FOURTH ORDINARY MEETING. 2& 



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 I 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 it is. * * * 



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 — the} 7 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 

 Federation. * * * 



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 1711 , 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. * * * 



