ground
pretty completely. Therefore if Madison wrote them Hamil- ton could hardly have gone over these questions without using some of these arguments. They would be familiar to him from his recent proof reading of the second volume of The Federalist published in May. That he did use arguments in his speeches in the New York Convention contained in Madison's numbers renders it a probable hypothesis that he might have done so more extensively. Chancellor Kent re- marked upon the similarity between the argument of the speeches and of 27ie Federalist. Such a use of arguments first drawn up by Madison could hardly have been avoided and would have been perfectly legitimate. Campaign material once published is regarded as common property for other advocates to use. In fact, if the external testimony on both sides were not substantially in agreement in assigning the ten essays to either one or the other in a body, and if Hamilton's speeches in the New York Convention had antedated these numbers, the internal evidence would have pointed to Ham- ilton as their probable author. Since, however, his speeches were later than these essays, the internal evidence must be ambiguous.
Number 55.
The subject of this essay is the ratio of representation; Hamilton was absent from the Convention while the subjects of Nos. 55 and 5Q were under discussion.
Number 55. Madison.
" The ratio between the rep- " The representatives must
resentatives and the people be raised to a certain number
ought not to be same where in order to guard against the
the latter are very numerous as cabals of a few. . . . They
where they are very few." must be limited to a certain
"... The truth is, that in all number in order to guard
cases a certain number at least against the confusion of a
seems to be necessary to secure multitude. " Federalist, p. 57.
the benefits of free consultation ^^I agree that after going
