rom the provincial Courts, which are now, in fact, only "divisions" of
the Supreme Court of South Africa. The Provinces, in short, do not
possess "Constitutions" at all. Their powers can be extinguished without
their individual assent by an Act of the Union Parliament, whereas the
Canadian Dominion has no power to amend either the Dominion or the
Provincial Constitutions, and in Australia constitutional amendments
must be agreed to by the States separately as well as by the
Commonwealth Parliament. But these revolutionary changes in the status
of the old South African Colonies were brought about, let us remember,
by the free consent of the inhabitants of South Africa, after prolonged
deliberation.

The United States, the Australian Commonwealth, and the Canadian
Dominion are, then, the three genuine Federations which the
English-speaking races have constructed. The two last are included in
the present British Empire, and they stand side by side with the three
unitary Colonies--South Africa, New Zealand, and Newfoundland. The
constitutional relation of each of these five bodies to the Mother
Country is precisely the same, although they differ widely in internal
structure, as in wealth and population. Within each of the two
Federations, as we have seen, there exists a nexus of minor
Constitutions, State or Provincial, which have virtually no relations
with the Mother Country, but are integral parts of the major Federation.

II.

FEDERAL OR COLONIAL HOME RULE?

We are now in a position to pose our main question, and the simplest
course is to pose it in an illustrative form. Broadly speaking, is the
relation between Ireland and Great Britain to resemble that between the
Province of Quebec and the Dominion of Canada, or that between the
Dominion of Canada and the United Kingdom? One might equally well
contrast the relation of Victoria to the Australian Commonwealth with
the relation of New Zealand or Newfoundland to the United Kingdom. I
choose the Canadian illustration because it is more compact and
striking, and because it corresponds more closely to the history and to
the realities of the case. Moreover, Quebec, although she had a no more
stormy domestic history, owing to lack of Home Rule, than Ontario, is
bi-racial, and on that account underwent in 1840 compulsory amalgamation
with her wholly British neighbour, just as Ireland, originally
bi-racial, was forcibly amalgamated with Great Britain in 1800. The
Can