Page:The empire and the century.djvu/377

 residuum of sovereignty—i.e., all powers not taken away from the former Colonies by the Commonwealth Act—remains with the State Governments. The assumption of State independence and equality finds expression, again, in the American and Australian Federal Senates, where every State, regardless of size, has the same voting power, so far modifying the citizen-to-citizen conception which governs the election of the other House on a population basis. But in the Canadian Confederation the provinces are represented in the Senate, as in the other House, on a population basis. Thus, the junction of citizen to citizen directly, which Mr. Deakin says is the differentiating feature of a true federation, is more conspicuous in the existing 'Confederation' than in the existing 'Federations.'

It is a mistake to protest that such distinctions are more dialectical than practical. They are necessary to clear thinking and progressive discussion, for the extremely practical reason that the Imperial question concerns, and is followed with eager attention in, certain countries where the terms 'federation' and 'confederation,' as the case may be, have an official and therefore popularly recognised meaning. Accordingly, those terms ought to be restricted to that specific use, unless there is to be a risk of popular misunderstanding and consequent friction. Thus, 'confederacy' in Mr. Deakin's sense might be a useful aid to clear Imperial thinking in Australia. But in Canada, which officially is a 'confederation,' it could not fail to cause confusion if misapplied to the Empire. Likewise 'federation' has a definite official and popular meaning in Australia, and ought not to be employed to denote any different form of union. Therefore it seems inadvisable to apply 'confederacy' to the existing Imperial connection between the autonomous democracies, or 'federation' to any kind of Imperial organization such as seems to be