severally think proper
to incur in making known their principles or claims
by meetings, addresses, or otherwise. Mr. Hare
thought it probable that for the. 22 seats there might
be 50 or 100 candidates—including some of the most
eminent men of the time in science, in political life,
in public labours and literature, in naval and mili-
tary service, in manufacture and commerce, the ener-
getic promoters of home and foreign trade, and colo-
nial enterprise. Every vote should be given on paper
specifying the name or names of the candidate or can-
didates for whom it was given, such names being
numbered successively 1,2, 3, &c., and the vote
should be valid for one candidate only, according to
such order. The names of the more eminent or
popular candidates might be placed at the head of
many thousand voting papers, and a waste of votes
would follow if this consequence were not averted,
thus—Every candidate for whom the' number of
votes given should be equal to 1.22 d part of the total
number of votes polled should be elected, and the
papers exceeding that number on which his name
occurred should be available for the next can-
didates named on them respectively, and when no
more candidates were found to have such 22d part,
the remainder of the 22 seats should be filled by the
candidates having the highest number of votes less
than such 22d part. The votes not distributed under
Rule 3 should be appropriated to the members re-
spectively
whose names stood highest on the respec-
tive voting papers, and the entire number of votes
taken for every member respectively should be then I
set apart as his special constituency, and the four I
members having the greatest number in the city of
London should he returned for London; the two hav-
ing the greatest number in the city of Westminster
for Westminster, the two having the greatest num-
ber in the borough of Southwark for Southwark, and
the like as to the other constituencies respectively,
and those (if any) who should fail to be returned
under this rule should be returned in that election
as an additional member or additional members for
the constituencies in which they had polled the
greatest number of votes. The reading of the paper
was received with applause. When Mr. Hare had
concluded, Mr. Dunne suggested that the paper
should be referred to the committee for the purpose
of having the details of the plan considered, as he
thought there was some difficulty in understanding
how it was to be worked out. Mr. Torrens observed
that a somewhat similar system to that proposed by
Mr. Hare had been tried in Australia, where it was
given up as a failure. He doubted, too, whether the
object aimed at in the paper was desirable. From an
experience in countries in which universal suffrage
prevailed, he held that the greatest curse which could
fall on this country would be to have such members
of the House of Commons returned by mere num-
bers, without reference to education, intellectual ac-
quirements, and the possession of property. A
gentleman present remarked that some experience in
the working of voting for Parliamentary candidates
by papers would be desirable before it was gene-
rally adopted. Lord Stanley was of opinion that
by allowing the use of voting papers in the Uni-
versities the Legislature had not intended to,try an
experiment or pave the way for their use by other
constituencies. The constituencies of the Univer-
sities were very different from those of boroughs or
counties. It had always struck him very forcibly
that among ordinary constituencies voting papers
would facilitate the practice of intimidation and
bribery. Mr. Chadwick advocated the use of voting
papers. Mr. Hare said he proposed that a voting
paper should be taken to the poll by the elector
himself, guarded with all the precautions which now
surrounded him. As his plan would enable every
elector to act independently of those around him, it
would lessen the chances of bribery. Sir E. Wilmot
believed that we did not require a change of system,
but determined action on the part of the Legisla-
ture to put down bribery and intimidation. Mr.
Stuart Mill thought that several of the objections to
Mr. Hare's plan arose from the gentleman who made
those objections not having studied it. The great
beauty and merit of Mr. Hare's system was that it
would not leave the election to mere political opi-
nion—to the three shades of opinion, Whig, Tory,
and Radical. The voters would have the choice of
the whole country—of all the eminent men in the
country. The clubs would no longer be able to send
a mere booby with £3,000 or £4,000 in his pocket
If they did not send down a man of merit, the elec-
tors would choose a man of merit for themselves.
At present the Liberals must vote for the Liberal
candidate, and the Tories for the Tory candidate,
though each of the two candidates might be nothing
more than a booby. It was enough to put one out
of temper to hear intelligent gentlemen say they
could not understand Mr. Hare's plan. It was not
anything like so difficult as the multiplication table.
Mr. F. Hill said the plan was not a new one. It
had been put in operation in a literary society 30
years ago by his late father, and had worked well.
Lord Stanley did not think it would be wise of any
one to pronounce a final opinion on Mr. Hare's
plan at present. It was new to the public mind, and
required to be considered. With respect to the ex-
penses of elections, he believed as long as there were
wealthy men who desired a seat in Parliament, all
the means likely to promote success would be used
—all the means which the law allowed, and, he was
afraid, all the means which the law did not allow.
Simple and clear as the plan was to Mr. Mill, he
confessed that he did not think it was either simple
or clear to those who viewed it for the first time.
He was afraid it would enormously increase the
power of the great London political clubs, which
now, to a certain extent, worked the elections
throughout England. Mr. Hare having replied, the
thanks of the meeting were given to him for his
paper, which was ordered to be printed and circu-
lated among the members. A vote of thanks to
Lord Stanley closed the proceedings.