234 
Indiana University 
In spite of the impossibility of such a situation, however, Lord 
John Russell lived to see “responsible” government an accom- 
plished fact in Canadian history, and, instead of the severing 
of Canada’s connection with the British Empire being the re- 
sult, the opposite effect was produced. 
In regard to constitutional limitations there is some similar- 
ity between the situations in the United States and Canada. 
Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Newfoundland enjoy 
wide freedom to change their constitutions, but Canada has no authority 
either to alter the distribution of legislative powers or to vary the 
essential form of government. . . . All changes made in the constitution 
of 1867, other than those of small detail, have required imperial legisla- 
tion. . . . Canada is thus dependent on the imperial parliament for 
any important alterations in the^instrument of government.^” 
This sounds to an American very much like the necessity of 
first securing an amendment to the Constitution before legisla- 
tion of a particular character may be legal. 
Many other parallels and relationships in Canadian-Amer- 
ican history might easily be enumerated and discussed. Such 
points as annexation movements,^® reciprocity,^^ and the in- 
fluence of the United States upon the formation of the Do- 
minion of Canada^- have been treated elsewhere. Anyone 
familiar with the history of the two countries could doubtless 
suggest many others. With a more careful consideration in 
each country of the history of the other, more significance will 
be seen in many points of history. As stated above, the erec- 
tion in the new world of two such nations as the United 
States and Canada is an Anglo-Saxon achievement of world 
importance. The next century will doubtless witness some 
such development in Canada as the last century has witnessed 
in the United States. With friendship and mutual understand- 
ing what may these two nations not accomplish in the history 
of the world! 
Kennedy, The Constitution of Canada, 450. 
See Professor James Morton Callahan’s essay in this volume. 
Allin, C. D., and Jones, G. M., Annexation, Preferential Trade, and Reciprocity 
(Toronto, 1911). 
Trotter, R. G., “Some American Influences upon the Canadian Federation Move- 
ment’’, in Canadian Historical Revieto, V, 213-22^ (September, 1924). 
