36 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
consequences of the legislation of the past century have been to cement the 
French Canadian nationality, to make it, so to speak, an imperium in imperio, 
a supreme power at times in the Dominion. It must be admitted that on the 
whole, rational and judicious counsels have prevailed among the cultured 
and ablest statesmen of French Canada at critical times, when rash agita- 
tors have attempted to stimulate sectional and racial animosities and pas- 
sions for purely political ends. The history of the two outbreaks of the 
half-breeds in the Northwest, and of the recent school legislation in Mani- : 
toba so far as it has gone, show the deep interest taken by French Cana- 
dians in all matters affecting their compatriots and co-religionists, and the 
necessity for caution and conciliation in working out the federal union. 
The federal constitution has been largely moulded in their interest, and the 
security and happiness of the Canadian Dominion in the future must greatly 
depend on their determination to adhere to the letter as well as spirit of 
this important instrument. 
XII. 
When we compare the British North America Act of Canada with 
the draft of the bill to constitute the federation of Australia, that was the 
result of the convention of 1891, we must be impressed by the fact that 
the former appears more influenced by the spirit of English ideas than 
the latter, which has copied many of the features of the constitution of 
the United States. In the preamble of the Canadian act we find expressly 
stated “the desire of the Canadian provinces to be federally united into 
one dominion under the crown of the united kingdom of Great Britain 
and Ireland, with a constitution similar in principle to that of the united 
kingdom,’ while the preamble of the proposed Australian constitution 
contains only a bald statement of an agreement “to unite in one federal 
commonwealth under the crown.” The word “commonwealth” has cer- 
tainly a general application to a body politic governed on popular prin- 
ciples, and has been constantly so used by poets, orators and writers who 
have not been called upon to study accuracy of expression. We all 
remember that Shakspere has said— 
‘* Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs, 
You would say, it hath been all-in-all his study.” ! 
And again— 
“* And now, forsooth, takes on him to reform 
Some certain edicts and some strait decrees 
That lie too heavy on the commonwealth. ’? 
But the language of the poet can hardly make us forget a very trying 
period of English history, when the crown was beneath the heel of a 

1“ Henry V.,” act i., sc. i. 
9 
2 “Henry IV.,” 1st part, act iv., sc. ili. 
