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existing in America; but the objection which likened the proposed mode of polling to the ballot, or secret voting, was the strangest of all! The suffrage has never been exercised with greater publicity, or in a more solemn and deliberate manner. The vote is given first under the eye of a magistrate and neighbour of the voter, whose attention is especially called to it for the purpose of attestation; it is then published with the name of the voter, in the hall, or court of the Vice-Chancellor or returning officer, and it is finally recorded in a documentary form, always open to reference for public purposes. Certainly a vote thus given is far less likely to "escape observation" than a vote polled at any ordinary hustings in the presence of one or two pollclerks, and perhaps a few cabmen or idlers, loitering about the polling-booth. new process, in fact, combines all the great requisites for the exercise of such a duty by a conscientious man-an opportunity for quiet and deliberate resolve and for uncontrolled and uninterrupted action, terminated by such a permanent record of the thing done as is calculated to attach to it a sense of lasting responsibility.

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It has been observed that the measure met with but little of the aid, or of the hostility of party; but it would probably be incorrect to say that no part of that support, or opposition, arose from anticipations of the effect it might hereafter have in party contests. The action of non-resident members in the local business of the universities has not always been in accordance with the views, or opinions, of the more intellectual of the resident body, and there is little doubt that it would be better that such business, which has no analogy with the choice of the representatives in Parliament, should be more exclusively reserved to the resident members. It is possible, however, that some of those who, in Parliament, voted for or against the Bill, might have been influenced by the supposition, that the country clergy would be found less liberal in their political creed, and that the reception of their votes with greater facility might

strengthen the Tory, or weaken the Whig, party in a future contest. If such an apprehension existed on the side of the Liberals, it is to be lamented that, instead of opposing the Bill, they had not removed the objection by an amendment, which would have effectually negatived any tendency that it could have to afford a triumph to one party, at the expense of the other, and would, at the same time, have been a further and a great step in political method. The only addition necessary to Mr. Dodson's Bill, to have rendered the representation of the members of the universities as nearly perfect as the present restrictions in our electoral system will permit, was a clause providing that no vote should be definitively taken for more than one candidate, but that every elector might name contingently, in his voting-paper, as many candidates as he should think proper, numbering them in successive order-the vote being taken for the second, only in case the first should, without it, obtain half the number of votes polled in the university at that election.1 In this method no vote is lost. If 4,000 electors should poll, and a favourite candidate should have 3,000 votes, all the plumpers, or voting-papers in which he is alone named, would be first appropriated to him, and then so many of the last votes received at the poll (all being numbered as they are entered), as shall be sufficient to make up 2,000, and complete his election. The surplus would then be polled for the second name on each paper; and the candidate having the majority of the remaining 2,000 votes would be the other successful candidate. Under such a system the difficulties, or apprehensions, expressed by Sir Stafford Northcote, and Sir William Heathcote, as to the use of the voting-papers, in the shape of plumpers or as split votes, or in cases where new candidates come

1 See a paper "On the application of the method of ascertainment of the votes of majorities in an exhaustive manner." "Transactions of the Statistical Society of London," September, 1860, pp. 327–345.

forward at the last moment, would wholly disappear. After the appropriation of the voting papers in which the successful candidates were the first or second names to such successful candi

dates, many of the residue of the voting papers, having neither of the successful names at the head, might yet have one or other of such names lower on the paper-the elector, as a compromise of opinion, contemplating the possibility that his favourite candidate might not be chosen, and, in that contingency, thus expressing his willingness to be represented by the candidate he has placed below. In such a case, the vote would be appropriated to the successful candidate who shall stand highest on the voting paper; and thus every elector in the university might not improbably be represented. It is difficult to suppose that any elector would object to such a method of choice, unless he should reason thus: "True, I perceive "that by this system I, and those who "think with me, would be tolerably "certain of being able to elect a repre"sentative whose opinions coincide "with our own; but that is not what

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we want. We wish to exclude all "who do not agree with us from any "part in the representation of the "university. In fact, we wish to ex"tinguish the expression of all opinions "but our own."

The system of contingent voting, or of voting by the exhaustive majorities of large electoral communities, in the place of smaller and arbitrary geogra phical divisions, by which the minorities are everywhere delivered, tied and bound and helpless, into the hands of the numerical majorities of each petty locality, is, of course, applicable as well to other constituencies as to the Universities. The resort, without a word of inquiry or remonstrance in either House, to an arbitrary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire into two parts, with no other object than that of

1 See this provision considered and worked out in the form of a proposed law, "Treatise on the Election of Representatives," pp. 218, 219, new edit. Longman, 1861.

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representation, or, in other words, the formation of new electoral districts, having neither historical origin nor local attachment, and to which, when they are plainly described as electoral districts, the English mind has not unnatural repugnance, can be accounted for only by supposing that the method of contingent voting, with its simplicity and power of satisfying all the great objects of representation, has never been really understood, or that our leading statesmen cannot be brought to look upon parliamentary elections in any other light than as machinery to be adapted less to the purpose of obtaining the highest expression of the national thought, than to that of placing and sustaining a particular ministry or party in office. cannot be too often repeated that the true course at this day is the union of districts, rather than their geographical division the grouping of neighbouring places together, so that the members to be chosen, and the candidates from amongst whom the choice is to be made, shall be as numerous as possible, and thus, by offering to every instructed mind the best embodiment of the opinions with which he sympathises, to awaken the dormant energies of those classes which our present system renders apathetic. It is satisfactory to find that this method has awakened attention in Germany as well as in this country, that it has been powerfully advocated in Adelaide and Melbourne, and made the basis of an important measure, submitted to the Legislature of Sydney, and that, before the great struggle in America had suspended the work of internal improvement, its application to the amelioration of the representative system of the United States was the subject of consideration by some of the most profound lawyers and thinkers in Pennsylvania. In order to familiarize the public mind with this system, Mr. Mill suggests an effort to obtain its introduction "experimentally in some limited field, "such as the municipal election of some great town." He adds that, "an opportunity was lost, when the decision was

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"taken to divide the West Riding of "Yorkshire, for the purpose of giving "it four members, instead of trying the "new principle of leaving the consti"tuency undivided, and allowing a "candidate to be returned, or obtaining "either a first or secondary vote, a "fourth-part of the whole number of "votes given." And he thus concludes: "The day when such a partial "trial shall be sanctioned by Parlia"ment, will, I believe, inaugurate

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a new era of Parliamentary Reform; "destined to give to Representative "Government a shape fitted to its "mature and triumphant period, when "it shall have passed through the mili"tant stage in which alone the world "has yet seen it."1

One word more on the University Act. A time may come when minorities amongst the electors of either University may neither hold the political creed of the favourite candidates of the majority, nor find even in any competing candidate a fair exponent of their opinions. Even if nothing be done to introduce contingent voting, the Act affords to such electors the means not only of expressing their dissent from the views of one candidate, without adopting those of the other; but it enables them to put forward, without cost to him or to themselves, the name of the man whom they may regard as the most worthy, whether he do or do not offer himself to the constituency. It had been thought by many that, after a poll had been demanded, no vote could be given for any new candidate, or for any other person not previously nominated; but this is declared not to be the law a solution of the question which contrasts the free genius of our ancient electoral system with our modern restrictions and refinements. In borough elections, as now conducted, few are willing to encounter the personal labour, the derision of an ignorant crowd, or the pecuniary cost which is involved in the task of putting in nomination one, however eminent he may

1 "Considerations on Representative Government," p. 160, second edition.

be, whose success is hopeless, merely as a protest against the otherwise asserted unanimity of the constituency in the election of candidates who are content to be the delegates and creatures of some knot of persons, probably more ignorant and unscrupulous than themselves. In university elections there are probably many causes which would equally deter a voter from venturing singly, and on his individual judgment, to propose as his representative, one, however fitted for the office, whose nomination had not received the countenance to some considerable extent of other electors. But, on his voting paper, as soon as it becomes admissible, it is open to every elector of the University, without difficulty or fear of rebuke, to put forward the name of the statesman in whom he has the greatest confidence. This habit, if adopted by earnest and thoughtful men, in the circumstances which have been supposed, will be significant of their dissatisfaction with the narrow scope now afforded to individual electors, and such an habitual intimation of the opinion of educated persons will scarcely fail to lead, at no distant day, to the establishment of a system more truly liberal and wise.

In conceding to every elector the freedom of individual action, enabling him to select his representative, without any control or dictation of club or clique, but according to his own individual judgment, from those whom he may deem the best and noblest amongst his countrymen who devote themselves to public duties, we respond, in no small degree, to the urgent necessity which a philosophical statesman, with far-seeing wisdom, has pointed out as existing "for some provision to meet the "increased demands of the collective life "in general; to guarantee us, as far as may "be, against the increased abuses which "will attend the increase of the moving "power of human life, by combining "therewith an enhanced moral sense, de"riving new strength from new and suit"able principles,-against the idola fori "which society engenders, and the delu"sions which they weave around us,

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"against the heavy visitations to which, "in communities, we become liable, "through the conduct of others over "whom we have no control, and to se"cure to us the realization of the benefi"cial effects of civil reason: lastly, to pre"clude the fatal operation of that ten"dency to diminish responsibility and to "impair the strength (so feeble at the "best) of the principle of individual "morality, which we have seen to be"long to combination as such, and which, "if it be not counteracted, may poison the 66 very sources of action and of life."

Nor does such a principle of choice interfere with the scheme of modern parliamentary government, evolved by the antagonism of party, which some of our political leaders insist upon as indispensable to the working of the constitution. When every voter has been invited, and has applied himself to the task of selecting the member he shall deem the worthiest of public trust, it may be safely left to the representatives thus chosen, to form such associations, and attach themselves to such parties as, in the progress of events, shall appear to them best for the public welfare,

"Not clinging to some ancient saw;

Not master'd by some modern term;
Not swift nor slow to change, but firm;
And in its season bring the law,
That from Discussion's lips may fall

With Life, that, working strongly, binds-
Set in all lights by many minds,
To close the interests of all."

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It may be remarked, in conclusion, that the method of voting by exhaustive majorities, and the advantages, moral and political, which it promises, have not been opposed by any serious argument. It has been encountered with nothing but the sneer that it is "Utopian," or "worthy of Laputa." On this objection, a powerful writer of our day lately gave utterance to some appropriate words. "I believe," he said, "the quiet admission that we are all of us so 'ready to make, that, because things have "long been wrong, it is impossible they "should ever be right, is one of the most "fatal sources of misery and crime from "which this world suffers. Whenever 'you hear a man dissuading you from "attempting to do well, on the ground "that perfection is Utopian,' beware of "that man. Cut the word out of your "dictionary altogether. There is no need "for it. Things are either possible or impossible; you can easily determine "which, in any given state of human science. If the thing is impossible, you "need not trouble yourselves about it; "if possible, try for it. It is very Uto"pian to hope for the entire doing away "of drunkenness and misery out of the "Canongate; but the Utopianism is not our business-the work is. It is Uto"pian to hope to give every child in the 'kingdom the knowledge of God from "its youth; but the Utopianism is not "our business, the work is."

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TEN DAYS IN THE CRIMEA.

It has been thought that there are many who will read with interest the following account of a visit to the Crimea, in the summer of 1861, by one who passed the winter of 1854-55 in attendance on the hospitals at Constantinople. A. P. S.

SEVEN years ago we left England to minister to the wants of our army in the East.

After a stormy tedious passage in a French steamer, which, but for the emergency of the times, would have been consigned to the docks long before, and whose unseaworthy state added

greatly to the sufferings of all on board, we anchored, one cold December day, in the Golden Horn.

Each place had its own share of the consequences of war, increasing in magnitude as the seat of war was approached. At Constantinople there was an everincreasing excitement, occasioned by the coming and going to and from the Crimea. The harbour was crowded with vessels of all kinds. The streets were thronged with Europeans. The

hotels were filled with anxious wives and clasped their hands, unable to utter who had accompanied their husbands so far; and there was the daily intercourse with the hospitals at Scutari.

Our destination for six weeks was Therapia. It is unnecessary to enter into the circumstances which detained us there. It is enough to say what it was to see the crowded war-steamers pass constantly under our windows, backwards and forwards to the Black Sea. Once only did we look upon its waters. Once we went to the top of the Giant's Mountain, and felt then that nothing intervened between us and the one point of interest.

In January we began work at the hospital at Koulalee. There we realized what protracted war was. The battles were over. It was not the wounded we were called upon to tend, but those who were stricken down with fever, dysentery, and frost bites, from long exposure in the trenches. From these patient, heroic sufferers, we learnt what war entailed; and it is a gratifying thought that, during an attendance of months at that hospital, going, as we did, into the wards at all hours, no word of complaint, no oaths, no coarse language, ever were heard by us from the lips of our British soldiers.

Some days and scenes are specially stamped upon one's memory. Who will forget the arrival of the first batch of invalids who were to be located in the upper hospital only vacated by the Turks a week before? The huge wood fire in the stoveless kitchen, the large caldrons of water set on, the basons of arrowroot mixed, thrown in and stirred with a long wooden pole, for want of better implements ! Then was the melancholy procession up the hill; wornout men dragging their weak and weary frames along, some supported on each side, some carried on stretchers! Who will forget the sensation caused by salutes fired at Constantinople, reverberating as they did across the Bosporus, till the old walls of Koulalee shook again! At such times the one thought in the wards was, "Had Sebastopol fallen?" Dying men have sat up in their beds

more than the one word, " Sebastopol❞ "Has it fallen?" "Would that I had been in at the last!"

Perhaps one of the most memorable day's was that of the arrival of the news of the death of the Emperor of Russia. The excitement in the wards was great. From bed to bed the words travelled round, "Nicholas is dead," "Nicholas is dead," "The Emperor of Russia is dead." The remarks were varied :-"Thank God! All blessings be with you for bringing us such blessed news"-"What! Nicholas! Nicholas is dead! Well, one should not be glad at any one's death, but we can't help it now"-"How did he die? If he died by poison we shall have peace, but not otherwise "—". Well, I'd rather have that news than a month's pay. I hope it's true "-"He's a deal to answer for. He's been the death of thousands."

One man burst into tears, and, slowly raising his hands, he clasped them in fervent prayer, exclaiming, "Thank God! The Lord have mercy upon his soul.”

Besides the mournful sight of the processions of the sick, there was daily the still sadder sight of the dead, borne away from the dead-house, in the centre of the court, to the cemetery on the hillside. At three or four o'clock each afternoon the chaplain was in attendance there to read the service over the one large grave.

One case is specially recalled to me. It was the funeral of a soldier whose wife was with him. The excellent chaplain, the Rev. H. Huleath, who was ever ready with sympathy, came to ask for some one to accompany the poor widow to the grave. We went together to see. She was found sobbing bitterly by the dead-house. "Oh! if I was in my own country; but I am here all alone." Where any relation was present, a coffin was granted. A sheet from the stores was thrown over it, and it was borne by four soldiers. And, deep in mud, we toiled up the hill. Most impressively the funeral service was read. It was a most affecting sight; the words of

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