[BOURINOT] A STUDY IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS 41 
XIV. 
Every Englishman will consider it an interesting and encourag- 
ing fact that the Canadian people, despite their neighbourhood to a 
great and prosperous federal commonwealth, should not even in the most 
critical and gloomy periods of their history have shown any disposition to 
mould their institutions directly on those of the United States and lay the 
foundation for future political union. Previous to 1840, which was the 
commencement of a new era in the political history of the provinces, there 
was a time when discontent prevailed throughout the Canadas, but never 
did any large body of the people threaten to sever the connection with the 
parent state. The act of confederation was framed under the direct 
influence of Sir John Macdonald and Sir George Cartier, and although one 
was an English Canadian and the other a French Canadian, neither 
yielded to the other in the desire to build up a Dominion on the basis of 
English institutions, in the closest possible connection with the mother 
country. While the question of union was under consideration it was 
English statesmen and writers alone who predicted that this new  fed- 
eration, with its great extent of territory, its abundant resources, and 
ambitious people, would eventually form a new nation independent of 
England. Canadian statesmen never spoke or wrote of separation, but 
regarded the constitutional change in their political condition as giving 
them greater weight and strength in the empire. The influence of 
England on the Canadian Dominion can be seen throughout its 
governmental machinery, in the system of parliamentary government, 
in the constitution of the privy council and the houses of parliament, 
in an independent judiciary, in appointed officials of every class—in 
the provincial as well as dominion system—in a permanent and non-politi- 
cal civil service, and in all elements of sound administration. During 
the twenty-eight years that have passed since 1867, the attachment 
to England and her institutions has gained in strength, and it is clear that 
those predictions of Englishmen to which we have referred are completely 
falsified so far, and the time is not at hand for the separation of Canada 
from the empire. On the contrary, the dominant sentiment is for strength- 
ening the ties that have in some respects become weak in consequence of 
the enlargement of the political rights of the Dominion, which has assumed 
the position of a semi-independent power, since England now only retains 
her imperial sovereignty by declaring peace or war with foreign nations, 
by appointing a governor-general, by controlling colonial legislation 
through the queen-in-council and the queen in parliament—but not so as 
to diminish the rights of local self-government conceded to the Dominion— 
and by requiring the making of all treaties with foreign nations through 
her own government, while recognizing the right of the dependency to be 
consulted and directly represented on all occasions when its interests are 
