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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 67

The Principle Violated

The Principle Violated.

This state of things, it will surely be admitted, is sufficiently unsatisfactory to call loudly for amendment. An examination of the electoral returns of any general election will go far to prove that the doctrine that this country is worked electorally under a law which provides for its government being moulded by or based upon the will of the majority is absolutely delusive; and will further convince that to believe or promulgate such a statement is to practice an arrant self-deceit or to seek to palm off a huge imposition upon a credulous public mind too ignorant or too indifferent to discover or challenge the fraud.

In a general way the incompleteness of the representation of the people under an elective Parliamentary system of government, and the unsatisfactory character of the results obtained under such a system, have been recognised in almost every country possessing representative institutions; and efforts of various kinds put forth to mitigate or avoid the injustices abounding. These efforts have been diverse, and, as might be expected from politicians who are always extremely careful to innovate as little as possible, in some instances absolutely nugatory.