FOURTH ORDINARY MEETING, 29 
Mr. D. A. O’Sullivan, M A., then read a paper entitled :— 
OUR FEDERAL UNION, 
Of which the following are extracts : 
I think I shall be within the spirit and letter of the constitution 
of this Institute in discussing the Federal Union of Canada, in the 
way | propose to myself in this paper. The science of speculative 
politics, in which the defects in any constitution may be discovered, 
and remedies proposed for their removal, is probably undesirable ex- 
cept in purely political societies. At all events it is not the subject 
here proposed for consideration. * * * I shall draw attention 
simply to the fundamental law of our Canadian Confederation, and 
confine myself to our constitutional existence as it is, and not specu- 
late as to what it might have been, and be better than itis, * * * 
To say that there has been a Federal Union in Canada—using the 
words in their strict sense—is in my opinion incorrect. The pro- 
vinces which form that Union in Canada are not and were not 
sovereign states —they were not even possessed of reserved powers in 
legislation—they strictly were not relatively independent colonies of 
the Empire. The States of the Union, before their admission into 
the Union, were colonial possessions, and they retain to this day the 
reserved powers of legislation. Even they are not sovereign states, 
though it took a war to decide that point. They are, however, much 
nearer to the possession of sovereign power than the provinces of our 
Bederation. * * * 
It will be seen from an historical glance at the United States 
what took place in this respect. Their quasi sovereign states, in the 
year 1777, bound by a compact which was called a confederation, 
soon learned how useless was such a compact, which had no execu- 
tive force, and out of which the members might come and go at 
liberty. Accordingly a convention of some ten years later met and 
arranged on the terms of an indissoluble union, from which, having 
once entered, secession was impossible without resorting to means 
outside of the proposed terms or constitution. Nine States came in 
and adopted it, and in a short time every State of the old and obso- 
lete coufederation, every old colony of Great Britain was ranged 
under one flag and as one nation. * * * 
