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certain of returning the whole of the 6 Members." Now, assuming that each Elector is to have one vote only, the Liberals could only do this by mustering more than two-thirds of the votes in each District; i.e. they must be 67 p. c, or more, of the whole body of Electors in Birmingham. But, if the three Districts were made one, it would need about one-seventh of the whole (i.e. 14 and 2-7ths p. c.) to return one Member. Hence 67 p. c. could only return 4 of the 6 Members: it would require 71 p. c. to return as many as 5; and they could not return all 6, unless they were 86 p. c. of the whole body.
Taking it as proved, then, that single-Member Districts should be in all cases avoided, and that all such should be grouped together, so as to form Districts returning at least 2 Members each, and, wherever it is possible, 4 or 5 or even more, we need only add, as a general remark, that, the more we equalise the Districts, the more we equalise the chance that each Elector has of being one of those represented in the House. Thus, in a District, returning 2 Members, the chance is 2-3ds; with 3 Members, it is 3-4ths; and so on.
