Political Science Of The State

304 POLITICAL SCIENCE.
is made to give an equal voice in the assembly to an equal
number of inhabitants. But in order that those whose inter-
ests are closely united together may not be separated, some-
times electoral districts are of different sizes, and according
to their size return one, two, or three. It seems better to
break up a large city into independent districts than to place
a list of ten or twenty before each resident voter, for it is im-
possible that the voters should be well enough acquainted
with such a number of candidates to cast an intelligent vote.
Again, every district, naturally divided off by interests and
industry, or by mountains or rivers from the rest, ought to
have a representation of its own, even if, in so doing, the
weaker parts of a country have somewhat of an advantage
in this respect over cities and compact communities. It is
not a political right that each voter should have an aliquot
part of representative power, say one one-hundredth or one
ten-thousandth, but that he should have his interests pro-
tected in the legislature of the county or state. We have
already seen that all the representatives represent the country,
both the totality of interests, and those of each part; the
most convenient and equitable plan therefore is that those
who have within a certain territory the least power of making
themselves felt in the assembly should be most sure of doing
this. This principle will apply to rural districts, where the
power of the combination of intelligence and of property is
smaller than in the towns, and where there are fewer noisy
elements. It applies also, as we have seen, to minorities who
are likely even to be oppressed. For one, I shoulH not seek
for more than a distant approximation between numbers of
voters and representation; and as cities have means of influ-
ence which the country does not possess, as almost all the
disturbing elements arise in city life, as the great interests of
commerce, manufactures, banking and other capital there
situated are sure to be protected for general reasons, I woul<J,
give the rural districts something more than their share of
legislative power. The cities are to be dreaded in modern
times. They take the lead in all commotions, they have legs