The Evening Star SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2262, 6 August 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 1870.

A more difficult subject to deal with than the re-adjustment of the boundaries of Electoral Districts can scarcely be imagined. If area be adopted as the basis, half a dozen members might be returned by nearly as many elector’s. If population be the basis, then, practically, the centres of population, the principal towns in the Provinces, would outvote the outlying districts. We do not know that this would be matter for present regret. Experience has not led to the conclusion that the seclusion of a country life is favorable to enlightened social or political views. On the contrary, it would seem that its comparative isolation induces a concentration of selfishness, which tends to narrowing political or personal effort to class or even local advantage. Pro bably, from this cause, as much as from the absence of opportunity for expansion of mind through intercourse with

men, is owing the obsfvucfiveness to progress tliat so often marks the opinions of rural members. In all . countries governed by representative assemblies this is found to be the case. In England, notwithstanding the advantages of rapid intercommunication, the country districts almost invariably sent members pledged to protect the farming interests, and unable to perceive that what was advantageous to other classes must ultimately equally benefit them. And, in other countries, the same results take place—the man who leads Jit the parish vestry, or who pens queer letters for the local journal, who sets up for the philosopher of the district especially if, with these gifts, he can estimate the weight of a bullock by his eye, or win prizes with first-class horses and wellselected ploughmen at agricultural shows—is pronounced “ a fit and “ proper person to represent the dis- “ trict in Parliament.” Unfortunately in these times these qualifications do not fit men to grasp the questions of the day. A wider range of view is now necessary. A knowledge of principles is required that could be dispensed with in old times, when intercourse between nations was nearly restricted to the battles they fought and the alliances for offence and defence that were formed. Much of the legislation of the present day has reference to the extension of commercial, fiscal, and political relations with other countries, and requires for its equitable adjustment intimate knowledge of the , minuthe of each of these wide and complicated subjects. Hitherto, dealing with them lias been remitted to the few men in each Parliament more or less capable of forming an Executive, and the attention of the rest has been devoted to supporting or opposing them in office. It seems impossible to avoid these difficulties in the present state of the Colony, In very rare instances are the fittest men in society elected, for not uncommonly, though they can weigh the fitness or unfitness of other men, they do not care to estimate their own, and are content to be free from the harass, excitement, and disappointment of political life. The favorite cure now-a-days is the representation of minorities. Whatever the merits or demerits of the proposal, and there is much to be said in favor of it, it is a question for the future. That the minority, on questions of theory, is very commonly right, at least for a long period, is unfortunately too true ') but since all questions have, from time immemorial, been decided by majorities, the justice of representing a minority has not yet become a part of the popular creed. Clearer and more diffused light must he tin-own upon the subject before it can become part of our representative system. Just as distant is the prospect of any reform in another direction. It is plain that neither territorial nor numerical representation adequately provides what is necessary. If miners are in a majority in a rural district, the farming interest is outvoted; if farmers are the more numerous, the miners are neglected. In either case the mercantile and manufacturing classes are not considered; still less the more highlycultivated and scientific. Our system of selecting members of Parliament is the same rough-and-tumble plan that used to guide our ancestors in choosing a general. The man who could bend a bow or hurl a stone with the greatest force, was often chosen, irrespective of another’s superior mental gifts that through strategy might have better fitted him for a leader in battle. And so with us ; a man with one idea, and that a wrong one, very often misrepresents the very interest he was sent to advocate. We think it is Mr Mill who suggests the very sensible plan of representing interests rather than population or area. The necessity for some such plan is forced upon us by the anomalies with which every attempt at fiscal changes is attended. In those proposed by Mr Vogel there is much that is crude and contradictory. One industry is attempted to be set up, and another is neglected. That which might be followed with immediate and present advantage is deprived of protection, while that which has scarcely an existence has abundant encouragement ; and those who are mainly affected, the consumers, are altogether left out of consideration. These crotchets of an otherwise able man would be corrected were there a representation of interests, for so intimately are they interwoven that no preponderance would be allowed to be given to any one at the expense of the rest.