Political Science Of The State

DEMOCRACY AND DEMOCRACIES. 143
equality of which Plato speaks, rather than the geometri-
cal. We lean in the same direction, but are not so greatly
shocked at institutions which do not conform strictly to the
rule. The equal power of states greatly unequal in size, in
the senate, is a standing protest against sacrificing everything
to exactness of measure in politics. This will probably hold
its own, however, not because of its being received, but
because of the obvious justice with which the small states
demanded it, and their unwillingness to come under the con-
stitution on any other condition. Of inequalities of repre-
sentation within the States, there have been a few, but they
have created no practical difficulty. In South Carolina,
formerly the lower or seaboard districts had much more poli-
tical power than the upland ones. At present, in Connecti-
cut the agricultural towns have far more than their share of
power in the legislature, owing in part to their decrease, and
to the great increase of the cities and large towns in population
and wealth. The districts for choosing senators, twenty-one
in number, range in their population from fifty-four and fifty-
nine thousand, to about fourteen, thirteen, and nine thou-
sand. In the house of representatives, 40 members from
twenty-two towns, in 1873, represented 270,000 inhabitants,
while 202 members from 107 towns represented 267,000.
The three largest cities at the same time sent five members
in all to the house, while they contained one-fifth of the entire
population. The largest city, with nearly 51,000 inhabitants,
sends two representatives equally with a little town contain-
ing only 627. And the inequalities in the representation of
wealth are still greater. These disproportions are too great
not to cure themselves in the end, but the practical difficul-
ties to which they give rise are not serious, because the small
towns are scattered all over the commonwealth, and have no
commqn interests unless to keep down taxation. On this
subject Mr. Freeman (Hist. Essays, ii., p. 265) well remarks
that " the greater the constituency is, the fewer members it
needs in proportion to its numbers, because it has greater
means of influencing parliament and the country in other