of a contest between persons, and not that of a struggle for the victory of ideas. It may be incontestable that it is legitimate that each elector, in voting for a list, should be able to indicate his preferences for one or more candidates whose name or names appear on it; but to give him the power to vote at the same time for men whose names appear on different lists, often representing most contradictory ideas, and to allow him to record all his votes in favour of one man, or to divide them between candidates of conflicting parties, would seem to be the very reverse of an honest and rational electoral reform.
Though contrary to the hope of the proportionalists, the Chamber failed to vote the clauses of the Electoral Reform Bill before separating on 12th July for the summer recess. It nevertheless decided to complete the discussion immediately after the reassembling of Parliament in October next. The Chamber also adopted the clause stipulating that the electoral quotient shall be calculated on the number of persons recording their votes, and not on the number of citizens whose names are inscribed on the electoral rolls. That is a victory for the proportionalists, On the other hand, the arrondissementiers succeeded in obtaining a majority for an amendment ordering the division of an electoral district (department) into two parts in the case of its population entitling it to more than seven Deputies. As one representative in the Chamber is to be allotted to every 70,000 inhabitants, that stipulation will affect 19 of the 87 departments of France, but will not alter the situation in Algeria and the other French colonies which send representatives to the Chamber in Paris. The proposal for the apparentement (the faculty of contracting alliances between lists to secure the seats unallotted by the division of the lists by the electoral quotient, as explained above) was adopted.
So far the victory of the proportionalists is therefore mitigated, but their success satisfies M. Charles Benoist, their leader. Writing on the subject in 'The Temps,' he declares that the modification of Clause I., substituting "with the representation of the minorities in the country in conformity with the following dispositions," for "with proportional representation," is of little importance, because "if we have not the name we have the thing. We have the thing (R. P.), because the Chamber decided successively, first, by 341 votes against 223 (Malavialle amendment), that the Scrutin d'Arrondissement (small district voting) is dead for ever; second, by the unanimity of Deputies, minus four, that the method of voting shall be Scrutin de Liste (voting by departments), with the representation of the political minorities in the country; and third, this time with complete unanimity, that the electoral quotient shall be fixed by dividing by the number of Deputies to
