FEDERATION. t^:^^^ 



of tlie Colonies — during a period of ten years on the Australian station 

 of seven men-of-war ships, four of which are to bo kc])t permanently 

 in commission, the other three being held in reserve in Australasian 

 ports. In 1889 the report of an Imperial commissioner, Major-General 

 Edwards, on Australian land defences, gave great impetus to the 

 federal movement. Sir Henry Parkes took the matter iij), and another 

 intercolonial conference was held in Melbourne in 1800, ])resided over 

 by Mr. Duncan Gillies, and attended by Sir Henry j^irkes and Mr. 

 William McMillan as delegates from the New South Wales Govern- 

 ment. The result of this conference Avas the assembling of the Sydney 

 Convention of 1891, which for the first time crystallised the federal 

 movement into a definite shape by preparing a draft Constitution to 

 be recommended for the proposed Commonwealth of Australia. This 

 Convention was the most important conference of Australian statesmen 

 ever brought together. There were forty-four delegates present from 

 the seven Colonies of Australasia. Sir Henry Parkes was elected as 

 President ; in addition to whom the following gentlemen were members 

 of the New South Wales Delegation :— Mr. William McMillan, Sir J. 

 P. Abbott, Sir George Dibbs, Mr. W. H. Suttor, Mr. Kdmund Barton, 

 and Sir Patrick Jennings. 



The draft Commonwealth Bill, as adopted by the National Con- 

 vention of 1891, provides for a complete scheme for federal govern- 

 ment — legislative, executive, and judiciary. It aims at a federation 

 of the modern type, but differs from the Canadian Constitution in 

 many respects, as the earlier federal systems of the United States and 

 Switzerland were conceived to be more suited to the circumstances of 

 Australia, especially with regard to the maintenance of state rights. 

 The Commonwealth Bill is admitted to have been drafted in an admir- 

 able manner, although there had been much difference of opinion 

 expressed by the delegates in the discussions which took place with 

 regard to the delimitation of central and provincial powers and the 

 right of the Federal Senate to amend money bills. The necessity for 

 the exact relation of the states to the general government beiug pro- 

 perly defined is illustrated by the fact that when the Constitution of 

 the United States was being made, both Hamilton and Madison left the 

 power to deal with the institution of African slavery open to doubtful 

 construction, which compromise afterwards led to the terrible Civil 

 War between the North and the South. 



The Commonwealth Bill provides for a Federal Legislature of two 

 chambers ; a House of Representatives (corresponding to that of the 

 United States) composed of elected representatives from each colony 

 in proportion to population; and a Senate (also comparable to that of 

 the United States) elected by the State Legislatures on a basis of 

 equality — the smallest State sending as many senators as the largest. 

 This fundamental compromise of the federal system — giving the pre- 

 ponderance in the one chamber to the majority of individual citizens, in 

 the other to the majority of States — is recognised in the Constitutions 

 of the United States and of Switzerland, and receives a partuil ajipli- 

 lication in the Dominion of Canada, and in the Federal Empire of 

 Germany. It safeguards alike the interests of the smaller states who 

 would otherwise shrink from joining in the union, and the interests 

 of the nation, which is supreme in the national chamber of the 



