Proportional Representation

Proportional Representation

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Title: Proportional Representation A Study in Methods of Election
Author: John H. Humphreys
Release Date: January, 2006 [EBook #9630] [Yes, we are more than
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PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION ***

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PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION
A STUDY IN METHODS OF ELECTION
BY
JOHN H. HUMPHREYS
HON. SECRETARY, PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION
SOCIETY
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
THE RT. HON. LORD COURTNEY OF PENWITH
_First Published in 1911_
TO THE MEMORY OF
CATHERINE HELEN SPENCE
OF ADELAIDE
AN UNWEARIED WORKER IN THE CAUSE OF REAL

REPRESENTATION
INTRODUCTION
BY LORD COURTNEY OF PENWITH
I believe this book will generally be welcomed as opportune.
Proportional Representation has made very rapid, almost startling
advances in recent years. In one shape or another it has been adopted in
many countries in Northern Europe, and there is a prospect of a most
important extension of this adoption in the reform of the parliamentary
institutions of France. Among ourselves, every political writer and
speaker have got some inkling of the central principle of proportional
representation, and not a few feel, sometimes with reluctance, that it
has come to stay, that it will indeed be worked into our own system
when the inevitable moment arrives for taking up again the reform of
the House of Commons. They know and confess so much among
themselves, but they want to be familiarized with the best machinery
for working proportional representation, and they would not be sorry to
have the arguments for and against its principles once more clearly
examined so that they may be properly equipped for the reception of
the coming change. This little book of Mr. Humphreys is just what they
desire. The author has no doubt about his conclusions, but he goes
fairly and with quite sufficient fulness through the main branches of the
controversy over proportional representation, and he explains the
working of an election under the system we must now regard as the one
most likely to be adopted among us. His qualifications for his work are
indeed rare, and his authority in a corresponding measure high. A
convinced adherent of proportional representation, he stimulated the
revival of the Society established to promote it. He was the chief
organizer of the enlarged illustrative elections we have had at home. He
has attended elections in Belgium and again in Sweden, and when the
time came for electing Senators in the colonies of South Africa, and
Municipal Councils in Johannesburg and Pretoria, the local
governments solicited his assistance in conducting them, and put on
record their obligations for his help. The reader can have no better
guide in argument, no more experienced hand in the explanation of

machinery, and if I add that Mr. Humphreys has done his work with
complete mastery of his subject and with conspicuous clearness of
exposition, I need say no more in recommendation of his book.
It may be objected that the Royal Commission which issued its Report
last spring, did not recommend the incorporation of proportional
representation into our electoral system. This is most true. One member
indeed (Lord Lochee) did not shrink from this conclusion, but his
colleagues were unable to report that a case had been made out for the
adoption "here and now" of proportional representation. Their
hesitancy and the reasons they advanced as justifying it must lead many
to a conclusion opposite to their own. They themselves are indeed
emphatic in pressing the limitation "here and now" as qualifying their
verdict. They wish it to be most distinctly understood that they have no
irresistible objection to proportional representation. They indeed openly
confess that conditions may arise among ourselves at some future time
which would appear to be not necessarily distant, when the balance