election of 1892, where one party with a vote of 166,693 obtained all the seats in the common council, while another party with 99,643 obtained none (p. 71). Under the proposed system of representation he shows that both parties would be equitably represented, though the practical illustration which he gives embodies the startling mathematical achievement of dividing thirty members so that three parties should have respectively nineteen, twelve, and one. He also advances many arguments to prove that it would bring much better men into our legislative assemblies. It is not the purpose of this review to answer or even to consider these arguments, but it may be noticed that twenty-five years ago very much the same arguments were advanced in favor of minority representation, which is now almost universally admitted to have failed. The concrete method of proportional representation proposed by Professor Commons, which is said to have been adopted by the American Proportional Representation League, is, however, subject to criticism. This plan is known to the initiated as that of "forced fractions." The method followed is to divide the total number of votes cast by the number of seats to be filled, which will give what is called the "electoral quota." Each party then receives seats equal in number to the times its total number of votes contains this "electoral quota." If there are any remainders after the division and the seats are not all filled, the remaining seats are awarded to the parties having the largest remainders. Provision is made for allowing the voters to "bolt" the party ticket, provided they vote for some one of the official candidates; and for indicating their preferences for particular candidates on their party tickets. This plan of distributing the seats to be filled, that is, the system of "forced fractions" or remainders, was adopted in the Swiss Canton of Ticino in 1890, but was abandoned in 1891, on account of the fact, as reported by the Neuchatel Commission of 1891, that minority parties subdivided themselves so cunningly that they were able to get more than their share of the seats to be filled. This system of distribution is not, as stated by Professor Commons, the system adopted in Neuchatel. That system (Law of 28 October, 1891, Art. 62) provides that in case there are seats to be filled after applying the electoral quota to the vote of each party, such seats shall be awarded to the party or parties casting the largest vote. The recent experience of New York in the use of the latest ballot law seems to indicate that the subdivision of parties might easily occur here as it did actually occur in Ticino. Finally, the plan proposed by Professor Commons is open to constitutional objections, although these could, of course, be removed by constitutional amendment. The plan seems to presuppose that the voting shall be confined to the official candidates, as is at present the case in England. All framers of ballot laws have, however, been exceedingly careful not to insist on this requirement, believing it to be unconstitutional. (See Bowers vs. Smith, 111 Mo. 45.) Such are some of the objections which may be advanced to the concrete plan of representation advocated by Professor Commons. Further, it may be said that his book as a whole is destructive rather than constructive. More space is devoted to showing the injustice of our present system-a large part of which would probably remain under any plan of representation that might be devised than to proving the advantages of proportional representation. The argument that proportional representation would result in the election of better men is, moreover, based on hope rather than experience, for the experience of the countries which have adopted the system does not show that the election of better men has followed. The real reason why it has been adopted in some places is to be found in the fact that representation by general ticket, which was more or less the rule before the adoption of the system of proportional representation, had resulted in giving control to the minority rather than to the majority. It is to this fact rather than to dissatisfaction with a properly arranged district system of representation that the success of the movement for proportional representation, so far as it has been successful, is due. Finally, it is strange that a book which is evidently intended to be an exhaustive criticism of the various plans of representation, and which in other respects carries out this intention so well, should make no mention of the Bernitz method of counting votes, under the plan of cumulative voting upon which so much stress is laid by Mr. Forney in his excellent little book on the representation of minorities. This is all the more remarkable, since a perusal of Professor Commons's book shows that he is familiar with the work that Mr. Forney has done. F. J. GOODNOW. Les Assemblées Provinciales de la Gaule Romaine. Par ERNEST CARETTE, Docteur en Droit, Avocat à la Cour de Paris. Paris, Alphonse Picard & Fils, 1895. — 503 pp. M. Carette has treated an interesting theme with German minuteness of research and German prolixity of statement. The Celtic assemblies of the period preceding the Roman conquest and the assemblies held under Cæsar's auspices are briefly described, chiefly to show that no connection existed between these gatherings and the provincial concilia of the Empire, which form the subject of this treatise. Starting as annual meetings of the new state-church for the worship of Rome and Augustus, the provincial councils became of increasing political importance. Composed of delegates from the various municipia, they were the natural organs for the expression of provincial sentiment, and they gave the central government a valuable means of controlling the provincial governors. The councils were encouraged to send embassies (legationes) to Rome for the presentation of their desires and grievances, and for the accusation of dishonest governors. Mommsen's belief that they distributed the imperial taxes is not shared by M. Carette: he holds that their financial business consisted simply in auditing the accounts of their own sacro-political treasury, and in making appropriations for the maintenance of the cult of Augustus, for the erection of monuments, for the traveling expenses of delegates, etc. The presidency of the council was vested in the sacerdos or flamen of Augustus. His position was one of great dignity, and of no slight expense, since he was expected to defray the costs of the annual games celebrated in connection with the meetings of the council. His term of office was for a year, and after its expiration he was, as sacerdotalis, a life member of the council. The author does not From the early part of the third to the early part of the fifth century we hear nothing of these councils. believe that they ceased to exist, and he gives the lack of any information regarding them. view again, they are purely political bodies. of Christianity, the sacerdos provinciae first loses his sacerdotal functions and then disappears. The councils of the later Empire, as M. Carette believes, elected their presiding officers. The provincial councils had decreased in importance, because the provinces were much smaller; and there were now councils of groups of provinces. At Arles there was a council of the diocese. In the fifth century as in the second, these assemblies expressed desires and formulated complaints; and they sent legati to the Emperor to prosecute corrupt officials. The composition, however, of these bodies had changed in addition to the leading citizens (principales) of the municipalities, the honorati - the members of that aristocracy which held most of the land and all of the imperial offices - had seats and voices in the councils of dioceses and provinces. After the conquest of Gaul by the barbarians, the Roman councils disappeared. The last recorded gathering of the Gallo-Romans was an assembly of spiritual and temporal magnates which approved the lex Romana Visigothorum. The traditional composition of the Roman councils, the author thinks, may have exercised some influence upon the composition of the provincial estates of the middle ages; but the real successors of those councils were the councils of the Gallican church. The ecclesiastical councils, as he shows, preserved many traces of the old provincial assemblies; and he cites with approval the remark of M. Fustel de Coulanges: "The Christian church bore within herself a copy of the Imperial institutions and a portion of the Imperial spirit. Through the church the political traditions and the administrative habits of the Empire passed to succeeding generations." M. Carette's book gives much collateral information regarding the political and social condition of Gaul during the different periods of the Empire, especially during the transition from heathenism to Christianity at the beginning of the fourth century and during the following century and a half of decadence. The stratification of Roman society, its separation into hereditary castes, is clearly indicated. Throughout the work the author has consulted the original sources, including the inscriptions, with great care, and his references to the French literature are very full. The foreign literature is but sparingly cited: the opinions of German scholars are frequently taken at second hand from French writers. M. Carette's use of epigraphic material is sometimes rather bold; for example, a statement that the vote in council authorizing the erection of a statue was probably taken by secret ballot, is largely based upon a conjectural "per tabellas" in the plaque of Narbonne a restoration in which everything except the two last letters is hypothetical (p. 148). The description of Odoacer as "roi des Lombards" (p. 476) is an inexplicable slip in so erudite a writer. By way of supplement the author gives the names of all persons known to have belonged to the provincial assemblies of Roman Gaul; a partial bibliography of the general subject of the councils; a heliogravure of the plaque of Narbonne, discovered in 1888, with its bibliography; and the famous edict of Honorius (A.D. 418) organizing the assembly of the seven provinces of southern Gaul, with its bibliography. The entire work is carefully indexed. It is surprising that such a work as this can be put on the market at such a low price, namely, six francs. MUNROE SMITH. The Union of England and Scotland. By JAMES MACKINNON, Ph. D. London and New York, Longmans, Green & Co., 1896.524 pp. This excellent volume is a result of the recent discussion over the question of Scottish home rule. The attitude of the author is one of sympathy toward the movement, though he is in no sense a partisan. He has produced a history of the struggle which preceded the legislative union of 1707 and of the efforts to overthrow that act, which is eminently fair and judicial in tone. The view taken is substantially the same as that expounded by Burton in the eighth volume of his History of Scotland, though the treatment is more detailed, and is apparently based on a more exhaustive study of the original sources. As is shown in this volume, the causes which made the union a necessity for Scotland were economic. "Under the regal union Scotland occupied the position of the junior partner, whose interests were slighted by a more opulent and powerful colleague." At the close of the seventeenth century her trade had decayed, agriculture was suffering and the people were wretchedly poor. That for this condition of things the Scots were to a large extent responsible, the author freely admits. But the suffering and decay had been intensified by a century of misgovernment which had passed since the union of the crowns. During that time and before, the energies of the nation had been, to a considerable extent, wasted on religious and factional conflicts. Its first independent attempt to restore prosperity, the Darien scheme, ended in a disaster, for which, again the author confesses, "the Scots were themselves largely to blame.” This affair further impoverished the nation and greatly increased its animosity toward England. All that was fiercest in the spirit of Scotch national independence now asserted itself, when England at the beginning of Anne's reign, in order to secure a recognition of the prospective change in the succession, took the first conciliatory steps toward union. The violent debates over the Act of Security, and the intrigues with France which followed the refusal of the commissioner to give the queen's assent to the act, revealed to England the necessity of extending some recognition to Scottish demands for commercial equality. The necessity for this became clearer when the Parliament at Edinburgh refused a vote of supplies till the Act of Security was accepted. Then, though under the threat of an alien act, England again attempted conciliation; and by the joint commission of 1706 the compromises which made union possible were agreed upon. The doings of this commission, so far as known, the prolonged |