Now, this great want the system of Personal Representation is fitted
to supply in the most perfect manner which the circumstances of modern
society admit of. The only quarter in which to look for a
supplement, or completing corrective, to the instincts of a democratic
majority, is the instructed minority: but, in the ordinary mode of
constituting democracy, this minority has no organ: Mr. Hare's
system provides one. The representatives who would be returned to
Parliament by the aggregate of minorities would afford that organ in
its greatest perfection. A separate organisation of the instructed
classes, even if practicable, would be invidious, and could only
escape from being offensive by being totally without influence. But if
the elite of these classes formed part of the Parliament, by the
same title as any other of its members- by representing the same
number of citizens, the same numerical fraction of the national will-
their presence could give umbrage to nobody, while they would be in
the position of highest vantage, both for making their opinions and
counsels heard on all important subjects, and for taking an active
part in public business. Their abilities would probably draw to them
more than their numerical share of the actual administration of
government; as the Athenians did not confide responsible public
functions to Cleon or Hyperbolus (the employment of Cleon at Pylos and
Amphipolis was purely exceptional), but Nicias, and Theramenes, and
Alcibiades, were in constant employment both at home and abroad,
though known to sympathise more with oligarchy than with democracy.
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