On Tuesday the Women's Liberal Unionist Association held a meeting
et the River House, Chelsea Embankment, to dis- cuss the subject of "proportional representation." Miss Spence, of Australia, gave a noteworthy account of the pro- gress of minority voting in America. Though the principle has not been adopted in any of the States, many Americans are turning towards it as a possible means of escape from the tyranny of the Boss and the Machine. Mr. Balfour, who spoke, thought that the principle might be useful in America, but doubted if there was a single man of real talent for politics who had ever found himself for long excluded from the political arena by the difficulty of finding a constituency to elect him. Mr. Courtney, on the other hand, contended that even in England there was a great risk of excluding men of independence. After John Mill had sat in one Parliament, he was virtually excluded from politics. For many years, too, Mr. Bradlaugh was kept out of the House by the fact that, though an immense number of electors in the country as a whole wanted to see him. in Parliament, there was no constituency in which a local majority could be found to elect him. However, as we all know, Mr. Bradlaugh did sit in Parliament, and had perhaps the safest seat in the House. Again, Mr. Mill could probably have got back into Parliament had he cared to try.
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