894 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 
discussion, and it was incredible that the settlement of each and 
every one of these questions should be effected in such a way 
sa to satisfy the ideal of any one man. Probably, in view of 
the fallibility of the individual, a persuasion of the perfection of 
the Bill might arouse the suspicion of the impartial. If, there- 
fore, any individual would delay federation until he could 
approve of the Bill in every particular, his position must be des- 
cribed as one of uncompromising hostility. The true federalist 
would recognise the absurdity of insisting upon a condition so 
unwise, and praise or condemn by reference to a broad and 
impartial view of the Bill as a whole. There were many, and 
these perhaps not the least wise, who would prefer the judgment 
of the present Convention to their own, and therefore undertake 
to vote for sucha Bill as might have received its final sanction. 
The advantages of federal union were obvious ; the constitutional 
questions involved in the Commonwealth Bill were complicated 
and difficult, and required for their discussion and settlement the 
experience, the skill, and the wisdom of a select assembly. It 
would seem, therefore, not unwise in a citizen assured of the 
advantages of federation to entrust the solution of constitutional 
difficulties to the capacity of the Federal Convention. Never 
in the history of these colonies was there so apt an occasion for 
the display of a generous confidence. If we failed in that confi- 
dence we condemned our own selection, and asserted the ineapa- 
city of future generations to remedy the particular evils which 
subsequent experiences might reveal. 
No. 4.—FEDERATION AND RESPONSIBLE 
GOVERNMENT. 
By A. B. Prppineton, B.A., M.L.A. 
(Read Tuesday, 11 January, 1898. ) 
No. 5.—_SOME THOUGHTS ON SOCIAL EVOLUTION. 
By Rev. Canon Cortertrs, D.D. 
(Read Wednesday, 12 January, 1898. ) 
