s relating to copyright, or other exclusive rights to
the use and profits of any works or inventions; and so forth. These
powers may be described as quasi-Imperial powers.

Having arrived at a competent knowledge of the materials out of which
governments are formed, it may be well to proceed to a consideration of
the manner in which those materials have been worked up in building the
two great Anglo-Saxon composite nations--namely, the American Union and
the British Empire--for, if we find that the arrangements proposed by
the Irish Home Rule Bill are strictly in accordance with the principles
on which the unity of the American Union was based and on which the
Imperial power of Great Britain has rested for centuries, the conclusion
must be that the Irish Home Rule Bill is not antagonistic to the unity
of the Empire or to the supremacy of the British Parliament.

In discussing these matters it will be convenient to begin with the
American Union, as it is less extensive in area and more homogeneous in
its construction than the British Empire. The thirteen revolted American
colonies, on the conclusion of their war with England, found themselves
in the position of thirteen independent States having no connection with
each other. The common tie of supremacy exercised by the mother country
was broken, and each State was an independent nation, possessed both of
Imperial and Local rights.

The impossibility of a cluster of thirteen small independent nations
maintaining their independence against foreign aggression became
immediately apparent, and, to remedy this evil, the thirteen States
appointed delegates to form a convention authorized to weld them into
one body as respected Imperial powers. This was attempted to be done by
the establishment of a central body called a Congress, consisting of
delegates from the component States, and invested with all the powers
designated above as Imperial and quasi-Imperial powers. The expenses
incurred by the confederacy were to be defrayed out of a common fund, to
be supplied by requisitions made on the several States. In effect, the
confederacy of the thirteen States amounted to little more than an
offensive and defensive alliance between thirteen independent nations,
as the central power had States for its subjects and not individuals,
and could only enforce the law against any disobedient State by calling
on the twelve other States to make war on the refractory member of the
union. A