FEDERAL SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT. 493 



the Constitution cannot be accomplished without making the Government 

 petty and incompetent." 



Mr. Bryce, in his well-known work on the American Consti- 

 tution, makes a similar comment : — 



" A singular result," he says, " of the importance of Constitutional 

 interpretation in the American Government is this, that the United States 

 Legislature has been largely occupied in purely legal discussions. Legal 

 issues are apt to dwarf and obscure the more substantially important issues 

 of principle and policy, distracting from these latter the attention of the 

 nation as well as the skill of Congressional debaters." 



AndMr. Brycecites Judge Hare, the author of one of the leading 

 commentaries on the American constitution, as saying : — 



" The English legislature is free to follow any course that will promote 

 the welfare of the State, and the inquiry is not, ' Has Parliament power to 

 pass the Act ? ' but, ' Is it consistent with principle, and such as circumstances 

 demand ? ' These are the material points, and if the public mind is satisfied 

 as to them, there is no further controversy. In the refined and subtle dis- 

 cussion which ensues right is too often lost sight of or treated as if it were 

 synonymous with might. It is taken for granted that what the Constitution 

 permits, it also approves, and that measures which are legal cannot be 

 contrary to morals." 



These criticisms are all made with reference to the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States. But it applies with equal force to our 

 own Constitution. Mutaio nomine, de te fahula narrahir. The 

 federal system has made two questions grow where only one grew 

 before ; and the new one, the constitutional question, is often, and 

 tends more and more to become, the one that receives the most 

 attention. 



I have been so long in dwelling on the imperfections of the 

 federal system that the only appropriate ending to this paper 

 would seem to be the conclusion that the sooner it is got rid of the 

 better Nothing, however is further from the purpose of these 

 rather discursive observations than such a conclusion. The 

 demerits of which I have been speaking are relative ; they 

 exhibit the inferiority of the federal system to the unitary system 

 of government. But the unitary system may be impossible of 

 attainment, or may be unsuitable to the special conditions of any 

 given epoch, or place. In that case, the alternative to Federation 

 is not Unification, 1 ut Separation. And Federation, with all its 

 weaknesses, is infinitely to be preferred to the separation and inde- 

 pendence of States which are capable of some degree of union. 

 The conclusion of the whole matter is that the federal system has 

 <:ertain inherent defects which render it inferior, as a governmental 

 machine, to the unitary system. Therefore, where the unitary 

 system is possible, it is to be preferred. Whether it is possible or 

 desirable under the conditions existing in Australia to-day is a 

 question which lies outside the scope of this paper. All I have 

 endeavoured to do is to emphasise certain features of our existing 

 system, which make a strong call for unremitting vigilance and 

 public spirit on the part of every Australian citizen. 



