The requirement that the districts shall contain as nearly equal population as possible, is sometimes flagrantly violated. Thus one of the Republican districts in New York recently contained 165,701 inhabitants while one of the Democratic districts had a population of 450,000. In 1910 one of the Illinois districts contained 167,000 while another contained 349,000. Sometimes districts are so constructed as to have fantastic shapes. Thus a district in Mississippi some years ago was dubbed the "shoe string" district from its long irregular shape. It followed the Mississippi River for the whole length of the state though in one place it was less than thirty miles wide. =Qualifications of Representatives.=--To be eligible to the house of representatives, a person must have been a citizen of the United States for at least seven years, must have attained the age of twenty-five years, and must be an inhabitant of the state from which he is chosen. Residence in the particular district which the member represents is not required by the Constitution or laws of the United States, but is nearly always required by public opinion. A nonresident, however able and distinguished he might be as a statesman, would have little chance of election. _Objections to the Residence Requirement._--This custom of insisting upon residence in the district has frequently been criticized, especially by foreign writers, as being a serious defect in our system of representation. It contrasts widely with the practice in Great Britain, where members of Parliament are very often chosen from other districts than those in which they reside. London barristers of promise are not infrequently chosen to represent country districts in which they are practically strangers. The late William E. Gladstone, a resident of Wales, represented for a long time a Scotch district. When an important leader of any party in the House of Commons happens to be defeated in his home district, it is a common practice for him to be made a candidate in some district in which his party has a safe majority. In the United States, in such a case, the man's service in Congress would probably be ended. Finally, one of the worst evils of the district system is that it tends to make the member feel that he is the representative, not of the United States as a whole, but of the locality which chooses him. Instead of entertaining broad views upon purely national questions his views tend to become narrow and he votes and acts with reference to the welfare of his own district rather than with reference to the good of the whole country. On the other hand, it may be said in favor of the district system that it is better adapted to secure local representation and makes responsibility to the member's constituency more effective.