Curiosities Of Popular And Electoral Votes

The report of the House of ReprescDtatives committee in favor of an amendmr nt to the constitution to provide for the election of President by the people, tbrongh the instrumentality of electoral vofcs in the several States, to be dividod among the candidates aecording to tho number of popular votes received by thcm reepectively, contains an iuterosting tablc which shows the distribution upou this plan of the votes east at the election of 1876. The whole electoral vote was 369, and the whole popular vote was 8,433,263. Although Tilden received a raajority of the lattsr - whether the votes of Louisiana ana Florida are included or excluded - Hayes secured a majority of the foriner. A like thing has happened bcfore - notably in 1860, when Liucoln wbb eleeted by the Electoral Ooilege by a majority of 57, nlthough in the popular canvaso he was in a minority of 944,149. It was, among other purposes, to put an end to this electoral inconsistcncy that the committee reported the amendment. Cooper received a popular vote of 81,737 - more than tho whole vote of any one of nine otates of the Union ; but he was not heard of in the Electoral College because his votes were not so concentrated as to be effectual. Accordiog to the proposed plan ho would have had three electoral votes and a fraction of a vote; but he would not have secured an entire electoral vote in any State - coming the nearest to one in ïllinois, which would have givenhim .653 of a vote. In the State of New York the whole popular vote was 1,013,148, of which Tilden received 32,742 more than Hayes. Under the existing system Tilden secured all the 35 electoral votes of the State. Undcr the proposed system Tilden would have secnred 18 and a fraction aud Hayes would have secured 16 aud a fraction. So in Pennsylvania Hayes, with a majority of 17,964, secured the 29 electoral votes of the State, while aceording to the amendment Tilden woulci have reeeived 14 and a fraction, and Hayes would tiave received 14 and a largcr fractiou. In Ohio, -vhero Hayes ran ahcad of Tilden 7,516 votes and socured the 22 electoral votes, under tin; new plan Tilden would have received 10 votes and more than eight-tenths of a vote and Hayos would have received 11 votes and less than one tentli of ii vo'c - that is to say, the diiïVrence between thein would have been. 252, or about one quarter of one vote. Tho wholo table shows curiously that the eit'ect of the Electoral Ooilege system is to sappress the popular voice, although the system has been so fted iu practico that now, contrary to the iutention of the framerB of the eonstitution. the people and not the eleetors realjy name the President. - JSfw York Evenir.; Post. A Fkench agricuMural paper annonnces the discovery of an extrermiy fimple and cheap nieans to protect i houses ironi bcing struck bv lightniug. This eousists mereJy of bnudles of straw attached to sticks or broom handles, and placed on the roofs Of houses in au right positiisn. The first trials of the simple apparatus wcre made at Tarbea (Hautes Pyrenees), by some intelligent ngrioulturists, and resulte were so satisfactory t hat soon after eighteen communes of tho Tarbes district provitled all their bouses with these bundies of straw, and there have been no accidents from lightning since.