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Thomas Hare (political reformer)

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Thomas Hare
Thomas Hare, 1867 portrait by Lowes Cato Dickinson
Born(1806-03-28)28 March 1806
England, UK
Died6 May 1891(1891-05-06) (aged 85)
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Lawyer, political reformer

Thomas Hare (28 March 1806 in England – 6 May 1891) was a British lawyer and supporter of electoral reform. He is credited with inventing the single transferable vote system of proportional representation which he was a proponent and defender, now used in national elections in Ireland and Malta, in Australian Senate and state elections, in local elections in Northern Ireland, and several cities in the U.S., New Zealand and Scotland.[1][2][3][4]

Life

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He was born on 28 March 1806, the illegitimate son of Anne Hare of Leigh, Dorset.[5] (Alumni Cantabrigienses considers that a 19th-century identification was incorrect. It identified Anne Hare's son with the Thomas Hare who matriculated at Queens' College, Cambridge in 1823, graduating B.A. in 1827, and M.A. in 1846.[6])

Brought up on a Dorset farm, Hare had a scanty education. He went to London and found work as a solicitor's clerk.[7] On 14 November 1828 he was admitted a student of the Inner Temple, and he was called to the bar on 22 November 1833. He practiced law in the chancery courts.[8] In 1853 Hare became an Inspector of Charities for the Charity Commission.[9]

Hare was a member of the London-based Athenaeum Club and Political Economy Club.[5] In 1859, he met John Stuart Mill.[10] He was also a member of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, and from 1867 was on the committee of the Society for Promoting the Employment of Women. He worked with Lydia Becker on suffrage petitions.[11] He attended the 1867 funeral of the Manchester suffragist Max Kyllmann, to support his wife Philippine Kyllmann; who two years later fell out with Becker.[12] Under Mill's influence, Hare became involved in the co-operative movement from 1869, and joined the Land Tenure Reform Association (1869 to 1873) for "free trade in land", following the ideas of Mill and William Thomas Thornton.[5][13]

Works

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  • The Machinery of Representation (1857)
  • A Treatise on Election of Representatives, Parliamentary and Municipal (1859)
  • The Election of Representatives Parliamentary and Municipal: a Treatise (1865)

Hare's major work The Machinery of Representation appeared in 1857 (two editions)[14] and editions of his Treatise on the Election of Representatives: Parliamentary and Municipal appeared between 1859 and 1873.[15] John Stuart Mill in 1873 described Hare's system as

the greatest improvement of which the system of representative government is susceptible; an improvement which…exactly meets and cures the grand, and what before seemed inherent, defect of the representative system.[16][17]

In 1859 Mill wrote a review for Fraser's Magazine under the title "Recent Writers on Reform", calling Hare's Treatise remarkable, and noting also "Mr. Hare passes an unqualified and most just condemnation on the exclusion of women from the suffrage".[18]

A system along lines described by Hare was publicised by Henry Fawcett in Mr. Hare's Reform Bill Simplified and Explained (1860).[19] Mill then shifted his ideas from 1859 slightly, emphasizing the role of bullet voting in a voting context, as a safeguard for minority groups.[20]

An article The Machinery of Politics and Proportional Representation from 1872 by William Robert Ware, in the American Law Review, was reprinted in London by the Representative Reform Association, a group of allies of Hare set up with support from Walter Morrison who funded George Howell as its secretary from 1868 to 1874, also involving Edmond Beales.[5][21][22] Ware's ideas were close to Hare's.[23] Charles Lutwidge Dodgson built on the classification used by Ware of voting systems, in his 1884 pamphlet The Principles of Parliamentary Representation, to give a general formulation.[24][25]

Law reports

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Hare was also known in the field of law reporting. At a period without official case reports, the published reports of key court decisions allowed them to be used as precedents. From 1841 he reported on the Court of Chancery, on James Wigram's decisions as Vice-Chancellor of England.[8] The series of 11 volumes of Reports of Cases Adjudged in the High Court of Chancery culminated in 1858 with one on cases of William Wood.[26]

Wigram's decrees were considered lucid.[27] Two leading judicial decisions that are still relevant are covered only in Hare's Reports in Chancery:

  • Henderson v Henderson (1843) 3 Hare 100, from which the rule known as "the rule in Henderson v Henderson" is derived. (The rule provides, broadly, that when a matter becomes the subject of litigation between the parties, each party must bring their whole case before the court so that all aspects of it may be finally decided—subject, of course, to any appeal—once and for all. In the absence of special circumstances, the parties cannot later return to the court to advance arguments, claims or defences which they could have put forward for decision on the first occasion but failed to raise.)
  • Foss v Harbottle (1843) 2 Hare 461, from which a rule is derived, still the cornerstone of minority shareholder rights in company law in common law legal systems over 160 years later.

Hare was a co-author, with Henry Iltid Nicholl and John Monson Carrow, of the initial 1840 and 1843 volumes of Cases Relating to Railways and Canals 1835–1840, resp. 1840–1842.[5][28][29]

Views

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Initially a Conservative Party supporter, Hare was a free trader opposed to the Corn Laws. He left the Conservatives in 1846, the year of their repeal, and became a Peelite. He never joined the Liberal Party, preferring to maintain his independence.[30] He was a devout Anglican, influenced by the Tractarians.[31] Hare differed from Mill in relying heavily on Edmund Burke as a political authority, in particular the Reflections on the Revolution in France.[32]

The Dictionary of National Biography article by William Prideaux Courtney on Hare states:

Hare's energies were concentrated in an attempt to devise a system which would secure proportional representation of all classes in the United Kingdom, including minorities in the House of Commons and other electoral assemblies.[8]

In the British context, the "transferable vote" concept had already been introduced by Thomas Wright Hill, but was not published by him.[33] His son Rowland Hill, for the South Australian Colonization Commission, took an interest during the 1830s in a reformed electoral system for the colony, and drew on his father's ideas.[34]

Hare's interest in the issue dated from his appointment as Inspector of Charities. Danish thinker Carl Christoffer Georg Andræ developed a similar system independently in 1855.[9] Hare's ideas intended to make political representation more closely reflect the ideals of participatory democracy, where all constituents could be heard.[35] He argued that "personal representation" could displace the dominant "monolithic bloc" political party.[36] Hare's original electoral system concept included each voter casting a single preferential vote in an at-large district covering the entire United Kingdom.

In the preface to the fourth edition of Treatise on the Election of Representatives, Hare stated his belief that proportional representation would "end the evils of corruption, violent discontent and restricted power of selection or voter choice".[37] A great deal of writing on that theory developed and several societies were formed in the world for its adoption although Hare pointed out that his scheme was not meant to bear the title "representation for minorities". In the preface to his third edition of that work, Hare had asked:

Can it be supposed that the moment the electors are allowed a freedom of choice they will immediately be seized with a desire to vote for some distant candidate with whom they are unacquainted, rather than for those whom they know – who are near to them, whose speeches they have heard and who have personal recommendations to the favour and respect of the town and neighbourhood?

Legacy

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Hare lends his name to the following:

Hare's death in May 1891 occurred several years before the first use of proportional representation in Tasmania in 1897. The recognition of Hare's name in the Hare-Clark electoral system (i.e. Tasmanian system) honours his work.

The Single Transferable Vote method has been widely used for multiple-winner elections. While continuing to be the main method of elections in the Republic of Ireland and for some elections in Australia, it has been widely used in numerous corporations and organizations, and has been employed in local elections in a few jurisdictions of the United States. 2007 saw the reintroduction of STV in public elections on the British mainland in elections to Scottish local authorities. STV had been used for elections to Parliament for some University Seats from 1918 to 1945 and from 1918 to 1929 for Scottish boards.

Hare and his wife gave a font and stained glass window to St Paul's Church, Hook, London.[38]

Family

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Hare was twice married.

  1. Firstly, in Dorset on 7 August 1837, to Mary Samson, daughter of Thomas Samson of Kingston Russell. She died on 21 October 1855, and was buried in the churchyard of Brompton church. They had eight children.
  2. Secondly, on 4 April 1872, to Eleanor Bowes Benson (1833–1890), second sister of Edward White Benson, archbishop of Canterbury.[39]

There was one child, Mary Eleanor (1874–1883), of the second marriage. Hare was survived by seven children, and his will divided his estate equally between them, in a trust: they were three sons (Sherlock, Alfred, Lancelot) and four daughters (Marian, Alice, Katharine, Lydia Mary).[40]

The family home was Gosbury Hill in Surrey where Hare had a farmhouse built to his own design.[31] The place is now a street in a built-up area, in north Chessington.

Of the sons:

Herbert Thomas Hare, the second son, a civil engineer, died at Hong Kong in 1874 aged 27.[49]

Of the daughters:

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Cambridge Municipal Elections".
  2. ^ "STV Information".
  3. ^ "The Local STV Voting System Explained".
  4. ^ "Single transferable vote (STV) | Britannica". 7 August 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e Lee, Matthew. "Hare, Thomas (1806–1891)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12307. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  6. ^ "Hare, Thomas (HR823T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  7. ^ Hart, Jenifer (13 February 1992). Proportional Representation: II Thomas Hare and John Stuart Mill. pp. 24–55. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198201366.003.0003.
  8. ^ a b c Courtney 1901.
  9. ^ a b Pukelsheim, Friedrich (28 December 2017). Proportional Representation: Apportionment Methods and Their Applications. Springer. p. 300. ISBN 978-3-319-64707-4.
  10. ^ Reeves, Richard (9 February 2015). John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand. Atlantic Books. p. 309. ISBN 978-1-78239-713-7.
  11. ^ a b Crawford, Elizabeth (2 September 2003). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-43402-1.
  12. ^ Crawford, Elizabeth. "Kyllmann [née Baret], Philippine Eléanor Estelle Esther (1833–1916)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.369187. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  13. ^ Readman, Paul (2008). Land and Nation in England: Patriotism, National Identity, and the Politics of Land, 1880-1914. Boydell Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-86193-297-9.
  14. ^ See Hare, Thomas (1859). The Machinery of Representation (2 ed.). London: W. Maxwell. via Google.books
  15. ^ See Hare, Thomas (1859). Treatise on the Election of Representatives: Parliamentary and Municipal (1 ed.). London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts. via Archive.org
  16. ^ "Autobiography, John Stuart Mill (1806–73)". The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. Retrieved 10 January 2007.
  17. ^ Mill, John Stuart (1873). Autobiography (1 ed.). London: John W.Parker & Son. p. 258. Retrieved 9 September 2014. via Archive.org
  18. ^ "The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume XIX - Essays on Politics and Society Part 2. Online Library of Liberty". oll.libertyfund.org.
  19. ^ Fawcett, Henry (1860). Mr. Hare's Reform Bill Simplified and Explained. J. Ridgway.
  20. ^ Capaldi, Nicholas (12 January 2004). John Stuart Mill: A Biography. Cambridge University Press. p. 198 and notes 148, 149. ISBN 978-1-139-44920-5.
  21. ^ Ware, W. R. (1872). The Machinery of Politics and Proportional Representation, Etc. Representative Reform Association.
  22. ^ Leventhal, F. M. "Howell, George (1833–1910)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34025. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  23. ^ Wallis, W. D. (8 October 2014). The Mathematics of Elections and Voting. Springer. p. 7. ISBN 978-3-319-09810-4.
  24. ^ Carroll, Lewis (1884). The Principles of Parliamentary Representation. Harrison and Sons.
  25. ^ Black, Duncan (1967). "The Central Argument in Lewis Carroll's "The Principles of Parliamentary Representation"". Papers on Non-Market Decision Making. 3 (1): 3. ISSN 1941-9716. JSTOR 30022056.
  26. ^ Chancery, Great Britain Court of; Hare, Thomas (1858). Reports of Cases Adjudged in the High Court of Chancery. Vol. XI. A. Maxwell & Son.
  27. ^ Jones, N. G. "Wigram, Sir James (1793–1866)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/29378. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  28. ^ Nicholl, Henry Iltid; Hare, Thomas; Carrow, John Monson; Oliver, Lionel; Beavan, Edward; Lefroy, Thomas Edward Preston (1840). Cases Relating to Railways and Canals: 1835-1840. Vol. I. A. Maxwell.
  29. ^ Nicholl, Henry Iltid; Hare, Thomas; Carrow, John Monson (1843). Cases Relating to Railways and Canals: 1840-1842. A. Maxwell.
  30. ^ Bogdanor, Vernon (10 September 1981). The People and the Party System: The Referendum and Electoral Reform in British Politics. CUP Archive. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-521-24207-3.
  31. ^ a b Parsons, F. (30 July 2009). Thomas Hare and Political Representation in Victorian Britain (PDF). Springer. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-230-24466-5.
  32. ^ Hulliung, Mark (4 August 2023). The Saga of Edmund Burke: From His Age to Ours. Taylor & Francis. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-000-92032-1.
  33. ^ Conti, Gregory (25 April 2019). Parliament the Mirror of the Nation: Representation, Deliberation, and Democracy in Victorian Britain. Cambridge University Press. p. 264 note 293. ISBN 978-1-108-42873-6.
  34. ^ Coleman, William (2016). Only in Australia: The History, Politics, and Economics of Australian Exceptionalism. Oxford University Press. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-19-875325-4.
  35. ^ Conti, Gregory (25 April 2019). Parliament the Mirror of the Nation: Representation, Deliberation, and Democracy in Victorian Britain. Cambridge University Press. p. 219 and notes 101 and 102. ISBN 978-1-108-42873-6.
  36. ^ Renwick, Alan; Pilet, Jean-Benoît (2016). Faces on the Ballot: The Personalization of Electoral Systems in Europe. Oxford University Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-19-968504-2.
  37. ^ Hare, Thomas (1873). Treatise on the Election of Representatives: Parliamentary and Municipal (4 ed.). London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer. p. v. via Archive.org
  38. ^ "Kingston-upon-Thames: Manors, churches and charities, British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk.
  39. ^ Howard, Joseph Jackson (1897). Visitation of England and Wales. Priv. print. p. 121.
  40. ^ "n/a". Illustrated London News. 13 June 1891. p. 27.
  41. ^  Foster, Joseph (1885). "Hare, Sherlock" . Men-at-the-Bar  (second ed.). London: Hazell, Watson, and Viney.
  42. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  43. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 4 October 2023.
  44. ^ Saha, Jonathan (2013). "Madness and the Making of a Colonial Order in Burma". Modern Asian Studies. 47 (2): 429–432. doi:10.1017/S0026749X11000400. ISSN 0026-749X. JSTOR 23359826. S2CID 144832709.
  45. ^ The Law Times. Office of The Law Times. 1884. p. 342.
  46. ^ "Millar, James Ogilvy (MLR845JO)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  47. ^ "Marriages". London Evening Standard. 25 November 1914. p. 1.
  48. ^ "Hare, Sir Lancelot" . The Indian Biographical Dictionary . 1915. p. 179.
  49. ^ The London and China Telegraph. 1874. p. 554.
  50. ^ a b Mitchell, Rosemary. "Andrews, Marian [née Hare; pseud. Christopher Hare] (1839–1929)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.59077. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  51. ^ Crawford, Elizabeth (2 September 2003). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866-1928. Routledge. p. 706. ISBN 978-1-135-43401-4.
  52. ^ Wells, Nathan. "Westlake, John (1828–1913)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36840. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  53. ^ Dingsdale, Ann. "Kensington Society (act. 1865–1868)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/92488. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  54. ^ "Clayton, Rt Rev. Lewis". Who's Who. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  55. ^ "Clayton, Lewis Hare (CLTN891LH)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  56. ^ "Clayton, Harold (CLTN893H)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  57. ^ "Clayton, Most Rev. Geoffrey Hare". Who's Who. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  58. ^ Parsons, F. (30 July 2009). Thomas Hare and Political Representation in Victorian Britain (PDF). Springer. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-230-24466-5.
  59. ^ "Clayton, Sir Francis (Hare)". Who's Who. A & C Black. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
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Attribution

Wikisource This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Courtney, William Prideaux (1901). "Hare, Thomas". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). Vol. 2. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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