ody
communities some of which are Republics, while others, though
practically self-governing, are legally parts of a monarchy?"

To this it may be answered that there have been instances of such
confederations. In the Germanic Confederation, which lasted from 1815
till 1866, there were four free Republics, as well as many monarchies,
some large, some small. The Swiss Confederation (as established after
the Napoleonic wars) used to contain, in the canton of Neuchatel, a
member whose sovereign was the King of Prussia. And as it is not
historically essential to the conception of a federal State that all its
constituent communities should have the same form of internal
government, so practically it would be possible, even if not very easy,
to devise a scheme which should recognize the freedom of each member to
give itself the kind of constitution it desired. Such an executive head
as either the President of the United States or the Governor-General of
Canada is not essential to a federal system. The name "confederation" is
a wide name, and the things essential to it may be secured in a great
variety of ways. The foreign policy of a South African Confederation is
perhaps the only point which might raise considerations affecting the
international status of the members of the Confederation; and as to
this, it must be remembered that neither the Orange Free State nor the
Transvaal can come into direct contact with any foreign power except
Portugal, because neither has any access to the sea, or touches (save on
the eastern border of the Transvaal) any non-British territory.

Another remark occurs in this connection. The sentiment of national
independence which the people of the Free State cherish, and which may
probably survive in the Transvaal even when that State has passed from a
Boer into an Anglo-Dutch Republic, is capable of being greatly modified
by a better comprehension of the ample freedom which the self-governing
Colonies of Britain enjoy. The non-British world is under some
misconception in this matter, and does not understand that these
Colonies are practically democratic Republics, though under the
protection and dignified by the traditions of an ancient and famous
monarchy. Nor has it been fully realized that the Colonies derive even
greater substantial advantages from the connection than does the mother
country. The mother country profits perhaps to some extent--though this
is doubtful--in respect of trade, but