Waeraen by accident or otherwise, rule IX of the Amended Land Regalations, which limited the right of voting by proxy to the representatives of large absent interests, is strictly in accordance with the rale which necessity and interest have introduced into all legislative assemblies, with the exception of some few where special causes have led to special exceptions. Foremost amongst the exceptions is of course the British House of Peers—au assemblage of so high and peculiar type, however, that its members, where others testified on oath, spoke on their honour; and thi ug of personal and inbred Lonour in an assembly where each was equal, was that which allowed down to our own times, the right of voting by proxy, which had long since ceased in all other public mblies. I6 is therefure with some degree of surprise, looking merely at the abstract question, that we find the Body of Consuls express their opinion in favour of allowing such a right at the annual meetings of the Ratepayers; and we believe that were that Body to reconsider. their verdict, and the rensons which led to the protest of the Landrenters being signed, they would see both the absolute inexpediency and the inconsistency of their present finding with the Land Regulations. It wi think unfortunate that the of the protest did not more pi state their case, as the somewhat feeble style adopted, and the error of bringing in without its context of the Legal Adviser of the Council, did not fairly represent the proc and cons of the argoment. It'waslikewise unfortunate that, after having put off for so long a time as six months the discussion of an important subject, it should finally have been taken up without intimation to those concerned, and apparently closed without that due deliberation which the subject demanded. This is the more to be regretted, as not only is the rule as it stands perfectly plain and intel-eligible in its admission to the right of voting by proxy (or rather by their representatives) of Landrenters absent from Shanghai, to the exclusion of all others; but likewise the history of that clause and the discussions thereon bear out absolutely the same interpretation, In the draft code of regulations drawn up by the Committee appointed for that purpose in April 1865, and which was issued on the 22nd January following, we find no such permission for voting by proxy in rale IX, while rule XV declares that all resolutions passed at a special meeting shall be valid "if not less than one-third of the Ratepayers are present." It was from the fact that a large, perhaps the larger, portion of those possessing property in the settlement would be thereby cut off from any representation whatever, in what concerned their own interests most deeply, that ata subsequent Landrenters' meeting those and those alone were to be allowed to be represented by their authorised agents. In other words, the actual manager of the property should have a vote in matters relating to its taxation. Such a system was perfectly fair under the circum. stances of the case, for the absolute presence of the registered owner would often represent less fally than the agent the real interests of the property, while in many cases the registered owner being deceased the property would remain without representation at all until a new registration bad been effected. These circumstances were sufficient to ensure the insertion of the proxy clause, but in discussing its object, they are to be noted to show why it extended so far and no further. Ina meeting thus constituted every man present was intended to have his own interest in each vote, so that the meeting should be actually as well as nominally a meeting of Ratepayers, and this for the obvious reason that the man who felt that he had sufficient interest in what was to be discussed, would esteem it no hardship to attend and help in person the discussion. It trae that in certain societies the ight of proxy voting is. preserved, and indeed found essential. Public companies, we may say as invariably as do legislative assemblies the contrary, vote by proxy; but public companies have only one interest, that of the capital invested; and the evils which would arise from an unrestricted right of proxy voting are counteracted by the system of voting in accordance with the interest held. Legislative assemblies make no such distinction; each member represents many interests as well as the simple one of capital invested, andas the relative valgeof these interests cannot be defined by any known rule, each member records merely his single vote. Health, cleanliness, good. order and morality have in such a body as that of the Ratepayers of Shanghai to be represented, os well as capital sunk in mud or mortar; hence every member has his own yote, but as the right of voting isa privilege and to a certain extent a trast, it is only fair he should be called on to exercise it in a right way and after due deliberation. It wasa feeling that such was not the case at the last Landrenters' meeting, and that discussion of importanttopics was stifled by ube production in the meeting of voting tickets from persons who did not think the business of the meeting of sufficient importance to demand their attendance even for a quarter of an hour, that led to the protest submitted to the Foreign Consuls, and such a feeling is not likely to be satisfied by the continuance of what an important section of the community feel to be an abuse, and know to be an inuovation. Free discussion of public matters is as essential in Shanghai as elsewhere, yet the experience of the last meeting shows that free discussion may be effectually prevented by a device never contemplated in the Land Regulations, It was the want of this power which led the old Regulations to fall to the ground the management of affairs being entrusted in great measure to the representatives of a few absent landowners, The decision of the Consuls would introduce a still worse element—that of the conduct of public affairs being entrusted to the nominees of a number of residents too indifferent to walk as far as the Masonic Hall. Another word to the Consuls. It has always been held that the strictest interpretation of legal documents is in the long ran the best for all concerned, to introduce an element of doubt in one is to raise 'a question as to the validity of all. If rules IX and XIX are to be interpreted out of their obvious meaning, what. security is there that the whole body of Regulations may not receive some: new reading What the Consuls do now against the views of a large body of the residents, may to-morrow be dotie by the residents, themselves; once the beaten track is left, who is to decide the right road?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.