248 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 
ness and good-will, rather than of the jealous tena- 
ciousness of sovereign power. When the Dominion 
shall express desire to put on the dignity of a sover- 
eign State, she will not encounter any obstacles on 
the part of the Metropolis. 
In regard to the Dominion of Canada, as to the 
Colonies of Australasia, the power of the Metropolis 
appears there chiefly in the person of the Governor, 
and in the occasional annulment of laws of the local 
legislatures deemed incompatible with those of the 
Empire. On the other hand, the Colonies, which have 
necessary relations of their own with neighboring 
Governments, as in the case of Canada relatively 
to the United States, can not treat thereon them- 
selves, as their interests require they should, but 
must act through the intervention of the Metropolis, 
which, in this respect, may have other interests of its 
own superior and perhaps injurious to those of the 
Colonies. 
Meanwhile the Dominion has now to provide for 
the cost of her own military defense, and that, not 
against any enemies of her own, but against possible 
enemies of the Mother Country. The complications 
of European or of Asiatic politics may thus envelop 
the Dominion in disaster, for causes wholly foreign to 
her, as much so as if she were a sovereign State. In 
such an emergency, the Dominion would be tempted 
to assume an attitude of neutrality, if not of indepen- 
dence. 
All these considerations show how slender is the 
tie which attaches the Dominion to Great Britain. 
