One of the most baffling features, from an English point of view, of a French general election is the complicated system of ascertaining the results. In Great Britain the candidate who polls most votes is elected without any question, and there is a second or third' seat, it is allotted in the same way. This, is clear, definite and easy to understand. During nearly all the life of the Third Republic, France has. had a similar system, the only real ference being that, to be elected at the first ballot, a candidate must have an absolute majority of all the votes polled. Should this ce ion not be fulfilled, the election id to be repeated "a fortnight Inter, and then the candidate with the biggest poll secured the seat. These second ballots, which took a great many _constitu-fendes, came to be regarded as nuisance. The free and indepen fent electors, and possibly wives as well, thought that one Sunday was quite enough to spoil by. having to vote. Earnest politicians: also became possessed by the notion that the then axising system wax favourable te the money cand date and particularly to the employer of labour. They argued that persons were of much less importance than principles, and that every man qualified to represent his fellow citizens in Parliament should have an equal chance.
An Arithmetical Problem.
The result in the present system new and revised edition of the derutin de. liste formerly" proval ing. Candidates do not stand pendently but in sections, or istes, men with more or less the same Political" views. "After zre counted, an arithmetical "pro-tens has to be carried out. and thing called the "electoral quotient generally comes into play. obtained by dividing the total votes polled by. the number of seats, nue, if 80,000 votes have been cast {n'a constituency entitled to members, the quotient is 10,000. A liste obtaining 10,000 votes is entired to tone. seat, 20,000, votes. Biv-{ng two seats, and. so on. This without prejudice to the rights of Any one candidate who may" obtain the absolute majority, or more than. halt'the total" votes.' He is elected without further calevlation and the the position of tha! lists has been ascertained, the seats have to be apportioned among the candidates on the successful The votes cast for the list are divided by the number of candidates, so as to obtain what is called moyenne électorale, or average, below-which no candidate can be elected. Sometimes the application the quotient does aot fill all the seats, and those remaining are allotted to the list having the best, In spite of all this elaborate machinery there were still a few' Jconstituencies where in 1919 the taken, The outcome of the. presmbination of serutin de liste with another political fetish called "proportional representation"—is that, as a rule, it is impossible to tell the result of a French election until an expert has subjected the figures to all the arithmetical processes required by law As we are always being told that the genius of France calls for light and a clear atmosphere, one can only wonder whether the French public really' likes the highly ingenious apparatus with which its politicians have presented it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.